Tibi Eats 011 | Bambino

25 Rue Saint-Sébastien, 75011 Paris, FR

Spring 2025 Paris Fashion Week, Sept-Oct 2024.

The city where morning runs on empty streets give perspective to a side of Paris that you won’t see unless you are up before 6 am, one accompanied by garbage men, construction workers, and others who make the city run (no pun intended). Of course, along with these hard-working laborers are the bakers, pastry chefs, and early morning service industry folk who are up baking, filling the morning air with fresh scents of brioche and croissants. In Paris at 6 am, even the steam escaping the metro grates on the sidewalk smells like a fresh baguette.

We arrived in Paris on Thursday morning after taking a 7 am train from Kings Cross to Gare du Nord. The sales team had gotten there a few hours prior and had already begun setting up our showroom in the Marais - beautiful natural light and cascading shadows, windows that overlooked a green cobblestone courtyard populated by tiny, spotted dachshunds, mini greyhounds, and a peach-colored baby poodle named Ricardo (name dubbed by Sarah and unconfirmed).

Each morning began with a trip to the farmer’s market to pick out a selection of fresh, local, and seasonal fruits for the showroom display as well as a visit to Wild & the Moon to grab breakfast for the team and various healthy juices and snacks for hungry, thirst quenched buyers running around the city from appointment to appointment. Long days with early starts and late wraps can make it difficult to take advantage of the cultural scenes that come to life in Paris during fashion week like runway after parties, small dj sets, and new restaurant visits. Coming off a hectic three days in London, I was extra tired, so most nights Amy and I found ourselves grabbing a quick bite at the hotel bar or neighboring bistro. That said, we did muster up the energy for three very special dinner occasions.

The first brought us to a private home nestled in the back of an enchanting Parisian courtyard in the Marais. This was an intimate dinner hosted by none other than the incredible team at Substack, aimed to bring together and establish the origins of a tight knit community of creators in the fashion industry. I was fortunate to have met some incredible authors that night, having especially notable conversations with Dana Thomas and Arthur Meek, both authors for their Substacks Dana Thomas and Profit & Delight, respectively. The evening was centered around a beautiful meal crafted by an incredible small team led by Chef Rose Chalalai, cooking in a kitchen space that opened and flowed seamlessly into the dining room. The cuisine covered a range of cultures, most clearly influenced by French and Southeast Asian flavors. We are very grateful to have been welcomed into this founding group of Substack creators; that night reaffirmed for us the media path we are on, and we are excited for what the future our relationship with Substack holds.

Our second evening out led us to Bambino for a celebratory team dinner the night before our last day of Paris market. Bambino is a hybrid restaurant/listening room concept located in the heart of the Marais. The space and its ambiance revolve around a dignified and discerning wall of owner Fabian’s vinyl collection, from which records are chosen and spun live throughout the night. The atmosphere is lively but chill, conversational yet immersive, an intricate and difficult balance to achieve. We were lucky enough to have caught a 3-week residency by Chef Clotaire Poirier, ending on October 13th, who’s menu consisted of masterfully executed duck heart, oysters, mussels, and fried chicken, rounded out by a crepe topped with caramel made from the whey of the mozzarella on the inside.

The Bambino wine list, composed of light and refreshing wines with a hidden punchy or funky side, eloquently suits the restaurant’s elegant aura and menu. Chef Clotaire was there that night and said hello when I first sat down - he asked if I was hungry and I said of course, but our entire conversation occurred in French, and I was so focused on speaking correctly that I didn’t realize it was him. As he walked away, I came to my senses and turned to Christine next to me saying “wait, I’m pretty sure that was the fucking chef”. I have mentioned this several times before when explaining the intangible effect of a chef’s presence in their restaurant when discussing Este, Maison, and other pristine establishments. Feeling the presence of your chef is integral to a leveled-up experience - it provides reassurance, comfort, and more than anything, a deep sense of humility.

The next day, our final market appointments wrapped around 6 pm at which point we packed and organized the beautiful space - the less glamorous moments of fashion week - strategizing how to fit an entire season’s collection into 5 large suitcases, break down and clean up a showroom, all in under an hour. Amy, I, and the team were exhausted, and our flight home the next morning was at 8 am, which meant a 5 am alarm. The one tradition we had not yet fulfilled was visiting our friends at L’as Du Falafel - I have never had a trip to Paris and not been at least once, neither has Amy, and she’s been doing it for almost three decades. LDF is a gem and I’ve spoken about it a few times before at length, so I’ll spare you all the redundancy. In short, it was an impressively stimulating dinner, one my brain was not ready for, but that I am far better off for having experienced - to read more about our meal, you can check out the article Amy wrote on it here.

I think the biggest take away from this trip to Paris, and London prior, is the reaffirmation of the path we as a company, and myself as an individual, are chartering. Whether it was conversations with UK customers in London, Substack authors in Paris, international Tibi boutiques in the showroom, or simply a tourist at the neighboring dinner table, people are as excited for the future of Tibi as we are, each year taking us in new and fully unplanned, but in retrospect completely logical, directions. And that’s a really great feeling.