Personalities

Florent Morellet: ‘I Don’t Really Like Restaurants Anymore’

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The Huffington Post interviews the ever-charming Florent Morellet, who re-confirms that he has dropped plans to open a new place. So where does he eat these days? Actually, he says he doesn’t really like restaurants anymore! Not because he’s bitter about Florent. In fact, he says he drops into Florent’s successor Gansevoort 69 occasionally (he digs it because “they’re not very busy”). No, no: It’s because restaurants are “too loud,” Gansevoort 69 sometimes included (“The last time I was there the music was loud. I have to talk to them about that”).

He also avoids places with attitude (“I like going where people are happy to see me and I don’t like going where there are too many people”) and food that takes itself too seriously (“I like when food is simple”). Florent also says that he refused to serve hard liquor partly as a way of dodging yuppies: “That kind of clientele would come in, see that we had a license but wouldn’t serve those drinks, and get really upset. We’d say, ‘Go to Tortilla Flats! They have the best margaritas. Do go there.’”

Florent, Queen of the Meat Market, on Parisians, French Fries, and Forgiveness [HuffPo]

Florent Morellet: ‘I Don’t Really Like Restaurants Anymore’