In its first year of business, Le Cornichon was profiled in Vogue and various design magazines. There are a few attributes that make people want to talk about it. For one, people are tired of overly conceptualized spaces. They want a place they can go back to, like an all-day restaurant or an FDJ (a place where middle-aged men buy lotto tickets, place sports bets, and get drunk on cheap beer). Le Cornichon is both.
It's really well designed. They've pulled enough references to not look like a pastiche but also have things like a pinball machine and a spinny display of postcards. The signage is a few shades off from brat green (both came out around the same time). The menu is similar: well executed classic dishes, sometimes more experimental dishes, really good fries, banana splits and blue curacao drinks. Chef Bertrand Chauveau documents a lot of the process on his Instagram.
Scene-wise, it's the general characters of Oberkampf but better dressed and with more kids in the day. Like a lot of cool places, they don't take reservations at night, which means a bit of peacocking for patio position.
