To be fair, it’s not the “best” bistrots, just six to try. It’s a much better list than I’ve come to expect from Lobrano – good for him.
But …
Parcelles is so booked up, his mentioning it is not going to make any difference.
Les Parisiens may get a temporary boost (see below), in which case good for them, they deserve it, and location may make the boost more lasting than for the others.
Janine, which I wrote up here last January, deserves the recommendation, but I don’t imagine too many tourists leaving the single-digit arrondissements to try it. Likewise for Géosmine and des Terres, both of which were already on my list of places to try.
Last, Bistrot des Tournelles – perhaps more of what I think of as a Lobrano-type recommendation – has received enough unenthusiastic reviews from sources I trust that I have no interest in trying it, especially when looking at the website which makes it seem thoroughly unexceptional for Paris, and so I have no concern about the effect.
Based on other NY Times Paris recommendations in the past few years, I think fewer people follow them than in the past, and whatever boost in traffic there is seems to be short term.
