A few years ago my wife and I ate at Bouillon Racine because it was highly recommended to us by the new owners of the hotel we had been staying at for over 10 years. It was a 10-minute walk from the hotel. We enjoyed it very much. There was no wait to get in.
Bouillon Racine hasn’t been a bouillon for decades (unlike Chartier) and wasn’t created from scratch as is the case of other recent bouillons in Paris like Bouillon Pigalle or République (formerly Brasserie Jenny). So it wasn’t a bouillon at all when you went there. That’s also why there was no waiting line.
It was created as a bouillon in the early 20th century and remained one until the late 1990s. When I discovered it in 1991, it was still a bouillon but renamed “restaurant d’entreprise” and the tables were shared by employees from various companies, all around the neighborhood, which had contracts with the bouillon. The publishing company I was working for in he same street, at that time, also had a contract with the bouillon Racine and all its employees could eat there for insanely low prices through a ticket system. Tickets were paid by the employers and we got them at the beginning of every month. One meal for 5 or 6 francs at the time. The food was served by the cooks in white aprons, directly from large stainless steel pans they carried on their hips into our plates with big ladles. It was very simple and very good.
A few years later the Bouillon Racine was sold to a Belgian group of restaurant entrepreneurs and entirely renovated. The beautiful Art Nouveau decor was painted from pure white to sea green, and the food was traditional Belgian. It was no longer a bouillon, it was a restaurant with prices on the high side, but it kept the name “Bouillon Racine”, which was a bit misleading. As a restaurant, it experienced ups and downs from the beginning to recent years, and I remember the downs were very low indeed. It may have taken off since then, since you enjoyed it. I haven’t visited the place for a couple of decades. I don’t know where it’s standing now, but one thing is sure, it hasn’t been a bouillon for nearly 30 years.
As far as I know, the only traditional bouillon remaining in Paris is Chartier.
We were there in 2022.
