Review: At Cafe Bar Moriarty, a family restaurant with a European accent

Backed by extraordinary butcher shop, couple's place offers casual Continental sophistication for less than a large cheese-and-pep pizza

Boeuf on weck, Moriarty’s butcher-knows-best beef sandwich, can be ordered without the horseradish cream if desired.

As a restaurant critic, providing restaurant recommendations is my bread and butter. 

Not just reviews. The other service I provide is bespoke dossiers of dining intel, paired to individual palates. What delights one couple dismays another. Tastes vary in adventurousness, cost tolerance, and the importance of abundant free parking. 

Before firing off recommendations, I need coordinates. Thus was born the hunger colloquy, questions designed to help me home in on their personal satisfaction zone.

Where do you actually dine most often? Be honest.

What’s your favorite dish ever? 

What restaurant do you wish was here?

When diners step into that last pitch and wax poetic about the cozy bistro tucked into the cobblestones of the 18th arrondissement, I sigh in relief and send them to Cafe Bar Moriarty.