Livingston: the new trendy restaurant in Marseille

The Livingston Wine Bistro in Marseille serves comforting and modern cuisine © Adrian Bautista

Hardly a month goes by without another flurry of restaurant openings reinforcing Marseille’s reputation as the most exciting food town in France right now. Admittedly, the restaurant scene here has been dented by the Covid as everywhere in France, but the main drivers of this boom remain in place. Namely, this fascinating port city is in the midst of a tourist boom, and Marseille’s popularity with young French creatives has attracted chefs who are eager to cook for them – and who also appreciate the city’s reasonable rents.

This vitality explains why the team (chef Harry Cummins, sommelier Laura Vidal and Julia Mitton) of La Mercerie, which is perhaps the most popular bistro in Marseille, joined forces with chef Valentin Raffali (who previously worked at La Mercerie Haberdashery and in the other restaurant of the Chardon team, in Arles) to open this new wine bistro in the popular district of Cours Julien. Raffali, originally from Marseille, has an instinct for the type of modern, avant-garde comfort food locals adore, which is why his short but mouth-watering trans-Mediterranean menu is constantly evolving. On a recent visit, noteworthy small platters included veal’s head croquettes with chipotle mayonnaise, miniature pizzettes, roasted tomatoes in XO sauce, and marinated anchovies with calcots (grilled Catalan onions). They also serve a superb list of organic and biodynamic wines.

5 Rue Crudère, Tel. (33) 04 96 10 00 00, www.livingstonmarseille.com, Average à la carte 35 €.

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From France Today magazine

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