Few months ago, the owners of Barbes, a French-North African restaurant located Uptown Hoboken that serves delicious tagines and couscous, decided to open a French restaurant where the closed restaurant Cucharamama use to be. So we went there on a Friday evening, to check it out. The decor at La Boheme is great, with the very large black and white photos of French celebrities like Alain Delon, Brigitte Bardo, Serge Gainsbourg or Eddy Barclay, giving a bit of a nostalgic atmosphere to the place.

Pernod Ricard at La Boheme in Hoboken, NJ

Being in a French restaurant, I could not not have a Pernod Ricard pastis that, although not on the menu, is available. This is a classic drink from the South of France, that is usually drank mixed with cold water that is adding to the anise and licorice flavor some freshness.

What I discovered while writing this post is that there used to be a ban in France for anise based aperitif and, in 1951, when the ban was lifted, Pastis 51 was the first of the kind to be crafted in Marseille where it is also referred as pastaga and is considered part of a tradition there.

I then started the meal with the escargots, a classic French dish in which the star is the butter, garlic and parsley sauce where, once you finish eating the snails, you will dip some bread (at La Boheme, they served it with some toasted pain de champagne).

For her main, Jodi simply ordered their salade de pasteque or watermelon salad that was served with feta, chickpeas and mint to add a bit of freshness to it.

On my side, I opted for the steamed mussels in white wine or moules marinieres that I ordered with a size of fries to complement this appetizer and making it a main. This was pretty good, with a large quantity of mussels that were of a medium size. The sauce was good and I, of course, dipped fries in it…

For dessert, we were not sure what to get and finally decided to try their brioche tropezienne that are rarely seen on a dessert menu. It is a brioche that is filled with lemon vanilla custard and raspberries. The brioche was good, but, unfortunately, the custard was too cold and there was not enough of it. So it was just ok.

Brioche Tropezienne at La Boheme in Hoboken, NJ

Overall, the meal was good at La Boheme, we will have to go back for dinner as they seem to have great pizza there (one of them has merguez that is a spicy lamb sausage you can get at Barbes) as well as other dishes I really want to try.

Enjoy (I did)!

If you like this post, the photos or the blog, please feel free to share it or post a comment. Merci!

La Boheme - 233 Clinton St, Hoboken, NJ 07030

I Just Want To Eat!