Holybelly

WHERE: 19 rue Lucien Sampaix, 75010 (10ème arrondissement)
WHEN: Mon, Thu, Fri 9am-6pm; Sat, Sun 10am-6pm; closed Tue, Wed
HOW MUCH: espresso 2.5€;  filter 3€; crème 4€; beer 4-5€
METRO: Jacques Bonsergent (line 5); République (lines 3, 5, 8, 9, 11)
BEANS: Belleville Brûlerie
FOOD: Excellent breakfast and lunch
CONTACT: Facebook; Web; Tel: +33 9 73 60 13 64 

---

Contributed by Yannick from parisgigreviews.com

Holybelly is a welcome addition to the increasingly crowded rue Lucien Sampaix, home also to Tuck Shop and Bob’s Juice Bar. Its French owners, Nicolas Alary and Sarah Mouchot, have been enormously successful in their venture to provide superb coffee and high quality food (made daily from fresh ingredients) in a comfortable, trendy setting. 

As you step into the sizeable, meticulously designed space, you are welcomed by a beautiful wooden façade, which gives way to a pathway lined by a long counter on one side and by stylish two-person booths on the other. Past this first configuration, Holybelly then extends to a set of larger tables, spread out beneath a sightly array of exposed-filament vintage light bulbs. Groups should be advised to prepare for a skirmish to find a spot, particularly on the weekend. Finally, the café opens wide with enough room for a large communal table, a comfortably used couch and an appropriately retro pinball machine.

The inclusion of an arcade game is fitting because Holybelly is fun. On the footpath out the front,  a chalkboard A-frame posts such gems as “Warning: Jamiroquai played on high rotation”. Once inside, customers may continue to enjoy pop culture references, including a “Flat ‘Walter’ White” or the “Agent Cooper Special”, consisting of a filter coffee and a slice of cake for 5.5€. The owner, Nico, ever enthusiastically smiling and greeting from behind his Marzocco, assures that his customers are grinning before they are even seated.

Holybelly prides itself on the enviable freshness of its ingredients and the high standard of the food served, which is prepared with love in the open kitchen by chefs Sarah Mouchot and Lise Kvan. 

Casually clipped onto the familiar wooden board and written in flawless Franglais, there is a full breakfast menu for 5–13€, available all day on the weekend and until midday during the week. After 12pm, weekday diners can take a pick from the monthly-rotating lunch menu for 12.5€–15.5€. The 12.5€ bacon and eggs dish is available all day until the kitchen shuts its doors (3pm on weekdays and 4pm on the weekend). Of particular interest is the beautiful pancake, egg, bacon and bourbon butter heart-attack-inducing monstrosity. You will regret ordering it but it is essential that you do.

Coffee roasted by Belleville Brûlerie will then cap off a deliciously sickening meal, and on the weekend, Le Bloody Mary by Lockwood (10€) should help you bounce back after a rough night. 

You will, without a doubt, leave Holybelly smiling, just as Nicolas and Sarah intended.