Running a restaurant in Paris is fraught in the best of times but the last several years have presented additional challenges. Some have closed as a result but I’m happy to report that many of the city’s best independently run establishments spanning street food to fine dining have held on and even grown stronger. I know my own desire to support them has grown — certainly a result of having experienced more than 6 consecutive months of restaurant closures between 2020-2021 — as well as my desire for more immersive, memorable dining experiences. One of two meals that delivered that for me in the last year was at Comice, a contemporary family-owned fine dining restaurant in the 16th arrondissement run by Canadians Noam Gedalof, the chef, and today’s guest, Etheliya Hananova, the sommelier. She talks about the journey from Montreal to Paris, the type of dining environment she and Noam set out to create, and what it means to be working in wine, in Paris, on her own terms.

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