Remember that afternoon in Paris? You’d been walking along the Seine, worn down a little by your morning at the Louvre—and you turned a corner, and there was this little café. A bottle of Sancerre and a salade nicoise, some bread, some butter—and suddenly, all was right with the world.

That’s the kind of feeling that can sweep over you at Le Grainne Café—and no, that’s not a misspelling. Rather it’s the name of the owner Grainne O’Flynn—a lass who knows more than a thing or two about those warm places in the heart and memory that can be re-activated with the right combination of setting, food, and camaraderie.

Le Grainne Café gets the recipe right with an easygoing charm. Situated in one of the oldest buildings in the neighborhood, right around the corner from General Theological Seminary, Le Grainne provides the details—the Parisian bistro chairs, the sublime moutarde, the wood-backed banquette, the open kitchen, the crêpes sizzling on the grill—and lets your memory do the rest. The salades are perfectly plated, hitting all the right nutritional notes—and the crêpes are as good as the ones you ate while stumbling home from the Marais. Formidable. Small wonder you find yourself thinking, yet again, about a pied à terre in Paris.