Buvette

Buvette calls itself a gastrothèque, which is Jody Williams's word for a small French room that serves real food from morning to late without ever quite being a restaurant. Since 2011 it has packed marble counters, tin ceilings, and a working espresso machine into a space the size of a Paris wine bar, and the crowd moves through it all day — coffee and eggs steamed on the espresso wand in the morning, croque monsieur at noon, coq au vin and carafes of wine at night.

The tables are tiny and the elbows close, and that is the charm rather than the flaw. It is one of the few places downtown where eating alone at 10 a.m. and sharing a late bottle at 10 p.m. feel like the same, correct activity.