The Chalkboard Test

William Least Heat Moon's book about rural America, "Blue Highways," posited the "calendar test" for roadside cafes. The number of calendars hanging on the wall was supposed to be directly related to the quality of the food. A five-calendar cafe was exquisite; a six-calendar cafe was the Holy Grail, in the sense that it had been searched for but never actually found.

In Paris bistros, there's the chalkboard test. It's not quite a guarantee, but your odds of getting good food increase if the menu's on a chalkboard rather than printed, like this:


Or this:


Cutesiness doesn't seem to matter; this one looks tacky, but is actually from a very good restaurant:


And the number of chalkboards doesn't make a difference, though some places do overdo it:


The point is simply that a bistro with chalkboard menus probably changes them frequently, depending on what's fresh and good in the market. (This rule applies only to bistros; fancier restaurants reprint their menu on paper each night with updates or specials.)

And if you're in a bistro that has both a paper menu and a chalkboard with specials on it, my advice is to always, always order the special. While specials elsewhere can be dodgy -- sometimes they seem like a way to use up about-to-expire food -- here they're almost always the dishes that a kitchen has put the most thought and effort into.