The extreme west side of midtown along Ninth Avenue and in the West 50s was filled with small French bistros where waiters wheeled hors d’oeuvre wagons and pastry carts and the music of Edith Piaf and Charles Trenet played in the background. In Eating My Words Mimi Sheraton mentions Paris-Brest, Brittany, Le Berry, Rey & Pierre and Bonat’s as among her favorites back in the '40s. In Arthur Schwartz's New York City Food, Schwartz attributes the proliferation of bistros to two events. Prohibition closed down the grand palaces of haute cuisine like Delmonico's resulting in a slew of former employees opening small French restaurants with modest menus. Then the War sent a flood of French refugees to New York, many of whom opened their own bistros.
The typical bill of fare at these places included pork pate, onion soup, escargot, frog's legs, coq au vin, beef bourguignon, tripe a la mode de Caen and veal medallions with mushrooms. For fancier concoctions one would have to visit the expensive French restaurants on the East Side like Le Chambord. Le Pavillion and Brussels, assuming one could get a reservation. For the most part these places were the sanctuaries of celebrities, socialites and the rich and important.