Chez Tout Pour la Cave

As I write this on 14 July 2014 (Bastille Day) the website for Chez Tous Por La Cave is defunct. I don't know whether it will be back or not. If you find it, please leave the URL in the Comments.

Some of the pages are viewable at 

https://web.archive.org/web/20090523224741/http://www.tplc.oxatis.com/PBCatalog.asp?PBMInit=1

In May of 2019, some extra information has become available. Chez Tout Pour La Cave is now named variously: BOUCHONS or Chez Fabienne Ambrosio. The address is the same: 8 Rue Catherine Segurane, 06300 Nice, France and the phone is:
+33 4 93 14 40 43.

Good News All Around.
Pix clipped from the 'net below:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Chez+Fabienne+Ambrosio/@43.699789,7.2805195,19z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x12cddabbd3ea927d:0xcefe577cec2dac9d!8m2!3d43.699788!4d7.281068

Maybe I'm the world's worst tourist. I don't much care about museums, monuments and mementos. I do like to find interesting restaurants, cafés, markets (yea, I'll even throw in street markets) and restaurant supply stores. Strangely my favorites are restaurant supply stores. How many people care whether it's a 1 quart or 2 quart pot?

51 Rue Coquillière 1er. arr.

It was while reading Patricia Wells' Food Lover's Guide to Paris that I came across a photograph of a window at E. Dehillerin. I saw they had copper pots and I think that Wells called it the oldest restaurant supply store in the world. So, when I got to Paris, I went there. I shopped all morning. I got a recommendation for lunch from my Dehillerin Associate, Emilien #3. I had about $1,500 in copper pots and lids shipped back to the US. I figured had done enough shopping for a while then. So I thought my European Food and Shopping SPREE was over. 

E. Dehillerin interior

Then I got to Nice France, or in the Provençoise dialect: NIZZA.  I had but one day there as I had just 'finished' two weeks in Italy, eating my way through Milano, Venice, and Bologna. And that was a happy experience. Yet, for all that, Nice, as I came to say to myself is . . . nice. And I'll say it again, so you understand: Nice is nice. Nice was sooo nice that I decided to forgo the TGV to Paris and stay an extra day in Nice. It was well worth it. I've posted before about Nice, Salade Nicoise and Socca, so I won't go over the same ground again.

One thing has escaped my previous mention however. I'm a bad tourist. I jump on buses and watch the streets go by. That's my joy. I'll jump on public transportation and ride to the end of the line and back. No matter. It beats looking at artworks from people dead between 100 and 400 years. Or even some who are alive.

Nicolas Alziari's Old Town Olive Oil Shop (closed Mondays)

The madame at the Hôtel Athena expressed a sadness for me that I would miss the Marche aux Fleurs at the Cours Selaya. I didn't miss a thing. There was an antique market in it's place. Also, I saw Alziari's shop, although it too was closed on Monday. After wandering the antique market I decided to take my non-tourist tourist route. At the Cours Selaya when a Number 9 or 10 bus came by and I hopped on. In a few minutes we made the sharpest right hand turn I have ever seen a lengthy bus make. After we rounded that corner, I saw, on the opposite side of the street, a bunch of wooden barrels, and wine and olive oil presses on the sidewalk. The bus had just made a stop before rounding the corner, so even though I instantly pulled the cord, the bus went a while before I could get off. I almost ran back to the store, partly in fear I would forget where it was in that maze of streets called Nizza and partly because they could close the shop. Even though it was midday. Nearly out of breath I arrived at the store to see that:

1 - It had no name

2 - there was no street number

3 - and no street name as well

4 - the shopkeeper spoke NO English.
5 - Had no business card
6 - Had no telephone in the shop, either.


In my frustration I went to the street and tried to get help from a passerby, but there were none. Eventually another customer came in and I got the street address and still no name for the place. That was in the earlier days of the internet and now a day or two ago (before the date of this post), I found the place.

So, my adoring readers, I present

CHEZ TOUT POUR LA CAVE

it's not sexy, it's not big, but it's the coolest food - wine - oil - ahh all of the above, I've ever seen.  There is no picture on the internet that shows it while the store is open with the presses, barrels and paraphernalia on the sidewalk. There remains no name on the wall above the doors or at the sides, but they have a website and I'm repeating their infos here, so it is easier for the world to find. Namely:

10 rue segurane
(I think this is a colloquialism, the full name is: Catherine Segurane - maybe everybody in Nice knows this, but I'm taking no chances)
06300 Nice France
tel 0493555119
fax 0493891469
info@toutpourlacave.fr

Chez Tout Pour La Cave between the 4 dots on C. Segurane

Don't ask what the red ovals with numbers in them are, I've lost track of what map this is. Maybe the ligne d'azur (public bus), but I've lost track. Both the #9 and the #10 go past the shop.


I though I would close this post with a cornucopia of the items they sell.

This is a 5 gallon vinagrier as they say in France. You start with some mother of vinegar and add wine mixed with as much water. In a few months, you have more vinegar.

On the right is a metal one liter cannister for your home pressed extra virgin olive oil. Ah...my eyes well up with tears of joy.

This is a cuve for 100 liters (25 gallons) of whatever you make. I guess it's for olive oil and as it's made of stainless steel (inox in Europe), it is a pretty as it is functional.

Here is an electric olive sorter. Helps by saving time and not having your peasants taking the time to sort the small from the large (or even medium) olives.

I have no idea of what this is, but in French, it's a: 


Doseur en verre bouchon liège 1 cl
















I'm not sure if they do mail order, but they did send me an email, so, someone knows what they are doing.

No Name, No Street Number, Maybe they want it to be a big secret!

Our hours of operation daily from

8 am 12 am [and] 14 pm 6:30 p.m.

That's 8am to noon and 2 pm to 6:30
4 April 2006

Here's a picture of the front to guide you when you get there.