Yup, I ate a lot of meals in European hotels. When you're there for 3-4 months at a time, getting out and about for dinner becomes a little exhausting. Some nights I'd just get back from work around 6, sit down at the bar and have an aperitif or two, and then go into the hotel dining room around 7:30 and grab a fantastic meal. I was still usually the first one eating, most folks wouldn't come in until 8:30 or 9. Even later, in Italy.
Phillippe, the bartender at my hotel in Nantes, and I, got to be pretty good friends. After a while, I realized that he and the hotel staff were eating family style in the otherwise empty dining room around the same time I was getting to the hotel bar, and he'd have to split time bringing me drinks while he was eating. One day, he invited me to sit down and eat with them. The staff all got shift meals so there was no cost, and there was no way to pay. Eating with the staff became a regular thing so I started buying bottles of wine for the staff and having Phillippe write up the check as my dinner so I could still expense it. Those were some amazing meals, just whatever the cook had fresh, he'd serve family style in big dishes, and there was always a huge pile of frites at the center of the table. Boeuf bourguignon, coq au vin, lapine a la cocette, and of course plenty of steak frites cooked almost raw.
Phillippe even invited me to eat at his home several times. His wife was British, and his English was perfect, although I did try to practice my French with them. We cleared out his wine rack more than a couple of times, but I'd take him to the Carrefour and restock him. I always asked him, "which wine would you recommend for a really important meal?" and he'd point it out, then I'd buy several for him. Even their very best wines were still cheap by American standards.
Those were the days.
