Opened in 1898, Brasserie Balzar is battered but cheerful, with some of Paris's most colorful waiters. The menu makes almost no concessions to modern cuisine and includes onion soup, pepper steak, sole meunière, sauerkraut with ham and sausage, pig's feet, and fried calf's liver served without garnish. Be warned that if you want just coffee or a drink, you probably won't get a table at meal hours. But, accustomed as they are to the odd hours of their patrons, the staff will be happy to serve you if you want a full dinner in the midafternoon. Former patrons have included Sartre and Camus (who often got in arguments), James Thurber, countless professors from the nearby Sorbonne, and bevies of English and American journalists.