Paris Opens Its First Shop Dedicated Entirely to French Butter

Salted, sweet, truffled or even chocolate-flavoured: Paris has opened a shop devoted entirely to one of France’s most beloved ingredients.

Paris has boutiques for perfume, chocolate, cheese and wine. Now butter is getting its turn in the spotlight.

Le Butter Shop opened this summer in the 15th arrondissement, close to the Eiffel Tower, and is billed as the first Parisian shop dedicated entirely to butter.

Inside are around 30 varieties sourced from small producers across Brittany, the Loire Valley and northern France. There are traditional salted and unsalted butters, but things soon get more adventurous: shallot, wild garlic, seaweed, pepper and lemon all feature. For the more curious, there’s even raspberry, strawberry, vanilla and chocolate.

And yes, you can taste before you buy.

Owner Erwan Leo, who also runs a wine-tasting business, believes butter deserves much the same attention as a good bottle of wine. Visitors are encouraged to let a spoonful melt on the tongue and notice how the flavours develop before choosing their favourite.

Clearly, people don’t need much persuading. Leo says customers often arrive intending to try one or two varieties and end up sampling considerably more. Butter can then be bought in anything from a tiny 10g portion to a full kilogram block.

It is perhaps surprising that Paris has taken this long to give butter its own boutique. France gets through around eight kilograms per person each year, and butter is behind some of the country’s greatest culinary pleasures, from flaky croissants to Brittany’s famously indulgent kouign-amann.

Leo isn’t finished experimenting either. Croissant-flavoured butter is apparently on the way, with violet also being considered…

Le Butter Shop, 5 Rue Bouchut, Paris 15e.