The culinary geography of Nice and its surrounding region is best understood at speed, from behind the wheel of something worthy of the landscape. The Moyenne Corniche carves through limestone cliffs and hilltop villages at an elevation that puts the Mediterranean at a permanent, glittering remove — a route that connects not just towns but entire flavor profiles. Bellet, the tiny AOC wine appellation tucked into the hills above the city, produces Rolle whites and Braquet reds in quantities so small they rarely leave the region. Seek them out at estate cellars before descending back into the city's old quarter, where socca — chickpea flour, olive oil, wood fire — is as honest a dish as European street food gets. Dinner, inevitably, pulls toward the Promenade des Anglais and the domed, Belle Époque presence of the Hôtel Negresco, where the wine list reads like a cartography of southern France. Niçoise cuisine has its own strict grammar: anchovies, black olives, no cooked vegetables in the salade. Knowing the rules, then finding the restaurant that breaks them precisely right — that is the real itinerary here.
