5.7 Les Bistronomes, 34, rue de Richelieu in the 1st (Metro: Pyramides), closed Sundays, 01.42.60.59.66, has a lunch "menu" costing 26 E for two courses and 35 E for 3 and runs one about 50 E for dinner and has been creating the maximum buzz for about two weeks on all the print and internet vehicles. And everyone gives a nod to one Sebastien Demorand for the idea,the name and the movement.
Backstory: Said Demorand, then the hot-critic at the hot-pub Zurban, coined the phrase "bistronomie" at the Semaine de Fooding in 2003 and here we are almost a decade later with a place that just opened called Les Bistronomes.
Emmanuel Rubin in Les Nouveautes a la Carte suggested one go here with Demorand but he was otherwise occupied, so I went with R., another hot food critic. When I entered and gave my name, imagine my delight to see my name along with 7 others on slate tablets above 12 tables. Cool.
The amuse gueule was/were rillettes that with wonderful bread started us out on the right foot. The menu-carte is deceptive, not everything is as it is in other restos as you will see - but it is most interesting.
He ordered the scallop soup which we had both learned from reviews did not contain pieces of scallops but rather was a beautifully cuisinarted/mixed/pulverized cream of scallop essence; quite fishy in a most pleasant way. I had the banal sounding lentils with sausage; again a surprise in that the lentils came as a block with thinly shaved slices of sausage and mache on top.
Then he ordered today's fish special a merlan that came not fried en colere but deboned and split down the middle with the filets curled up seated on a bed of sauteed peppers and I had the pied de cochon parmentier, again, presented differently - here the pigs' feet were in a sort of rectangular rectangle but the potatoes were not mashed but reduced to almost a cream, most different and delightful.
As often happens with us, we shared dessert, a rice pudding with great caramel sauce.
The bill, with no bottled water, but wine and two Illys was 90 E. Most bistronomique M. Demorand!
Go? Yup.
As I came and left I noticed that instead of the ubiquitous signs in kanji in fancy-goods' windows one here was in cyrillic. Sign of the times I guess.
I would not be pleased to find my name posted above my table. Only the house needs to know who I am. To be introduced, essentially, to all who walk past my table is unnecessary and intrusive.
However, one could always simply turn the slate to the wall...
Posted by: Margaret Pilgrim | February 24, 2011 at 06:49 PM
"Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language." -Dale Carnegie
Posted by: richard waltzer | February 24, 2011 at 07:23 PM
Interesting Margaret: I thought it was charming and as soon as I sat down he tried to remove it but I insisted I photo it for posterity. Thus, one reserves here as Mangeur or whatever.
Posted by: John Talbott | February 24, 2011 at 07:48 PM
If only they had spelled your name correctly.
Posted by: Laidback | February 25, 2011 at 02:11 PM
That's the perfect opportunity to book as Silvio Berlusconi.
Posted by: Ptipois | February 25, 2011 at 02:43 PM
Well, it seems they wouldn't accept Qaddafi.
Posted by: John Talbott | February 25, 2011 at 03:34 PM