Au Passage in the 11th: Another real winner by the Spring Alumni Team.

 
6.4 Au Passage, 1 bis Passage St-Sebastien in the 11th, 01.43.55.07.52, closed Sundays (Metro: St-Sebastien-Froissart) just goes to show that the old "Olivier Morteau" (“Food Business: La face cachée de la gastronomie française” Éditions Générales First, February 2004) formula is alive and well, that is, “go to a culinary wasteland, cook inventively and charge more reasonable prices”.

 
First off, it's not really a culinary wasteland, with the Repaire de Cartouche just down the block, but the Passage St-Sebastien ain't exactly tourist central either, in fact, walking down it, you think, "is this industrial or gang territory?"  And indeed, the place was a run down bistro du quartier before being spotted by several geniuses who saw its potential, among them, Audrey (described in a Spring web-announcement as "notre sommelière Champenoise) and the father of the baby girl she's about to have any day now - the group of whom hired a bunch of friendly bilingual dudes and just to get it started - James Henry, from Spring's team, about to depart for Australia, who's still there many weeks later.  The old bistro is kind of louche, if you know what I mean, Jean Gabin like, with uneven flooring, couches and lounge chairs, a 1930 frigo in the area and boxes of veggies stacked in the windows.  Most cool.

But back to "Olivier Morteau" - the daily lunch "menu" is startlingly reasonable and shockingly good: today the plats du jour were a merlu with onions and mussels or lamb two ways with beans for 9.50 E: add an appetizer of bonito tuna with artichoke heart bits and it's 13 E; add on 1/2 a St-Marcellin and it's 16.50 and wait, wait, don't tell me, add on the dessert of pannacotta and the 4 dishes come to all of 19 E.  Wow, no wonder it's packed wall to wall with locals.

OK; the food.  My companion, a trader in exotic French culinary objects, and I both seized on the "menu" - mind you, the carte with small plates available noon and night for 4-9 E (that I told the gang they should advertise in the window as "tapas" that, with their great wine selection, from 5-7 PM, could really up the bottomline) was very interesting with everything from an escabeche of fish and mussels was it? to a big piece of lamb.  But we went the straight way so to speak.

 
But, first, an amuse bouche, I think sent by M. Henry to amuse us: seche bits in their ink which were intense, dense and made a lovely, 20-minutes of scrubbing to get off my Tom Wolfe/Tennessee Williams/Great Gatsby white suit.  Then the tuna with teeny-tiny artichoke heart eighths and some wild in both senses of the word, herbies. 

Then the lamb - now DISCLOSURE - I love young lamb - I detest mutton or any hint of old lamb - so before Madame showed up (she was retarded [ah that didn't come out quite right] by a suicide on the RER tracks, a replacement navette conductor who swept the parking lot searching for lost souls and a clueless taxidriver), I went over to talk to chef Henry and told him of my issue - he said "it's muttony but not heavily muttony" - and gives me a chunk to eat - wonderful.  So the full portion with beans went down very easily. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then for a finish we split the runny St Marcellin and pannacotta with berries.  My oh my.

The bill, here my friends we have the PRIX/QUALITE prize of the century - with a glass of Riesling (4.50 E but they comp'd me) while waiting for Madame, a bottle of a fine Rhone, superb bread from Thierry Breton (Chez Michel/Casimir), OK coffee and just very fine chow, it was 55 E for two.

Go?  Here's another place the New York Times will ruin once the word gets out.  So go fast, go at lunch, and trust your instincts.

Coda:  Before going home, I drifted over to a restaurant where a sous-chef dished up one hell-of-an oyster to me and my co-conspirator; he pledged me to secrecy but it was heavenly.  What's the message here?  Go for it, whatever it is.

Comments

[Margaret Pilgrim]

So, John, just to clarify, Audrey and her beau run this place with the help of their minions and John Henry's current support? It is their enterprise or an offshoot of Spring? Audrey does or does not continue to have a presence at Spring? Does it have any tie to Spring other than begats?

[John Talbott]

I do not believe there's any fiscal tie between the two places; my understanding is they all remain on good terms. With her impending delivery and his working 18 hours a day, 7 daysa week, I don't see how they could do anything downtown.

[Daniel Prince]

Great review! We were there for lunch today and it was incredible. So much that we are taking friends there tomorrow.

[adrian]

Yep, great place. Not the "Spring Team" though. Former Spring team..

[John Talbott]

Yah, I was trying too hard to be cute; I changed it to the Spring Alumni Team.

[Adrian]

And with us, the tapas menu, we were told , was only for the evening. Only the fixed menu was available- not that we complained...

[mathias]

And what is the name of the place where the 'hell of an oyster' is coming from ?

[Paris Bobo]

It is somehow still unspoiled and one of the few restaurants with buzz where you can get a reservation without having to call 3 weeks in advance. It's a great spot, but in the tapas-style bistro/bar revolution, a choisir, we would stick with Aux Deux Amis! Cheers, PB