John Talbott's Paris

“A better standard of ordinariness.”

The great Anglophilic food writer, John Whiting, from whom I was separated at birth (if you don’t believe me, take a look at our photos side by side) frequently quotes English food historian Jane Grigson as having said, “We have more than enough masterpieces; what we need is a better standard of ordinariness.” 

Whiting is a master at finding the better standard of ordinariness-type bistrots in Paris and today I ate at one touted by another dear friend who lives in the quartier. 

What made it qualify as “a better standard of ordinariness”?  Well, first off, while in a well-trafficked part of the city (just off the Rue de Commerce in the 15^th) it was not packed, and certainly not packed with Anglophones, except for myself, everyone else was French and best as I could determine, relatively local.

 

Second, it had no pretensions, sure they had the usual Pudlo/etc stickers in the window and two nice reviews discretely hanging near the comptoir but nothing that shouted: “hey, we’re great.”

 

Third, like the diners I took girls to on our first dates, there were menus, that is cartes, encased in frames on the walls besides each table, no mammoth book to struggle through.

 

The bread was hot and fresh and about the best I’ve had this fall.

 

On the menu were expensive items (eg scallops) with no supplements as well as more inexpensive products (eg beef and chicken).

 

The prices were most reasonable: 18 E for a plat (for instance the scallops) with a glass of wine; a 2 course (no forced choice) pix fixe at 25 and 3 courses for 30 Euros; wines by the glass, carafe and bottle from 19-the sky.

 

While the waiter asked how we liked things, he was not in our face and the chef (Eric Rogoff) despite having passed through some great kitchens - Senderens at Lucas Carton, Jean Bardet inTours, Henri Faugeron at (I think) the Relais Gourmand Faugeron and at an old favorite of mine, the Petit Colombier – did not hit us over the head with his pedigree nor work the crowd.

 

Finally, it was good, solid food plus.  Not starred, Wow, knock your socks off, bedazzled, but good, solid food plus. 

 

So I owe this one to my old friend Pierre45.  Thanks buddy.  It was another “better standard of ordinariness.”

 

Where we ate was at:

 

L'Alchimie

34, rue Letellier in the 15th, (La Motte Piquet Grenelle or Emile Zola)

T: 01.45.75.55.95

Closed Sundays and Mondays

Menus: 2 courses = 25 E, 3 courses = 30E

3.3 Bernard du 15: hitting 330 in baseball is terrific but 1/3 dishes doesn't work.

Bernard du 15 (i.e., 15e or 15ieme), 62, rue des Entrepreneurs in the 15th (duh), 01.40.59.09.27, closed Saturday lunch, Sunday and Monday lunch has crept onto the scene; although it opened over a year ago, it garnered only a few very positive reviews but mostly silence.  Its name has a cute origin, recounted by Margaret Kemp, my colleague at Bonjour Paris, to whit, in her words: “I worked at Thierry Burlot's Le 15, when I left and needed to identify myself with suppliers, I would say, “bonjour this is Bernard from Le 15”, so that's what I've called my restaurant.....”

I went with two of my favorite cyber-critics and we entered in stages, eventually all enjoying a glass of white with great spicy salami.  They have a wealth of options, one chalkboard menu at 17 for three dishes, one printed menu at 30 or was it 34 (ditto) and a la carte from 40-60 Euros.  I'll just relate the final results.

For starters, Madame had 3 soft-boileds with salmon and mushrooms and soldier-bread sticks (boring), I had an artichoke heart salad which was passable and Monsieur had the clear winner - raviolis of shrimp with Ledeuil-like Asian spicy spices (in homage no doubt of said ZKG and KGB's owner's being named Gault-Millau's Chef of the Year this week.)  It was spectacular and sinus-clearing.

Then Madame had the boring pintade with fried potatoes, Monsieur had a boring bar and I had an unfinishable and boring 7-hour lamb cooked to a dryness not seen since pressure cookers were invented.

OK; onto dessert; the highlight of the day.  I had an amazing tiramisu, Mr. great crepes with orange (but not the usual brasserie type) and Mme. had an OK panacotta with strawberries.

So each of us, poaching off the others, could have had a good meal but raised in Post-Great-Depression times, we felt obliged to eat more than we should have (except for my lamb, which I gave up on even after much salt and mixed-peppercorns).

The service: I joked that it was the poor waiter-guy's first day and then Mr. actually asked him, et voila, it was!  As a result he knew how none of the dishes were made or how to add up the bill and had to be called back for utensils and condiments, etc.  But he was a bright shining light, nonetheless.

The bill was picked up by our male host who always says he had a good week but when I asked about the range to communicate to my loyal readers, he indicated that with correct mathematics and less enthusiastic wine-consumption, it would have been about 150 E/3.

Disclosure given above, no comp’d items.

Go?  33%, that’s a culinary hit rate unworthy of any chef.

Autour de..... in the 15th:Yet another surprise and a pleasant one: an archival* review.

5.0 N* Autour de.…, 397, rue de Vaugirard in the 15th, right near the Porte de Versailles and Convention Center, 01 45 30 18 47, menu 25 € and a la carte around 35 €, is open everyday and has a terrific long “terrace” facing an essentially empty square.

I went because the only person I recall reporting on it, Richard Hesse of Paris Update, was quite positive about the new chef’s productions.

I had a great starter of sautéed chipirons that, with spinach leaves and fried parsley and anise and dressing, was a terrific combo, which mopped up with good bread was terrific.

My main was/were fresh sardines accompanied by asparagus, artichokes and baby tomatoes. I finished with a moelleux of chocolate and salty caramel ice cream – nickel! (And the maitre d’ clearly had read my comment on eGullet last week about the window of time to cook a mi-cuit because he announced it was between 5 and 7 minutes.)

The wines run 4+ a glass, 15.50+ for ½ liter and 19+ € a bottle. The subtitle of the place is “Saveurs de Terroir et Autres Histoires” and it really was.

Only hitch: they screwed up the initial bill and charged me $10 more than they should of (I had the “menu.”) The second bill presented was 48.50 €.

Should one go? If you’re at the Parc des Exhibitions, as I was for the horrendously, awfully big “Foire De Paris,” it’s a better bet than the Restaurant du Marche and nearer than the great Beurre Noisette, so why not?

N* = a place that if one lived nearby in the neighborhood (N) would be a great place to go but gets a lower grade due to the schlep (perhaps unfairly).

*Originally published in May 2007.

Aux Provinces in the 15th: Another hearty bourgeois surprise.

5.8 Aux Provinces, 37, rue Cambronne in the 15th, 01.47.34.62.27, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays is another one of these places, little-heralded and celebrated, that was surprising good.  I went with two long-time skiing-eating-conferencing friends who have lived in Paris during their sabbaticals and know the city and its food well.  The place's awning reads not only Restaurant but Cave a vins and like Les Papilles and others, one wall is full of bottles which are yours for a most reasonable price plus 8 E corkage.

We sat at a sunlit table and noted that while there were few items on the carte, all sounded tempting.  Two dishes are 18 and three 24 E, so we went for broke.

Two of us started with wonderful warm sausage with potatoes and capers, yes capers, that put this ancient bourgeois dish into a different class; meanwhile Madame had the lentil salad with lardons, garlic and thyme and a great tart dressing, which ironically I had seen a version of done by Ms Cook aka Carinne Teyssandier on Telematin this morning, also a classy update of a classic.

Then came the only hitch; a long wait between courses which considering there were never more than 7 persons there, was not expected.

Next they had the stuffed (eg rollatine of) pintade in a casserole and I had a most unusual pot au feu, unusual in that the meat and veggies were not "cooked dry" as some cooks do, leaving only the sauce tasty; no it all played well togther - again bourgeois chow with fine updating.

For some reason we all had the creme brulee which had a wonderful spin to it which I couldn't pin down and forgot to ask about.

We had a bottle and a half of a Gaillac which like most came from an independant winemaker (the 1/2 was offered "a la ficelle", pleasing all of us including our peppy host.)  You can also take unfinished bottles home.

The bill was 120 Euros with three coffees and acceptable bread.

Go?  It certainly fits right into the ambiance of the places out here - Afaria, Cantine du Troquet, Gran Pan, Jadis, Jeu de Quilles, etc.  A great addition to the nabe.

Disclosure: Unless otherwise stated, all meals are fully paid for by the author and are posted within 24 hours.

L'InaTTenDu in the 15th: Now I see what the critics disagree on.

 

6.5 L'InaTTenDu, 99 Rue Blomet in the 15th, 01.55.76.93.12, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays is another of those places - Le Tяuc and Le Transvзrsal being the others that spring to mind - that play with their spelling as they imply they will play with food.  Are they successful? well, sort of.

It's had really inconsistent reviews: Rubin gave it 1/4, Philippe Toinard gave it 2/5 but when Rubin looked back on the entire autumn he gave it a 6/10, his third highest ranking in that category.

Rather than go course by course, as I usually do, let me tell you what I think worked and what didn't.  I went with my best French neighbor (BFN).

Best dishes of the day were two entrees: the sauteed foie gras with grapes where the combo of sweet and sour was perfect; and second was my pal's croustillant of pied de cochon with a onion condiment, also perfectly paired.

But then the mains fell off: my ris de veau was overcooked and the terrific peppery sauce with girolles couldn't save it; and the filet de bar was OK if you're looking to diet on vapeured fish, but hey.

Worst was the amuse-bouche of crab which if we had eaten blindfolded we wouldn't have divined in a million years.

The bread, including toast with the foie gras was great as was the Illy coffee (no desserts tempted us.)

The price is right: one course 17, two for 23 and three for 29 Euros.  Our bill (originally miscalculated in their favor by 12 E) was 82 E.

Go?  For folks like the 15th's Pierre45, I'd say definitely, altho Le Marcab is better.

Eating with others: Frank Bruni and me.

Last week, Frank Bruni, who is finishing his stint as restaurant reviewer for the NYT, wrote another one of his summary articles on his experience; this latest one is devoted to the behavior of his dining guests who he’s invited to share his “test” meals. I suspect every reviewer and blogger who read it has his or her own observations and here are mine. 

First, though, a note about some differences between eating with the great Bruni and this poor blogger. Bruni gets a salary and full expenses, I rarely get eirther; Bruni eats where he wants to several times, with three others and due to the Times’ policy, has an almost unlimited budget, I usually eat at a place once, with one or two others, and only wish I had a blue sky budget; Bruni takes friends and mono-fixated (e.g., ones who must have steak) guests, I go with a mixture of food critics, writers and passionate eaters whose tastes sound much more catholic. So our experiences are quite different.  

He noted that his guests can be categorized as (largely my terms):
- possessive
– hoarders vs sharers
– perpetually slighted vs eternally grateful
– those who eat less/ but pretend to eat most
– name-droppers
– raters
– persons who adhere to irrational rules
– persons who reject food based on texture, shape or color
- and those trying to figure out what star-rating Bruni would give the place. 

My experience reflects the co-equal status of who I eat with. This results in protracted negotiations with my prospective companions over where to eat and in totally individualized choices on what to eat versus Bruni’s dictatorial (his term) decision on where to eat and what to eat. That is not to say we don’t try to try everything that sounds interesting, or is the chef’s signature dish, or “must be tried,” but that’s a consensus/discussion decision. Only one of my “regulars” asks me to order for her so I don’t miss anything and only one knows my likes so much after 40 years that he automatically orders what he knows I will not. 

Bruni doesn’t mention his taking notes versus not taking them, but like the split among practitioners of psychotherapy/psychoanalysis, between those who take notes versus those who depend on their memories, some critics recall each and every preparation and ingredient while others need reminders. One day when I was eating with a “real food critic” (that is, someone salaried, reimbursed, respected and feared) we were joined by a non-critic friend who turned to me in amazement after watching us “work” for 30 minutes and said, John, it’s impressive, you two do exactly the same thing. 

There are also differences in the way my companions and I go about judging what we’re sampling. Bruni mentions that his guests rate the dishes 1-4 but my experience is that some of my pals judge the dish against standards set by other chefs over their 10-20 or 40 years of eating; while others assess it on its own as if this were the first such dish they’ve ever had. (I recall a manpower expert, whoops, a personnel manager, whoops, a human resources director, who told me I must never judge a candidate for a job against other candidates, but see each as a unique specimen – which I’ve decided after 55 years of interviewing, is pure hogwash). It’s fun to be able to put this breast of pheasant or veal liver up against that of Fredy Giradet or Chez Les Anges years ago and equally interesting to think of which are the two, or three, or five best pastillas or cassoulets, etc., currently available. 

In addition, it sounds like Bruni’s guests almost obsessively divide each dish in 4 portions, mentally or physically, so that each one of the four can have exactly the same-sized portion. 

There is a similarity, however, between Bruni’s and my arriving at a grade/rating/decision after the meal ends and my eating buddies curiosity at learning what that global rating or bottom line is. 

All in all, after reading his piece, I’ll take my friends over his any day, even with the budgetary difference. 

This week, my favorite is a place recently opened that I think has been in effect snubbed by most others on the scene for unknown reasons because it's a nifty place to take friends, even Bruni's:

Le Marcab
225, rue de Vaugirard, 15th, (Metro: Volontaires)
T: 01.43.06.51.66
Open 7/7
Menus for 16, 25 and 35 €

Le Marcab in the 15th: a successful revisit.

 

Le Marcab in the 15th is an elegant place (unfortunately sited next to Speed Rabbit) I thought Colette would enjoy and (again), it did not disappoint.  We were seated in the back room this time which originally I dreaded because of the seeming lack of a cross breeze, but once the windows were allowed to blow open, it was fine.

Colette had the 25E 4-course "menu of the day" and I the 16E 3-course formula; beat that!  She started with a melon gaspacho that was light and perfect and had salmon rilettes with a side salad.

Her mains were a daurade with a great toasted skin and citronelle sauce and a rollatine of chicken and langoustine forcemeat, while I had so-so lieu with horrible tasting beans (the one down moment of the meal).

For closers, she had a fascinatingly deconstructed strawberry tart - with strawberries, tart crust and whipped cream with mint and I had a soup of cold pureed strawberries.

With a fine light bottle of Southwest wine (my how they've changed in 50 years), 2 coffees and a drop of Cognac, our bill was 70.40E.

Grand Pan in the 15th: A real find in a strange place, but hey: an archival* review.

7.0 Le Grand Pan, 20, rue Rosenwald in the 15th, 01.42.50.02.50, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays is to hell and gone, for me anyway, on a street that is nondescript quinzieme nada.

The famous Muss’Bar was taken over by Christian Etchebest and his second, Benoit Gauthier, who looks about 10 years old (I know, I’m really getting older) a few weeks ago and already has notched 3 hearts and 4 blocks; it’s clearly hot; I reserved two days ahead and they asked for my phone number.

t’s small (40 covers max, including the bar); very welcoming; all no-smoking and all French, and has lots of regular dishes (3 fish, several meats) plus 4 plats for 2 (beef, veal and pork), firsts and desserts (from light melon soup to a big éclair).

My downstairs neighbor and I agreed to split the interesting-sounding stuff: so she started with a millefeuille of veggies draped with crisp belly bacon and accompanied by a pesto sauce and I the absolutely spectacular coques and mussels sitting atop a cold (perfect on this hot, humid day) platform of eggplant caviar.

Then she had the daurade (whose skin was crisply crunchy) with a side sauce of intense tomato and maybe pepper – pretty damn good, while I had what said it was pork cheeks in red wine but looked and tasted more like a splendid beef or veal stew and fell apart on touch and was draped with foie gras with a tasty polenta (my guest announced it the best of her lifetime) side.

We were unable to finish the sides nor order dessert but I’ll guess they’d be as good; they were huge and good-looking passing by. The bread and coffee were good, it has a bathroom where the lights turn on automatically and they have paper towels rather than that annoying blower.

Bio wines start at about 13 E for a liter and our Chinon was just fine.

Our bill = 55 €.

Go? We’re taking our best French friend/colleagues there in three weeks exactly.

*Originally published in June 2007.

Le Marcab in the 15th: I came with a prejudice and was pleasantly surprised.

 

6.2 Le Marcab, 225, rue de Vaugirard in the 15th, 01.43.06.51.66, open 7/7, has a confusing set of menus for 16, 25 and 35 € and a englassed list of wines by the glass as well as a printed list by the bottle. From the outside it looked swank and inside swanker and the website and wallpaper are scary.

But the folks and food are anything but. The chef, Yann Le Port, looks about 12 and he and the waitstaff were most charming.

That gets most of my prejudices out: open 7/7 (unh unh), many menus (whas’this?), weird wallpaper; oh, and only one review that I’d seen, that by Emmanuel Rubin of only 2 hearts, although today he gave it a 6.5/10 in his Spring finds, the equivalent of Frenchie, Barbezingue + Petit Champerret which I really like.

In any case I went with a far-from-snooty friend from snooty Cambridge and we loved it. We decided to order one 16 € 3-course and one 25 € 4-course menu and shared a lot.

The firsts were a vichyssoise with lox and foie gras (fantastic) and raviolis of asparagus with lentin du chêne mushrooms (equally). Then came another hot first, a filet of rouget with a (I swear) parmesan sauce and smashed potatoes that were divine.

Our mains were a beautifully cooked ample piece of cod with a thick tomato Provencal sauce/condiment and a piece of veal (overcooked for me but I wasn’t asked) with incredible thinly sliced spring veggies and a puzzling (wild thyme) topping.

Desserts were a great strawberry and rhubarb crumble with a delicious “crumble": and a sort of apple napoleon. Coffee came with lukewarm tiny chocolate moelleux’s.

With one apero, a bottle of wine, the two menus, coffee and no bottled water, our bill was an astonishing 69.40 €. 

Go? Trust me not the warning signs; yes.

Cristal de Sel in the 15th: Five years under the mast of Eric Frechon? Not enough.: An archival* review.

2.0 Cristal de Sel, 13, rue de Mademoiselle in the 15th, 01.42.50.35.29, closed Sundays and Mondays. I really wanted to like this place, modestly favorably written up by Emmanuel Rubin and Francois Regis Gaudry, more enthusiastically by Richard Hesse, chef’d by Eric Frechon’s second for five years at the Bristol, featuring good products from Camdeborde frere, Bordier, etc., and described by Gaudry as a Maserati mounted on the Twingo.

It has brand new zinc tables and a nice airy atmosphere, but incredibly bad acoustics. We were seven, three from the neighborhood and we four from far away, and we disagreed about the quality of our meals; our local friends loving it, we more ambivalent.

The amuse bouche were fine rillettes and the Fitou was good. We shared one first; a boite of Ramon Pena sardines that cost 10 € that came with algae-infused butter; shared, in that two of us had one each (eg 5 € each) constituting the biggest canned sardine ripoff since Minchelli peddled them for over a $100 a tin.

Then we had a host of dishes that we more or less shared. The duck filet was nicely cooked but judged too tough by one of us, although the accompanying caramelized turnips were fabulous; the cabillaud with petit pois and mousserans was OK; the tuna quite tasty and properly crisp on the outside, raw on the inside; but the poitrine of pork with mustard seed coating was more super-salé than demi-salé although the girolles were quite good.

Desserts included crepes with apples, a mi-cuit of chocolate, a peach tarte, and a sable with rhubarb and roasted apricots; only the latter of which was mind-blowing.

Taking away the jokey sardines and pasta that the youngest of our guests had (together costing 22 €) the bill would have been 242 € for six adults or 80 € a couple. 

Should one go? If you’re like my friends and it’s walking distance from home, sure.

*Originally published in July 2007.