John Talbott's Paris

L'Ogre in the 16th: To know the full range one must touch bottom once in a while.

1-2.0 L'Ogre, 1 ave de Versailles in the 16th, 01.45.27.93.40, closed Saturday noon and Sundays, was described by Philippe Toinard as a "classic bistro" and he gave it 3/5 dots yesterday in A Nous Paris, so I was game for some gutsy food and trekked way out past Radio France to go.  It's in the old Oh Poivrier space which is impressive.

However, there's a difference between gutsy food and the gutless variety; this was the latter.

I entered and was ushered to a very nice table, seated, (the chorizo on the table augered well for a great meal - 1 point) and throughly inspected the chalkboards which clearly showed that meat mains were their thing ("We serve our meat blue, bloody, a point or badly cooked" the sign said - drole). 

But the starters sounded more interesting so I ordered three:

1). A half portion of os a moelle, which was huge, what could a full portion be like? and came out bubbling and steaming with salt crystals on top and to the side.  It was only OK (however, the toasts that came with it and my next course were good, as was the untoasted bread). +1 point.

2). Several slices of what was advertised as sauteed foie gras, but 1/2 of which tasted like genuine unfatty plain old liver, very liver-y indeed, with drizzled threads of something that looked like a Balsamic reduction but tasted like a fruit concoction.  -1 point.

3). Sauteed girolles with said drizzled stuff again that now that I think about it, the chef put on everything.  1/3 of the girolles were cold, 1/3 were tiede and 1/3rd were hot.  Strange - and they tasted strange. -2 points.

At this point, having left 1/2 my girolles, you'd think they'd ask - "C'etait?"  But no, would you like dessert, actually yes, I want the tarte Tatin, the first I've seen on a menu this fall.  After a hurried scurry to the kitchen; desole, we're out. -1 point for dashing risen expectations.

OK a coffee and then the bill.  Coffee OK. 0 points.

Sorry Sir, our card machine no longer works. -1 point.

But would you like another coffee? - Sure! +1 point.

The bill, with a couple glasses of nice bio, unfiltered, etc, wine, wound up to be 38 Euros but I walked out obsessing about what I'd have for dinner, a bad sign.

Final score (I really don't do it this way, but if I did) = pretty bad.

PS The place was packed, hopping, with French and Anglo voices and the service amateurish (in the American sense).

PPS Bathroom was cool with a Lao Lane Xang 2 type hand dryer and when I asked for a business card they pointed to the address and phone # on the addition.

Go?  I suppose if you're going to hear the Emerson String Quartet at Radio France in their spectacular auditorium and need a place to chow before, maybe, but I'd consider the place Pierre45 and I found around the corner first even though it would take some digging in the archives to find it.

 

Jamin (yes, that's not a misprint) in the 16th: Under the House of Savoy not Robuchon.

2.0 Jamin, 32, rue de Longchamp in the 16th, 01.45.53.00.07 is closed Saturday lunches and Sundays and has lunch menus at 26 for two courses and 30 for three, a la carte 50-70 E.  When I saw that it had reopened as a real restaurant not an Caribbean joint, I knew it was for me.

Backstory:  You know it: Robuchon established his reputation here as chef-owner from the late '70's to early '90's, then "retired" from cooking to become a world star.  Jamin went from Robuchon to Ducasse to Del Burgo (I'm sure I'm missing someone in here) and then became La Table de Babette (De Rozières), an Antillian place.  Now it's back to the future with an ex-Savoy head.

My great polyglot polymath friend was free today when my longest friend living in France had hot water problems, a good sign because I wanted a witness to whatever happened.

I immediately knew somethings never change when I saw a voiturier and coat check girl.

The "menu" is 2/2/2 and looks like a bargain, 3 courses a la carte easily climbs into the 70's.  So we made a strategic error (which we made at Del Brugo's Orangerie as well), ordering the same main (our alternative was a fish a la vapeur).  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

There was a harmless enough amuse-bouche of something bland without the bread it needed, which when it showed up was OK.

Then he had a phyllo dough covered goat cheese triangles atop salad and I a cold but runny yolked egg, superb ham, confited onion and a tiny salad as well.  Again, all were harmless.

Both of us had the joue de boeuf which was not, however, having a sauce that was more pot au feu-like than reduced wine, with too many potatoes - but what made it insupportable was its lack of taste without a ton of salt and pepper dumped into and onto it.

Then he had a quite good tiramisu and I gamely tried to make it look like I had at least 1/2 my chocolate tarte.

The clientele - 1/2 older Americans (after being open 10 days) and 1/2 really old French folk in the downstairs room (which was 30% full) but upstairs, the huge spaces were empty.

Our bill with Chat Delanoye, a Bordeaux and no coffee was 83.00 Euros.

Go back?  No way, and no way without incredible work they're getting back the star that came with the Jamin sign that someone stowed away in the basement and reinstalled.

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

What on earth do two hearts mean? An archival* essay.

What do two hearts, stars, blocks, etc. mean in this country?  During one period last year I had the opportunity of dining at twenty Parisian restaurants, all of which had received two hearts from the country’s leading gastronomic numerical food rater, Emmanuel Rubin of Figaroscope (no one else has the guts or foolishness to put numbers on his reviews.)  His ratings of the five new restaurants that open each week are the most widely watched rankings read by the seriously food-obsessed living in France, there are (just as Americans regard the Michelin’s stars as the gold standard now and as the food-obsessed thought GaultMillau’s were twenty years ago).  He never gives a four, rarely gives a three and most commonly awards two hearts to those places not relegated to the vast underground of 1 hearts and broken plates. 

 

(A diversionary note on Rubin’s colleague at Figaroscope, the man described in Departures Magazine as “The most feared food critic in the world,” Francois Simon.  Simon has an acerbic tongue, it’s true, but more than that, he writes PhD-tenured-professor-academic-journal-type  French that is frequently impenetrable – so, as entertaining as he is, I am often not quite sure what his ratings on the restaurants in question would be if he deigned to rank them.  I often think Simon must have the only degree ever awarded in Circumlocutious French, just as Will Shortz has the only one in Enigmatology.)

 

In any case, Rubin sticks his neck out five times a week and must expect some flack for his boldness.  So here goes. 

 

On one end, I submit as Exhibit 1 - Chez Cedric, which opened the beginning of March, 2006,   and garned two hearts July 5^th: I ate there after the rentrée and it was as terribly swank but as awfully friendly in its décor, clientele and food, as it gets.  Here’s a guy cooking star-quality meals at bistro prices – and it gets two hearts! And I’m willing to argue that the chef and front room man are as impressive as any such pair at le Bristol or Arpege.

 

And on the other end, Exhibit 2 - Wadja, a place I had a great fondness for under its prior management and culinary direction; it too got two hearts, but on September 6^th.  Again, I ate there shortly thereafter, indeed three days after my meal at Chez Cedric.  The food, décor and clientele could charitably be called bland, lacking zip and banal.  If pressed to be more forthright, I might call it scandalous.  Unfortunately, it remains listed in a Japanese publication as still being under its former management and culinary direction, and five eager visitors from the land of the rising sun were somewhat surprised by its fare.  Me too.

 

Finally, for the big surprise, ladies and gents, let’s look at the additions - 53.15 € versus 44 €.  But the surprise is that the 53.15 € was for a meal they should have paid me to eat at Wadja and the 44 € for paradise at Chez Cedric. 

 

Thus my favorite this week is:

Chez Cedric

13, rue Denis Poisson, 17^th (Metro: Argentine)

T: 01.44.09.03.30

Closed Sundays

Lunch menu 29 € and a la carte : 40-55 €.

*Originally published in February 2007.

Le Petit Champerret in the 17th: For #3 OK for Colette and A., not for me.

Le Petit Champerret in the 17th is a place I loved two times in a row and Colette put on her RETURN list.  But as we walked there we passed, whoops - a new Subway - an omen, oh oh.  Le P. C. doesn't look like that, so

That's it.  Anyway we entered and installed ourselves and ordered.

I was the only person to have a first and the artichokes a la barigoule which came on a bed of wonderfully spicy minced veggies and strips of bacon on top made me sure we were on a roll.

Madame A., our favorite French neighbor from downstairs, ordered the colin which was the #1 of the meal; Colette had the cod which was #2, and I pulled up the rear with a dry canette in a cocotte full of fine figs, sun-dried tomato and huge white grapes.  It was dry, dry, dry.  That ruined the meal for me. 

The ladies had figs with ice cream and a chocolate tart with a tart clementine ice; both fine.

Our bill with one bottle, one extra glass of wine and one calva plus two coffees was 121.90 E.

 

 
 

La Villa Corse (Rive Droite): Q. Do we really need another Corsican place in Paris? An archival* review.

7.0 La Villa Corse (Rive Droite), 141, ave de Malakoff in the 16th, 01.40.67.18.44, closed Sundays is the recently opened twin of its 15th Arr sib but according to the general manager, serves lighter food.

It can run one 40-60 € and wines run from the 20’s on up but it also has a 25 € lunch menu with two dishes and a generous glass of wine, that my guest, the VIP food writer (more later) and I had. It reflected the much larger carte but was representative of its essential contents.

My fellow diner ordered a soup of tomato and oranges with a quenelle of brocciu that was very, very tasty and I had a pressé of beef layered with carrot and turnip strips that had just enough jelly and had a sauce that set it off perfectly, alongside was a nice salad; then we proceeded to a veal stufatu with teeny tiny potatoes and black olives and two strips of perfectly cooked daurade on tomatoes, greens and spicy parsley; both superb.

She finished with an olive and walnut financier that was good and came with ice cream and some fruit. The usuals – tapenade on toast, 3 breads, coffees and mignardises - were all excellent.

Oh, the décor: Lord, my guest and I separately arrived at the same impression, although I said it was halfway between whore house red and elegant velvet and she thought the latter was more like late Corsican mafia housing. The downstairs book-covered room has low chairs that don’t allow someone of my height to sit without his legs crossed in front; the cigar bar on the right has couches and the main room and balcony, wicker-type chairs and banquettes with lots of pillows. (The no smoking section is off to the left on entering; one must ask, esp since the place is packed; I originally sat on the balcony and was assaulted with tobacco smoke finding its way north; realizing there was no ventilation, I requested to move.)

When we finished I turned to her and said, “We’ll never come back, no?” and she said “Right.” “Why?” “The lack of warmth,” added to the rawness and boredom of waitstaff (one waitress looked at her watch more than once) and the stuffy-proper 16th clientele. But the more I think back on it, I think I will. There wasn’t a misstep.

The bill? John? I knew I was leaving something out. Well, my famous-enough to be recognized co-diner so charmed the general manager whom she’d recognized from the Closerie de Lilas, where he’d worked for 10 years, that he comp’d us to the dessert and coffees, so I figure what was a 56 € addition should be more like 76 €. Still and all, not at all bad for this quality food in this fancy neighborhood.

A. Yes

L'Invitation in the 16th: May Day, May Day, not really.

 

4.8 L'Invitation, 82, rue Boileau in the 16th, 01-46-47-87-19, menus at lunch 35 & 42, a la carte: 50-60 €, closed weekends, was a compromise place that was open on May Day when three of us were debating about and searching for a new place open on this first of the May holidays that seem to shut France down (when I originally asked one of the other two about this place he wrote “Who gives a f*** about a former Lavinia chef?!” but he eventually came around.)

May Day 2009 saw the zillion French unions march together for the first time since 1968 and the price of muguets (lily of the valleys) zoom to 2 Euros a bunch since their introduction in the 16th century as a good luck marriage charm.

The place is run by a husband and wife team, ex–Lavinia as he said, hence a good selection of wines. We chose not to do the 42 € forced choice menu (the goat and artichoke starter and strawberries and rhubarb dessert sounded OK - but the main?)

We more or less shared things off the carte: a vastly oversalted crème brulee of white lentils with foie gras ice cream/semifreddo that was great in concept but gagging to eat and an Ok but not great salad of raw asparagus chopped like scallions with a half a Canadian lobster (that’s right, ½).

 

The huge piece of Basque pork was terrific and the beans with it even more so (but again a heavy hand had been on the salt cellar) and the carpaccio of veal (on everyone’s menu this spring) was fine.

We had no desserts or coffee but tried lots of wines – a Riesling, Cotes du Rhone, Mosse and Gavi – and the bill if we’d had one plain bottle and the four courses would be 102 €.

The cannelés post meal were quite fine too. 

Go? Well since the “May Day” ship cry derives from “m'aidez,” I suppose.  But you won't wind up here afterwards.......

 

Le Beaujolais d’Auteuil in the 16th: Gosh, once again I rate a place much lower than Emmanuel Rubin and Alain Fusion.

 

2.0 Le Beaujolais d’Auteuil, 99, blvd de Montmorency in the 16th, 01.47.43,03.56, open 7/7, featuring a 29.50 € menu, a la carte 35-45 €, is located (for me) way to hell and gone at the Porte d’Auteuil but it was a lousy day, so what?

The bread and butter and water arrived, the bread was super and the butter even better. I liked the sound of the 29.50 € (wine incl) menu with a choice of eggs mayo or mushroom soup; tongue with piquante sauce and unusual vegetables, salmon unilaterale and (huh) moussaka; and a “minestrone” of roasted pineapple.

But, but, but. While the mushroom soup was OK the piquante sauce was not piquante at all and tongue being tongue – it needed a boost and mustard didn’t do the trick and the vegetables were hardly unfamiliar, being turnips, parsnips, carrots and potatoes.

The pineapple was fine but I’m not sure why it was called a “minestrone.” The topper was I had to wait 20 minutes for a coffee when there were ample staff except that Madame was like the “line cops” at airline counters and immigration checkpoints – she oversaw but didn’t either see or pitch in.

My bill was at least easy = 32.30 €.

Go? I can’t think why.

The New Hot Quarters: the 4th and 16th - An archival* essay with an update.

The fourth arrondissement is another area familiar to both residents and travelers. Incorporating both a huge rectangle on the right bank and most of the two islands in the Seine, it’s a great place to walk and gawk.

Its best known monument is probably the Notre Dame cathedral, whose square in front is kilometer zero from which all distances in France are measured and where one can see the 7th century Hotel Dieu, once a hospital, but now in process of conversion to mixed usage as well as one of the few buildings (the Police headquarters) whose skin is still pockmarked from ordinance fired in the last days of WWII’s Battle of Paris. Second in popularity must be the Place des Vosges which contains glorious buildings of mixed usage – residential, commercial, museums and restos. Another square very well known is that of the Hotel de Ville, housing the central city government and the do-it-yourselfers’ heaven – the Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville or BHV (bay-ash-vey).

Its museums are varied and rich; two of the best sites for temporary photography exhibitions in the world are located in the 4th – the Hotel Sully, now an outpost of the Jeu de Paume, and the Maison Europeene de la Photographie; the museum of Victor Hugo, housing a mix of his writing and painting; the Pompidou Center, home to the Modern Art Museum and countless spaces for temporary art, architecture and sculpture exhibitions; and the Pavillon of the Arsenal, home to Paris’s architectural plans, dioramas and photos. In addition, while not concentrated on any one street, as in New York, there is a scattering of fine art galleries all over the 4th and the 3rd as well.

As for walking, come from the Rue de Rivoli through the Hotel Sully courtyard, meander to and through the Place des Vosges itself and then the stroll past the Carnavalet Museum to the Beaubourg (Pompidou); or walk around the Ile St Louis and Ile de la Cite and the banks of Seine.

As to restaurants; Americans love l’Ambrosie and on eGullet.org, it is considered one of the best places in Paris, although eye-poppingly expensive (it’s where President Chirac takes everyone from Bill Clinton to Gerard Schröder.) And while I admire the resuscitation of Benoit by Alain Ducasse, its price-quality ratio is equally disadvantageous. I much prefer one of the two places recently opened by Antoine Westerman – Mon Viel Ami, or the not terribly new but eye-catchingly decored Dome du Marais.


The grand 16th - one of the biggest, priciest and glorious arrondissements – also has a rich diversity of cultural institutions. What it lacks for me is the commercial flavor that intermingles in so much of the rest of the city – it’s almost as if a supermarché would mar its residential/museumy tone.

The two monuments one most associates with Paris are best viewed from the 16th – the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower; the former from around the Etoile, the latter from across the river on the steps of was the Chaillot hill. This imposing site was a natural for erecting buildings for the World Fairs in 1867 and 1878 and what we now know as the Trocadero Palace assumed the same spot for the World Exhibition in 1937. In the closing days and after WWII, it became the symbol of the American presence in Paris, morphing into what I remember with awe as a teenager, the flag-enveloped SHAPE HQ – the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe.

There are plenty of art opportunities in the 16th with permanent collections and temporary exhibitions at the Modern Art, Guimet, Balzac, Marmottan and Dapper Museums as well as those housed in the Trocadero (Museum of Man and Marine). The new space in the Palais de Tokyo tends to show temporary contemporary art, the Palais Galliera’s Musée de la Mode et du Costume hosts fashion, gems and fabric shows and the headquarters for Yves St Laurent sometimes pulls off a stunner like its show of Bob Wilson’s “Fables of Fontaine” designs and costumes. I’ll pull a guesstimate out of my hat and say that the museum most beloved by Americans is the Marmottan (housing Monet’s Impressionism itself) and that totally unknown is the Museum of French monuments (housing sculpture and statues from bygone buildings).

Walking: Where else but the Bois? Formal gardens, untrod fields; roses and wild flowers; kiddie rides and horse-riding, it’s all there. Less bucolic? A tour a friend and I did of Hector Guimard’s building facades took a long time one afternoon and was terrific.

As for restaurants, those in the Bois de Boulogne – the Grande Cascade, Pre Catalan and Pavillion des Princes are stunning and good; for a sunny spring day one cannot go wrong. But for those participating interested in the new hot quarters competition, one must go into the heart of the 16th where places like the La Table Lauriston, Aux Marches du Palais, Tokyo Eat and La Pergolese have recently either opened or welcomed new chefs. The first two, the La Table Lauriston and Aux Marches du Palais get my unhestitating approval, the former for its sophisticated well-priced food and the latter for its gutsy bistro stuff in the midst of poshland. But Tokyo Eat is special - go only when the sun is shining, it’s hot and you can sit under the umbrellas on the flat of the Palais of Tokyo, reveling in the view. As for La Pergolese, Gregory Coutanceau has come and gone in but three short months and we’ll have to wait and see.

As for those restos in the 4th and 16th I’ll go back to, here’s my list :

Mon Vieil Ami
69 St Louis en l'Ile, 4th (Metro : Pont Marie)
T : 01.40.46.01.35
Closed Monday and Tuesday lunch
Menu 38 €.

Le Dome du Marais
53 bis rue des Francs-Bourgeois, 4th (Metro : St Paul, Bastille)
T : 01.48.04.88.44
Closed 3 weeks in August
A la carte about 45 €.

La Table Lauriston
129 rue Lauriston, 16th, (Metro: Trocadero, Iena)
T: 01.47.27.00.07
Closed Saturday noon, Sundays
Menu at lunch 25 € (with wine), a la carte 55 €.

Tokyo Eat
13 av du President Wilson, 16th (Metro : Alma Marceau, Iena)
T : 01.47.20.00.29
Closed Mondays
A la carte 50 €.

Aux Marches du Palais
5 rue Manutention, 16th (Metro : Iena)
T : 01.47.23.52.80
Closed weekends
Lunch menu 18 €, a la carte 45 €.

*Originally published in April 2006.
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Update October 2008:
While several places have opened since April of 2006 when I published this, notably Le Gaigne +
Les Cottelettes in the 4th and Alfred, La Marée Passy + Chaumette in the 16th (Passiflore was rediscovered by me/us, and La Gare came under new control, but certainly they are not truly new) the only additions I would make now are for:

Le Gaigne
12, rue Pecquay, 4th (Metro: Rambuteau)
T: 01.44.59.86.72
Closed Tuesday – thus open Saturday, Sunday on Mondays
Menus at 16 and 22 €

Passiflore
33, rue de Longchamp (Metro: Trocadero)
T: 01.47.04.96.81
Closed Saturday lunch and Sundays
Lunch menu 35, dinner 54, a la carte 80-100 €.

La Table de Joel Robuchon
16, ave Bugeaud, 16th (Metro : Victor Hugo)
T : 01.56.28.16.16
Open everyday
Club lunch menu 40 €, Dinner menu 150 €, a la carte 100 €.

La Marée Passy
71, ave Paul-Doumer, 16th (Metro: La Muette)
T: 01.45.04.12.81
Open everyday
A la carte 40-50 €.

Chaumette
7, rue Gros, 16th (RER: Radio France)
T: 01.42.88.29.27
Closed Saturday lunch and Sundays
Menu 28 €, a la carte 35-45 €

Cavesteve - Wine great, food less so.

5.0-2.0 Cavesteve, 15, rue de Longchamp in the 16th, 01 47 04 01 45, closed Sundays, running one 30-50 € a la carte, with wines from the racks at price, plus 10 € corkage. I’d heard about this place from an inveterate wine maven and he, I and a chef about town had lunch (on a Monday mind you) at two adjacent tables.

The place (and its Bastille twin) are really sleek and trim and not named after an American named Steve but a French guy yclept Jean Christophe Esteve.

They only have about 10 covers upstairs, 8 downstairs at a common table and 4 outside, so go early (they open at 11). The firsts are wine bar usuals: Spanish ham and terrines but they had about five hot daily special mains.

We started with terrines of foie gras and lapereau that, with a tart salad, were really great. But I thought the mains of lievre a la royale and beef cheeks were made off the premises and underheated before serving. The bread was blah but the coffee superb.

Our first wine, the server-guy’s rec, was an OK Rully but when the wine guy arrived, he ordered a Pernand-Vergelesses that was supreme.

Our bill for two was 116 € but the wine poobah’s musta been much more.

Go? Sure. Why Not? At least to their dazzling website http://www.cavesteve.com/

Thierry Burlot at Zebra Square in the 16th - Not disgraceful, but for TB, one expects more.

 

2.0 Zebra aka Zebra Square, 3, pl Clement Ader in the 16^th, 01.44.14.91.91, open 7/7, with two lunch formulas on weekdays only at 28 and 30, a la carte 60 €.  A woman answered the phone cheerily and when I asked to reserve Sunday at lunch said “You know it’s not brunch,” “thank you, Lord” said I. 

 

But it was just the “snacking menu” although it contained real dishes (steak, fish, scallops) in addition to Italian ham and pasta and the like.  I went with a friend who lives just across the river and we both entered about the same time and had the same reaction; it was kinda dark and decorated like a cocktail lounge/whorehouse, not at all the cheery, bright branché place I recall, but then I knew it had had a facelift and talent infusion by Thierry Burlot, he of the creeping prices. 

 

At first blush one blushes, the alcohol/wine list is three times as long as the carte and three times as pricey, good ole Thierry, hasn’t lost his touch for touching your wallet.  My pal ordered brochette with mozzarella and tomato that was quite OK and my rocket with parmesan and balsamic was OK too, but we’re in deep Italian territory here, where’s the French stuff? 

 

So we both then had the only main on the carte that sounded interesting – scallops (3) on their shell with some sliced vegetable, pureed mushrooms and a generous slice black truffle, again not bad but not heaven-sent either. 

 

The bread was blah except for mopping up the sauce but the coffee ristretto was proper. 

 

Our bill, with one bottle of watery white Cote de Rhone and no desserts or botled water was 82 €. 

 

The service was attentive except for pouring the wine and picking up the check, when it hibernated.

 

Go?  Want pizzazz, want branché, want Burlot?  Unh unh.