John Talbott's Paris

Fines Gueules: Off the charts: An archival* review

HS** Les Fines Gueules, 43, rue Croix des Petits Champs in the 1st, 01.42.61.35.41, open everyday. My friend, the RFC (real food critic) called to warn me; this place is really just the old Tourelle under new management (exBistral) and not to expect a lot.

But I did, because Pierrick Jegu in l’Express and Jerome Berger in A Nous Paris had spun me its spin; a presentation of the “best of” products; eg, best oysters from David Herve in Oleron (14 € a dozen), best butter from Bordier, best bread from Poujauran, best andouillette from Thierry Daniel, best meat from Hugo Desnoyers, best charcuteries from Gilles Verot, best veggies from Joel Thiebault, etc., etc.

Plus superb wines, Bourgueil from the Bretons (my favorite couple in the Loire), Sologne from Claude Courtois, Cotes du Roussillon from Jean Louis Tribouley, etc. It’s not a wine bar, or bistrot or restaurant or brasserie – it’s all of the above and none of them, it’s sui generis.

Now the menu (ardoise) changes every day – I spied the one from yesterday and of course saw that of today and except for the charcuterie platter, they were totally different (tuna, cod, duck, andouille, bourgignon, sausage, riz au lait, crème chocolat yesterday vs beef, salmon, vegetables today). So what we had, will not be there tomorrow, but never you mind, go!

We started with two sublime, divine dishes: cold lisettes with a gelee of coriander and veal carpaccio with the lightest of nutty Italian olive oils and 36 month old parmesan.

Then we were going to share some charcuterie as a main course (6 varieties) and cheese as the cheese course (7 varieties) but the RFC saw a plate of huge leeks with Iberico ham go by and it was all over; we were hooked. What was better? Tough call.

Maybe the chorizo with cornichons, maybe the ham, maybe the St Nectaire.

And the 1st white, a Chardonnay, was wonderful, but the second, an Anjou was even better and the third, a Gauillac (by then we were standing at the bar with the patron, sipping out of a bag-in-box) was incredible and unrecognizable – complex, apples and apricots (I hate it when wine mavens talk this way, but it was true) and layers of taste – heaven.

Our bill with all that food, wine, coffee, Armagnac, and after-dinner stuff was 121 €.

The downstairs room-cum-cave seats 18 and is no-smoking. The only bad sign is that their card gives the telephone number as +33 1, but maybe they gave me that one because I’m so obviously an Anglo.

Go again? Are you kidding?, this is the find of the year. It’ll never make the Michelin or New York Times and Colette will love the fish, veggies and desserts.

*Originally published in April 2007

HS** = outside classification, unfair to rate

Spring Boutique in the 1st: Fine food, expensive sure, but fun.

The Spring Boutique, 52, rue de l’Arbre Sec in the 1st, (ergo around the corner from the new Spring on the rue Bailleul) 01.58.62.44.30 is open Tuesday-Saturday 10:30 AM – 9 PM and has the same sign as in olden times.

Daniel Rose and Marie-Aude Mery and Josh Adler hold forth selling high end sausages, fruit, coffee, wine and well, everything one might need for a late light dinner after a long day’s work (which is when they get really busy).

I cannot attest to all the products but their grey pleurotes in olive oil (10.75 € from Camille des Lys in Autoire) served on a bed of very thick (#14) spaghetti and an organic apple ensured that I’ll be back. 

Oh and he has a new card replacing the fruit-laden bicycle basket:

 
(permission granted to post)

Le Saut du Loup: Great in good weather, questionable without; an archival* review

3.0 (food) -5.0 (in splendid weather) Le Saut du Loup, 107, rue de Rivoli in the 1st (in the Musée des Arts Déco), 01.42.25.49.55, open everyday from noon to midnight (the bar til 2 AM) with a tea salon from 3-7 PM, was described by Elvira Masson of Le Fooding as {my trans} “serving light fare such as celery soup, caesar salad, hamburger with (not great nor home made) fries in a cone and lots of desserts for 20 € for light lunch, 45 € for the works.”

Beautiful summary! I went on a beautiful Saturday when the temperature far exceeded its predicted level of 27-28° C. The setting: incredible, you sit on the verge of the Tuileries, in not very comfortable but tres chic chairs.

The menu in the American sense is simple, salads (one with grilled shrimp), club sandwiches (looked pretty good), pennes (nobody near me had one), beef (four kinds), scallops and seven desserts plus ice creams and sorbets plus wine (6+ a glass, 24+ [up to an Yquem at 580]).

Me? I had no starters, a no-brainer, there weren’t any, the tartare, about as good as they come at first blush, but like old wine, less impressive as one finished, with a nice salad and not great (as E. Masson said) pallid, uncrisp fries (why can no one in America or France do good fries?, I know, they don’t have my mother’s fryer filled with transfat oil), and then a caramel ice cream and caramel sauce and praline nutty things dessert – WOW!

A Nous Paris always lists a regret – here, there are two – (1) not enough umbrellas, only 12 for a million tables, so the couple who arrived just after me (at 1 PM) had to sit in the blazing sun, as did all arrivals afterwards and (2) this is a funny one, the annoyance of the waitstaff bustling about on the pebbles which broke the fantasy that one was eating in the forest with a stunning view of the Louvre and Eiffel Tower (I won’t complain about the whiskey/tobacco-voiced bleached blonde Maitresse d’ with the horrible tattoo who had clearly had a hard life to present, nor the coffee that was as pricey as at Gagnaire’s but better.)

The damages = 42 €. 

Should one go? On a great day, you bet; otherwise skip it.

* Originally published in April 2007.

Service: One sings, the other doesn’t: an archival* essay.

I recently had a meal at Pharamond that was spoiled only by the incredibly inconsistent service.  The décor was stunning, the food classic old-time religion stuff and the wine just right.  So what’s wrong?

The Service.

Let me give you the roll-out.  I entered with very low expectations.  After all, this is an elephant of restos, established in 1832, not much changed, taken over by someone trained at l’Ami Louis, for gosh sake, so no high hopes here.  But one would expect great service.  I mean, the clientele were all wealthy Parisien men with suits and ties, who ordered magnums of Burgundy and smoked their own cigars.  And one would expect the vol au vent, snails and tripes to be huge and greasy and filling but not particularly memorable  – Guess again.

I entered – told to wait a little minute while something was done (there are 3 waiters for 10 customers, for goodness sake) – wait – seated at the primo table by me anyway, by the window, give him that – wait for the menu – long wait – began to think no menu – but then the amuse bouche arrives – strange, an amuse bouche before the menu, OK I’m a foreigner, who knows? – then the bread arrives – superb – especially with the butter – but where’s the menu – ah, there, OK – look it over, decide, ravenous – wait, wait, wait – other tables served, mine sits sadly neglected – stomach rumbling – look outside at young women running thru the drizzle eating baguette sandwiches – not bad – ah, finally order – the wine list maybe – long, indeed the longest wait, indeed forgotten by my designated waiter until another guy sees my restlessness – wine list – ah yes, another long wait for the wine order to be taken.  Well you get the picture.  Now at an even later point the same “other” waiter comes nearby to do something and starts talking and is terrific.

So here you have it: one waiter is out to lunch, the other is the most attentive terrific waitperson of the week.  The first keeps apologizing for the waits, his errors and inattentiveness, repeatedly says “at your service” but isn’t - the other just does it.

So the question – No, not, do you tip and if so who?  Rather, how do you or real critics judge the service?  By the dork or the demon?

Not withstanding the service, I strongly recommend this place, so long as you love old-time food, have no budget and no time constraints.  The bread was spectacular, the veal kidneys with butter or mustard (equally good accompaniments) were as good as I’ve ever had and the wine was just right.

Thus my sole recommendation this week is:

 

Pharamond

24, rue de la Grande Truanderie, 1^st (Metro: Les Halles, Etienne Marcel)

T: 01.40.28.45.18

Closed Sundays and Mondays

A la carte 40-80 €.

 

*Originally published in January 2007

Juveniles: Outside the ordinary ratings; an archival* review.

3.1 HS* Juveniles, 47, rue de Richelieu in the 1st, 01.42.97.46.49, closed Sundays was an ideal choice for my cohost and me after attending the book-signing/talk by our mutual colleague/member/friend Clotilde (Chocolate & Zucchini) at Brentano’s two blocks away.

It’s non-smoking, run by a Scotsman and has cases of wine on the wall (a la Papilles + Chapeau Melon.)

We shared crostini with a lovely sauce and melon slices with ham with some wine and had a nice quick bite to eat. The bill: I don’t know she picked it up. 

Quote from my hostess: “It’s a good place for a quick bite and a drink which is lacking in Paris.”

HS* = outside classification, unfair to rate

*Originally published in June 2007.

Le Cafe Very: A nifty place, if you’re walking in the Tuileries, and it’s hot and you’re hungry.; an archival* review.

5.0 Le Café Véry, in the middle (N-S) of the Tuileries, 2/3rds towards the Concorde/Jeu de Paume/Orangerie side, 01.47.03.94.84, open everyday from 10 AM, has been here for years my RFC (real food critic) friend tells me, but it’s recently been under the supervision/advice/ guidance of Gilles Choukroun, he whom I loved at Le Café des Delices and loved/hated at the l’Angl’Opera.

In any case it’s one of a kind, sort of half-café, half-high end snack-food, half-really good stuff, so it winds up being 150% OK. We, being un-French-customized, started off with bottles of Chat. Delanoye and a Touraine.

The menu has 1sts of tabouli and smoked salmon, 2nds of cod, salmon and veal and some desserts from Pierre Hermé – but we had none of those, instead they brought out everything at once, which was a bit disconcerting, but it was the waitress’s first day, she had never opened a bottle or poured a glass of wine (amazing in this day and age, but….)

In any case the RFC had cheese balls in a Mason jar a la Aux Lyonnais with a piece of toast with tapenade (not bad) followed by a tartare MBC (ah hah, even he didn’t know what that was – turns out it stands for mango, basil & coriander) equally not bad.

I scored tho’ I think, better, with two starters really – a so called exceedingly long chicken spring roll with a side basil sauce and a wonderfully spicily-again dressed pile of greens and a so called gazpacho which was really a dense, terrifically spicy tomato salsa into which one dipped spicy radishes, with a rondelle of butter on a strip of bamboo that I thought was something else until I bit into it – ohmagawd! Heaven.

The bread and coffee were so-so but to sit there in the gardens, besides the sculpture, talking food, tennis and culture with my favorite RFC – it should count as a 10.

The bill, ah, here my friends, we must do a bit of dissembling because the devil made us have a second bottle, so for ordinary human beings it would have been a mere 67.60 E.

One caution, for some reason, the earth outside, if one sits there, is not packed but powdery and if you set your bag, backpack, etc down, you’ll regret it. 

Should one go? Under the circumstances stated above, do it, but it’s not haute gamme nor a destination place. It is what it is and Gilles has redeemed himself in my book.

*Originally publisted in June 2007

Au Gourmand in the 1st: Successful wherever they are. An archival* review.

7.0 Au Gourmand, 17, rue Moliere in the 1st, 01.42.96.22.19, closed Sundays and Mondays, menu-carte 2 dishes = 28, 3 dishes 32, all veggies = 30 € is the successfully transplanted resto of the same name from across town and across from the Luxembourg Gardens.

The maitre d’ (Herve de Libouton) welcomed us warmly, later saying he recalled us from the old place, which is a safe bet since there are probably not a lot of foursomes of gangly, demi-ghastly dressed, tall American geezers stumbling around town; in any case Christophe Courgeau’s cooking has improved with the move and we had a great meal.

The products are all good, fresh and traceable – vegetables by Thiebault, butter by Bordier, bread by Poujauran, etc.

We started with two firsts; a “thick” pair of lamb kidneys on 10 strips of chard with a great sauce and a strange “tartare” of langoustines with seaweed and potatoes - strange because searching for the bits of langoustines was futile.

Then two of us had the bar while the other two had a pigeon and confited lamb; all four served atop a mélange of al dente seasonal vegetables.

At that point we broke for cheese (perfectly affinated Reblochon and Camembert); terminating with a carrot and nut cake with ginger ice cream, effusively praised by Colette.

With coffee and wine the bill for four was 203.50 € but we had three supplemental charges totaling 21 €.

Should you go? Wow!, three hearts hardly does it justice. 

*Originally published in July 2007.

yam'Tcha in the 1st - Flawless, almost to a fault.

 

8.0 yam'Tcha [sic], 4, rue Sauval in the 1st, 01 40 26 08 07, closed Mondays and Tuesdays, has a lunch menu at 30 €, tasting menu 65 and dinner 45 €. There are no choices but you are asked if you have any food issues.

They asked if we wanted to start with the house aperitif, which is 9 €, but I only learned that on scoping the wine list; instead I chose a Bordeaux at 25 € and my charming partner shared one glass and then did the tea pairings pleading jet-lag – 12 € for 3, which are delivered with a mini-lecture by Chiwah Chan, the husband of the chef – one Adeline Grattard who worked at the Aleno-era Scribe + l’Astrance under Barbot.

I’d asked several friends/critics/etc if this was Asian or fusion or world food and been told it was Asian-inspired and it is. They brought a “welcome” tea – oolong – most welcome.

The amuse bouche was/were microtomed Japanese radishes much like one is served in ryokans before dinner. Delicious, light and almost ethereal.

The first course was cold asparagus (that had been cooked and marinated, I suspect, in a very dilute rice wine), again delicious, light and almost ethereal, with a small but most adequate piece of sauteed foie gras, you’ve got it – d…, l… and e…. How foie gras can be so light I have no idea.

The main was a large piece of mackerel, most unfishy, atop cabbage and an emulsion of capsaicin, of the very light type: d, l and e.

Afterwards, I chose the cheese, a mixture of mixed gorgonzola and mascarpone with olive oil and she had strawberries and ginger ice cream with a ginger tuile. The coffee produced another sticker shock – 4 €.

However, with two menus, 1 bottle of wine, 4 teas and no coffee or bottled water, our bill was still only 97 €.

Can’t you find fault here? Yes, it’s very polished and perhaps too flawless and given the fixed menu(s), it would probably better to do what Spring does, insist that everyone come at a set time and serve dishes promptly, instead of clearly causing customers to wait between courses until the laggards catch up.

Goumard in the 1st: wonderful for two of us, a disaster for the third.

 

Goumard, 9, rue Duphot in the 1st, 01 42 60 36 07, open 7/7.
6.2 - wonderful for two of us.
3.0 - not so for Colette.

Well a lot has changed since a decade ago when we used to go a lot.

A few weeks ago I saw in Web Radio du Gout that they had a facelift to become a "brasserie de luxe sans contrainte", converted the downstairs to a oyster bar/tapas joint/small plates and single glasses of wine location and upstairs to a less pricey and not totally seafood centered resto.

Colette and I went today with a trusted palated friend and he and I were thoroughly pleased with the all inclusive menu (3 courses, 1/2 btle wine, 1/4 btle water and coffee) for 49 Euros. The first was a base of tepid crushed crab with a crabesque veloute on top, a main of beautiful and beautifully-cooked cod with a superb crust on top of a bed of a slightly more fluid than usual brandade (there was also a meat option and there are many more meats on the carte than before) and then a fine apple dessert concoction with ice cream and beurre sale.

As I say, he and I were very pleased, even though, as he noted, the wine provided was a screw-topped "3,90 E white from Monoprix." (NB the lowest priced white or red otherwise was 40 E). But the bread was super (as usual), the cafe serre proper and the service attentive.

Our bill, with all that and Colette's bar was 129 Euros (less than a poster on the eGullet France Forum paid in 2002 for his entire meal).

But but but, John, what's wrong with this picture?

Ah, you had to ask. Colette's bar with girolles and green beans. It was blah with no character or much taste and for 26 E one expects a bit more, even pouring salt over it as Colette did but never usually does.

So Go? I think so, the all-included (which actually harks back to chef Philippe Dubois' original idea) menu is a great buy, but why we two were blessed with a great meal and Colette got stuck, I'll never know.

 

PS The Louis Majorelle (Nancy recall? where Colette and I recently revisited) Art Nouveau touches (1904) remain secure in the national heritage bathrooms (the North ones not the South ones) only mildly ruined by General DeGaulle's upgrades, according to our dining partner).

Oeuf Mayo in the 1st: open Monday lunch, that’s about all.

 

1.0 Oeuf Mayo, 42, rue de la Coquillere in the 1st (sound familiar, exactly, it’s just two blocks past Dehillerin), was featured somewhere and while it was at the bottom of my list, among places open Monday, as my friend Atar says, “the new Saturday”, it got to the top pretty fast.

 

I actually tried to go there a while back with my charming cohost on the eGullet France Forum, but the only guy in the place rushed out to say there was a “disaster in the kitchen” and they were closing – it should have been an omen – today there was “a disaster in the kitchen” but it wasn’t an electricity or gas outage, it was awful cooking. You recall when Spy Magazine kept saying that the revered two-time New York Times Pulitzer awardee, Abe Rosenthal, mentor to giants like R.W.  (Johnnie) Apple, was “writing as bad as he can?” Well, this guy is cooking as bad as he can.

 

I really didn’t come in with “an attitude.” While they wouldn’t take my reservation (which they did last time) I accepted the explanation that it was a small place and they couldn’t. But when the waiter came over with his left sleeve rolled up to display a horrid tattoo and his jeans down around his knees anti-Obama style, I took notice.

 

I looked at the carte – truck stop stuff. Firsts, herring, rillettes, etc., but recalling an expert on such things declared that the oeufs mayo at Quai-Quai were the best ever, I decided to see what a place called Oeuf Mayo could do – first mistake; they were pretty pathetic.

 

Then I had the special – roast pork with herbs and mashed potatoes, both were inedible and I wasn’t into licking the acceptable-tasting gravy off the plate.

 

So I took the tarte au citron which actually wasn’t half bad. The Richard coffee was OK and the bread passable.

 

Now the question, dear reader, is, why am I giving it a 1.0 – Ans. Because they played a CD of the Garde Républicaine playing my favorite French marching songs.

My bill for 3 courses was 16 €, 2 would have been 12 €, and wines were 15-79 € a bottle and 2.5 € up a glass, so in total one had a 28 € hit. But at what cost to one’s arteries, spirits and pride? Oh yah, the little saucer holding the addition said (in English) “Every day, every night, every time” whatever that means.

Go? No wonder it took so long to creep up my list.