John Talbott's Paris

Pirouette in the 1st: The (unexpected) exception that proves the rule*, at Les Halles of all places.

7.5 (that's right) Pirouette, 5, rue Mondetour in the 1st, 01.40.26.47.81, closed Sundays, (Metro: Etienne Marcel) has officially been open for 6 days and is in the most unlikely place for a good resto - smack North of Les Halles, in a totally redone space previously occupied by the Maghrébine tea salon Jetkiss aka Jektis aka Jekiss, oh who cares?

You go (if you come from Etienne Marcel) 1/2 block to the goofy sidewalk besides the entrance to the underground auto-passthru to Chatelet and see some sort of green/yellow monstrosity wall - oh no.  But spreading out on the closed off Rue du Cigne are dozens of tables and it's a bit of paradise in this sea of dreck.  The outside has maybe 40+ covers and inside the same counting upstairs & ground level and there are lots of wines in bins, sparkling mirrors and bars and black metal pipes - it says coool, really cool, and the music is the Supremes to the Stones.

Lunch (but of course) is 15 E for the two specials (today salmon and the like) and 36 E for the menu-carte of three dishes.  Go for it!

My first was/were small pieces of smoked eel on top of confited potatoes (coulda fooled me into thinking it was sliced daikon) with thinly sliced Grannies and red onions with honey drippings. Outasight.

Then I had the perfectly undercooked/roasted langoustines on the bed of what was called a tartare of tomatoes (really just diced ones), cuke cubes, fried basil and a smoky crustacean fluff and sauce - goodness gracious!

My finale was the baba with an extra shot of rum and whipped cream with lime shavings - I'd say it was about the best I've ever had.

Wasn't anything off John?  Well sure, the bread and coffee and madeleine were not up to the quality of the food but these were made up by an amazingly friendly and happy staff (and yes I think I was "outed.")

For three courses (5E supplement for the divine langoustines), a half-bottle of wine and a coffee, the bill comes in at 52 E.

Go?  No, don't go, run. 

*What do I mean by "The (unexpected) exception that proves the rule?"  Some folks on Chowhound recently refered to some of the restaurants some of us go to as "off the beaten track."  Well, here, in Tourist Ground Zero, like with Montmartre's Clocher de Montmartre, one has a gem hidden in among the awful eateries, tattoo shops and tchochkes.  It was such a totally unexpected experience I assumed it was because (1) I was "outed," (2) it was a "on" not a "normal" or "off" day, (3) it was the first week phenomenon, (4) it was the perfect Paris day, (5) it was so unexpected, (6) it was in such a dreadful spot, (7) I'd been brainwashed while I was sleeping, (8) I felt so refreshed after sleeping, (9) I have been blessed with a wonderful wife and family, and/or (10) I was suffering from temporary insanity/psychosis/mania/dementia or delerium.

Spring in the 1st; Where else to go but there on July 4th?

So, all Duded up in red, white and blue for the 4th of July we headed off with two friends to "the" only place to go for lunch on our fete nationale (except for L'Office I guess) - Spring.  As usual we were warmly greeted and treated and again as usual repleted with a cascade of dishes that included:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top to bottom and clockwise they were: encornets with ham, radish halves with trout eggs, inventive marinated or lightly pickled sliced eggplant that was almost tomato-like and  small deep fried fritters inside of which were chard and tiny grapes; rascasse (to my ears) but corrected twice by my friends in charge of the kitchen and salle to rouget with fresh almonds and a wonderful sauce of honey, lime juice & olive oil, topped with tiny sprigs of dill and other herbs; perfectly cooked pigeon breast and thigh (jokey pix I assure you); divine crispy, light as clouds teeny-tiny girolles with astonishing bits of dried apricot; for dessert we had apricot halves sweetened and blow-torched on top with chevre ice cream and cherry halves in red wine; and (whew) chocolate, rum granite and lemon cream. What a feast on the 4th!

With 2 bottles of Red Loire Orleans Clos St Fiacre, 3 coffees, his usual good rolls and butter and no bottled water, our three meals (actually they did slip our fourth, late-arriving from his falafel feast guest, a few items) were billed at 197 E but for 4 persons it would have been 116 E a couple.

Racines (2) in the 1st: Ahhh, why did it take you so long to go?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.9 Racines (2), 39 de l'Arbre Sec in the 1st (Metro: Louvre-Rivoli), 01.42.60.77.34, closed weekends, opened last October and my intelligence and instincts warned me off going.  I passed it a lot on my way to & fro Spring and the Boutique and liked the exterior and open kitchen.  But then I kept seeing nice reviews  appearing every few months, a distinct reversal of everybody going the first week.  So I figured, what have I got to lose?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nothing it turns out.  The "menu" is a very reasonable 29 E for 3 courses, but a la carte we're dealing with double that, and that's before liquids.  But I rather liked the "menu" and so in the absence of my planned eating pal, I plunged in.

 

My first was a tete de cochon with a ravigote sauce which had salt added to it, overpowering the cornichons and capers which (of course) were already salty, but with a deft swipe of the knife I resolved that problem; the main consisted of 4 slices of a perfectly cooked duck breast with a ton of vegetables which I knew from my first visit to the original Racines was its hallmark; and my finale was a chocolate mousse with grilled nuts.  All were much above average and looking at my rating from February 2008 of Racines the First of 5.7, an improvement.

With a 1/2 bottle of a cleverly named bottle - the Poil de la Bete which I chose over Sun of a Beach (I'm not kidding), great bread, good coffee and no bottled water, the bill totals 44.50 E.

Any issues here?  Well, when they turn the vacuum/extractor on - it sounds like you're stuck in a Boing test lab; I don't like the huge high common table (which I was not at luckily); and the clientele is weird, featuring everyone from TV-stars to what shall I call them, rich-looking administrators of chest-enhanced young ladies, parked illegally outside without a whisper of trouble.

Go?  On the odd chance Spring has a power failure, you could do worse.

A La Marguerite in the 1st: Go early and often.

7.0 A La Marguerite, 49 Rue Berger in the 1st (the old Atelier de Berger space), (Metro:Les Halles), 01.40.28.00.00, open 7/7, is a place I immediately crossed off my "list" after seeing prices like "at least 51 E" and "47-70 E."  Sorry, out of my league & readers' as well.

But like Mireille Belleau in "French in Action" I stripped the petals off the daisy (marguerite), "it calls me, it calls me not" and decided after reading the fine print that they had

a 29 E 2/2/2 formula that it was worth it for the last meal of my old buddy crashing my pad.

It's a wonderfully elegant setting and the

amuse gueule of marinated ceviche-like daurade royale with cucumbers was a terrific start.  Then we both had the tataki of salmon with wasabi and greens whch again was terrific.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then he had the carrelet with green beans and I had the magret de canard with mushrooms and a wonderful intriguingly flavored sauce.  Both were most tasty and not only based on good products (as those at an offshoot of Les Fines Gueules should feature) but very properly cooked and tastefully plated.

With a bottle of wine cleverly labelled Matin Calme (sans temps), extraordinarily-crusty and tasty bread, no bottled water but two coffees and nibbies, our bill was 88 E (and still would have only been 108 E with dessert).

Go?  As I said, like voting in Chicago, one should go early (lunch) and often.  At dinner it's a whole other deal or deal-breaker, as the case may be.

Spring in the 1st: A new wrinkle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, Daniel Rose never ceases to surprise and amaze at Spring in the 1st.  Today, Colette insisted I shoot the flower arrangements but I was equally taken with the batch of pleurottes Daniel Eddy aka Daniel 2 was working on as well as the green asparagus Daniel 1 was peeling; both appeared soon on our plates.

The array of firsts was enough to get any meal off to a roaring start; huge oysters, an urchin on a bed of pureed Jerusalem artichoke, scallops and the classic halved radishes with salted butter.

Then a big lovely sauteed langoustine tail on a bed of green asparagus with juliened white asparagus slivers and herbs.

 

At first when we were asked whether we'd prefer guinea hen or sweetbreads for our mains, I thought it was a joke, but no, for the first time since I've been coming, there was a choice and since all four of us tried both, which both came with a delicate anchovy sauce to the side, I must say, I'd be sorely tested to say which was better.

 

 

 

 

As usual, though, he offered ample desserts; poached pears, yogurt with pistachio, lemon tarte and a mini-Pavlova.

With two bottles of Le Vignoble d'Elian, from the Côtes du Marmandais, no bottled water, his fine rolls, superior butter and four coffees, our bill was 244 E, thus 122 E a couple. 

Le Louvre Bouteille in the 1st: Totally clueless from the ardoises to food to service.

1.0 (that's for the fine wine at a price-quality point I bow down to) Le Louvre Bouteille, 150 rue St-Honore in the 1st (Metro: Louvre-Rivoli), 01.73.54.44.44, closed Sundays, is a place opened by a Masterchef graduate which seemed appealing to me when I read about it and my two invitees did not object violently, having read 5* reviews on TripAdvisor.

The place is cool, really cool, believe me, but a major problem is that you cannot read the white chalk on the mirror because people & lamps & light interfer nor the white chalk on the ardoises because people are sitting in front of them.  No matter - soldier on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My pal from the Left Bank & Lake Tahoe ordered the egg with a mushroom cream, coppa and crisp semolina that tasted to me like uncooked sand and the awful color combination turned me, a confirmed meterosexual, totally off.  The veloute of corail (aka scallop corals; the first time I'd ever had them in a soup/puree) was a great idea, but served semicold, was not on target and lady and I were really turned off at this point - we encouraged our buddy to stop pushing his food around and give up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My and my pal's magret in phyllo-bric was good product but he (who taught Thai cooking) and I (who love it), were totally nonplussed by the Thai bouillon and mango balls and our lady friend again noted that her filet of beef with a 5:1 starch:protein ratio was cool/cold/lukewarm.

Oh, BTW, the wait time for delivery of the first and second courses was intolerable and after we'd ordered cheese and a chocolate soup for dessert, not to mention coffees, we spent 10 minutes semaphoring the waitguys - first to get our 3rds, second to get our bill and third to get outa there.

The bill, oh the bill, was miscalculated, guess in who's favor? but our French-born guest straightened things out after 5-10 minutes of diplomatic niceties. 

With two bottles and glasses of wine and no bottled water, it was 95 E, a bargain, huh?  Unh,unh.

Go? With Spring and the Regalade St Honore but steps away, I don't think so.

Pierre Au Palais Royal in the 1st: Great, disappointing and questionable price-quality.

6.0 Pierre au Palais Royal, 10 Rue Richelieu in the 1st (Metro: Palais-Royal), 01.42.96.09.17, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, is a place I rather liked (although Colette did not) under chef Pascal Bataille, but upon his departure to Bordeaux, Konrad Cegiowski, ex-Team Cagna designed a new menu and that,  along with a "re-look" was cause for a revisitation.

As usual I got there a bit earlier than my friends and had time to peruse the food and wine menus.  I soon found Waldo aka Talmar, that is, the cheapest red and waited to pounce on my friend who's a wine guy.  He and his wife arrive, he looks at the list and I tell him, "anything red under 30 E is OK with me."  He looks and looks and finally (I've never seen this before in a decade of eating with him, asks the sommelier/waitguy for his advice on a good prix/qualite wine; and after much hemming and hawing, they decide on my 28 E find which the whole world finds very good.

But back to the food.  Two courses at lunch are 33, three = 39 E but there were supplements all over the place, including the sauteed foie gras (+7 E) I wanted, which brings two courses up to the three course price.  No matter, I could not manage dessert after foie gras.  So we plunge in.

 

 Then Madame had the terrine of foie and foir gras, quite nice, Monsieur a risotto with duck hearts crispy/crunchy on the outside and I had 100% perfectly-sourced and cooked foie gras lobes with winter fruits, the tang of the apricots still resonating in my memory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Madame then had the bar with a crispy-crunchy skin, veggies and purees (I thought her bar was also 100% perfect) but the two men agreed that our rable de lapin with fresh linguine and nantua/ecrevisses sauce was totally nowhere - at least before we added salt, then it was somewhere, but not where it should have been.

He finished up with a dessert so forgettable that I've forgotten it except it had quince somethings and have no photo as well.

Our bill, with 2 bottles of wine, no bottled water and 2 coffees, was 176.00 E, thus about 117 E a couple.

So off to the bathroom before departing, where I found this charming container of tampons, which if you Google/Image its name you get stuff not all of which are suitable for a family blog.

Go?  No, and I cannot explain why I say that, because the foie gras, bar and wine were terrific, but the rest was truly forgettable.

Spring in the 1st: More eye candy.

Spring in the 1st, or to be more specific, Daniel Rose, chef at Spring in the 1st, has one of those memories that recalls every dish one has ever eaten there or at Spring1 in the 9th.  And, he rarely if ever repeats dishes or their preparations, etc.  So it is misleading and inutile to detail what one is served, because the diner the next week will certainly not get the same things.  Therefore, here are some photos:

 

 

Among the mushrooms, astoundingly crisp microtomed pear slices; scallops, oysters, razor clams; poached/baked fuji apples; chocolate sorbet, shaved chestnuts, French whipped cream, macaroon, passion fruit; walnut cream and chocolate nummies was a dish of extraordinary creativity and taste (of which the pix is lost in cyberspace for the moment) - semi-wild duck (that is wild, then shot presumably under forced conditions) served with one piece almost pot-au-feu'd and the other as a firm duck breast.  Incredible.

Our bill with two bottles of wine, one of water and three coffees was 201.00 E for 3, thus 134 E a couple.

Spring in the 1st; Still springing.

It's always such a pleasure to go to Spring and not have to worry about anything; the greetings are warm, the seatings leave breathing space between tables, the dishes roll out and the creativity continues.

 

  

 

Chorizo; cepes, eggplant, walnut bits and pomegranate seeds,

Rouget with cucumbers, mustard seeds and greens and an oyster,

Vendee pigeon, Basque black pig belly, green apple balls and watercress,

Pears with GREEK yogurt ice cream,

Chocolate and coffee and nougat (was it?) along with chocolate-dusted marhmallows.

Our bill per couple with a bottle of Jura wine and 2 coffees was 121 E.

Le Camelia de Thierry Marx in the 1st: Not as bad a meal as F.S. reported, but no fireworks from the Molecular Magician either.

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.5 Le Camelia, 251 rue St-Honore (thus in the Mandarin Oriental) in the 1st, 01.70.98.73.33, open 7/7, is Thierry Marx's second place in this new hotel, the first being Sur Mesure, located in the same general space and running 145 E for 8 plates or 180 E for 12; there is also a lovely garden (pictured above) overflow and cocktail venue which looks very nice. 

From the first telephone call to our exit we were impressed by the staff; very welcoming and speaking the language they heard diners speak.  At our table, including two chefs, Colette and myself, we were "outed" and visited almost immediately by three luminaries in the hotel, among whom was the best-known American-French concierge in Paris.  Did that affect our impression(s)?; well, it sure changed the check downwards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two of us started with the mackerel with sliced carrots (the mackerel was superb, the carrots "so what") and one of us had the pressed beef with foie gras served as a terrine which was fine.

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mains were OK but hardly as dynamic as one expects from the darling of Generation "C", Omnivore and Le Fooding; from top to bottom, daurade japonaise, pigeon with a nice piece of foie gras, a lobster ravioli, and a calamari risotto.  All serviceable, but frankly, as Francois Simon said this morning, in an article I only read after our meal, not terribly good.

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this point, frankly (franchement Francois) I gave up and passed on dessert and champagne, both of which we were not charged for, as we were not for our coffees.  But the others shared with me their St Honore (a mini-homage to the street we were on and the classic dessert), and the best of the three, the  caramel/chocolate preparation.  The third dessert was deemed by one of us as not having been freshly made.

Our bill came to 163 E a couple, and as I said, that was for seven dishes and a bottle of wine per couple.  If we had been charged as normal citizens, we're easily talking about 200-250 E a couple. For the price, we were surprised that no amuse bouche nor mignardises were offered.

Problems: Unfortunately, while the senior staff, like the three who visited us, are seasoned professionals, the junior ones need more training so as to learn how to pour wine without spilling and/or dribbling, to promptly respond to diners when they seek service, in adding up the bill (we were overcharged on the wine but this was offset by all the freebies) and to walk on the "Clockwork Orange" (as F.S. calls the decor) wooden flooring in heels without sounding like tap-dancers.  The deep pile rugs make it difficult for staff and patrons to move the chairs.  

Go?  Not me again, but let's see if others have better experiences.

Final shot: couple getting out of Brit car to be married at the Polish Church: