John Talbott's Paris

Grand Coeur in the 4th: what happened to this formerly great place?

The Grand Coeur in the 4th is a place where I’ve had at least 2 fine meals and whose executive chef Mauro Colagreco's cooking in Menton included the best grilled bass of my life.  But something has happened.  Colette and I went with my very oldest Paris friend, circa 1953, who lives and works nearby and who also used to love it.

Despite the fact there were few customers at the outdoor tables, it took forever to get menus and put in our orders, as the background classes in dance, grunting, thumping and beginning drum-banging increased in number and volume.  Ok, we were among the herbs, pollinators and calm breezes in the price-crazy Marais. Get Zen.

For firsts, the ladies had a mediocre salad of strange looking artichoke heartlets, fennel, greens and Parmesan while I calmly sat and waited for the treasure of the week - a pintade.

For mains we had lamb, Vitello tonnato and my anticipatedly great pintade with tiny mushrooms which turned out to be not much of a much.

They took our dessert order and Madame, a local mind you, said we wanted our coffees promptly after dessert because she had an appointment.

We waited, and waited and waited, until finally our friend had to leave at which time Colette made not one but two trips to the 'welcome desk' to ask for/beg for the check! 

For dessert we had a strawberry “soup” and lemon meringue tart, delivered after much requesting of speed since Madame had an appointment to see a patient as time went by.  Well, as you can see we polished them off quickly.  The explanation of the delays was that “there’s a problem in the kitchen” reminding me of the “Cauchemar en cuisine” TV show.

Our bill,  with a bottle of wine and three coffees, not even offered, was 166.60  for 3 persons or 111.07€ for two persons.  The price quality ratio was not good!

Capitaine in the 4th: 5, count them, 5 superb entrees.

7.1 Capitaine, 4, impasse Guemenee in the 4th, 01.44.61.11.76, closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday lunch (Metro: St Paul), is a place my friend who lives nearby and I tried to go to two days ago during Snowmageddon and rather than break a hip, femur, elbow or clavicle, we postponed it til today, when voila, it snowed again, but Chauffeur Privee came through after much delay and I entered Capitaine where no one seemed bothered by the weather.  My codiner friend reminded we'd been here under different ownership - once Gorille Blanc, once Les Cotelettes and once L'Impasse, maybe others as well.  Humm, feng shui or not?

The carte says lunch is €29 for 5 shared entrees and a choice between 2 mains and 2 desserts.  What it didn’t say was that the 5 starters are both terrific and sizable: scallops, cooked mackerel, pickled crudité salad, a grilled ham and cheese sandwich (I’m serious) and a celery and cream veloute. Not to mention terrific bread.

For mains we both had the lacquered quail with spinach, white beans and a lemon condiment which again was not only superb but generous.  

For dessert we split the apple tart and chocolate mousse with crushed macarons.

The bill: With a bottle of wine, house water and two coffees, our bill was €90?

Return?  You betcha, despite the deafening noise level, even though my meter said only 72.7 dB, it lied.

Les Vins des Pyrenees in the 4th: it seemed like a good idea at the time, but....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, last Monday I read in “Do it in Paris” that the venerable Vins des Pyrenees which was 1. Jim Morrison’s haunt, had been renovated by 2. the creator behind Georges and the Marly 3. had a new chef from Saturne and the Terroir d’Avenir.  Sounded pretty good to me and I invited my wine expert friend to try it out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.65 Les Vins des Pyrenees, 25 Rue des Beautreillis in the 4th, 01.42.72.64.94, open 7/7, (Metro: St. Paul) looks much like it must have 30 years ago when my dining companion first came since he was staying across the road and it was one of the rare places open Sunday evenings.  The street is quirky and the restaurant packed with locals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He started off with leeks vinaigrette with nuts that I thought were way above average and I had a ton of bulots with mayonaise that I considered almost as good as my preparation.

Then we both had giant cones of calamari stuffed with a most unFrench spicy pepper stuffing, with nice fennel pieces.

I insisted on a dessert and the brioche perdu with caramel was terrific.

With a bottle of Chinon (unpictured) and three glasses more, no bottled water but 3 coffees our bill was 129.10€.

Go?  Hummmm.  At the end I asked “so how do you rate this?”  He said, “using your scale, 5.8,” and I was at 5.5, so doing the math, it’s 5.65.  Above average but not spectacular.

Les Philosophes in the 4th: Well, not a winner, but under the circumstances, not a loser either.

My backstory and sorry excuse.  Ok, I suggested to my longest known friend in Paris, 1953, ok, that we go to Les Philosophes around the block from her home and office.  "Oh, she said, my last meal there was awful, what made you want to go?"  "Humm, I forget, someone told me about it".  "Ok, I said, let's go another place, x."  So I show up at what I think is x, but the whole street is shuttered and I limp over to a busy cross street and look for bistros that look interesting.  Nada. My iPhone, empty of ideas.  So I sit at a bus stop and think, I'll go back to my original suggestion, and by then I'd found a little slip of paper that read "Xavier Denamur, Les Philosophes, etc." written by two of my loyal readers whom l'd lunched with not so long ago.  I show up and enter looking bewildered, the place is packed and outside is Artic, "Mr Talbott, the table in the corner," Holy Cow, how did he know?  "Who made the res?"  Buddha perhaps.

 

5.5 Les Philosophes, 28, rue Vieille du Temple in the 4th, 01.48.87.49.64, open 7/7 (Metro: ) is what Americans, and perhaps all visitors to Paris think French bistros in the 1930's (think Casablanca) were like; hustle and bustle, hard to talk, huge menus and cheap pichets of wine.  This is it.  I have plenty of time to look over the menus and carte but cannot see today'ss specials (humm, maybe my ophthalmologist is right and I should get regular not reading glasses).  My old friend enters.  We look, we consult.  

She decides on a first of asparagus but what arrives is a bed of purée of petit pois with lampposts of asparagus and olives stuck in, which several of the folks around us think is their order.  We have a great old conversation among the 6 of us and finally she does get this nouvelle Cuisine version, but so does every else.  Actually not bad, I loved the tartness of the olives against the tastes of the peas and asparagus.  Then she had lamb which was supposed to be a shoulder, which she liked, but I thought was dry and over-cooked and I had a confit de canard that I deemed rather good, albeit with awful fries. The dessert she longed for was out and so we finished with coffees from this coffee-guy Xavier who apparently is a big deal coffee roaster nearby and an owner of this place.

With a bottle of Cahors and the coffees, our bill was 78€.  dBs 80.4 although to we two deaf folks it sounded much louder.

Go?  You know, I dunno.  On a holiday, with few other choices, it is and was appealing.

Rainettes: Quick - Frogs' legs are about to disapear off the menus.

Rainettes in the 4th is a frog place, OK?  Let's get that out of the way; if you don't like frogs and/or frogs' legs stop reading now.  Even if you like them, stop reading now and go because given the crazy trends in Paris dining, they could be gone tomorrow.

So one needs a 1st before the main event - which is frogs' legs, remember? - our friend up the road chose the snails - vary Franch non? - and Colette and I had the onion soup - that did not sweep me back to 1953 but then I was anticipating.....

 

The frogs' legs and yes, they were every bit as good as last time here a month ago or in 1953 down at the old Halles.  My dining partners told me that the gratin of potatoes and butternut squash were equally as good.

Colette had a superb apple tart for dessert and my crème renversee, remember it from Chapter 24 in French in Action?, was up to Capretz standards.

Our bill, with no bottled water but two bottles of wine and two coffees, was 90 E a couple.

Oh yah, come hear for frogs' legs - right?

Chez Julien in the 4th: Old carte, new chef? What's up with this Costes tourist trap, John?

5.4 Chez Julien, 1, rue du Pont Louis-Philippe in the 4th, 01.42.78.31.64, open 7/7 (Metro: Pont Marie or St Paul) was not the primary destination today but my dearest old friend from the Marais said she was not up to schlepping from her cabinet/apartment up to Belleville and I wracked my brain for something nearer - and indeed in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin November 2nd noted that Chez Julien had a new chef, one Helmi Derbal, ex-Rendez-Vous des Camionneurs, so how bad could it be?  Backstory:  The last time I was here was in September 2006, just after it came into the hands of the Costes Empire and some dishes were terrific but the fish was bad product, nasty-nasty.

My friend ordered the formule at 26 E of a salmon tartare and veal with 5 spices (a nice osso buco) while I had the 28 E blanquette of beef with a sauce I couldn't stop soaking up with the rice, superb bread and my fork.  The bread with its great crust deserves mention itself.

Our bill with a bottle of fine Brouilly, no bottled water, but 2 coffees, was 91 E.

Go?  You know, I usually advise visitors to avoid tourist traps, but given the scarcity of beautiful venues serving half-decent food in the Marais, I'd say yes if only for the décor, beautiful view and fantastic bread.

Rainettes in the 4th: It's raining frogs in the Marais; Hallelujah!

7.2 Rainettes (the other word for frogs in French), 5, rue Caron in the 4th, 09.86.59.63.85, open Tues, Weds, Thurs dinner and Fri, Sat, Sun lunch; (Metro: St Paul) is one more in the long line of mono-maniacal (as Figaro would say) restaurants, following Rouge (Tomate), Pommes, Cochon Gaulois, Boeuf Maillot and others I've forgotten, along with the oyster places - Istr, Bar a Huitres, L'Huitrier, etc. that tend to feature one product front and center, albeit also having other items as well as Yankee-food-focused Maryland crabs, BBQ, hamburgers, hot dogs and such.  As you enter there is a huge patch of vertical moss, etc., as there is over the stairway downstairs.  In a rather small space are lots of stools at high tables but a few regular tables and chairs.  The "menu" is a startling 19 E for 2 course; 22 E for frogs' legs; but I wanted the whole deal so I went a la carte.

I started off with the frogs' legs beignets which were glorious, especially with the crème fraiche/ciboulettes and spicy tomato sauces; followed up with splendid frogs' legs provencales (that is, butter and garlic) with black rice; and to finish an (unpictured) crème renversee (Pop-Quiz; what was the name of the cook in French in Action who served it - remember, she was a "pearl")? All of it went down very well with a Pic St Loup.

Now, my bill with a half-liter of wine and fine bread and coffee was higher than necessary; a couple with a bottle of wine and no bottled water could easily exit for 119 E.  dB's were only 77.8 because the wonderful English-speaking wait-lady turned the American music down.

Go?  You must.  Who doesn't like frogs' legs?  And if you don't there's salmon, duck breast, beef, etc.

 

Restaurant H in the 4th: Another flawless, tasty meal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Restaurant H in the 4th is a place where Colette could have a superb lunch and still make it the the Chatelet for the NYC Ballet.  We knew the drill; no-choice menu, 3 dishes for 30 E, over-priced wines (starting at 45 E) and lovely service.  And so it was.

 

amuse-gueules on wafers
- a perfect egg in fluff and girolles
- perfectly cooked veal on a bed of puree and surrounded by scallions
- strawberries with ice cream and whipped cream
- gutsy mignardises

Our bill for three, with a bottle each of sparkling water and wine and three coffees, was 155 E, thus 103.32 E a couple.

 

Restaurant "H" in the 4th: Holds up very well indeed and the word is out.

Restaurant H in the 4th has, as I said last month, a minimalist outside, 3 minimalist no choice "menus," but a pretty unminimalist photo I couldn't avoid with "Super Big Gulp" facing me smack in the eyeballs.

Amuse bouches of creamy stuff on thin wafers were presented on top of broken walnut shells, along with very good bread, house-made butter and a butter knife that sat on its egg-like bottom.

The first course consisted of perfect eggs, potato cubes, cumin mayo and small pieces of mackerel; the main dish featured crispy skinned duck outside/moist inside, with roasted onion on an onion puree with apple sauce and ethereal mashed potatoes; and the dessert was a delicious lighter than air egg white froth with grapefruit icecream, an avocado base and coconut toppings.  We three were very satisfied!

Our bill with a bottle a glass of wine, no bottled water, but 3 coffees was 149 for 3 or 99.33 E a couple.  Darned good from this 28 year old chef Hubert Duchenne who trained with Jean-François Piège and Akrame Benallal.

Restaurant H in the 4th: perfectly sourced, perfectly cooked, perfectly presented, ah, but where's the "soul?"

7.1 Restaurant H, 13 rue Jean-Beausire in the 4th (Metro: Bastille), 01.43.48.80.96, closed Sundays and Mondays, has got to rank up there with the restaurants with the most minimalist façade and signage on the most minimalist unknown street in the 4th.  It just shouts out "Enter and you shall encounter perfection."  And you do.  Like Pierre on Gambey and Spring, etc, yah takes what yah gets, here 3, 5 or 7 (dinner) courses for 30, 50 and 70 E.

We started off with one of those Porte 12 type presentations of specialty chips stuck into a bed of dried beans or such-like with two wines; why you might ask: Because like Jack Spratt & Co., one will drink no red and one no white.

For a first, we had nice warm pieces of lieu jaune with boule d'or (it sure sounded like Bulldog to me) turnips that were superb, albeit not captured by my camera; then a beautiful piece of veal, truly well-sourced and cooked with whole baby carrots and a carrot puree with kumquats, also missed by me; and then one of us had cheese and the other two a divine chocolate-caramel dessert; finishing up with marshmallows.

Our bill was 177 E with one coffee, super bread and funny butter, thus 118 E a couple.

Go back?  I really think this ancient second of Akrame Benallal has got the makings of a great place on his hands but he needs to put his "soul on the plate" as someone puts it.  Everything is perfect and as I have said about other places like it - "too perfect."  How does one do it?  I don't honestly know, but he's got a great start.