John Talbott's Paris

Les Fables de la Fontaine: You can go home again, even when it gets a star and is turned over to the loyal lieutenants.

7.0 Les Fables de la Fontaine, 131, rue Saint-Dominique in the 7th, 01 44 18 37 55, closed Sundays and Mondays, was recently taken over by two of Christian Constant’s folk (Sebastien Gravé and David Bottreau) as Laidback reported a month ago.

So as someone, who except for one aberrant meal, has done very well, indeed, there, I had to revisit, this time with a charming guest from one of the Southern states. The décor, etc, is the same, and M. Constant came in at 12h30 in mufti to greet the regulars, check in and chat with the staff. As before, everything is on the ardoise but to my eyes the prices are a bit higher and there (again by me) seemed to be more plain fish.

The amuse gueule was/were a creamy “soup” of parmesan and asparagus and my guest started with what was called a beet gazpacho with shrimp, but was a huge funnel-shaped glass, both echoes of Les Magnolias, with chopped shrimp on the bottom with some mango below it and on top; both were top of the line – but as we glanced at the other tables, they looked to be doing just as well.

Then I had the halibut fixed the same way (asparagus with sauce and a slice of crispy jambon/jamon) as the lieu on the carte but 10 € more; while my dining partner had the bar with jamon/jambon and confited eggplant. Both were worthy of a one-star resto, even though the decor, napery, flowers (lack thereof), etc are not.

My friend finished with a banana mascarpone with black cherries. Both the bread and coffee were pretty good and the wine comes by the glass, 25 or 50 cl carafes or bottle and is reasonably priced – 21 €.

Our bill with two prunes was 117 €.

Should one go? For the one-star quality fish and inventive starters alone.

The New Hot Quarters: the 7th and 19th; an archival* essay and update.

Pudlowski refers to the 7th as a well brought up suburb. Well, it certainly combines tourism, residences and wide expanses. Its monuments include the Eiffel Tower, The Ecole Militaire and Les Invalides and its strolls include the vast fields of the Champs de Mars and Esplanade des Invalides.

Art is tops here with the Orsay, Rodin and Maillol Museums with often siperb temporary exhibitions at the Army Museum and UNESCO. I mourn the closing of the SEITA Museum (that featured Austro-Germanic Art of the Klimt, Kokoschka, Schiele era, that is hardly offset by the opening of the new Museum on the Quai de Branly June 23rd featuring arts from Africa, Asia and the Pacific.

Now to food. If memory serves me correctly, despite the housing stock in the 7th, there were no really great restaurants until Passard came to the Rue de Varenne and opened Arpege in 1986. The next big name to hit the quarter was Christian Constant, about whom I’ve written before, who started a one-man industry with the Violin d’Ingres, Fables of Fontaine, which he very recently turned over to a trusted lieutenant, and most lastly, Café Constant, all a few steps from each other. Then, Bernard Loiseau of Saulieu fame started opening his Tante offshoots, second of which was Tante Marguerite, conveniently near the Assemblee Nationale. But that’s not all that makes the 7th hot. A bit back, Joel Robuchon created his Atelier de Joel Rocuchon in the Montalembert Hotel. The all souffle restaurant, the Cigale, took over the prestigious Recamier space to create Cigale Recamier with a wonderful terrace on a dead end alley. More recently, Au Bon Acceuil’s Jacques Lacipiere begat the reincarnation of Chez les Anges, Pierre Gagniare breathed new life into Gaya Rive Gauche, Stephane Mole, after working years at the original Les Ormes, way out in the 16th breathed new life into the old Bellecoeur space and Rougui Dia did the same at Petrossian 144. In addition, really new places have cropped up, like Cinq Mars and La Ferrandaise and really old places have undergone revivals, like the Restaurant le Club at the Maison des Polytechniciens.

The 19th, unfortunately, has no such history or present glory. Certainly it has great spaces – principally, the revivified old slaughter houses at La Villette now housing exhibition spaces, museums, concert halls and fabulous walking and playground areas as well as the Buttes Chaumont, Baron Haussmann’s quarry turned into a several level park.

But, for reasons unknown to me, it has never participated in the hot new quarter phenomenon. Sure there’s the Boeuf Courone serving up beef and the last of souffled potatoes near La Villette and for 10 years or so Eric Frechon engineered his dazzling and inexpensive eponymous resto a few meters from the Buttes Chaumont into a internationally known phenom, enabling him to move to the highest upscale possible at the Bristol. No, the only participant in the hot new quarter movement in the 19th is the good but quirky wine bar cum resto (on Wednesday-Saturday nights only), the Chapeau Melon.

My favorities among the new places in the 7th and 19th:

Cinq Mars
51 rue de Verneuil, 7th (Metro : Rue du Bac)
T : 01.45.44.69.13, Metro Rue du Bac
Closed Saturday lunch and Sundays
Lunch menu 21,50 €., a la carte 35-50 €.

Petrossian
18 Bd de Latour-Maubourg, 7th (Metro : Latour Maubourg)
T : 01 44 11 32 22
Closed Sundays

Gaya
44 rue du Bac, 7th (Metro : Rue du Bac)
T: 01 45 44 73 73
Closed Sundays
A la carte 55 €.

Café Constant
139, rue St-Dominique, 7th (Metro : Ecole Militaire)
T : 01 47 53 73 34
Closed Sundays
A la carte about 30 €.

Chez les Anges aka Les Anges
54, bd de Latour-Maubourg, 7th (Metro : Latour-Maubourg )
T : 01.47.05.89.86
Closed Saturday lunch and Sundays
Around 45-50 €, a la carte €.

Cigale-Récamier
4 rue Recamier, 7th (Metro: Sevres-Babylone)
T: 01 45 48 87 87
Closed Saturday lunch and Sundays
A la carte about 55 E.

Chapeau Melon
92 rue Rebeval, 19th (Metro : Pyrenees)
T : 01.42.02.68.60
Only open at dinner Wednesdays-Saturdays
Menu 25 €

Update in January 2009.
*Since July, 2006, much has happened in the 7th: Christian Constant opened yet another place Les Cocottes and lowered his Violin menu price, and the following opened as well: l’Agassin, Il Vino, Le Telegraphe and La Folle Avoine. Plus I rediscovered l’Ami Jean.

In the 19th, no such luck.

So my favorites are:

Le Violin d’Ingres
135, rue St-Dominique, 7th (Metro : Ecole Militaire)
T : 01.45.55.15.05
Closed Sundays and Mondays
Lunch menu 45, 60 € dinner, a la carte 60 €.

Les Cocottes de Christian Constant
137, rue St-Dominique, 7th (Metro : Ecole Militaire)
No telephone yet but no reservations either
Open everyday
A la carte about 20-30 €.

l’Agassin
8, rue Malar, 7th, (Metro: Alma Marceau)
T: 01.47.05.18.18
Closed Sundays and Mondays
Lunch menu at 25 and menu carte at dinner for 34 €.

Le Telegraphe
41, rue de Lille, 7th, (Metro: Rue du Bac)
T:01.58.62.10.08
Open everyday for lunch only
Menus at 24.50 and 29.50, a la carte about 50-60 €.

La Folle Avoine
91, rue de Grenelle, 7th, (Metro: Solferino)
T: 01.45.51.02.59
Closed Sundays
Menus: one dish plus 2 drinks for 20; 2 dishes plus one drink for 25; and 3 plus a drink 30 €

l’Ami Jean
27, rue Malar, 7th, (Metro: La our Maubourg)
T:01.47.05.86.89
Closed Sundays and Mondays
Menus 32 + 50 €

La Laiterie Sainte Clotilde in the 7th: Boy, soon I’ll have no more colleagues=friends=food recommenders.

 

1.1 La Laiterie Sainte Clotilde, 64, rue de Bellechasse in the tth, 01.45.51.74.61, closed Sundays {Alexander Lobrano’s website says it’s open then; I forgot to ask}, charging 25-35 € has been favorably reviewed by all the folks I respect. So I went with high hopes.

It’s just up from the Orsay Museum (thus a great possibility for tourists) but is also nearby all the Ministries (of whose ministers, subalterns and lovely looking women in sub-ministerial posts were all at lunch). (The Ste Clotilde comes from the nearby church, in whose chapel I suffered through a freezing and dismal concert one night at Colette’s request many years ago).

In any case, I entered, ready for a good feed. The stuff mentioned in all the reviews was not on the carte (oeufs mayo, raie salad, rabbit in cider, paleron de boeuf, etc) and I ordered the winter salad of endives, blue cheese, pear bits and walnuts rather than the Caesar, mushroom soup (again) or foie gras (again). It was OK.

Then, rather than the lamb chop or beef I had the rascasse with black olives and zucchini flan; sounded good, unh unh, no there, there. I had ½ of the fish and 1/4th of the flan.

To get my 24 € worth, I finished with a chocolate mousse that was fantastic. Is that because I haven’t had one in years, because Colette no longer does it, because I felt cheated/owed/etc? I don’t know but it was a great ending (oh yes, the bread was warm and house made).

With two glasses of bio-natural-unfiltered-etc. Cotes de Ventoux, coffee but not bottled water (the Ministers didn’t either) the bill = 34 €.

Go? Apparently the big boys got something I didn’t.

Les Cocottes in the 7th: Constant’s third offshoot: An archival* review.

5.0 Les Cocottes, 135, rue St Dominique, no telephone but info is supposedly available from Le Violin, open 7/7 (except on Sundays in the summer), from 8:30-22:30. Although I had dropped by June 30th to see if it was open and what it looked like and in the process talked with Mr. C.

I really hadn’t registered some things; for instance it occupies the space of my favorite jarré de porc source – CHARLES traiteur – and thus my guests tomorrow will have to make do with second-rate stuff from Bon Marché. I also hadn’t realized how railway car shaped it was; Emmanuel Rubin calls it a diner French-version, and it is, with tons of seats along the elongated bar and two tables for 4-6 with stools where the room opens a bit.

So envision a long bar with 20 stools on the right, a wall on the left followed by two or three communal tables at the end and himself entering (with no bowing and scraping from the staff) with his two boys, spotting a scooter, a child now eating had parked near the door, mounting it and scooting the entire length of the boxcar, to his kids’ mixed horror and delight and the customers’ mild amusement. The guy does have a touch of the theater in him.

OK to the food. As has been described elsewhere, the Cocottes does everything from breakfast tartines to cocktail tapas, from salads (3) to soups (4), from cocottes to desserts – I counted at least 40 dishes on the ardoise and 2 specials.

The 9 box-wines are 3 per glass, 6 per 25 cl and 12 € for a 50 cl ficelle plus lots of bottles from inexpensive to pricey. Monsieur C himself treated a friend and himself to the one smack in the middle, commenting on it, proving that the former chef at Les Ambassadeurs can find good inexpensive stuff.

In any case I started with a cold ptipois soup with strip of spicy salty chorizo and crème fraiche, then going on to the pigeon with big peas and delicious greens and scallions, finishing with a waffle with Chantilly and salty caramel.

The meal was just as advertised, simple, honest and made from good products. It ain’t starred cooking nor is it meant to be; the place is largely intended for and patronized by locals; only at the end did 6 Anglos and an Asian customer enter.

My bill was 44 €.

Go? One should once, just to see what he can do in these circumstances, but because of the seating, don’t go as a big group.

*Originally published in September 2007.

La Ferme Saint Simon - old but new. An archival* review.

5.5 La Ferme Saint-Simon, 6, rue de Saint-Simon in the 7th, 01.45.48.35.74, changed owner and chef and in September the carte was under the hand of an exMaison du Danemark chef, which may explain the abundant fish, especially salmon. The carte can early run one 40-70 € but they have two lunch deals; one three courses from a forced-choice carte for 36 €, the other two courses from the same carte with a glass of wine for 29.50 €.

Three of us had the latter; one starting with the salmon wrapped around fresh cheese and dill that was pretty good and another the dried beef with marinated cauliflower that was incredibly good. Then all three of us had the cod with a fennel sauce that was quite special, especially the zucchini prepared three ways. (We chose not to try the other choice, the duck confit parmentier because were have confit de canard that evening; the other first, by the way was a lentil soup.)

Finally Madame had the sorbets and ice creams that she loved. The amuse-bouche was a light chilled soup of celery with vegetables and the mignardises were a classic crème caramel and two cookies.

With a bottle of Chardonnay (in addition to our three glasses included in the formula), coffee and Chat. Delanoye our bill was 133.60 € for three.

* Written about September 2007

Should one go? Yes, so long as you’re not over three or are willing to duplicate dishes or order from the pricey carte.

Firmin, le Barbier - And Figaro gave it three hearts, no way, say it ain’t so Joe.

 

3.5 Firmin, le Barbier, 20, rue de Monttessuy in the 7th, 01.45.51.21.55, closed Monday and Tuesdays, lunch formulas at 18 and 23, a la carte 40-50 €, is a place Figaroscope listed first this week in their recs for Sunday lunch, so I was so looking to test it out for Colette’s next visit.

After digging into Figaroscope’s new website, {which, by the way I hate, after their most helpful pdf version, it’s back to 1956’s “Glitter and Be Gay,” which as you’ll remember Bernstein’s wonderful take on Candide intoned - “Here I am in Paris, France, Forced to bend my soul, To a sordid role} and finding it rated 3/5 hearts, unusual for those folks, I bent the souls of two food writer friends to go.

As you approach from the street on the Bon Acceuil side, it looks nothing like a resto, except for the chalkboard, but it certainly is when you enter. We three drifted in at different times, so I ordered a bottle of 17 € Les Baux Provencal red, which wasn’t half-bad.

It took forever for the order to be taken, an eternity for the dishes to arrive and an infinity for the check. Let’s just say that surgery may prepare you for cutting quickly before you have all the facts, but not to run an efficient resto - our patron-chirurgien (recall the sub-name of the place le Barbier) - turned into an obsessive psychiatrist somewhere along the way.

Since most of us were eating out tonight we tried to order conservatively. First, we shared a magnificent fricassee of mushrooms (which are now in full flight) and their level wiped out the long wait for them.

Then one of the experts had a big slice of rare gigot with potatoes that I thought was quite good (the lamb, that is) and Madame had the gigot medium cooked, with incredibly good veggies (asparagus, beans, broccoli and kohlrabi) while I tried the perch nicely browned on the skin but really not much of a much.

Madame then had (and we shared) an opera that was respectable. With a second bottle of wine (a Cotes du Rhone), 3 coffees and no bottled water the check worked out to 68 € for two.

So John, what’s wrong with this picture? Everything sounds fine if not great and reasonably priced?

Well I asked for votes from these grizzled experts, 0-10 being the scale, having written my number down so as not to cheat too much. Madame says 7, then 6, then 5, Monsieur a 5.5 and me a 3.5, averaging out 4.5. Then I ask the killer F. Simon question:

“Will you tell others to come/go?” He answered the equivalent of “if it were across the street maybe.” But in truth, no way.

L'Ami Jean in the 7th - You can go home again - An archival* review

5.5 l’Ami Jean, 27, rue Malar in the 7th, 01.47.05.86.89, closed Sundays and Mondays is a place where I had two disappointing meals after it opened and that would normally be that. But so many people on the France Forum of the eGullet Society of Culinary Arts and Letters, including my charming cohost, have raved about it, that I acted abnormally and went back.

On entering I was struck by how jammed together the tables were and how much it resembled Le Regalade, which is of course is where Stephane Jego came from. The menu, which started below 30 is now 32 for three courses.

I had the timbale of escargots, mushrooms and (?) pied de porc with (?) espelette pepper which came on a hot hot plate but was of varying temperatures within, making it rather interesting. Then the paleron of beef which was huge but like the beef in pot-au-feu, not much to write home about, save for the wonderful vegetable/condiment that had a spicy chard and carrots and the crisp salty bacon that made it a good dish.

I had a dessert described as a tatin of yellow lemon, but it was green and deconstructed, but quite good. The service was so good they poured my carafe of wine into my glass when it needed it.

It being game season, there were ample specials that by themselves approached the price of the menu. The one that looked terrific was a casserole of fowl, pork and foie gras.

Should you go? I think this is an ideal place to send 1st time visitors; good chow, authentic surroundings and nice staff.

*Originally published in October 2007

Pasco in the 7th - I guess all good things come to an end.

2.0 Pasco, 74, blvd de la Tour Maubourg in the 7th, 01.44.18.33.26, open 7/7, formula for 17, two dishes 21 and three for 26 Euros, was in a list of places given by Jean Claude Ribaut in Le Monde that had sidewalk seating (cleverly called the terrace) and were open in summer (and on weekends.)  Somehow I got the idea it had a new chef and indeed the guy cooking didn't look like the guys named on the menu and business card, but.....

The menu looks like that of a million other places but I soldiered on, starting with a half-warm/half-chilly block of eggplant and goat cheese with tangy pistou sauce - OK.  The bread, while looking good and crusty was infra-dig.

Then I had some daurade that had a 5* crusty skin but the fish itself and fresh vapored veggies were 1-2* at best.

My dessert was the highlight of the meal; a canelé with prune and armagnac ice cream - both superb.  I finished with a so-so coffee.

The bill with the menu, 1/2 wine, no water and coffee was 41.50 Euros.

Go? For some crisp fish skin, a canelé and ice cream?

La Clarisse in the 7th - An archival* review

Reaching for a star and….ah….falling 

3.6 La Clarisse, 29, rue Surcouf in the 7th, 01.45.50.11.10, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays is wonderful reincarnation of the nothing place La Gourmandine. It’s beautiful, the staff are terrific and for a top of the line resto in this part of the 7th, with a menu of three courses for 38 and two for 31 €, how could they miss? Plus the chef used to be at the Ferme St Simon and I ate well there.

Well, let me start with the clientele and sound-dampening; the day I was there two American dot-comers, two French buyers of software and one Brit who seemed in the middle, talked non-stop at the top of their voices some 30 feet from me and the acoustics, like in Chartres, enabled their loud conversation to go bingo into my ears (and yes I tried other secluded corners to no avail).

Then let’s go to the wonderfully priced “menu” – very reasonable but only two choices for firsts (eggs with boudin noir vs halfcooked salmon with sliced potatoes on a bed of ratatouille – actually quite tasty); mains (an uninteresting sounding fish dish and a tough pheasant that was also banal and tasteless – a tough combo to achieve); and desserts (an assortment of ice creams or what was described as cooked apples like a tarte tatin – which was nothing of the sort – it was OK, but was in reality a pile of cream/baked apple/what we call a lace cookie at our joint/more baked apple and a ball of caramel ice cream on top).

I can just see taking my foursome here and having them balk at the choices, look at the carte (18 for firsts, 32 for mains and 12 € for desserts) – and never forgive me. The bill for the three-course menu, plus two glasses of red wine and no water or coffee = 54 €.

Should one go? Do you have a full-body cast, live 2 steps away and love poor price-quality places?

* Originally reviewed October 2007

Eating in Company Cantines: The best food in France? An archival* review.

A friend calls: "Wanna have lunch at my work?" Me: "Are you mad? You know how hard I research these places to find the really great but inexpensive French meals while I’m in Paris. No way! Jeez."

Big mistake.

I used to think that anything but a restaurant meal was to be avoided at all cost, especially in Paris. Oh yah, I remember being fed pretty well at some brokerage firms and the New York Times in New York, or men’s clubs in London, but the idea of sitting down in Paris in a company dining room was not my idea of haute cuisine.

Then a friend invited me to "Soc Gen," Société Générale, for lunch. I schlepped out to La Defense, murmuring under my breath and sat down, pre-occupied with our conversation and the big-shots around us. After a few bites, however, I found myself muttering "This is pretty good stuff." He said, "Of course, you think these big guys are going to eat slop. There’s no where to eat out here to boot." The meal passed. I was delighted. I left thinking I’d be back soon. P.S. He was transferred to London soon afterwards and that was that.

But it altered my receptivity to such opportunities. And, when another friend called to invite me to the American Embassy, I accepted but thought, "Do I really want American food in Paris?" Because the last time I’d been there was years before, when every expat in Paris it seemed was invited to the July 4th Garden Party and it was Americans eating American finger food and drinking American drinks and beer. Anyway, we (my wife Colette and I) arrived at the Embassy and after a tough inspection to pass security, even then, long before 9/11, the receptionist called our friend. "Where do you want to eat, she said, the Fast Food place, the American restaurant (where each dish was labeled Virginia ham, Colorado beef, New Jersey eggs, etc) or the elegant French restaurant. Easy choice. And good choice. It too was terrific.

So at that point, even when another friend invited me for dinner at the restaurant run by students at the Cooking School at the Chambre du Commerce, and these were men and women were destined to man humble stations in plain places in France, not at Michelin-starred restos, I accepted. I’ve not had a lot of experience eating at the cooking schools in Paris, but from my meals at the Culinary Institute of America and French Culinary Institute in New York and Luigi Buitoni’s place in Paciano near Perugia, what the students and you fix, is often terrific.

Finally, another cantine, which is of a slightly different stripe. The restaurant of the Ecole Polytechnique is right near the Musee d’Orsay but a million miles away from any tourist. As you know, the School, fondly called the "X," was founded in 1794 and is one of the Grands Ecoles, which, with the ENA (Ecole Nationale d'Administration), was established to train leaders in France. It has a residence on the rue de Poitiers, where since 1930, graduates from the hinterland stay when in Paris and it has a restaurant open to the public. And like the big shots at Soc Gen, the political bigwigs at the "X" don’t want shabby food either. I happen to be a crazed follower of French politics and so to sit there in this elegant setting and watch political leaders of the left, far left, far far left and right mingle and appear and disappear into private rooms while eating fine food was heaven. Visitors should be warned that it’s a bit intimidating to walk into what seems like a hotel particulaire, and it is, I suppose, but it’s well worth the speeded-up heart rate.

Moral: The next time a friend calls and asks "Wanna have lunch at my work?" the answer should be instantaneous. Even a visit to an Emerald Restaurant (those cantines serving us folks in the third age, etc), could be a revelation.

My favorite public place is:

Restaurant le Club Maison des Polytechniciens                                                                                 12 rue de Poitiers, 7th (Metro: Solferino)                                                                                              T: 01.49.54.74.74                                                                                                                             Closed Weekends                                                                                                                                      A la Carte 60€

*Originally published in January 2006.