Jacques Faussat in the 17th is a delightful place to have a last meal before heading off elsewhere.
The chef and his sommelier started us off with glasses of a lovely Chardonnay with amuses, potato and celery puree and pieces of quenelle-like fish in a light sauce.
Our entrees were terrific langoustines and mackerel; our mains sweetbreads and the chef's grandmother's famous flamed fowl (today's fowl was delicious pigeon!); and desserts praline soufflés (wonderful, as before) and cooked pineapple.
Our bill, with the white wine offered, plus a bottle and glass of red, and coffees, was 292E or 146.50E a couple.
Pre: So, what is that above? It's a sketch by Jaime Corzo Lemos of a dish when he was a chef at Flaubert, copied from Sophie Brissaud's article in Food&Sens with permission from her. Sophie has been mentioning the Coup de Tete to me for several months and my association as a soccer nut was to Zinedine Zidane's headbutt of Italy’s Marco Materazzi, which prompted me to go out and buy a shirt which someday I'll make millions from selling on eBay. But no, while it does mean just that: according to Behance it refers to "three things: a head-butt, a spur-of-the-moment impulse, and it is the title of a well known french film from the 60’s [and] This parisian bistro of the same name, imagined by Lorraine Sourdille, incarnates these three meanings to a T.
7.1 Coup de Tete, 107 Rue de Belleville in the 19th, 01.48.03.31.36, closed Sundays and Mondays (Metro: Pyrenees), looks like a million other places in town, but one senses pretty quickly that it's different. The chalkboard, while offering 2 courses at 15.50E has interesting sounding dishes and when the Chef, (ex-Alléno et Rostang), whom I'd also known, he reminded me, at the Verre du Moutarde circa 2013-4 in the 17th, offered to let him do the ordering, all three of us let him rip:
First off we had marbled foie gras with sliced Colombian (he's from Colombia) mangoes; then a pile of tumeric/espilette infused hummus with pomegranate seeds and a squid ink lace; then a corn-husk (unpictured) hollowed out to accommodate two acepas (Colombian tortillas), one with chicken and bananas, the other with guacamole, plantain and cheese; and finally tapioca decorated with mixed fruit and a chocolate dessert.
Our bill, well, ahem, our bill..... it seems that because of the fame of our host, the two bottles of wine, four courses and 3 coffees were offered. But you can do the math: if two courses are 15.50E, a bottle of wine per Le Fooding is 27E and coffees came with it, you're not breaking the bank. Db's = 86.8
Go? Are you kidding? Since I've been using a cane I've had two chefs help me into a car: Jaime Corzo Lemos and Pierre Sang Boyer - now that's service.
Pre: When I read the address of this place - 47 rue Rodier, my heart trembled, in the old Comptoir Canailles space across from the equally loved Orties space? What's up here?
6.6 AT Olive, 47, rue Rodier in the 9th (Metro: Anvers but Bus 85 is better), closed Mondays and Tuesdays, 01.53.20.95.56, advertises itself as serving Mediterranean food and with a name like AT Olive you'd think ("But who am I to think" said Peter Lorre's Ugate in Casablanca) it would be devoted to olive-based food. But no, it's named after its creators - Andrea and Thomas Olive. And, as far as I'm concerned, it's French-French food.
The menu and carte are full of delicious sounding dishes but 3 of us chose to go with just main courses and dessert - to whit - a delicious maigre with a sauce of abundant coques and palourdes and pork belly with a luscious tasting puree of potato (and what else??) for myself and my friend; - then a "caramel obsession" and babamisu au rhum.
Our bill with a bottle of wine my 20 year standing partner in collegial crime wisely chose plus three coffees was 131.50E or 87.66E a couple. Decibels didn't need to be measured the noise level was so pleasant.
Go? Colette says "Yes!"
Pre: March 1st, 2016 I had my first meal at Christophe Saintage's blue-facaded Papillon in the 17th and noticed its next door neighbor, a traiteur called the Garde Manger, almost its mirror image, but in red, run by Laura Portelli, and could not resist buying stuff for dinner there as often as I could. They shared a kitchen and apparently a life and so when one of my best friends and food spotters told me to go to Pique Nique I hesitated. "Wait a minute, I don't want take out bread, cheese and charcuterie." But no...….
7.2 Pique Nique, 14 rue Bertin Poiree in the 1st, 01.40.26.67.19, open 7/7 (Metro: Chatelet; line 1 is 1 block from the restaurant)) is a genuine real restaurant, no fooling, forget the name, but it does have clever menus; you check off what you want like an old-time state fair joint. Three dishes are 28 and four dishes are 38E. And what dishes!
The ladies, being ladies, started off with healthy vegetables - cauliflower and beets, while I tossing caution to the wind, had luscious bulots with just the right spicy aioli.
For main courses, Colette had delicious chicken. She wanted haricot coco but they were out of them. The steamed vegetables needed help. Our friend from the Marais and I had enough confited veal and cabbage and potatoes sarladaises (which calls for only three ingredients - potatoes, garlic and duck fat) to merit doggie bags for dinner.
For dessert we shared the chou of praline and chocolate and the All Citrus, both superb.
Our bill, with a bottle of wine and 3 coffees, was 117E or 78E a couple. dB's = 76.0
Go? You'd be a fool not to. Décor is lovely and the welcome warm. Plus below is their idea of dejeuner.
Pre: So, the jolly head guy, the owner I suppose, asks me "How'd you learn about this place, it's only been open a month?" Oh sez I, on the Internet where I saw it said it featured bistronomic food among friends [thinking but not saying that my buddy who just died coined the expression bistronomique. Plus, the Pave des Fleurs is practically next door and maybe this street is Paris's new culinary fengshui zone.}
7.4 Jtepadi, 9 rue Paul Lelong in the 2nd, 09.53.97.39.91, (Metro: Bourse), closed weekends, when pronounced by real French folks like Sophie Brissaud turns out not to be Jeopardy as Google would lead you to believe but "Je t’ai pas dit", i.e. I didn’t tell you. In any case it has a wonderful looking 2-2-2 menu for 24E but we went for the carte.
The amuses were lovely spicy rillettes on toast fingers and then we both had a wonderful concoction of shrimp tartare on top of shaved cabbage with apple slices. For main dishes Colette went with the scallops with a carrot purée and I had a paleron of beef with a foie gras topping and puréed Jerusalem artichoke. For a finale, Colette wisely chose a brioche perdu.
Our bill, with a bottle of wine (with a screw-top mind you, the French are getting smart about spoilage!) and 2 coffees and fine bread was 119.40€. DB’s were only 79.7 despite it being packed with male banking office types from around this new food Mecca.
Go? You betcha, don't say "Jtepeda!'
Coretta, 151 bis Rue Cardinet in the 17th is one of "the favorites" readers keep plying me for that I've never revealed to anyone else in the universe. Sorry, but the internet doesn't work like that. We entered and were warmly welcomed by husband of the team that makes this place sing - Matthieu Marcant.
We were eating again with Heidi Ellison, who was on a day "off" having written Coretta up before on Paris Update and were more than happy to be treated to some champagne and an amuse of cream cheese wrapped in a slice of rutabaga, if I heard correctly. For an entree I couldn't resist a lobe of foie gras with winter vegetables with a wonderful rich broth. Then my female companions had lieu jaune and I the sweetbreads with the crusty outside and soft inside - both with more February veggies. To top it off we all shared two portions of their caramel brioche - which in chatting with M. Marcant we learned derived from a dessert served by Jean-Georges Vongerichten at the Mercer Kitchen on Spring Street.
Our bill, with a bottle and glass of wine and 3 coffees, was 169E or 112.66 E a couple.
8.0 Pantagruel, 24 rue du Sentier in the 2nd, 01.73.74.77.28, closed Sundays and Mondays (Metro: Grands-Boulevards) appropriately is named after Rabelais' son because almost everything comes in 3 large parts. The chef is one Jason Gouzy, well known for his work at Le Galopin and le Bristol before that.
There were 3 amuse bouches followed by salt-crusted beets with black pepper froth and sliced duck hearts. At this point we knew we were in for a ride.
With the 34E 3-course meal came a choice of two main courses, each with three items under the main ingredients which were maigre or pork: the fish raw with aioli, roasted with a bouillabaisse sauce and with fennel, potato and Raimu sauce (garlic, peppers and crème de brebis) and the pork with mustardy lentils and pickled onions, iced lentils with a coffee foam and grilled pork belly with mustard shoots - Wow!
Dessert was/were rice pudding with caramel beurre sale and kumquat with shiso ice cream.
Our bill, with bottles of wine, still and sparkling water and 3 coffees, was 193E or 96.50E a couple.
Go? Hurry, you've only got 360 days until the Michelin 2021 is published.
5.5 Django, 24 rue Victor Masse in the 9th, 01.74.64.64.84 (Metro: Pigalle) closed Saturday lunch, Sundays and Mondays is said to be located in an old guitar store 20 meters from where Django himself lived. OK. When we entered I asked as usual to be seated at a banquette which turned out not only to be in the dark but unobserveable by the only person on the waitstaff who was covering 50 places in this hot hip place already flooded with young office workers.
The menu is 2-2-2 for 19E which is incredible for this quality of cuisine but...… After a long wait our waitguy finally took our order and replaced a dirty knife. Colette had a perfect egg with cream of mushrooms that was very good but my journalist friend and my leeks vinaigrette were nothing special. Then, after another long wait, all three of us had their version of boeuf bourguignon which was not up to Julia Childs one. To end, after another long wait, we all had very good mini-chocolate cakes.
Our bill, with a bottle and glass of quite acceptable Pinot Noir and 2 coffees, was 97E or 64.66E a couple. DB's 87.4 (the level of 500 aircraft operations).
Go? Not until the owner hires another server or rolls up his sleeves and pitches in rather than chatting up the celebrities..
I was surely born in France of a chef father and food critic mother.
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