John Talbott's Paris

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

Cheapskate.....inexpensive Wine in the Wall Street Journal

In the Thursday, July 31st Wall Street Journal, Larry Light in "Cheapskate" had an article entitled "Cultivating a Taste For Inexpensive Wine" in which he mentioned:

- ordering the cheapest (after ordering the second) cheapest wine

- wine snobbery with all the terminology associated with it

- research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showing that subjects preferred the wine labeled more expensive over the same wine billed as "cheap"

- a 2003 study by the Oenomony Society of the US showing 80% of subjects can't distinguish been the best (reserve) bottles and regular version of the same wine

- but that there is a difference between jug and fine wine.

Sound familiar?  Many of the same points were made in my June 11th essay "Wine, whining and Me."

What to do when you are unsure where to eat?

I wrote before about finding out if places were still in business. In this essay I explore what to do if you don’t know where to eat.

Most of us who are food-obsessed spend much too much time researching restaurants and restaurant options whether we’re eating a few blocks from home or in the middle of La France Profond. Thus, before leaving home we have a pretty good idea of where we’re going (and have reserved, as I wrote of last week).

But (as I also explored in the Fable of the Lion and the Squirrel) sometimes despite all our well-laid plans, kitchens break down, gas pipes burst, the water is cut off and chefs get in vehicular accidents. What do you do then?

From a purely unscientific point of view, watching a normal person find a place to eat, this is what I think happens:

1. He/she looks for something familiar – whether it’s McDo’s or Maitre Kanter – because it delivers predictable food for rock-bottom prices.

2. He/she walks up and down tourist areas looking at the menus posted outside (for what? I’ve never figured out).

3. He/she asks the hotel staff, which unless it’s a Parisian palace hotel concierge, is akin to asking a clochard where to get a fancy cocktail.

4. He/she trusts that the deity will look out for them.

The abnormal person, however, preoccupied with food, has already performed a Clintonian (as in William Jefferson) triangulation among:

5. The guidebooks (Michelin in the provinces, Gault-Millau, Pudlo and Gantie [in the South]).

6. The websites and blogs.

7. Google.

8. The guy (and it’s usually a guy) at the local newspaper (and it’s often not the restaurant critic) who responds when you call and ask the operator/receptionist (if there are any left) to pass your call on to the “food guy.”

And except for the rare culinary desert, one manages fine.

These thoughts were prompted way out in Troyes after not getting into:
Le Valentino
35 rue Paillot de Montabert
T: 03.25.73.14.14
Closed Saturday lunch, Sunday dinner and Mondays
Menus 25-45 €

Reviews of reviews - The Week of July 21st, 2008

The Week of July 21st, 2008

In Monday's Le Fooding Andrea Petrini wrote up Espace Le Bec a 200 seat brasserie at the St Exupery airport near Lyon.

Wednesday, in Paris Update, Richard Hesse reviewed Agapé, noting that Francois Simon thot it hubritic and unadventuresome {and I agreed} but that he liked the named products and wine as well as the food despite the steep prices.

Wednesday-Thursday, Jean Claude Ribault in Le Monde wrote about oysters and places in Brittany noting that good tables are rare but mentioning le Moulin de Rosmadec, Sur le Pont + L'Amphitryon.

Saturday/Sunday, in Bonjour Paris, Margaret Kemp had a piece on the Italianate Bellagio & Clipper, the yacht, and John Talbott one on “Why I could never be a real food critic.”

Weekend Culture in NY; Turner, Stone, Dali, Guston and Marie Antoinette:Plus Roberto Passon & Jean-Georges

Showing now in New York City are several art exhibitions that have broad appeal and some even have some French twists as does the one play we saw at the St Luke’s Theater.

My principal target this weekend was to see the 140 or so J.M.W. Turner paintings and watercolors at the Met, largely from the Tate. While I thought I’d seen almost all the Turner I could ever have wanted to, especially since the “Turner wing” at the Tate opened, I expected no surprises and indeed, there were none. But, once again, I was pleasantly reminded of how luminous he made most paintings seem and how brilliant a watercolorist he was. It’s open until September 21st.

On rather a whim, I dropped by the show of “hard stone,” formally called the “Art of the Royal Court: Treasures in Pietre Dure from the Palaces of Europe.” Wow! What an eye-opener; I was dazzled by the spectacular colors, fine condition and eclectic use of polished hard stones, especially in the furniture - which was truly amazing. It also runs til September 21st.

After that, I had little need for more razzle or dazzle but obligation (and use of my $60 yearly MOMA membership) prompted a visit to the MOMA. As with Turner, I thought I’d been around the block enough with Dali to not be surprised by anything but expected lately to see old friends and admire old acquaintances. And indeed, that was generally the case, except for the films. Despite the shows subtitle “Dali: Painting and Film“ I didn’t expect to see what he’d done with Luis Brunel and Alfred Hitchcock and most unexpected of all – Walt Disney. As opposed to his surrealist paintings, the films to me seemed dreamlike and the symbolism totally unlike that which he portrayed in the paint medium – where the melting watches, charging jousters are bleak deserts are now cliches. I never will think of Dali again as a showy, self-promoting trickster but a hard-working and intense-thinking pan-artist.

My final show was the Philip Guston drawings at the Morgan, something I’d been eager to see since I learned they were coming this summer. I was profoundly disappointed: they had none of what I associate with Guston – that is gutsy, bold and startling works; instead they all seemed like sketches/ideas for fuller painted works.

Roberto Passon is a place Colette and I first ate at shortly after it opened and we’d wanted to go back. Our meal was altogether good with two hitches; first, I am simply not used to regular American-sized portions and both our starters – sautéed spinach and a beet salad and mains – bass and osso bucco; we could have easily gotten by with one shared starter and one shared ½ pasta portion. Second, the osso bucco special was almost double ($32) the price of the osso bucco pasta which came as an unwelcome shock since we had not been forewarned about its and other specials prices. Our bill, with wine, no bottled water, coffee or dessert was $110 before tip. (In retrospect, our luncheon meal at Jean-Georges was better in quality, portion size and price-quality, excepting the wine exploitation, and for almost the same final bill per couple, we left happier.)

Rounding out a weekend of culture was an evening performance of “Marie-Antoinette: The Color of Flesh” at St Luke’s, about the real queen, the real artist (le Brun) who painted her numerous times and the realistic Count Alexis de Ligne. The NYT loved this, its 4th or 5th production, even though it only opened last April elsewhere off-Broadway, and the actors and acting were wonderful. But I found the mixture of history, speculation on sex and intimacy, and references about war, America and mutilation (Iraq, get it audience!) made it everl-long and inconsistent. At its highest points, it’s quite good, however at its lowest ones, it’s very bad. My favorite was when “Toinette” cried out “I wish I were dead.” I was very tempted to stand up and answer, “Soon enough my dear, soon enough.”

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.

Thierry Burlot aka Le Quinze - two visits from the archives*

Thierry Burlot , 8 Rue Nicolas Charlet, 15^th (Metro: Pasteur), T: 01.42.19.08.59. is closed Saturday lunch and Sunday and has a menu-carte at 35 €.

 

Our most recent visits were :

 

*July 2005

We ate at Thierry Burlot Friday and 1. It's terrific, 2. It's in the ex-Detourbe space and 3. It's nicely priced.....

 

*December 2007

Thierry Burlot has not only bumped up the prices (again) and is "out of" the reasonably priced wines still listed on the wine list, but the decor looks really shabby, so much so that I wrote an essay for Bonjour Paris recently wondering if he was really in trouble.

Reviews of reviews - The Week of July 14th, 2008

In Tuesday's Le Fooding Julia Sammut wrote up La Boite a Sardines in Marseille.

Wednesday, in Paris Update, Richard Hesse reviewed La Cagouille, noting that he liked and would recommend the food but found the service “over-brisk.”

Wednesday-Thursday, Jean Claude Ribault in Le Monde wrote about places in Provence interieure that included: Balthazar + Jeroboam in Montélimar, Le Prieuré in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, La Bonne Etape in Chateau-Arnoux-Saint-Auban, Auberge du Teillon in La Garde, Hostellerie des Gorges de Pennafort in Callas, Lou Cigalon in Valbonne and La Cave + La Table du Chef in Cannes.

In Saturday/Sunday’s Figaro Francois Simon wrote a piece on preparing spider crabs and their serving at Laurent available only in pdf.

Saturday/Sunday, in Bonjour Paris, Margaret Kemp had a piece on the Summer Garden at the Bristol.

Sunday Seth Sherwood in the NYT recommended the following in Toulouse: Le Colombier, Bicoq’ + Le Genty Magre.

Pierre Bayard's How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read.

Pierre Bayard, How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read, Bloomsbury, 2007, NY

Great title eh? “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read.” Unfortunately it’s a one line gag and one line book.

Albeit written by a French psychoanalyst who teaches literature at Paris 7th and covering examples as diverse as Hamlet to “Groundhog Day,” it remains a one line book.

I did learn that Graham Greene's Rollo Martins became Orson Wells' Holly Martins in the "Third Man," however, which demonstrated that Bayard actually read that book.

If I were clever enough, I’d find a way to end with a comment about how I too have talked about a book I hardly read, but I cannot figure out how.

The New Hot Quarters: the 1st and 13th - An archival essay* and update**

The first arrondissement is probably the one that is most familiar to Americans visiting Paris for one reason; it’s where the Louvre, number one visitors’ destination, lies. Oh sure, the Louvre des Antiquaires, Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Musee de la Publicite, Musee de la Mode et du Textile, Jeu de Pomme, Orangerie and Pavillion des Arts are also nearby within the first, but it’s the Louvre most of us head to straight off.

Aside from the great museum(s), the Tuileries with their relatively new sculpture installations and the Garden of the Palais Royal, which frequently hosts temporary sculpture exhibitions, offer us a chance to mix art, architecture and greenery. And, I would guess, that for pure walking and gawking, the Place Vendome, Place de la Concorde (technically in the 8th) and Rue de Rivoli are the most popular destinations.

The first is also home to the shops that cater to a cook’s every need; from copper pans (E. Dehillerin) to wild and tame serving plates (A. Simon, actually across the street in the 2nd) to ordinary cooking utensils (Bovida and Mora).

Ah ha, but what about food? Well, as I’ve noted before (In “Eating in or near Museums”) the Louvre has both the Café Marly and a food court; the former best known for its wicked brownie and the latter for the convenience, ability to get in an out quickly, and variety of fast, but fast French, food. But the first is also where some grand restaurants are sited; notably le Meurice, l’Espadon in the Ritz, le Carre des Feuillants and the Grand Vefour. But these are destination restaurants, and I’ve found that my friends want to spend the day in the Louvre, making quick business of lunch and want to have grand, languid dinners. So I’ve developed a list of places that are good for lunch, where I’ll eat happily, but which don’t consume the afternoon or your wallet.

If you need quick, head up towards the Marche St Honore, where wonderful oysters accompanied by brisk white wine and the sound of sea-gulls can be had at the l’Ecume St-Honore on the Rue de Marche St Honore – and right across the street is pig heaven, the pork-dispensing Au Petit Theatre – and finally, in the Marche St Honore square itself – there’s Le Point Bar, a first rate place run by Alice Bardet of the famous Tours family and a place my wife Colette loves for a light lunch of what she calls “Girls’ Food” - Rouge. Even closer to the Louvre and Palais Royal is a new place, A Casa Luna (aka Casaluna) serving wonderful Pyrenees-focused food. A top-notch place not far away is Pinxo, but I have trouble getting folks to go there because its atmosphere is hardly old France (it’s in the recently renovated Plaza Vendome Hotel) and the food is more like that of Alice Waters than Geirge Auguste Escoffier. Finally, a place I love for its food and days open (Tuesday-Sunday), is l’Ardoise.

What about the most famous foodie place in the first – La Tour de Montlhery aka Chez Denise? Well, sadly I’ve never been blown away by it, despite the buzz on the internet from aficionados.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ok, now we make a 180º turn to the 13th (I’m doing this gymnastic manoeuvre in order to squeeze 20 arrondissements into 12 monthly summaries.)

Art: not much here unless you count the Bibliothèque Nationale Mitterand which has special exhibits and the six galleries in back of the B. N. that Jeff Rian on ArtNet (http://www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/reviews/paris-rian/newart.asp) said had relocated in 1997 from the Marais: the Air de Paris, Jennifer Flay, ARPS, Emmanuel Perrotin, Art Concept and Bruno Delavallade. For tourist sights, there’s really only the Gobelin Factory (Les Manufactures Nationales des Gobelins) where group visits can be scheduled (usually in French.)

Food is pretty much as spare as the culture too. Oh, there’s Chinatown, one of the biggest bargain restos in the city – l’Avant Gout, an old classic bistrot Le Temps des Cerises and two upscale/up-priced bistro-restos – Le Petit Marguery and Le Terroir but the closest one comes to blow-out food is L’Ourcine, run by an ex-chef of Yves Camdeborde’s while he was still at Le Regalade. But things may be changing, on the Butte aux Cailles a new wine bar serving excellent bio-natural-etc wines – Le Tandem – recently opened and I thought it was quite acceptable.

So, as usual, here are my favorites in the 1st and 13th:

Le Meurice
228 rue de Rivoli, 1st (Metro: Tuileries)
T : 01.44.58.10.50
Closed Saturday lunch and Sundays
Menus: 68 € lunch, 170 € dinner. A la carte 250 €.

L'Ecume Saint-Honore
6 rue du Marche Saint Honore, 1st (Metro: Tuileries)
T : 01.42.61..93.87
Open Tuesday through Friday 8:30 A.M. to 2 P.M. and 4 to 7:30 P.M.; Saturday from 8:30 A.M. to 7:30 P.M.; Sunday from 9 A.M. to 1 P.M.
Cost depends on the number and size of oysters.

Au Petit Theatre
15 place du Marche Saint-Honore, 1st (Metro: Tuileries)
T : 01.42.61.00.93
Closed Sunday and Monday
Lunch menu 18 & 22.50 €, at dinner 28 €, a la carte 50 €.

Le Point Bar
40 place du Marche Saint-Honore, 1st (Metro: Tuileries, Pyramides)
T : 01.42.61.76.28
Closed Sunday and Monday
Lunch menus 15 & 25 €, a la carte 35-55 €.

A Casa Luna aka Casaluna
6 rue de Beaujolais, 1st (Metro : Palais Royale, Pyramides)
T : 01.42.60.05.11
Closed Sundays
Menus 25 & 60 €, a la carte 35 €.

Rouge
34 place du marché Saint Honoré, 1st (Metro: Tuileries, Pyramides)
T : 01.42.61.16.09
Open every day.
A la carte 25-35 €.

Pinxo
9 rue d'Alger, 1st (Metro: Tuileries)
T : 01.40.20.72.00
Open every day
A la carte - 55 €.

L’Ardoise
28 rue du Mont-Thabor, 1st (Metro: Concorde)
T : 01.42.96.28.18
Closed Monday and Tuesday.
Menu: 30 €.

Le Terroir
11 boulevard Arago, 13th (Metro: Gobelins)
T : 01.47.07.36.99
Closed Saturdays and Sundays
A la carte: 50 €.

L’Ourcine
92 rue Broca, 13th (Metro: Gobelins)
T : 01.47.07.13.65
Closed Sundays
Menus: 19.50 € (lunch), 29 € (dinner).

Le Tandem
10 rue Butte aux Cailles, 13th (Metro: Place d’Italie)
T : 01.45.80.38.69
Closed Sundays
A la carte 35 €.

*Originally published in January 2006.
**Update: Both areas have seen an influx of new places, the 1st got Les Fines Gueules, Pierre au Palais Royale, the reborn Pharamond, Le Café Very and Quai-Quai and the 13th, for me new the Petit Pascal, l’Opportune, Lao Lane Xang 2 and the revamped Petit Marguery, but of them I’d really only tout:

Les Fines Gueules
43, rue Croix des Petits Champs in the 1st, (Metro: Les Halles)
T:01.42.61.35.41,
Open everyday
Cost 40-60 E depending on the wine.

Quai Quai
74 quai des Orfèvres, 1st (Metro : Pont Neuf)
T :01 46 33 69 75
Closed Sunday and Mondays
Lunch formula 17, menu 35 €

Lao Lane Xang 2
102, Ave d’Ivry, 13th
T: 01 58 89 00 00
Closed Wednesdays
Lunch menu 10,80 €, 20–25 € à la carte