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.
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