7.0 Le Grand Pan, 20, rue Rosenwald in the 15th, 01.42.50.02.50, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays is to hell and gone, for me anyway, on a street that is nondescript quinzieme nada.
The famous Muss’Bar was taken over by Christian Etchebest and his second, Benoit Gauthier, who looks about 10 years old (I know, I’m really getting older) a few weeks ago and already has notched 3 hearts and 4 blocks; it’s clearly hot; I reserved two days ahead and they asked for my phone number.
t’s small (40 covers max, including the bar); very welcoming; all no-smoking and all French, and has lots of regular dishes (3 fish, several meats) plus 4 plats for 2 (beef, veal and pork), firsts and desserts (from light melon soup to a big éclair).
My downstairs neighbor and I agreed to split the interesting-sounding stuff: so she started with a millefeuille of veggies draped with crisp belly bacon and accompanied by a pesto sauce and I the absolutely spectacular coques and mussels sitting atop a cold (perfect on this hot, humid day) platform of eggplant caviar.
Then she had the daurade (whose skin was crisply crunchy) with a side sauce of intense tomato and maybe pepper – pretty damn good, while I had what said it was pork cheeks in red wine but looked and tasted more like a splendid beef or veal stew and fell apart on touch and was draped with foie gras with a tasty polenta (my guest announced it the best of her lifetime) side.
We were unable to finish the sides nor order dessert but I’ll guess they’d be as good; they were huge and good-looking passing by. The bread and coffee were good, it has a bathroom where the lights turn on automatically and they have paper towels rather than that annoying blower.
Bio wines start at about 13 E for a liter and our Chinon was just fine.
Our bill = 55 €.
Go? We’re taking our best French friend/colleagues there in three weeks exactly.
*Originally published in June 2007.
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