John Talbott's Paris

Le Grand Paris at the CAP: Great ideas I'm sure, horribly presented.

Well, I'd seen several TV shows or segments of shows about the plans of a dozen great architects/etc., (Sir Richard Rogers, Jean Nouvel) about what Paris of the future should look like and I felt I should see the actual thing at la Cité de l’architecture & du patrimoine in the Palais de Chaillot (Trocadero).  The project was commissioned by "the" President of the Republic (but as opposed to everything else now going on in France, we cannot blame him for either the suggestions or presentation.)

Well, I found the high boxes of video stuff totally awful and the presentations therein confusing and really not inspiring about the future.  If you compare this display to the way the Pavillon de l'Arsenal or the Pompidou presents architecture you realize that curators do make a difference.

On the Wow Scale: a minus.  Mercifully it closes in three weeks.

 

3.3 Bernard du 15: hitting 330 in baseball is terrific but 1/3 dishes doesn't work.

Bernard du 15 (i.e., 15e or 15ieme), 62, rue des Entrepreneurs in the 15th (duh), 01.40.59.09.27, closed Saturday lunch, Sunday and Monday lunch has crept onto the scene; although it opened over a year ago, it garnered only a few very positive reviews but mostly silence.  Its name has a cute origin, recounted by Margaret Kemp, my colleague at Bonjour Paris, to whit, in her words: “I worked at Thierry Burlot's Le 15, when I left and needed to identify myself with suppliers, I would say, “bonjour this is Bernard from Le 15”, so that's what I've called my restaurant.....”

I went with two of my favorite cyber-critics and we entered in stages, eventually all enjoying a glass of white with great spicy salami.  They have a wealth of options, one chalkboard menu at 17 for three dishes, one printed menu at 30 or was it 34 (ditto) and a la carte from 40-60 Euros.  I'll just relate the final results.

For starters, Madame had 3 soft-boileds with salmon and mushrooms and soldier-bread sticks (boring), I had an artichoke heart salad which was passable and Monsieur had the clear winner - raviolis of shrimp with Ledeuil-like Asian spicy spices (in homage no doubt of said ZKG and KGB's owner's being named Gault-Millau's Chef of the Year this week.)  It was spectacular and sinus-clearing.

Then Madame had the boring pintade with fried potatoes, Monsieur had a boring bar and I had an unfinishable and boring 7-hour lamb cooked to a dryness not seen since pressure cookers were invented.

OK; onto dessert; the highlight of the day.  I had an amazing tiramisu, Mr. great crepes with orange (but not the usual brasserie type) and Mme. had an OK panacotta with strawberries.

So each of us, poaching off the others, could have had a good meal but raised in Post-Great-Depression times, we felt obliged to eat more than we should have (except for my lamb, which I gave up on even after much salt and mixed-peppercorns).

The service: I joked that it was the poor waiter-guy's first day and then Mr. actually asked him, et voila, it was!  As a result he knew how none of the dishes were made or how to add up the bill and had to be called back for utensils and condiments, etc.  But he was a bright shining light, nonetheless.

The bill was picked up by our male host who always says he had a good week but when I asked about the range to communicate to my loyal readers, he indicated that with correct mathematics and less enthusiastic wine-consumption, it would have been about 150 E/3.

Disclosure given above, no comp’d items.

Go?  33%, that’s a culinary hit rate unworthy of any chef.

Politics: An Open Letter to the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden.

Hello over there, it's me, John.

I'm sure you get a lot of advice but this is the straight poop, Quatre Verities Division.

You want the US and NATO and the UN out of Afganistan, right?  OK, here's how.

You lie low for 12 months and everybody will be gone; then you can go back to killing other Muslims, destroying Big Buddhas and resupplying the South Bronx with drugs.

Otherwise, well, who knows, but this will work.

John

Autour de..... in the 15th:Yet another surprise and a pleasant one: an archival* review.

5.0 N* Autour de.…, 397, rue de Vaugirard in the 15th, right near the Porte de Versailles and Convention Center, 01 45 30 18 47, menu 25 € and a la carte around 35 €, is open everyday and has a terrific long “terrace” facing an essentially empty square.

I went because the only person I recall reporting on it, Richard Hesse of Paris Update, was quite positive about the new chef’s productions.

I had a great starter of sautéed chipirons that, with spinach leaves and fried parsley and anise and dressing, was a terrific combo, which mopped up with good bread was terrific.

My main was/were fresh sardines accompanied by asparagus, artichokes and baby tomatoes. I finished with a moelleux of chocolate and salty caramel ice cream – nickel! (And the maitre d’ clearly had read my comment on eGullet last week about the window of time to cook a mi-cuit because he announced it was between 5 and 7 minutes.)

The wines run 4+ a glass, 15.50+ for ½ liter and 19+ € a bottle. The subtitle of the place is “Saveurs de Terroir et Autres Histoires” and it really was.

Only hitch: they screwed up the initial bill and charged me $10 more than they should of (I had the “menu.”) The second bill presented was 48.50 €.

Should one go? If you’re at the Parc des Exhibitions, as I was for the horrendously, awfully big “Foire De Paris,” it’s a better bet than the Restaurant du Marche and nearer than the great Beurre Noisette, so why not?

N* = a place that if one lived nearby in the neighborhood (N) would be a great place to go but gets a lower grade due to the schlep (perhaps unfairly).

*Originally published in May 2007.

Words on Wednesday: the NYRB comes through.

I realize I've already dumped on poor Andy Warhol in April and he's no longer here to defend himself but the article on What is an Andy Warhol in the NYRB seals the lid on the coffin better than I could ever do.

And then there's statement by Steven Weinberg that "A few years ago, I decided that I needed to know more about the history of science, so naturally I volunteered to teach the subject."

Who is around to appreciate this stuff?

Ensor and Art Nouveau at the Orsay: 1st interesting, 2nd great.

 

I've been aching to go the the James Ensor show; I missed it in NYC and tried twice here already but the lines were daunting.  So I was resigned to go after it closed and satisfy myself with the catalog.  But I gave it one last try today and there was zero line at 2 PM (at least the Group W line) and I waltzed in.

The interesting thing for me was that all the photographic publicity has been about the scary, skulls/masks/etc stuff not about his classical impressionist start in 1880-1884.  Surprising to me as well was how poorly he drafted/drew; usually I find artists' drawings to be much better done than their paintings, even with someone like Renoir.

By 1889 (unexplained on the signs) his stuff gets a little nuts and is more like what we or I thought he was his "style."  OK.  Still interesting.

Having gotten into the Museum after three tries, I thought I'd better see show #2 on Art Nouveau, even though I assumed (of course, wrongly) that I'd seen it all before at the Moma/NY in 1959 or Moma/Paris in 1960.  Well, no, I hadn't, like the Tiffany, there was stuff I'd never seen and whether posters or drawings or furniture, I thought it was terrific and the curator, Philippe Thiébaut, deserves a round of applause.

I rant about over-curated shows, I hate to be lectured and told what I'm seeing; here, as the lawyers say - res ipsa locator - it speaks for itself.  I've never smiled or seen folks smile as much since the Claes Oldenburg show a decade ago.

Fun, solid fun.

Go?  Yes - to both - if you can before February 4th.

L'Ogre in the 16th: To know the full range one must touch bottom once in a while.

1-2.0 L'Ogre, 1 ave de Versailles in the 16th, 01.45.27.93.40, closed Saturday noon and Sundays, was described by Philippe Toinard as a "classic bistro" and he gave it 3/5 dots yesterday in A Nous Paris, so I was game for some gutsy food and trekked way out past Radio France to go.  It's in the old Oh Poivrier space which is impressive.

However, there's a difference between gutsy food and the gutless variety; this was the latter.

I entered and was ushered to a very nice table, seated, (the chorizo on the table augered well for a great meal - 1 point) and throughly inspected the chalkboards which clearly showed that meat mains were their thing ("We serve our meat blue, bloody, a point or badly cooked" the sign said - drole). 

But the starters sounded more interesting so I ordered three:

1). A half portion of os a moelle, which was huge, what could a full portion be like? and came out bubbling and steaming with salt crystals on top and to the side.  It was only OK (however, the toasts that came with it and my next course were good, as was the untoasted bread). +1 point.

2). Several slices of what was advertised as sauteed foie gras, but 1/2 of which tasted like genuine unfatty plain old liver, very liver-y indeed, with drizzled threads of something that looked like a Balsamic reduction but tasted like a fruit concoction.  -1 point.

3). Sauteed girolles with said drizzled stuff again that now that I think about it, the chef put on everything.  1/3 of the girolles were cold, 1/3 were tiede and 1/3rd were hot.  Strange - and they tasted strange. -2 points.

At this point, having left 1/2 my girolles, you'd think they'd ask - "C'etait?"  But no, would you like dessert, actually yes, I want the tarte Tatin, the first I've seen on a menu this fall.  After a hurried scurry to the kitchen; desole, we're out. -1 point for dashing risen expectations.

OK a coffee and then the bill.  Coffee OK. 0 points.

Sorry Sir, our card machine no longer works. -1 point.

But would you like another coffee? - Sure! +1 point.

The bill, with a couple glasses of nice bio, unfiltered, etc, wine, wound up to be 38 Euros but I walked out obsessing about what I'd have for dinner, a bad sign.

Final score (I really don't do it this way, but if I did) = pretty bad.

PS The place was packed, hopping, with French and Anglo voices and the service amateurish (in the American sense).

PPS Bathroom was cool with a Lao Lane Xang 2 type hand dryer and when I asked for a business card they pointed to the address and phone # on the addition.

Go?  I suppose if you're going to hear the Emerson String Quartet at Radio France in their spectacular auditorium and need a place to chow before, maybe, but I'd consider the place Pierre45 and I found around the corner first even though it would take some digging in the archives to find it.

 

Christmas in July I understand but in October?

Over the weekend, I heard loud sounds coming from the street and looked out to see city-crews stringing up holiday lights.  Yesterday, on my way out to lunch a kid shouted "Look at the Olloween stuff" and so I ignored the street for the sideshow of lanterns, masks, etc.

Today, there they were though.  When I was young, an unwritten rule was no Christmas stuff til after Santa Claus came down CPW at the end of the Thanksgiving Macy Day Parade.  But I've noticed a creep, from December to November, and now October.  And the French insist we're the money-grubbing capitalists.

 

The Spring/Table d’Eugene/Frenchie Problem.

Maybe two years ago, Le Figaro’s crack gastronomy staff made phone calls to see how far out about 10 well-known restaurants were booked. And to their surprise it was not l’Astrance or Le Cinq but Spring into which it was impossible to get.

I guess I was not surprised because I had been going pretty much from its opening and with 16 covers, I knew success would result in long waits. Did that stop me from raving about it? No.

Indeed my charming ex-co-host on eGullet took me to task in her most diplomatic way and suggested I was going a bit far in my adulation.

Sometime later a nice little place (the Table d’Eugene) opened in my neighborhood (which sorely lacked a fine restaurant or bistro) and the RFC and I went and had a spectacular lunch, which both of us raved about and I been revisiting it every other month or so, having no problem booking, until last month when they said “Sorry, we’re full.” “Full, this is one of the guys who raved about you.” “Sorry sir, that’s the way it is.”

Earlier this week, I was talking to my oldest American friend living in France, ah maybe better to say the American who has been living the longest in France that I know. She said something like “You’ve been taking me to some pretty crummy places lately, pick a good one this time, and you know, my son tried to get into the Table d’Eugene and couldn’t; it’s booked up way in advance.”

So there goes another gem down the road to the impossible.

Finally, there’s Frenchie, again a small, unprepossessing place run by two sweet guys where I was used to calling up the morning I wished to go and reserving. “Unh Unh, no longer,” I was told by yet another friend, “it’s now impossible to get into.”

Now this prompts several thoughts. First, do we in the blogosphere, especially the Anglo-Saxon part of it, hype places up too much and they become so popular it’s impossible for we pioneers to get a table? Maybe, but I think the word will eventually get out even if we hold certain places “in pectore” like the Pope.

That may have worked in Craig Claiborne’s day when he was the only show on earth (and he did indeed have some great places he never revealed publicly) but it wouldn’t hold water today with the Internet. We had a lively discussion on eGullet a few years ago about keeping some places, especially their local ones, secret, but people are basically proud of digging up new finds, and it’s a little bit like stealing a Vermeer, you want to show it to your friends, not bury it in a vault.

And then there’s the attitude of at least two of my best food pals: if Spring or the Table d’Eugene or Frenchie become impossible to get into, there will be the new Spring or the Table d’Eugene or Frenchie soon, given that five places a week open up in Paris. Remember those glorious past meals and move on. To say – KGB – whoops I hear it’s now fully booked.

Finally, the economics of the industry requires that chefs or owners or the bank-loaners move towards higher prices. In the pseudonymous Olivier Morteau’s “Food Business” he says that when he researched the book, now a decade ago, chefs told him it took something like 60 or 70 Euros to put a meal on the table and so anything less than that was a loss. It is no wonder, then, that guys like Thierry Burlot keep bumping their prices up, that when Eric Frechon moved into a Palace hotel from the darkest 19th his prices tripled and only a few souls like the chefs at Le Clocher Periere try to hold their prices down, despite their success, to hold onto their regular customers.

If I visited Paris once a year or every two years, I would do my research and make my reservations six months ahead of time, too, but for me the fun is calling up in the morning and going that day, even after a dazzling review by someone in the print or cyber business.

So, the places I still would try to get into today:

Spring (now in hibernation)

Frenchie
5, rue du Nil, 2nd, (Metro: Sentier)
T:01 40 39 96 19
Closed Sundays, Mondays and Tuesday lunch
Menus: lunch 16 for 2 dishes and 19 € for three - dinner 27 or 33 €.

La Table d'Eugène
18, rue Eugène Sue, 18th (Metro: Jules Joffrin, Chateau Rouge)
T: 01 42 55 61 64
Closed Sundays and Mondays
Lunch menu 10.5-12.5, dinner menu 21-27, a la carte 25-30 €.

Le Clocher Pereire
42, bvd Pereire 17th, (Metro: Pereire )
T: 01.44.40.04.15
Closed Saturdays and Sundays
Lunch menu 17, dinner 29 and 38, a la carte 35-50 €.

Disclosure: Unless otherwise stated, all meals mentioned in this essay were fully paid for by the author.

Jamin (yes, that's not a misprint) in the 16th: Under the House of Savoy not Robuchon.

2.0 Jamin, 32, rue de Longchamp in the 16th, 01.45.53.00.07 is closed Saturday lunches and Sundays and has lunch menus at 26 for two courses and 30 for three, a la carte 50-70 E.  When I saw that it had reopened as a real restaurant not an Caribbean joint, I knew it was for me.

Backstory:  You know it: Robuchon established his reputation here as chef-owner from the late '70's to early '90's, then "retired" from cooking to become a world star.  Jamin went from Robuchon to Ducasse to Del Burgo (I'm sure I'm missing someone in here) and then became La Table de Babette (De Rozières), an Antillian place.  Now it's back to the future with an ex-Savoy head.

My great polyglot polymath friend was free today when my longest friend living in France had hot water problems, a good sign because I wanted a witness to whatever happened.

I immediately knew somethings never change when I saw a voiturier and coat check girl.

The "menu" is 2/2/2 and looks like a bargain, 3 courses a la carte easily climbs into the 70's.  So we made a strategic error (which we made at Del Brugo's Orangerie as well), ordering the same main (our alternative was a fish a la vapeur).  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

There was a harmless enough amuse-bouche of something bland without the bread it needed, which when it showed up was OK.

Then he had a phyllo dough covered goat cheese triangles atop salad and I a cold but runny yolked egg, superb ham, confited onion and a tiny salad as well.  Again, all were harmless.

Both of us had the joue de boeuf which was not, however, having a sauce that was more pot au feu-like than reduced wine, with too many potatoes - but what made it insupportable was its lack of taste without a ton of salt and pepper dumped into and onto it.

Then he had a quite good tiramisu and I gamely tried to make it look like I had at least 1/2 my chocolate tarte.

The clientele - 1/2 older Americans (after being open 10 days) and 1/2 really old French folk in the downstairs room (which was 30% full) but upstairs, the huge spaces were empty.

Our bill with Chat Delanoye, a Bordeaux and no coffee was 83.00 Euros.

Go back?  No way, and no way without incredible work they're getting back the star that came with the Jamin sign that someone stowed away in the basement and reinstalled.

Disclosure: Unless otherwise stated, all meals are fully paid for by the author and are posted within 24 hours.