John Talbott's Paris

Le Severo in the 14th: There'll always be an England (Whoops, France), for Beef.

5.4 Le Severo, 8, rue des Plantes in the 14th, (Metro: Mouton-Duvernet), 01.45.40.40.91, closed Saturday night and Sundays, is the place to go for (French, Desnoyers, rather than Brit, Angus) beef, esp. the Côte.  Today, date of the too-much over-hyped Brit-Royal wedding, to which I wasn't invited, rumor has it because the German House of Windsor bunch running the spectacles these days still nurses a grudge against the loyal followers of William (Guillaume le Conquérant), of whom the Talbots/Talbotts were worthy Norman supporters in his successful attempt to overthrow the mistress-loving Harold Godwinson, aka Harold II.  
In any case, Paga and I need beef today and we got it from the source, once again.  And betcha dinna know where the name of the resto Severo came from: I learned from a local that a Spanish pilot crashed his flying-thing into/onto the Ave de Maine and I Googled it and got an article shockingly titled "M. SEVERO'S AWFUL FATE; One of the Most Shocking Balloon Accidents Known." but then the NYT failed me, saying simply that "The first paragraph is not available for this article."  However....on further exploration it turns out that said Sr. Auguste Severo on May 12th, 1902, did indeed have a grave accident around here.

Severo/Desnoyer's beef is not for the faint of heart or wallet, running one 80 E for two - but it is the Gold Standard and the method of making the frites should be required reading for the chefs at the other 39,999 restos in the ville.  We had ours saignant, not my prefered blue, but I was calm about it and it was darn good.

P. really wanted more strawberries (I've been gorging on them from Spain on) and while I resisted at first - it turned out that the berry/puree combo was pretty much best of show of the month.

Our bill?, you doan wanna know, but with the côte, strawberries, bottle of wine and two coffees one can escape only 114 E poorer - of course with the dollar falling by the second, buyer beware.

Le Petit Colbert in the 2nd: not quite the hit it was last month.

I promise my readers I'll revise my opinions if meals subsequent to the first one are better or worse; so here goes.  Last month my chef-pal and I had a great lunch here, better than l'Ami Louis and 1/4 the price; today it was wonderful for my two London/NYC friends (who are predisposed to love it since they adore the Grand Colbert) but I was not on Cloud 9.  Why?

Well, certainly the place hasn't changed in a month; and my friends who are exquisitely sensitive to waiterly-finesse of lack thereof, thought the staff, from the senior guy from the GC on down, were super-friendly.

And the food offerings are just as comforty, the prices of food and wine (which comes by the glass, carafe and bottle) just as affordable and the specials just as plentiful.  Now it didn't dazzle for me (not them mind you.)

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

M. and I started with the 22 E "menu" and both had the langoustines terrine with salad; just fine.  Madame had only 34 E's worth of Fine de Claire No. 2 that she deemed both great and easily lifted from their moorings.  Then he and I went on to the confit de canard, which I'd loved March 21st, but this time found not as crisp-skinned nor inside-tasty - the potatoes were judged by M. to be great but last time and this I found them neither garlicky nor crisp enough.  We all split the baba for dessert - standard at best.

Our bill with the moral equivalent of a 1/2 bottle of wine apiece and no bottled water and two coffees = 127 E or 84.66 E for a couple.

Akrame in the 16th: Incredible, great, best use of mango.

 
6.1 Akrame, 19, rue Lauriston in the 16th, 01.40.67.11.16, (Metro: CdeG/Etoile), closed Sundays, costs 25 and 35 for weekday lunches of 2 or 3 courses and 45 (4 plates) and 65 E (6) at dinner.

Backstory: The chef originally cooked in Tours, where he was proclaimed a "talent of tomorrow."  He moved to Paris last year.  January 6th I wrote about his new place, Konfidential in the hotel of the same name - "Go?  The chef, Akame Benallel, is indeed talented and his training chez Gagnaire & Adria impressive, and I'd ordinarily say, yes, if you live near there, but considering the competition, [Spring, Regalade St Honore, Chez Adrienne, etc.] I think I would be lured  elsewhere, even to the Spring Boutique's popote....  But if he were to wrest himself free from this haute-gamme site and follow the pseudonymous Olivier Morteau's formula for success, to “go to a culinary wasteland, cook inventively and charge more reasonable prices”, I think we'd be back in a flash.

Well, he took my advice (just kidding, I'm not that influential) and here he is a few months later with the same surprise/market menu of the moment, no choices, take it or leave it.

 
The first course (after a dry cracker with fish eggs amuse gueule) was incredible; cod with some sort of dusting and a tomato/something puree on top of which sat a succulent sliced tomato.

The main course was a faux filet of beef with a sweet potato puree, a tiny smear of burnt peanuts and small potatoes cooked in butter with unburnt peanut shards.  Also great.

The dessert was/were one of the best uses of mango I've ever had, plus fromage blanc and some lime ice cream.

With their own bottled water, a bottle of wine, two Vielle Prunes and three Nespressos, our bill for three was 171.50 E (or 114.33 E a couple) but, but, but, when I come with Colette we'll dispense with the outrageously priced 6 E self-bottled CRYO water and the digestif, and we'll get out for a bit closer to the magic number.

Go?  Despite the tattoo'd women photos on the walls, I'd strongly urge you to.

Oh and in a hasty attempt to snap a snap of his Tours restaurant truck, this is what resulted.

 

FAQ: Are we (food/restaurant bloggers/critics/writers) corruptible? A. Of course. No need to read on.

For those of my readers who don’t live in France and my handy-dandy sitemeter report says that only 35% of you do (I even have or had one loyalist from Kazakhstan), so it shows how people have nothing better to do with their time than read weird blogs.

Anyway, as I was leaving the restaurant we we’re eating at, on the day that this was written, my cherished poly-glot, poly-math friend made a reservation for next week and they wrote down his name, March X, Y o’clock; except instead of his name they wrote down mine..

My reaction on hearing and later seeing this notation was to be extremely flattered, especially when the chef asked me how the meal was and said he was appreciative of the clientele my blog steered his way. Wow. BTW: the place was packed, whereas our first two times, few tables were occupied.

My free associative mind immediately pulled up the 25 year old French cultural mag The InRockuptibles as a reference point. No mind that it’s a play on the title of the American TV series “The Untouchables,” about Eliot Ness et al, to me it implies incorruptible.

And I thought back on the meal. I was greeted very, very warmly by Madam, we were treated very, very well and despite a confused order for dessert – it was delivered in very, very record time – “no problem.” Then the chef says all these nice things in French and English. Corrupted? For sure.

And I thought back on the last week.

Monday, plans crashed for a meal at a place that had been open Mondays but changed directions without telling me – me? And we bailed out at a great place (usually full) a few subway stops away and I went in hat in hand, excuses rehearsed, full-tug on the forelock – “no problem M. Talbott, good to see you.” Comp’d three dishes as well.

Another day I was accountably late for lunch and it was again – “no problem.”

Yet another day, I’m sure the place was pretty fully booked when I got around to calling – “no problem.”

So here we are dealing with (just in one week):
- Special attention
- Special (free) dishes
- Special treatment of one’s friends
- Special favors
- Special recognition.

Now, Francois Simon, who goes (like I do) more or less incognito the first time he visits a place (I hate storing all those Gael Greenesque wigs and hats on my coat rack and cannot remember my elder dead-brother’s name when it’s time to reserve) says if one is known one gets the best 5 or 6 langoustines and the ordinary citizens get the mushy frozen ones but I’m not so certain.

I think when a kitchen is clicking as a top kitchen should, these guys (and they’re usually guys) are cranking out the stuff and no one says – “oh, give that nice quail to M. Talbott and the unsmelly bar to his wife.”

I’ll cite a restaurant I’m not talking about above, because he comps no one and treats no one differently – even the jerks ordering weird dietary things – Daniel Rose’s Spring. You can watch the guys and one gal (Marie) here work; cutting stuff up, prepping, cooking, platting, serving – it’s a high-class assembly line. No one, not the Minister of the Treasury, famous actress, wannabee cyberwiz or reporter drudge gets the best 5 or 6 langoustines, I assure you. There’s no time, no stupid gestures; this is work, hard work.

Therefore, am I not holding two opposing concepts at the same time (it’s called cognitive dissonance among the chattering classes) – that we are corruptible and that we are not.

Well, sort of.

The first time, I try to be incognito, blend in, not talk to the chef or front person, ask questions, etc. Then I speed home to write the place up.

If I don’t like it, I get negative comments, not like some of my pals who get really hateful hate-mail but often testy stuff along the lines of “this is my favorite place in the ‘nabe, how could you?, you ordered the wrong things, you went the wrong day, the wrong time, etc, etc.”

If I like it, though, I go back with friends and Colette and family and the fawning and such-like impresses them (and me) but doesn’t cause me to revise the original review (unless a place crashes, or sends its prices into the stratosphere or deceives customers) in which case I do issue an update.

So, “Am I corruptible, venal, bought easily, delivered on subsequent visits?” Certainly, but you and I can always go back to Review #1.

David Brooks, that wise sociologist in conservative’s clothing, quoted Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov, of Princeton, who “found that we make judgments about a person’s trustworthiness, competence, aggressiveness, and likability within the first tenth of a second.” And I think most of us figure out restos this quickly as well.

Le Cafe des Musees in the 3rd: The "Ideal" Bistrot? Pretty close.

6.5 Le Café des Musees, 49, rue de Turenne in the 3rd, 01.42.72.96.17, open everyday, is a place that I reviewed after it opened/changed chefs/management/whatever in September 2005 and said that the "best single dish of this binge of new restos [that month] – [was] a filet of duckling (good tender product, cooked to perfection) with an onion compote, fabulous white beans and veggies the Chino brothers would have been proud of."

Since then, people I respect kept mentioning it:
- David Lebovitz in 2007
- Heidi Ellison in 2008
- Alexander Lobrano in 2009
- Barbra Austin, Caroline Mignot and Francois Simon in 2010 and to top it off
- the Figaroscope's "Ideal Bistro" article this week.

 
Why hadn't I been back?  Who knows?  But my friend Paga last night said 'How about it?"  "OK."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had been raving about my conversion from a warm white asparagus hater (in France) to being a cold white asparagus lover (in Spain)  and so he ordered it; pas mal; but my mushrooms stuffed with snails with their parsley/garlic sauce were even better.

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then recalling how well the chef did flying things 7 years ago I was determined to have the pigeonneau with veggies, which Madame Elan also chose, superb; and Paga's souris of lamb was almost as good.

The dessert we shared was described as chocolate with Chantilly - heavenly, truly celestial.

With wine and assorted after-dinner stuff (his in honor of Charles Manson), no bottled water but three coffees, our bill was 126 E; thus 84 E a couple (just about what I paid in 2005).

Problems John?  Ah, now that you mention it; if you want to among Francophones, this is not the place.

Go?  The "ideal" bistro?  Pretty close, I'd say.

Pierre Jancou's Vivant in the 10th: Cool, cool, cool and good produce and good cooking and good wines to boot.

 

6.5 Vivant (not Le or La or Les as himself reminded me), 43 rue des Petites Ecuries, 10th, 01.42.46.43.55, Metro = Bonne Nouvelle, closed Saturday and Sunday has gotten a lot of (well-deserved press).  I finally got there today accompanied by two old dear friends and two moderately new dear ones, absent Colette who is awaiting the Surgeon's knife in the USofA.

The carte is simple: lots of bio-natural-organic-etc wines (look, this is the guy who did it at La Cremerie and Les Racines, why not keep the winning formula?), today - 4 starters (Parma ham, burrata, foie gras mi-cuit and greens) and 4 mains (pork, duck, gnocchi with ragout and a fish from St Jean de Luz), and 3 desserts/cheeses (parmesan, frittata, granache). 

 

We all went with the burrata with capers and sun-dried but gonflated tomatoes - superb.

 

 

Then three of us had the duck off the bone with root veggies (about the best I've had since, ahhhh, Les Racines) and two had the gnocchi with ragout (as a sort of dusting).

 

 

Then we finished with a portion of the frittata/friturra/whatever and one of chocolate; also very good.

Our bill, with two bottles of Mazel (Tov implied) and two of water and 5 Afribon coffees from the Laboratorio di Torrefazione Giamaica Caffe in Verona (it was about the best coffee I've ever had), was something like 281 E (picked up by our distinguished friend).

Go?  Are you kidding?  Fo-sho!

Reviews of reviews: The Week of April 18th, 2011

Monday-Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, Philippe Toinard reviewed and gave 1/5 dots to the bling-bling Môm, 4-6 rue Pierre Demours in the 17th, 01.40.68.72.71, open 7/7 (albeit brunch on Sundays) for oysters, charcuterie, hamburgers and desserts that are perhaps frozen/thawed/served/etc; meanwhile Jerome Berger gave 4/5 to the Japanese Izakaye Isse.

Tuesday, Stéphane Brasca of Le Fooding reviewed Chat noir, chat blanc in Nice.

Wednesday, Emmanuel Rubin reviewed his five new restaurants in Figaroscope’s “Les nouveautes a la carte” and this week only one merited two hearts: Vivant, coordinates given last week. Three others were judged 1/4 hearts: two Italian places Assapore dix sur dix and Retro Bottega and the French Le Ganneron, coordinates given two weeks ago. A broken heart went to another Italian place The Partisan.

Figaroscope’s “Dossier” this week was by Anne-Charlotte de Langhe, Alexandra Michot and Colette Monsat and sought to define the "ideal" bistro in Paris:
Bistronomiques with a photo etc of Yves Camdeborde
Benoit
Chez Rene
D’Chez Eux
Café Constant
L’Evasion
Chez Grenouille
Chez Casimir
Astier
Les Caves Petrissans
Les Symples de l’Os a Moelle
Traditional bistros with Bobosse
La Regalade St Honore
Le Café des Musees
Le Comptoir du Relais
L’Ami Jean
Le Villaret
Le Repaire de Cartouche
Bistrot Paul-Bert
Beurre Noisette
Le Troquet
Le Baratin
Chic bistrots ditto Cyril lignac
Le Bistro Volnay
Chez les Anges
L’Absinthe
Moustache
Le Cinq Mars
Chez Julien
Le Chardenoux
And Francois Simon wrote a “Hache Menu” about the Emporio Armani Caffe as part of an article on chocolate in the 6th.

Thursday, in l’Express, Charles Patin O'Coohoon reviewed Le Saint Laurent in Macon, Pierrick Jégu reviewed the Mexican Candelaria in the Marais and Francois-Regis Gaudry reviewed L’Abeille in the Shangri-La Hotel.

Saturday, in Le Figaro Francois Simon’s Croque Notes dealt with a strange meal he had at the well-established Cartet where the door was shut when he arrived at 8 :20 but he had a nice solitary meal, occupying one of the four tables.

Bilbao (ESP): Elegant food, fine museums.

We arrived in Bilbao in time to go to the second best resto I ate at here a few years ago, that in the Belles Artes Museum; but it was closed for Holy Week. However, our helpful concierge at the elegant Hotel Miro, suggested Fernando Canales' elegant Michelin 1 star – Etxanobe in the Exhibition Palace. 

 

Barcelona (ESP): Cool city; always fun.

 
We got to Barcelona’s airport fairly late (for us) at lunch time and I recalled a rather nice restaurant on the second floor of the old terminal that I’d eaten at at least twice in thedistant past; with a little luck and much misdirection, we found its new incarnation – the Porta Gaig.

Granada (ESP): The Alhambra was the whole reason for this trip.

For the longest time, our eldest grand-daughter has lobbied us to go to Spain, principally to see the Alhambra, which she and her close cousin-friend have studied.  So this year seemed ideal.

Our lunch in Granada was at the lovely Real Asador de Castilla.