8.0 Agapé Substance, 66 Rue Mazarine in the 6th, 01.43.29.33.83 (Metro:Odeon) closed Sundays and Mondays, has lunch "menus" at 39, 51 and 65 E; dinner 51, 78 and 99 E. It opened earlier this summer and has been called "magical, fascinating and brilliant" so far. Now, I must confess that I've found the Agapé Empire's two places to date too precious, too perfect, too too, you get the picture, and the pretentious explanations of the wines and the super-pretentious sampling and thus stealing some of my wine and the ultra-pretentious decanting of the wine into designer-carafes are off-putting. But my good friend,the most saavy writer/cook/TV creator in Paris, wanted to go. So be it.
Achtung/Warning/Attention: This is not the place for my pal J. who wants big portions, nor someone "allergic" to strange herbs, nor for those in fear of the new. Like at Spring, one can expect nothing (forget the critics' descriptions, this 30 yo genius changes stuff all the time); like at Ze, expect stuff you've never heard of before, such as berce (aka hogweed), and like at Les Petits Plats, expect small plates.
The first trick is to find the place, hidden as it is, like "The Purloined Letter," in full view on the Rue Mazarine, like Frenchie in the old days, the second trick (like at Le Dauphin) is to find the door and the third trick is figuring out the wooden carte which lists 9 items, ranging from a crab soup to cheese but which one can have - seeming appetizers, seeming fish, seeming meat, seeming veggies, seeming desserts - in any ordered desired - I'll explain in a moment. The most transparent thing is the wine list on an iPad (hang in there Steve Jobs, you've got at least 2 products left to roll out, we need you) which is ultracool. But as a saavy lady at an upscale food boutique commented to me later that afternoon, the prices are largely astronomic. For example, my eating partner had a tiny coupe de champagne at 19 E, and her bottled water was 8 E). But onto the food.
After some absolutely fabulous bread with the now ordinary butter with algae we got the amuse bouche that consisted of two lighter-than-air balls made from the aforementioned berce (hogweed), clementine and a glob or is it blob of citrus stuff, topped with a light rice wafer. Wow! Off to a good start.
Madame started off with a soup of so many ingredients I did not have time to write them down but the four mini-towers in the soup were of delicate crab, and I had rougets with a baby artichoke, we both then had incredible pieces of pigeon and she then had green beans with miso and smoked salmon; but they put down a plate in front of me so I wouldn't feel left out. Do I know what it was? Not on your life or mine but there was ice cream.
For our other desserts Madame had a strip of fruits with ginger and a sorbet and I had chocolate from two countries, made two ways, with two textures.
Our bill, now here's a problem, knowing my readership, if I tell you the total you'll never go, so let me say that ordering sensibly without expensive bubbly, water or extra dishes one can get out for 110 E a couple which is pretty darn good.
Go? Wow....wow....wow....wow!
A final note: I said yesterday that their toilet was the best; but today's was awesome; like an airpane cockpit (photo courtesy of Ptipois).
I'm planning to have lunch there at my next trip to Paris. The best day would be November 1st, but being it a holiday would Agape Substance be opened?
By the way, great critics, as usual!
Many thanks,
Fabio.
Posted by: Fabio T | September 07, 2011 at 02:41 PM
in my experience, holidays like Toussiant do not change rstaurants normal opening-closing day schedules.
Posted by: John Talbott | September 07, 2011 at 03:23 PM
Thank you!
Looking forward to visiting Paris again>
Fabio
Posted by: Fabio T | September 07, 2011 at 09:51 PM