John Talbott's Paris

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Reviews of reviews: The week of March 9th, 2015

Monday-Tuesday, in A Nous Paris, Philippe Toinard reviewed the aforementioned Augustin in the 14th, giving it 3/5 dots.

Tuesday in Le Fooding, they reviewed Antre in Bidart.

Wednesday in Figaroscope, Emmanuel Rubin, in his Hache Menu, went to the aforementioned L’Entree des Artistes in the 9th, open only at night.  Then he followed with his usual five reviews giving 4 hearts to the previously mentioned franco-nippon Dersou in the 12th and three to Petrossian Rive Droite, 106, bd de Courcelles in the 17th, 01.47.66.16.16, closed Sundays, running one from 40 E up for items such as Russian herring, croque-monsieur with caviar and a pavot-seed dessert.  Garnering 2 hearts were the South American La Cevicheria in the 2nd and the Italianate La Petite Table in the 3rd.  A busted heart went to Cartel in the 10th.

Figaroscope’s Dossier this week was written by Hugo de Saint Phalle, Alice Bosio and Colette Monsat and presented places where one can have a nice pairing of food and beverages (wine, cocktails, beer, etc) :
Les 110 de Taillevent
Roveval
Pasdeloup
Dersou
La Fine mousse
Le Triangle
Soma
The Beast.

Wednesday, also, Heidi Ellison in Paris Update related two disappointing meals (for both incredible service and not so exciting food) at the previously mentioned Muxu and the Anglo-breakfast place Twinkie in the 2nd.

In an interesting coincidence, both Le Figaro (Alice Bosio) and the FT (Tim Hayward) in their weekend editions, had articles on the globalization of French food.

Les dormeurs de St-Denis at the Eglise des Billettes in the Marais

Colette spied an article about a photo show at the Eglise des Billettes in the Marais featuring the tomb statues in Saint Denis and we went to this charming old church in the midst of Fendi-type stores and bars.  It didn't blow me out of the water but if in the nabe - drop by.

1 Weak Wow!

Heimat in the 1st: Creative & Italianate without being Italian.

Heimat, 37, Rue de Montpensier in the 1st, 01.40.26.78.25 (Metro: Musee du Louvre) has a French owner (Pierre Jancou), German name and Italian chefs, but the food is pretty mainstream with some Italian tweaks.  Colette and I arrived before our friend from Boulogne and had plenty of time to peruse the menu and order some interesting "Homage a Robert" wine which had the subtitle "the grape and the angel" pictured as well.

The menu is a 2-2-2 deal so we split up the dishes and courses; Colette and our friend starting with the chinchard, asparagus, grapefruit and almonds and I - the brains, citrus mayo, puntarelles (small early Italian chicory-type shoots) and coques, very nice all.

Then the ladies had the rigatoni with a ragout of duck and rosemary and I had pintade with tapenade, potatoes and bok choy; again quite nice, with a new bottle, this time some Beaujolais for Colette.

For desserts we shared a portion of lemon tart with meringue and two of a sable Breton with apple, caramel and creme crue.

Our bill with no bottled water but 3 coffees and very excellent bread was 166 E for 3 = 110.66 E for a couple.

Lumieres - The Play of brilliants: I didn't "get it."

Colette was reading Heidi Ellison's review in Paris Update of the exhibition of "Lumieres - The Play of brilliants" in the newly restored ElephantPaname on the rue Volney (where Goust resides and next door to the fabulous Bistro Volnay) and said, "we gotta go."  "Yes Ma'am."  I thought it was OK, but if one has been to the shows at the Espace Electra and the Guggenheim/NY it was not a revelation.

1 Wow!

The MiniPalais in the Grand Palais in the 8th: A great spot in a great set of museums.

The MiniPalais in the Grand Palais, technically at 3 Avenue Winston Churchill but more descriptively at the South-East corner of the GP, in the 8th (Metro: Champs-Elysees/Clemenceau), 01.42.56.42.42 is overseen or was designed by Eric Frechon, he of le Bristol and has never disappointed me.  Colette had a tour at the Petit Palais given by her primo art historian, Chris Boicos, take a look at his website if you're into art tours, that ended at 13h30 so where to eat neaby was a foregone conclusion.  The room is stunning, the outside terrace charming in good weather, and the "menu" very reasonable (29 E).

Our former downstairs' neighbor from 34 numbers up the street and I entered simultaneously so we started off with a lovely Ventoux and two yummy just-right-salted giant cheese brioches.  Then she had the "menu" soup of celery with mushroom froth that was ab-fab.

For mains, our guest had the "menu" main, a wonderful rockfish soup with good rouget and squid, Colette had the terrific sandre with a carrot puree and I had a lovely round of sweetbreads wrapped in a comte with a super-wonderful-marvellous potato puree.

We passed on dessert but had a nice bowl of pop-corn (a big trend here now) with caramel with our coffees.  Our bill, with said coffees and 1.5 bottle of wine, was 95.66 E a couple.

PS, The MiniPalais gets bonus points for the staff's cross-training and ability to perform services for  tables other than their primary ones.

Les Comptoirs du Medoc in the 9th; How very accomodating and nice.

Les Comptoirs du Medoc, 93, rue de la Victoire in the 9th is a place I had the best meal so far in 2015 a few weeks ago and wanted to take my friends, one a chef/foodguide just back from India.  We looked at the menu and she looked at the next table where the gigot d'agneau was over-cooked by our standards and asked the wait lady if we could have it rosé.  Nope.  Ah, ha.  While the cabillaud snacké was OK for one of us, over-done lamb was not for the rest. Leave, I said to Colette?  But our friend persisted and inquired if the 120 E 650 gram entrecote for two could be done rare for 3.  Nope.  But soon word from the kitchen came that instead, we three could have selles d'agneau done rosé - ah perfect.

She started with a soft egg on a mushroom puree with lotsa March veggies and shredded chicken and ginger and garlic sauce with truffles and the rest of us had 4 spears of white asparagus that needed Chef Nicolas Tissier's natural black salt to stun us.

Then M. had his fish snacké, not cod today but lieu with lots of green beans with an interesting coques sauce and we three got what we came for, rare lamb with carrots every whichway.

Three of us shared two lemon tarts and three mini-Paris-Blaignans (aka Paris-Brests) to top off a very pleasant meal.

With two bottles of Bordeaux (they have a half dozen whites and a ton of reds), no bottled water, good bread and two coffees, our bill was 104 E a couple.