John Talbott's Paris

Le Vieux Crapaud in the 16th: It should be the most genuine new Parisian bistro this year, but they've messed with the sauces......Not so, said my ex co-host.

5.2 Le Vieux Crapaud (no, it doesn't mean that!), 16 rue Lauriston in the 16th, 01.73.75.70.10, closed weekends (Metro: Charles de Gaulle-Etoile) has been on my radar screen since it open a year ago, but the review January 31st in the jdd mentioning frogs' legs, snails and wild boar sent me into high gear so I was all set for a really "trad" lunch with "trad stuff" with "trad preps".  I arrived way early, before the place was lit up or heated but the bar-guy took pity on my cane-bearing limping decrepitude and seated me despite not being able to find my dining partner's reservation on La Fourchette (apparently that happens).  I took a look around, my stuff on the chalk-boards, bustling chefs and wait-guys, terrific!

The wait-guy started off saying that sadly they no longer had frogs' legs, their only supplier in Europe not having them now (but they did 12 days ago?hummmm.) My former co-host from the then popular French website, now sadly on life support, ordered a mussels with Pata Negra (acorn-eating Basque pigs) that was weird tasting; her "black cod" blackened by black olives was OK but not enhanced by the olive flavor; and my overcooked (inside at least) sweetbreads too were turned south by their sauce (the potatoes mercifully were untouched with any tinkering).

Our bill, with a bottle of wine, no bottled water, decent bread and 2 coffees, was 102 E.  (dB = 78).

Go?  If they'd just serve the food without messing with the traditional sauces, I'd happily go again; but my pal loved everything, so maybe it's all taste, because the place was so full, it turned folks away and my old friend said they should get extra points for not carrying frogs' legs, for instance, if they weren't fresh but frozen. 

Histoires in the 16th: M. Pacaud's 2* leaves one stunned.

6.8 Histoires, 85, avenue Kleber in the 16th, 01.70.98.16.35, closed weekends, Mondays and Tuesday lunch (Metro: Boissiere) just got Chef Mathieu Pacaud (yes, that family) 2 Michelin stars and his other restaurant, Hexagone, same address, got 1 star: some month he's been having.  I entered the same door for both, descended the stairs and was ushered behind an invisible door to the inner sanctum which is laid out like an elegant restaurant with ten alcoves.  Sitting at each place is a bowl of straw with a sucked or blown-egg, covered with a dome of many holes, almost each of which will be used for the amuses.

This is too many dishes to do more than describe their chief ingredients:
- a "cocktail" of cucumber water (not pictured)
- many amuse-gueules, some with eggs, snails, etc.,
- a flat scallop covered with navet and sweet onion emulsion
- little langoustine morsels with a ?bar carpaccio
- two photos of the turbot sauvage before and after finishing it, the latter with the best dish of the day - Pampol beans
- two photos of the Bresse chicken before and after finishing it, and offsetting sweet and sour citrus and unnecessary gnocchi
- a pineapple pre-dessert
- a clementine ice, etc
- a chocolate croquant, etc.
Whew!

Our bill, with a bottle of superb wine my hostess (sounds bad but she did host me) knew, bottled water, many breads and butter as well as 2 coffees was picked up by her and/or her company.  But you can do the math: the 4-course "menu" was 190 E each to start you off.

Go?  Definitely for your pals with expense accounts, not for our back-packing grand-kids.

Anicia par Francois Gagnaire in the 6th: "Really good food" said all.

7.4 Anicia par Francois Gagnaire (no relation, except maybe generations ago), 97 rue du Cherche-Midi in the 6th, 01.43.35.41.50 (Metro: Vanneau), closed Sundays and Mondays, is a place a good friend and professional chef enthusiastically told me about a month or so again, saying "it's really good food."  The welcome was very warm, within minutes the chef had come out to say hello and as I exited, one of the waiters said he remembered me from a prior job at the Café Figue.

My friend ordered a plate of tender lightly smoked salmon and had duck foie gras (sautéed and poached, served with a spectacular bouillon that I helped myself to liberally.

Then he had the chicken, which was also superbly prepared which came with not overly buttered mashed potatoes and I, several undercooked scallops that came strangely with pasta shells.

Our bill, with a bottle ad glass of wine, no bottled water but two coffees, was 108 E (dB = 86.7).

Go back?  Surely, as we left, he commented - "Really good food".

 

Le Boeuf Maillot in the 17th: Damn good beef and superb St Nectaire: what more could you want?

7.25 Le Boeuf Maillot, 99 avenue des Ternes (watch out, it'll fool you, tucked in-between, in the middle of a huge Italian place - Le Bellagio) in the 17th, open 7/7 (Metro: Porte Maillot), 01.45.74.10.57 is one of these places that could be plucked from a 1930's movie or created yesterday with adverts from EBay or St Ouen; in any case it looks old and young at the same time, as does the chef, one Ludovic Schwartz, élève de Joël Robuchon, according to E. Rubin.  The menu is simple if you like beef; you've just got to choose which piece, what potatoes or salad and it comes with three sauces of varying degrees of "heat."

My friend from the deepest 5th, who is an expert in all things culinary, started off with an egg in sauce with morels that she deemed needing salt & pepper, but after she'd "corrected" I thought my morel anyway, was superb, but she still felt it was not much of a much.  Then we both had different cuts of beef: hers French and mine Irish, a wonderful l'araignée - both bleu; both with their three sauces, one zippy and potatoes fried and dauphine: she loved mine, I loved hers: go figure!.  But the topper and ender was a supremely affinated piece of St. Nectaire whihich we both fought over.  And, surprise, I loved the salad and even its dressing (not out of a bottle this!)

Our bill, with a bottle and glass of Cotes du Rhone Villages and no bottled water but rather good bread and 1 coffee (Illy) was 86 E (dB level = 77.7.)

Go back?  I'm going to try to convince Colette who could have the magret.

Reviews of Reviews: The week of February 1st, 2016

Monday-Tuesday in A Nous Paris, Philippe Toinard reviewed the newest inhabitant to the Rue Daguerre, Anthocyane, at #63 in the 14th, 01.43.27.86.02, closed Sundays and Mondays which costs 59 at dinner or 39 E at lunch (with liquids included) for items such as poulpe, a perfect egg, with parmesan and chorizo and an exotic vacherin.

Tuesday, Le Fooding had a review by Matthieu Jauniau-Dallier, of L’Avant-comptoir de la Mer, where bar stools are forbidden, at #3 carrefour de l’Odeon, open 7/7, 01 42 38 47 55, where Camdeborde is serving various shellfish and tuna for 6-12 E per plate.

Wednesday, in Le Figaroscope, Alice Bosio and Colette Monsat wrote up the new restaurants representing the regions of France:
Pascade – Aveyron
A Noste - South-West
Les Nicois – Cote d’Azur
L’Amarre – Brittany
L’Alivi – Carsica
Cote 2 Boeuf – Aveyron & Auvergne

In addition, they with Hugo de Saint Phalle rated and wrote about restaurants in Paris serving sausage and puree, giving the #1 spot to Lazare.

And Emmanuel Rubin’s Hache Menu covered the return to the Rue de Ponthieu in the 8th of Mathis, currently only serving dinner, which he says merits a visit but not a revisit.

In his reviews of 5 new places this week he gave 2 hearts to two places:  the Bistrot Paradis, 55, rue Paradis in the 10th, 01.42.26.59.93, closed Sundays and Mondays, where for 45-50 or 38 E at lunch one dines on items such as pigs’ feet, quail and a reversed cream as well as the South American La Cevicheria Martel.  Getting one heart were Le Camion Qui Fume in the 2nd, the Taiwan-Japanese Ai Hsu in the 11th and the expensive M Georges in the 8th.

Also Wednesday, Heidi Ellison in Paris Update reviewed the previously mentioned Jacques Faussat-La Braisière; mostly great for food.

This week in L’Express Styles, Mina Soundiram reviewed the previously mentioned Grand Amour and Francois-Regis Gaudry reviewed Elmer, see below.

Sunday in the jdd version femina, ED reviewed J-F Piege’s new Grand restaurant, 7, rue d’Aguesseau in the 8th, 01.53.05.00.00, closed weekends, running one 80 at lunch and 180-200 E at dinner for items such as an emulsion of shellfish and caviar, scallops and a blanc-manger; while in the jdd, Aurelie Chaigneau gave 8/10 to Elmer, 30 rue ND de Nazareth in the 3rd, 01.43.56.22,95 closed Sundays and Saturday and Monday lunches where it costs one 45-50 E without liquids for items such as chicken, pork and olive grapefruit; also the previously mentioned Kunitoraya (7) and Caffe Stern (6).

La Rotonde in the 6th: "A brasserie, John, come on!"

4.0 La Rotonde, 105 blvd du Montparnasse in the 6th, 01.43.26.68.84 (Metro: Vavin), open 7/7, is a place I keep hearing about as the "best of the brasseries," so despite the years of passing it by, today I entered.  The carte as one would expect, is like all its siblings, and the décor, similar; the only difference was the service, which was subpar from welcome to clearing plates of shellfish to giving me a handwipe to delivery of our check in midst meal; but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Three of us ate rather lightly which seemed to satisfy all, with:
- a salad frisee
- and an onion soup had by one,
- a beautiful looking magret de canard by another,
- and my own assiette de fruits de mer, which was OK but the oysters were not suprising and the shrimp were bland.

Our bill, with a bottle of water and wine, decent bread and butter and three coffees, was 118 E, thus 78,66 E a couple.

Go back?  Not even with a reasonable sound level (78.0 dB).

An open letter to my readers about chefs' suicides; stress and mental illness.

Dear Readers,

I rarely break my format of reviewing restaurants and summarizing media reviews but the two articles in the New York Times and New Yorker this week have prompted me to seek to bring some science to this issue.

We do not know why Chef Benoît Violier killed himself this week but we do know that Bernard Loiseau killed himself 10 years ago while depressed and with a gun his wife had given him.

It sells publications to romanticize suicides among famous people, attributing them to pressure or losing a star or some other external reason.  The truth is that most suicides are the result of mental illnesses, most frequently depression, and it is disappointing that two of the US's major media, the New York Times and New Yorker, have fallen into the trap of 1). making premature conclusions, pre-autopsy and 2). romanticizing suicide rather than appreciating its usual cause(s).

John A. Talbott MD

Past President American Psychiatric Association 1984-1985

Blogger John Talbott's Paris 2008-present

L'Inconnu in the 7th: Not Nippo-franco-italian food and a good thing too,

8.0 L'Inconnu, 4, rue Pierre-Leroux in the 7th, 01.53.69.06.03, closed Sundays and Mondays (Metro: Vaneau) has not a gun-metal but a black-black façade, and in discreet lettering "An Italian restaurant" - but don't let that or the entirely Japanese staff fool you, this is French food with a few Asian twists (ginger, kikuna) and some pasta and Italian wine.  It's on a street with plenty of stiff competition: Nakatani, Plume and Aida for starters.  The "menu" for the 39 E lunch and 50 E is much the same except more on the latter.  The chef started us all off with a veloute of Jerusalem artichokes that was as good as it gets.

We all started off with a carpaccio of scallops with shaved radishes, then as I was looking around for bread, suddenly appears a pan of focaccia.  My two friends from the burbs then each had the lieu jaune with coques, cabbage and confited lemon and I had the roast pig with salsifis, spinach greens and a carbonara sauce (Ok that's Italian, the sauce anyway, as was the spagettini with crab and kikuna)  So far, every single item has been top form.  Desserts were a tartare of apples and a tiramisu with pear, also superb.

Our bill with beautiful mignardises, a bottle and glass of Etna wine and 3 coffees, was 197 E or 192 E, thus 132 or 128 E a couple.  dB= 75.5

Go back?  For sure, ASAP.

Biotiful Batignolles in the 17th: A hispterish place with a light touch.

5.0 Biotiful Batignolles, 18 rue Biot in the 17th, 09.80.87.32.75, closed Sundays and Mondays (Metro: Place de Clichy) was, as advertised a wine bar with "bio" wines, some of which I liked and one Madame predicted I wouldn't.  Its carte is 2-2-2 and I was about to write off the curry when I looked across the street and saw an Indian place, a good omen, and the waitress insisted the Japanese chef used Spring lamb not 4 year old mutton.

My friend the sculptor, ordered the razor clams which recently I've taken a dislike to, for reasons unknown; and then the lieu jaune, which he felt was a tiny but more cooked than he liked, with pumpkin, while I had the curried lamb which was nice but had no zing to it.  Then we shared the chocolate-orange cake that was superb.

Our bill, with 4 glasses of wine, no bottled water but 1 coffee and decent bread, was 73 E.  The picture about differentiates the "Soul Kitchen" from the loo; it seemed funny at the time.

Go again?  No need really, albeit nice wines and ambiance.

The Bistrot Paradis in the 10th: A impressive place with superb sourcing, service and soul. Plus the winner of the Talbott 2016 menu-carte design award.

6.9 The Bistrot Paradis, 55, rue de Paradis in the 10th, 01.42.26.59.93, closed Sundays and Mondays (Metro: Poissonnier) somehow escaped my field of vision when it opened in November but my head snapped to attention when Emmanuel Rubin recognized it yesterday; Brazilian chef who passed through the houses of Ducasse et Constant, hummm.  I was a few minutes early, despite awful manifs, etc., and calmly awaited my dining partner, also stuck in traffic.  Figaro, a glass of white Saumur wine, looked at the spectacularly designed menu (carte), what more does one want?

They have a 23 E three-course "menu" with leeks, mushroom-rolled rabbit and a tartare of exotic fruits that I almost went for, but instead my dining partner and I picked items that appealed to us from the carte.  She started with a most decent carpaccio of bass and I had the pigs feet which normally I die for, but this had too much espilette, making it a rough voyage.  Then she, after being strong-armed by our terrific waiter (one of three) and I, had the scallops with sweet potatoes (which normally I hate, these were divine) and I had a quail with tiny potato balls that was just to my liking.  We wound up sharing a confited pear with doo-dads, squigums and squirtums; quite good.

Our bill, with a bottle of Minivrois, bottle of Chateldon, decent bread and 2 weak espressos, a disgrace for a Brazilian chef, was 126 E.  dB level said 86.3 despite the squalling Brit baby across from us.

Go again? You betch'em.