Sunset in the 18th: This is what the neighborhood really needed: a friendly, upscale farm to table bio wine cafe, neo-bistro open 7 days a week 8 am to 2 am.

Back story: One of my oldest friend's (think college) daughter takes drama classes nearby and we try to eat between her school and my squat at places that are interesting.  Sunset has not received a lot of press, for reasons that puzzle me, but today we decided to go.

6.0 Sunset, 100 Rue Ordener in the 18th, 01 71 28 99 33, open 7 days a week for breakfast, lunch and dinner, except noon on weekends when they have brunch but no breakfast.  The site used to be a very menacing looking place called the Blues Bar, above which Wikipedia says Nicholas Sarkozy once lived; in any case it has been thoroughly renovated and is now a tremendously popular hangout for what Le Fooding calls "bearded guys in beanies and skinny girls with bangs."  Maybe, but my friend and I fit into this crowd of locals very easily.

They offered my guest two small versions of the firsts: an endive salad with Roquefort mousse and mendicant and cold petit pois soup with mint and smoked ricotta and wasabi; and me the full-blown portion of the pea soup - both very refreshing, even though it was snowing - SNOWING, wait a minute, it's almost May, oh well.

For mains, she chose the meat balls on house-made tagliatelles with an arabiatta sauce (basically tomatoes, tomato paste, onions and garlic) and I had warm mackerel cooked in white wine with tarragon and cooked tomatoes and lovely Sicilian panelles. 

We wound up sharing the ganache of chocolate with mint ice cream and crunchy granola (no kidding!)  Extremely good.

With an absolutely perfect bio Crozes Hermitage, no bottled water and two coffees the bill was 66 E.

As I was sitting waiting for my dining partner, the lovely wait-person asked if I'd like to see the evening menu which was suitable for tapas and aperos as well as a full meal and I said sure.  Then as we were exiting a very tall guy, who had been behind the counter opened the door for us and said "Goodbye" in English.  Hey wait a minute, an American?  Yes?  David Lyon lives practically across the street, read my blog to see what's in fashion now and renovated this place.  He and Jordan Bischoff have really scored.

Go?  I'll be back for dinner (shush) some night I have to be somewhere the next day.