6.9 Le Petit Varenne. 57, rue de Bellechasse (crnr Varenne) in the 7th, 01.42.73.60.72, closed Sundays and Mondays (Metro: Rue de Bac or Varenne) is the latest creation of who Le Fooding calls the "jeune tycoon Jean-Baptiste Varenne, 32 ans, déjà coproprio de la Laiterie Sainte Clotilde et de Chez Graff", as well as having some connection to the Gare aux Gorille and Vin de Bellechasse; here the kitchen is under the capable hands of one Rémy N’Guyen, ex-Prince de Galles and Burgundy. How long M. Varenne must have looked to find a space on the Rue de Varenne is not clear but very clever. (N.B. he speaks flawless English).
For a first, JJ chose the terrine of boudin noir cut in pie-type slices and delicious and R. and I had the light gnocchi with glorious mushrooms and a parmesan wafer and fluff - all of which worked very well together indeed.
Somehow the three of us, without discussion, picked the three different main courses and all of us were delighted, politely arguing which was best: I liked the merlu and foam as well as the melt-in-your-mouth beef, but did not discount my tasty duck breast with caviar d'aubergines.
At this point R. dropped out of the game, leaving us to finish with a chocolate and pistachio ice cream and chocolate ropey thing with oranges and grilled nuts.-
Our bill with no bottled water but 2 bottles of Languedoc (one red, one white) and one coffee (offered) was 186 for 3, so 124 E a couple.
Go? Without question, although the lack of effective sound baffling does make conversation challenging when the room packed managerial types gets roaring. Jean-Baptiste Varenne sure has a winner on his hands with this place and he's terrifically nice to boot.
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