The most frequent question I’m asked is “where do you find these places?” The answer is not so simple. Sometimes, it’s a crazy friend on a motorcycle who passed an interesting looking new restaurant, sometimes a blogger’s side swipe comment, and sometimes it’s buzz, tomtoms or something in the air. And why go out of Paris when it’s so rich in new restaurant openings?
6.0 L'Empreinte in Lille (Lampersart) was the latter and I felt it was time to get out of Dodge. So off to Lille, which since I summered as a student in nearby, has schred its grey, dank, and slag heap image and become a hopping place. The restaurant is in a site, once a bar near the Hippodrome, that’s gone through many incarnations and now has one of the coolest designs possible.
The lunch menu came in a cool leather thing and was 31€ for three dishes. The three amuses were tantalizing, with a spicy piece of cauliflower, a shaved beet rondelle and a cheddar “cigarette.” The bread and butter were exceptional. Then we had very tiny palourdes with celeriac and some intense purees followed by paleron of veal with carrots at least 3-4 ways.
Then the desserts, the highlight of the meal - poire de terre, mint, lime, sorbet and aged prune with a chocolate beignet on charcoal. Weird sounding, eh? But terrific.
The bill, with house water, 2 bottles of wine and 3 coffees, was 114.50€ a couple. The decibel level was pretty high, 87.6 dB.
Go? Well, ahhh,ummm, when you add in the transportation costs 254€ a couple is out of my league.
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