John Talbott's Paris

Gallina in the 10th: 2 Hours in a Respectable Rotisserie without a mention of Trump.

6.5 Gallina, 37, quai de Valmy in the 10th, 01.48.03.47.22, closed Mondays and Tuesdays (Metro: Republique) is a place opened recently by Mikael Attar and Jérémy Attuil of The Sunken Chip and Joe Elliot from Cream, it was named one of the “Nine Cool New Spots to Visit in Paris during Men's Fashion Week” by Vogue for what that's worth.  In thinking about the name Gallina, I went back to my first year Latin but then found out from  www.spanishdict.com/answers/140111/pollo-vs-gallina-and-others that gallina is "a yellower, fattier, and older meat than pollo which is a younger, whiter meat....[B]ut in Mexico gallina only means the live animal and pollo a dead one =) or cooked one."  So much for the etymology lesson. Anyway, it's on the Canal St Martin and thus full of Bobo's and hipsters and I raised the average age by many decades just by sitting down. 

The menu, for a place based on rotisseried meats, was quite extensive.  My dining partner, the daughter of one of my dearest friends, recently departed, met the demographics and ordered the rabbit tourte which was delicious as was the quarter of chicken I had; both coming with sides of salads, in her case beets, nuts, mache and goat cheese, in my case heirloom tomatoes with sweet vinegar (which made my dressing taste like the bottled stuff in the US, but much much better) and feta.  For dessert we split the tart of the day, which in this case was an astounding tasting cheesecaky one with cream and figs on top.

With a bottle of Bordeaux, no bottled water, decent enough bread and two coffees (sent out from IMA next door which they own), our bill was 74.50E.  There was not a mention of the Donald so even though the dB level was over 90.1 it was calm (for comparison that's a "Boing 737 or DC-9 aircraft at one nautical mile (6080 ft) before landing." Reference http://airportnoiselaw.org/dblevels.html

Go back?  On a sunny day (like today), with Bobo's skating, running and kayaking (I made that up) on the Canal, for sure.  A word of advice: the place fills up to overflowing so reserve (by email) and go early.

Les Arlots in the 10th: "Not pretentious...solid food....really serious."

Les Arlots in the 10th is a place I ate at only a few weeks ago and when I walked in, I was greeted extra-warmly by the front-room guy Tristan Renoux, ex-Au Siffleur de Ballons, and soon asked if I wished to talk to the chef, Thomas Brachet (ex-Maison Blanche and Beef Club) and new (woman) sous-chef; he, whose excellent English was acquired by listening to American folk-songs and honed in a London discotheque.  He is most proud of his ample-sized kitchen, which is glisteningly new, having replaced a not so great couscous joint.  Man, I was ready for lunch.

The chef sent us all out a nifty amuse of liver mousse, not your grandmother or bar mitzvah's chopped liver; followed by a cucumber salad that was also not your usual one and a lovely veloute of petit pois and asparagus soup with crème fraiche.

We more or less went our separate ways with: the tasty entrecote, cod with a carrot puree and a terrific confited duck leg with potatoes - all represented old yet new food at its best.

The desserts were also special: chocolate, caramel and whiskey between 500 (not mille mind you) feuilles and a fruit with honey mixture.

The master of the wines, one Tristan Renoux, is every ready to describe and provide what one wants and his choices of a Chinin white and Tuscan red went perfectly with our choices.  They, with the offered amuses and an Armagnac offered as well, plus two coffees and nice bread came to 151.80 E or 75.90 E a couple.

 

Les Arlots in the 10th: "Best price-quality of the year for lunch" my old pal Pierre 45 said.

6.6 Les Arlots (no it's not an abbreviation of harlots but of harlequins), 136, rue du Faubourg Poissonnière in the 10th, 01.42.82.92.01, closed Sundays and Mondays, has gotten rave reviews in the cybersphere and from two friends so when my pal Pierre 45 and his wife arrived, I thought it ideal.  As you can see, they speak English, and indeed did to us, freely.  I started off ordering the sausage and entrecote thinking they were a 1st and Main, but no, both were mains.  So I just ordered the entrecote, Blue of course, which threw our waitress back a bit - "Bleu?" she said "Oui bleu!" I said.

My two eating pals had ordered the asparagus soup with a perfect egg and thin toast and I took a soup spoon to Madame's and gasped "I want one too."  It was terrific.

Then my friends had the croquettes of cod with lime and tartare and the shredded confited pork with cheesy blettes (both very good) while I luxuriated in a very nicely sourced and cooked ("BLUE") entrecote.

For desserts we decided to share the crumble of caramelized apples and "Milanese de la madre del jefe", explained as between a cheesecake and flan, with sauces of rhubarb and strawberries - both terrific.

With 1 bottle and 1/2 of Pinot Noir of Languedoc, no bottled water, decent bread and 2 coffees, our bill was 73.86 E a couple.

Go?  Why not?  It's moderately undiscovered except by tattooed Brooklyn tweens and serves season food at screamingly reasonably prices.

Gros in the 10th: "I wouldn't be caught dead in a place with that name" to "This is serious food."

Gros, coordinates given when I ate here in August, is a place I went back to, now 8 months plus later, because a trusted friend told me to go back, something was new.  But as I approached it, it looked the same - across from Lucky Luciano and Tom's wifi Café, inhabiting the old cursed Café Blah Blah space, scraped wall décor, without an exciting "menu." When I asked an old friend to go she said "I wouldn't be caught dead in a place with that name", and I thought it was because gros=fat, but she explained in slang gros=bro or buddy.  I finally convinced her and we both looked at the "menu" and almost bugged out.

She ordered up a "perfect egg" with bacon and watercress puree that was very good and my vichyssoise with coquillages was outstanding.  So far so good.

Both of us then had the so-called fish soup, which although it came with the requisite toast, rouille and shaved cheese, was not the usual pulverised in a blender concoction, but rather more accurately could have been called beautifully cooked fish (rouget my pal posited) laid on top of potato slices with a sauce of crustaceans.  This was really good and prompted Madame to say "This is serious food."

We then decided to each have one of the chocolate desserts: she the "pudding" and I the cubes and here we came to Napoleon's Waterloo; neither was much of a much.  Later as she was asking about the chef's origin's etc., our wait-person said they had two chefs cooking the food and a pastry chef devoted to desserts - I thought my gastronomic friend was going to fall in a feint.  Someone dedicated to desserts coming up with such mediocre stuff when the others in the cuisine were turning out magic?

When my dining friend, just back from a wine week that will become a book, looked at the wine list, she said "I like the structure of this list" into Fruit, Structure, Douceur and we had a fine bottle of Dolcetto d'Alba, which along with a glass of Cheverny, no bottled water, quite decent bread and 2 coffees, resulted in a bill of 89.80 E.

The Bistro Urbain in the 10th: "Oooh lord, nobody knows the troubles I've seen." But it's my fault totally.

So, Backstory: 3 years ago, 4 of my most trusted and cherished food-friends invited me to try a place, they and the big boys at the major print media, thought was outstanding.  I went and did not like the meal, but they did, so I chalked it up to, ah, my off day.

A few weeks ago, 3 of my most trusted and cherished food-friends invited me to try a place, they thought was outstanding - that had a new chef.  Sound familiar?  Me, I didn't check the place's history or feng shui, bad on me.

3.0 Le Bistro Urbain, 103, rue Faubourg St Denis in the 10th, 01.42.46.32.49, closed weekends, is a place I swear to God, I had wiped my memory board clean of, and I was judging for the first time - trusted friends, new chef, probably different carte - OK.  I was warmly welcomed, gave the name of the grand-mother of our hostess, which I had written down, installed, given carte and wine list; so far so good except a sign in the window said in English "Home made dishes" or suchlike; which to me means "Yankees, enter here, we know you."  My friends came and we set out to do serious ordering.

All of us regarded the carte and murmured about the 1000 year old (just kidding) sardines (but the Rodels do go back to 1824 and their "Sardines sans arêtes millésimées" are supposed to be better if eaten after at least 10 years - OK, whatever; they were OK, with fine bread and butter and great olive oil.

My 3 dining partners, on the other hand, ordered real firsts: salads of asparagus, artichokes and a tartare of daurade; all of which were OK, but not serious food, more the stuff you'd eat on the dock waiting for the Ile d'Yeu ferry.

Our mains were: gnocchi stuffed with chloroform, now I'm being silly, chlorophylle = seaweed, algae type stuff, which our leading lady swooned over, the fish of the day and ribs with the strangest sauce I've ever had, really repulsive.  the guys in the kitchen looked Japanese so maybe it was soya, oyster, bean etc., based but it was not to my taste although the confited daikon was very nice and sweet as a confited pear.

Everyone hemmed and hawed about ordering dessert but in the end we had a nice plate of cheese and a nice chocolate mousse.

Our bill for 4, with 2 bottles of a nice Madiran, one San Pellegrino (8 E, wow!) and 3 coffees, was 186.60, thus 93.30 E a couple.  Noise was a problem, it was over 90 dB at times despite our pleas to turn it down, when it became 82.9 dB.

Go?  For the others, I think yes, for me no, but here comes the fun.......

Post story.  When everyone has left or is in the loo, the chief guy walks up with his lap-top with my review of 3 years ago and says "I'd just like to point out a few errors you made."  Very civilized, not angry and not contesting my opinions, only my facts.  Whoa.  "Everyone is entitled to their opinion but not their facts," he seemed to imply.  So I listened and thought seriously about not posting this report, but then I remembered that I was not writing it for him, or the chefs or the owners but my readers.  So the review of three years ago and today stand.

 

Mamagoto in the 10th: French food with just a touch of otherworldliness. We'll be back.

Mamagoto in the 10th is a place I'd been to last month and where I had a fun lunch,  so it seemed a natural to return with friends who live nearby.  Colette and I arrived a bit early and ordered up some piment chips with  delicious guacamole and wine.  Our friends showed up, admired the surroundings and plunged in.  Oh, they noted this was in the former Playtime space, which I had written up in January 26, 2011 and rather liked, and it turned out its chef was visiting and came over and told us of his new venture in Bordeaux.

So here we go on starters, mains and desserts:
- coques, moules and a rhubarb infusion with pomegrante seeds (maybe the best dish of the day)
- raw veal, crab meat and praline
- ceviche of daurade
- encornets, leeks, green asparagus and chorizo
- razor clams with rosemary and lemon
- white asparagus with a poached egg, focaccia (not successful) and parmesan
- lemon, sable (not successful as well) and fennel
- potato foam, vanilla and thyme
- a chocolate dome with chocolate sauce and nuts.

Our bill, with two bottles of wine, no bottled water, decent bread and 5 coffees, was 192.50 E or 96.25 E a couple.

Mamagoto in the 10th: A breath of fresh air around the Train Stations.

7.2 Mamagoto (we'll get to the name later, but it's not an offshoot of Momofuku), 5, rue des Petits-Hotels in the 10th, (Metro: Gare de L'Est or buses), closed Sundays and Mondays, 01.44.79.03.98 (but you can reserve on La Fourchette) has been open about 3 weeks and is already fully up and running. Quoting Le Fooding - "Running this restaurant with a funny name (which means “a light meal” in Japanese) is a trio of chic restaurateurs raised rue de Bellechasse : Thomas Loustau, the boss of Chez Graff, Guillaume Gazier for the wines, and Koji Tsuchiya, who used to work at l’Astrance, in the kitchen."  It has both tapas (Basque and Spanish influenced) as well as big stuff - beef and lamb, for example.

So, I got there way early, when the wait-staff were just putting on their aprons and cleaning the windows, 20 minutes before my dining partner.  Limping in, I apologized, but they ushered me to practically any table I wanted, asking immediately if I desired something while waiting - "Of course, a glass of white wine (a very nice bubbly Cava)......and then some guacamole on piment d'Espelette chips" (whew, spicy hot they were, but I like them that way, not tasteless like in the USA).  When my pal showed up she was obsessed with her meal yesterday at Papillon and took some distracting, but the poulpe with radish slices and duck croquettes with a creamed corn sauce (it may sound blah but it was anything but) were yummy enough to bring her back to earth.  We ended up sharing a moderately OK Paris Brest, "moderately OK" in contrast to the superbly OK guacamole, octopus and croquettes.

Our bill, with a bottle of Le Petit Martin and 4 coffees (2 offered), was 79 E.  dB's = 78.3

Go back?  Oh yes.  The combination of Staff (one of whom worked in Brooklyn a year), Owner (who was wine tasting and talking to us from the comptoir) and Chef (who is already attracting visitors from the East) works very well indeed.  This place is a keeper.

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.

 

Le Cafe Pelican in the 10th: Non-Metro food from a Bristol grad at extremely reasonable prices.

6.25 Le Cafe Pelican, 61, rue d'Hauteville in the 10th, (Metro: Poissonniere), 01.47.70.07.08, closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, opened two months ago and at least today was packed to the ceiling of both floors with 30-40 year old locals from nearby businesses (advertising, publishing - you know, nice folks, our folks).  It has a simple carte but dishes as they passed by all looked mouth-watering.

We ordered thusly:
- a butternut squash soup requiring salt, pepper (in my opinion Siracha)
- a huge plate of really tasty jambon de boeuf (dried beef) covered with lettuces with OMG delicious butter and bread
- a really nicely sourced and cooked piece of merlan (whiting) with roasted onion and bok choi
- a superbly crispy crusted poitrine de porc and a coriander "pesto" and
- a sublime piece of chocolate cake (my guest called it pound-cake like, I said brownie like).

Our bill, with a liter of house wines (half white, half red), no bottled water, but two coffees, was 63 E.  dB = 82.5 but awful music - American stuff.

Go?  Hey grand-kids, this means you, 20 E for 3 courses and 5.5 E for 2 glasses of wine = 25.5 Euros - Got it?  Love, Gpa.

Le Comptoir Iode in the 10th: Nice, very nice: welcome, service, oysters, desserts.

6.6 Le Comptoir Iode, 8, rue du Paradis in the 10th, 09.53.32.55.45, closed Sundays (Metro: Poissonniere) has been open about a month and is everything that L'Etoile-Sur-Mer is not.  It's not fancy-schmancy (just good products), it's not pretentious (it is what it is), and it has a superb staff, in the kitchen and salle (rather than folks who seem to be serving their community service).  The offerings are simple, good and delivered with love.

My friend N. had what was unquestionably the best scallops of the season, sliced, cold and delicious; her husband had the 4 oyster special - 2 warm with camembert and 2 cold with ginger and passion fruit and I had 5 Normandy oysters straight off the truck, no nonsense!

Then they both had the mussels; he with curry; she with Thai sauce; while I had a fish soup with all the trimmings - all were passable but not exciting.

For dessert we shared a crumble of pear with its sauce and a moelleux of chocolate with its; both were sublime; desserts are really special here.

Our bill, with no bottled water, 2 bottles of wine (unfinished) and 2 coffees, was 141 E or 94 E a couple.  dB = 89.

Go?  You betcha!