Nancy: the city not the cartoon character

[John Talbott]

Hello:

While searching Nancy (to which Colette is desperate to return)* *footnote, Cecilia Sarkozy is portrayed in one French daily today as a Desperate Housewife, I found only this unanswered plea from Markemorse. Does anyone have any new recs/info?

Tx John

[markemorse]

No one ever did come forth with valuable intelligence, but when i was in Nancy (where I didn't have time to eat anyway due to the van breaking down in Neufchateau), there was a restaurant that was right next to our hotel called Les Nouveau Abattoirs maybe? Didn't eat there, but the menu looked fascinating.

Not much help, but you are now armed with more information than I had when I went there.

[julot-les-pinceaux]

I did not go out much in Nancy (always went for family visits -- ate at my grandmother's), but I am aware of three good adresses. The Flo brasserie, l'Excelsior, historical setting and good enough Flo food (a brasserie chain). Le Grenier a Sel is the 1* restaurant , in one of the oldest houses in town, like the Michelin say. V four, rue Saint Michel, is a very good bistrot.

Now, when in Nancy, there are three places I always visit: Le Hall du Livre has an amazing stock of CDs and books, inluding in English, with many interesting rarities and things you would not expect. In the covered market, there is Wolff volailler, one of the best in France, has amazing products including an andouillette de canard whose memory makes me sigh. And there is a great confiseur whose name is Lalonde. They do the same candies as the ones called "burgondines" in Beaune, a praline mousse inside a white meringue crisp and they call them Duchesse de Lorraine.

Yammy.

Edited October 19, 2007 by julot-les-pinceaux (log)

[John Talbott]

Thanks to Julot and markemorse; our culinary experiences were as follows:

V Four, 10 rue St Michel, Nancy is a Michelin one fork/Bib Gourmand open on Sunday with a terrace, ergo, a perfect choice for a hot Sunday afternoon after a walk through the old town. They have a 19 € market menu for lunch on weekdays and 26 and 38 ones as well. Colette decided to go with the a la carte pigeon which was superbly cooked, on top of nice mashed potatoes. Meanwhile I had the 26 menu. But both of us started with an amuse gueule of cold whole ecrevisses with chopped summer vegetables; delicious. Then I had a tartare of daurade royale with chives and spinach leaves and a chicken breast with turnips in a saffron sauce; good. Finally Colette had a fine moelleux and I had more than standard red fruit in red sauce. Nummies included marshmallows, tuiles, macaroons and meringues. With an excellent bottle of red Macon, two coffees and no bottled water our bill was 99 E.

A definite repeat.

For dinner, we went to the Brasserie (Flo) Excelsior for the décor not the food. It (the décor) was indeed spectacular and made the food almost worth putting up with. It being a brasserie in Lorraine, Colette had a quiche Lorraine with green salad that she deemed good and I had the choucroute Strasbourgoise that I decided had failed the rule of CIMIB (Can I make it better?) The bill was 44.40 € with a bottle of Toul pinot Noir, no bottled water or coffees.

Again? No, just a beer and chips for the view.

Lunch the next day in Nancy was at a place called Les Nouveaux Abattoirs which looks straight out of a 1950’s film. Nice staff. We shared a green salad first that had great dressing. Then Colette had a veal strip that she thought was not great but I disagreed and I had a filet of beef that we both agreed was good product, well-cooked (blue) but unfortunately came with mealy potatoes and out-of-the-can green beans. With a fine Morgan, 2 coffees and a calvados the bill came to 83 €.

Go? Nah.

[markemorse]

Ah, John....thanks for bringing closure to my Abattoir experience. It did look like an interesting restaurant, didn't it? Sorry the food didn't work out...

[John Talbott]

Ah, John....thanks for bringing closure to my Abattoir experience. It did look like an interesting restaurant, didn't it?  Sorry the food didn't work out...

←

No problem: I went as a fully consenting adult and it did look really authentic.