Les Chèvres

[gus_tatory]

hi all--

so i know you guys at Les Chevres had a reception and tastings <?> monday, and you're opening to the public tonight. i hear that the interiors are astonishing, the sculptures at the entry, etc. the glass vitrine to the pastry kitchen.

Congratulations! can someone post a menu, or discuss the appetizers? i probably won't be able to make it there soon, and yet this resto seems to be very eagerly anticipated indeed!

thanks!

:-)

[calgarymarmitons]

OK, folks. Made a reservation for tomorrow evening and will be posting thoughts and comments soon thereafter.

Looking forward to THIS one!!

John

[calgarymarmitons]

Have any of you ever had a restaurant experience where your expectations of the cuisine and ambience were blown away by the real thing??

Well, that's my story with Les Chevres last night. Reading through this thread this morning, and the discussion about the menu, the kitchen theme, the decor, I can tell you that the sensory explosions my wife and I experienced last night at Les Chevres were amazing. In fact, I'm still in recovery mode and may not be able to get the right words typed out to accurately reflect the event.

Claude Beausoleil, Patrice, Stelio, Yves and the rest of the Chevres team have got their act together, even on day 2 of their effort. Yes, things are still coming together - Claude apologizing for the lack of butter nives as they were stuck in transit from Italy and were arriving early next week - but the dining in my opinion was above reproach. And isn't that what it's all about??

While I did not memorize the menu for publication, I can tell you that it does have a definite vegetable orientation. Only non-vegetable on the appetizer list was foie gras and, yes, it was great - with chocolate crumble and shaved mushrooms! My wife's artichoke and calamata olive dish was beautifully presented, and delicious too.

The entrees were very much veggie-oriented, and being Albertans, we quietly diverted our attention to the meat dishes - I opted for the signature roasted baby goat and my wife chose the roasted chicken. For a restaurant that focuses its attention on veggies, Stelio did an amazing job on these two meat dishes. My most recent goat experiences did not endear me to the species, but last night's dish sure renewed my interest. Thinly sliced, rare, and beautifully presented - I even forgot what the veggies were that Stelio put on the dish!! I'll never be a food critic!!

And the roast chicken - plentiful, moist and tender. A work of art!!

One cannot have a complete dining experience at Les Chevres without a visit to the cheese counter. Three goat cheeses, three raw milk cheeses, a Belgian Passeralle (havarti) - a great presentation from a beautifully displayed cheese counter.

The wine list was more than adequate and very reasonably priced. The focus here, as explained by Yves Larose, is on organic wines (les vins biologiques as Yves put it) and on smaller French wineries. Our dinner selection was a Cotes du Rhone from Domaine Cros de la Mure while our cheese selection was a Gamay Touraine Domaine Clos Roche Blanche, both excellent for the menu selections .

And now for Patrice's creations - dessert and pastries!! While I'll let Patrice describe the dish at his first opportunity, I'll just describe the taste experience - WOW!! The chocolate mousse topped with caramalized banana slices was preceded by a avocado-cream-filled egg shell and followed by a collection of pastry mignardises. My wife and I looked at each other while this was being presented to us and our eyes were filled with glee. Pretty amazing stuff.

Oh, I nearly forgot. The Beausoleil cocktail. A daily treat from the bar, again focusing on the vegetable theme but wth a twist. Last night's offering was home-pressed tomato juice, vodka splash, Bloody Ceasar-type with a fresh oyster added for good measure. Nice touch!

All in all, a wonderful dining experience. Lived up to, and surpassed, expectations. Keep it up. We'll be back later to see if you can.

John

P.S: The "Opening Soon" crew was anxiously looking for mini-disasters to happen along the way to the opening and NONE happened. Pretty smooth opening process, so I was told - we'll have to wait for the broadcast to see their take on it.

[Lesley C]

Wow, that sounds very, very exciting.

Tell me, is the wine list 100% French like Rosalie's?

[Patrice]

For now, the wine list is 98% French (we have 1 Californian wine) but, in the next weeks wine from other countries will be added to our cellar.

That you for your visit Calgarymarmitons!

It's always great to serve E-Gulleters.

The desserts you had last night:

-Avocado and lime juice purée with coconut milk mousse.

-Jivara chocolate cream with truffled milk mousse, bananas, roasted pecans and Maldon salt.

-Mignardise: grapefruit pâte de fruit, lemon and black pepper macaron, almond and raisin cake.

[calgarymarmitons]

Lesley,

My senses are just now starting to return to reality.

OK, I may be somewhat prejudiced to Les Chevres' cuisine being from that all-meat land of Alberta but nevertheless my Quebec heritage was effectively re-awakened last night.

Patrice, that truffled milk mousse accompanying the chocolate cream was something else.

Once again, bonne chance!

John

[cheekycook]

Well E-Gulletters,

I had the opportunity to go to dinner at "Les Chèvres" on Saturday. I was already looking forward to seeing my best friend Food Dwarf because I haven't seen her in a while and she hadn't called me , yeah yeah I know you're busy but so am I , but I was really excited to find out what all the buzz was about.

Anyway, I'm going to try and keep this short, if anybody has any questions just post a query here or email me I'll be happy to respond.

Firstly, I was blown away with what they've done with the place!!!! Super cool design, way to go !!! I fell in love with the little goats in the window, they're sooo kiout!!!

Secondly, there carry my beer, literally!!!!

Thirdly, the food was amazing, all my expectations were surpassed as well as were the ones of my dining companions.

Fourthly, very cool & personable sommelier, took our budget and taste to heart and recommended an amazing bottle of wine!!

*** THIS BY FAR HAS BEEN THE BEST DINING EXPERIENCE I'VE HAD IN A VERY LONG TIME!!! ***

IN THE SPACE OF ONE EVENING THIS HAS NOW BECOME MY FAVORITE SPOT, I CAN'T WAIT TO GO BACK!!!

(I'm sure I'm not the only one either...)

A BIG CONGRATS TO STELIO & PATRICE, THANK YOU FOR A MEMORABLE EVENING, IT WAS AN ABSOLUTE PLEASURE MEETING BOTH OF YOU!!! I CAN'T WAIT TO COME BACK AND SEE YOU!!

WHOEVER DOESN'T BELIEVE IN LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT MUST GO TO "LES CHEVRES"!!!

SENDING YOU BEST WISHES, BIG HUGS & MUCH SUCCESS!!

PS: thanks in advance for looking after Food Dwarf!

[Chazzy]

I recently had the opportunity to eat at Les Chevres with my wife and another couple and unfortunately I did not find it as spectacular as cheekycook and calgarymarmitons. First, the decor is great, I love the look and I love the seperate pastry kitchen. Second, the service was very good for a place that just opened. Now on to the important part, the food. My foie gras starter was excellent, one of the best I've had and my wife's artichoke starter was very good as well, a very promising start to the meal. My main course magret, however, was just alright, nothing special. It was a very generous portion of meat, but could have had crisper skin and a good sauce, it wasn't bad, just nothing special. My wife's salmon was very good, perfectly cooked (rare) and matched well with a corn risotto and aged balsamic. One of my friends had the goat which he did not enjoy and I too did not like it, I just don't like the taste of goat and might even question why the restaurant would serve it as one of their few non-veggie mains even if the place is called Les Chevres. This is a question that came to mind since I didn't notice anybody who didn't order the tasting menu (seemed to be a very good deal by the way) ordering the veggie mains, it's just a tough hurdle to overcome, but I'm somewhat dissapointed I didn't do so actually. The desserts were very creative, but maybe too creative as I didn't like the pairing of the truffle foam with the chocolate, too weird for me. The 'chocolat et orange' dessert, an almond cake with orange liquid center (Bras coulant method it seemed) and chocolate-tea ice cream, however, was very good. Others had and enjoyed the carrot dessert, a cakeless take on carrot cake I think, and the banana, pinapple, avocado dessert. The meal certainly wasn't bad, just not as great as two others have described here. Still, I'm eager to go again after the place has been open awhile and would probably order the tasting menu to ensure that I tried the vegetable courses and because it is very well priced. Continued good luck to Stelio and Patrice, even if I felt some experiments could still use some work it's exciting to have people doing something different, and something that I'm sure will continue to improve.

[Lesley C]

Wow, interesting stuff.

Can anyone be more specific about price? What's the price of the tasting menu? And how many courses? I hope at least two desserts.

[cheekycook]

Too bad Chazzy,

Guess it wasn't your night. Maybe you should have had some wine!!

Kudos to Patrice & Stelio considering the place has been open less than a week!!!

The tasting menu consists of 8 services, and costs $60, it's really 10 courses if you count the Amuse & Mignardises.

Dessert wise it's 2 plus Mignardises. I'm guessing a pre-dessert, dessert & mignardises.

[Chazzy]

Maybe you should have had some wine!! 

Kudos to Patrice & Stelio considering the place has been open less than a week!!!

Haha...should have mentioned actually that I liked the look of the still developing wine list in terms of both selection and prices. And, again, I agree they should be proud of what they're doing there and I plan to come back. Also the tasting menu as cheekycook said includes the pre-dessert which was the egg shell with avocado puree described above by Patrice when I was there and a full dessert, I'm with Lesley though two full desserts might be nice especially considering Patrice is a co-owner, but maybe that will be an option in the future.

As for prices, the apps were $8-11 for veggie options (examples include the artichoke dish described by calgarymarmitons, a sunchoke soup with something I forget that sounded very good, a pear salad with xeres vinegar and honey, a beet and apple terrine in borscht gelee and more I can't remember) and I think $19 for the foie though it might have been less. The veggie mains I believe were in the low 20s, as was the salmon I think, the magret high 20s and goat maybe low 30s.

Edited April 21, 2003 by Chazzy (log)

[cheekycook]

Hey Chazzy!

When did you go exactly??

I had a different pre-dessert than you did; I had an émincé of carrot & mango brunoise topped with a mouthwatering quenelle of mango sorbet. Yum

I wonder if it changes daily ? The possibilities are endless, how exciting...

[guru]

Actually 3 deserts are served in the degustation menu and add 3 mignardises to that. I'm sorry to hear that the goat didn't make it for you. We have heard several comments on it and are trying to get everyone happy (SPECIALLY ME).I'll be glad to serve you again and would really like to meet you next time. eGulleters have followed our opening and we will never forget that.

Keep posting your comments, i will read them all and will respect them all. That'll keep us going further.

[stellboy]

[guru]

say what?

[stellboy]

I keep loving the way you talk to people.

catering school young chef's guru

[raspoutine]

I keep loving the way you talk to people.

catering school young chef's guru

What the F% are you talking about?

[guru]

you definately need therapy.

[mcmillan]

i miss stelboy,and im very proud of him......although he should post en francais......stelio do you remember stelboy....................?

[guru]

Not at all, but i'd like to find out.I probably worked with him at some point.I think he's on St-Laurent now.If that's him, he should introduce himself. He's one of the guys i admire a lot in this city! I can see his sense of humor hasn't changed.

[mcmillan]

its not fred ,try again

[cheekycook]

Is it William??

[guru]

Maybe Newtown.

[identifiler]

Nice little article in la presse this morning, had no clue it was backed up by the former epicier/citrus owner (Beausoleil). The phone must be ringing like mad. The veggie origins on the menue is definitely top choice if the info on the article is correct. It is true, le bonheur est dans le potager.

[Johnathon]

Does anybody have pictures of the place? Any web links?

And... Is there a dress code? Montreal is such a fashionable city in it's decor, decorum and people, just want to make sure I look the part!