Cafe Constant

[Louisa Chu]

Chef Christian Constant - Violon d'Ingres, formerly of the Crillon - has opened Cafe Constant - a few doors down from Violon - on rue St. Dominique on the corner of rue Augereau. He took over a typical old neighborhood cafe - nasty little terrier and 2 cats gone - and is serving the daily plats he offered at the boutique as well as cafe classics. Open throughout the summer but closed on Sundays.

[pim]

Thanks Lou for the info. I haven't had his food since the Crillon, too long ago. I have been enjoying the foods of the gang of young(-ish) chefs he's trained though, at l'os a Moelle, la Regalad, and La Repaire de Cartouche.

I definitely will pay le maître himself a visit when I'm in Paris in a couple of weeks.

thanks again for the pointer.

Pim

[Louisa Chu]

Pim, I'm so glad you saw this. I was going to post it on your original thread too - but actually got distracted by real work!

Violon is also open regular hours throughout August - only closed Sunday and Monday - despite what their own site and the Michelin site say. It's just Chef Constant and his wife Catherine who'll be on vacation until the 20th.

[admajoremgloriam]

After many "no sorry you'll have to wait for 30 minutes" said with many smiles, I managed to eat at Café Constant last night and frankly I don't see what the fuss is all about.

Service was nice, the menu varied enough as well and the wine a decently priced 'vigneron indépendant' production. So what went wrong? Nothing really, but nothing went exceptionally right either. It is good food, traditional, fairly subtly executed, but you can find that at dozens of places in Paris. Actually, the "saumon en croute de mie de pain sauce au Noily" was the tiniest piece of salmon served on a bed on pasta, and after having waited for it 45 minutes, it was gone before I could realize this would have been small for a starter. Also, the ice cream they use for the "Vacherin" are clearly not Constant ones and feel very industrial.

There is nothing deeply wrong about the place, it's just another café and that came as a disappointment to me.

Luckily enough, I live almost in front, which means it was not too hard to go and see night after night whether they had a table for two but I would not take the chance to cross half of Paris to go there without a reservation and I would not consider it worth waiting half an hour to be seated. Two very good brasseries serve the same kind of food, in much more generous servings, one is called "le Dome" and is right around the corner, the other one is "le Bosquet", three minutes away on the eponimous avenue.

[OAKGLEN]

Last month we rented an appartment one block away from Cafe Constant and it became our favorite spot for a kir, a light meal (there is no pressure to order a full three course meal) and just to hang out. Entrees are 7E and plats are 11E. The quality of ingredients is high; the bread is the same as at Chef Constant's Violin de Ingres and all other basics are sourced there. We often saw the staff bringing covered platters over from Violin. The wait staff are young,hip and upbeat. It is not worth a special trip but the concept (highest quality ingredients/no ambiance or extras) works for us. If you want the extras plus outanding cooking for a reasonable price try Clos des Gourmets on avenue Rapp; a Michelin Bib Gourmand, this was our favorite dining spot in this part of the 7th.

[Louisa Chu]

I just had lunch there today. The trick to not waiting is arriving just a little earlier than the crowd - 11:45AM for us - we were the first to arrive and had our pick of tables. For dinner - unfortunately - a little early - maybe around 7PM. Sure there's some of the standard cafe fare on the regular menu - but they also have a pretty impressive - and limited - list of plats du jour - before lunch was over they were already chalking off items. We started off - all the starters and desserts are on the regular menu - which does change regularly - with oeufs en meurette and a salade of potatoes, oysters, and mayo. The little things that impressed me with the oeufs en meurette are that they were topped with brunoise-sized croutons and the sauce held tiny girolles mushrooms - both elevated the dish from just the standard eggs poached in a red wine sauce - and showed me that someone with did some meticulous mise en place - not found in your regular cafes. The salad was a bit if a surprise - a fancy potato salad with oysters - and garnished with a nice, fresh mimosa - hard-cooked egg yolk run through a tami - again, nice detail. We ordered two plats du jour - a lievre a la royale hachis parmentier and a stuffed cochon au lait cooked in brioche - they didn't serve the brioche but did the dish with a side of brussel sprouts. And here's where I really love the cafe - after our generous entrees, as good as the plats were - and they were both very good - and foie gras evident in both the lievre a la royale of course, as well as in the stuffing of the pork - that knowing we were going to order dessert, we asked for the plats to be wrapped to go. Yeah - to go - in Paris. Because one of the other great things about the cafe is that they do a brisk takeout business - a holdover from the boutique days. So back came two aluminum barquettes - just like in the States. We knew we wanted dessert - especially after seeing our table neighbors get theirs - two elegant older French women who attacked a Poire Helene covered in chocolate sauce, with vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream and a thick, high wedge of Tarte Tatin with a side of just the ice cream - yeah, I know, heresy amongst the TT purists. We got the same - and understood their gusto - both fruits very tender - but not at all overcooked, one of the things I hate - dramatic, generous, rich, satisfying. The place was packed by the time we took our coffees - with a very cool, convivial crowd - but never felt rushed, and and everyone was especially considerate in stepping around and over my dog. We had just a carafe water to drink. Total tab about 51 euros - and even though I live right around the corner, it is a place I'd go across town for.

[OAKGLEN]

Hi Louisa; on a recent visit to Cafe Constant I was seated on the bench seat next to a very attractive French terrier who was accompanied by a well dressed, elderly French woman. The dog seemed to like me (no, I didn't offer him/her any surreptitious offerings) but the woman looked at me suspiciously and carefully positioned the dog on her other side. The dog clearly added a note of stately class to this most friendly spot and brought back memories of Paris in years past when it was not uncommon to be seated next to or near a well behaved canine guest. A fun experience! JP

[Louisa Chu]

JP, that's too funny - my dog Karli tried to climb up on the banquettes too - she probably knew other dogs had been there - but she's a little big. Though she does sit up in places when there's room - no one ever has a problem with it.

Cafe Constant plat du jour today - wild boar stew with fresh pasta.

And did I mention that they use Christofle flatware?

[admajoremgloriam]

I gave it another shot. Well, two actually, yesterday and today, wild boar and hachis parmentier (minced meat under mashed potatoes). I decided last time might have been the result of a grumpy mood and not going for the plat du jour a mistake I had to repair. Here are my (somewhat) corrected opinions: everything went much faster, there was also a lot more on the plates than last time (though a starter is still pretty much compulsory as far as I'm concerned). As for the really important stuff: good ingredients, simple but subtle cooking. However, I still fail to see what is special at all about this place especially with compared to, say, les Fontaines. Their wild boar is only a few euros more expensive and in a completely different league. Not to mention their pheasant (15 euros) which I tried last week and impressed me like few pheasant ever had (dead ones that is, 'cause live phesants are pretty impressive).

[admajoremgloriam]

In the interest of fairness (which I don't usually care for that much but hey...) I should say I have had a very nice dinner there a few days ago. Oeufs en meurette (just perfect), bourride de poissons (a lot of different species, served with aioli- a kind of garlic paste, very nice), tarte au chocolat et café (about the same as the one I had at Violon d'Ingres two months ago). I also spotted some vol-au-vent on the nearest table that seemed to come pretty much straight from the starred restaurant.

So what is it with this place? I think their menu takes a bit of practice before being able to navigate safely in there. My advice: for starters go for the simpler dishes, with less expensive ingredients, the serving size is much nicer then and they are perfectly well executed. But for main, do not follow that principle any more, the normal cost of ingredients is irrelevant here, try to spot what might be coming from the Violon and order this (I noticed some hare hachis lately that is on both menus some days for example). So much science needed!

[Margaret Pilgrim]

However, I still fail to see what is special at all about this place especially with compared to, say, les Fontaines. Their wild boar is only a few euros more expensive and in a completely different league. Not to mention their pheasant (15 euros) which I tried last week and impressed me like few pheasant ever had (dead ones that is, 'cause live phesants are pretty impressive).

admajoretal...I am interested in your reference to Les Fontaines. We haven't been there in probably 10 years. Can you bring us up to date in a thread of its own? Many thanks.

[Akiko]

Can someone post the number to Cafe Constant? Is it possible for me to get a party of 9 people in for dinner?

We're going to be in Paris over new year's and will be staying nearby (relatively). I'd like to try it.

Thanks in advance!

[admajoremgloriam]

Here is the information:

139, rue Saint-Dominique (7ème), Tel : 01 47 53 73 34 (drop the zero if not calling from France).

Café Constant does not take reservations for now, though they might start to do so next year. A party of 9 would take about half of the restaurant (or a good third at least) and frankly, if you want to eat at normal hours, you do not stand a chance of getting so many people in. Try having dinner at 6 or something like that.