Au C'Amelot, Paris XIème

[vserna]

I often have to make harrowing, 18-hour trips to Paris: one long afternoon meeting, one night, one 8 AM flight out of town... The antithesis of a 'gastronomic pace'... Last week it was raining hard and I was staying in the fully unfashionable 11th 'arrondissement' (well, just 50 yards away from the very fashionable Marais, but even crossing the Boulevard Beaumarchais seemed like a harrowing task...) Fortunately I'd read in some French magazine about the newer Paris bistrots, and there was one that seemed interesting on the very Rue Amelot where my hotel was. So off it was to Au C'Amelot for an early dinner. Well, it was surprisingly good. And cheap.

There's some criticism of it in France because there's a single prix fixe menu, with dessert (three are offered, plus one cheese plate) the only possible choice: take it or leave. "That's not what a bistrot stands for!" local oldtimers say. Well, 20 years ago Sally Clarke introduced this system in her Kensington restaurant after learning the trade at Chez Panisse, and we all loved it. Then again there's the price: in a very expensive city like Paris, 32 euros for a four-course meal, and a well-cooked one, is a steal!

The menu, of course, changes every day. The other night, at my little table in the narrow dining room, I had the following dishes, expertly cooked by chef/owner Didier Varnier: a hearty 'potage parmentier' (good stock, mashed potatoes, a bit of 'crème fraîche', crunchy 'croûtons, lots of freshly chopped chives on top); then a good chunk of barbue (Scophthalmus rhombus; in British English, brill; for Americans, a smaller cousin of turbot; for us in Spain, rémol), which had been oven-roasted whole, with a meat 'jus', arugula (make it rocket in British English) and a bed of roast eggplant (aubergines); then a caramelized veal shank with a bit of vinaigrette-flavored couscous. Finally, I chose a truly exquisite dessert of fig compote with an ice cream made with a fennel 'confit' (i.e., sugared fennel), plus a sweet red wine sauce (I guess made with a Banyuls or a Maury). The soup (they leave the tureen on your table) was very hearty for a rainy night, the brill perfectly cooked, i.e. juicy and tender (infrequent in France, where they love to overcook fish) although the chef had used the pepper mill with somewhat excessive gusto, and the veal shank had been very slowly cooked so that it flew off the bone and melted in the mouth. The eggplant and the couscous worked very well with, respectively, the fish and the meat course.

These kinds of prices make a slightly expensive wine more attractive, so for 38 euros I chose a bottle of an unpretentious but beautifully gluggable red Burgundy from the outstanding 1999 vintage, Domaine Fougeray de Beauclair's Fixin Clos Marion. Oh! The semi-dry, cool Pays d'Auge cider sold by the glass is a perfect apéritif.

Nice place. I'll come back, even if it doesn't rain.

The location: 50, rue Amelot, 75011 Paris, phone 01.43.55.54.04

Edited October 1, 2003 by vserna (log)

[curlywurlyfi]

vserna, you are making me nostalgic! I lived on the Rue Amelot, right down at the Bastille end, when I was a student in Paris (15 years ago, eeek). All there was then was a couscous place downstairs. We're planning a Paris reunion and we might just have to go here! thank you!

[Bux]

This is about as unassuming a place as one could find in Paris. I'd be the first to agree that it doesn't meet the definition of "bistrot," although I'd also be hard pressed to find two people who agree on what that definition might be. Then again try and find two people in France who agree on anything.

The cooking is very much bistro cooking, albeit without the standard array of cold appetizers, often brought in a large bowl from which the diner may help himself, I'd expect to be able to choose. No doubt enables the chef keep the price down. As I'm pretty much an omnivore, I'll take quality and value over choice almost any day. The real option I'd like to have is to pick my table at the last minute, but fewer and fewer restaurants are not fully booked weeks in advance. Once I've selected my restaurant, I'm happy to let the chef choose my meal anyway, so there's little to be lost by not having a carte from which to order for me. Sometimes a few dishes stand out and a few cry out to be ignored. My guess is that the latter are exactly the ones the chef wouldn't be serving if he didn't feel a need to pander to a large audience of diners with food issues. Most places that only offer a set menu, have a few dishes in reserve to offer those with serious allergies or problems. Although I'd heard that Au C'Amelot only offered a choice of desserts, I recall having a choice of two dishes for both the meat and fish courses. In fact, looking at my brief notes, I'm reminded of the one objection I might have to the single set menu--one of the two choices for the meat course was the same animal cooked in a style similar to what I had for dinner the previous night.

We met an eGullet member there last year, and friends from the Languedoc told us it was the best discovery they made on a recent visit to Paris. I'm not sure if it serves food that's making a comeback in Paris, or if that's just food I'm rediscovering after too much attention to haute cuisine. The pity about going to all that trouble and expense of flying across an ocean and then paying for a hotel room is that the cost of dinner seems so much less critical than it does when dining out at home after it's all factored in the total cost of the trip. Restaurants such as Au C'Amelot really provide more of a sense of place than internationally reputed destination restaurants in some ways.

[Schneier]

I often have to make harrowing, 18-hour trips to Paris: one long afternoon meeting, one night, one 8 AM flight out of town...

I've done that. I've done worse, too. I've flown overnight to Europe, given a lecture, and then flown home that day without ever renting a hotel room.

It's not very fun.

Bruce

[vserna]

Actually, Bux, I understand they will sometimes add a second choice, but they always announce it at the table and not on the blackboard menu; I didn't mention it, but the other night one could choose roast duck instead of the veal shank.

It's not a vulgar place, culinarily. I am an inveterate investigator of Paris bistrots, and this one is really up there with the good ones.

Of course, it's not Allard circa 1965-1970. Then again, nothing is Allard circa 1965-1970 anymore...

[Bux]

I didn't mean to say it wasn't a good example of bistrot cuisine. When I said I'd take "quality and value over choice," that was in support of Au C'Amelot where I had minimal choice but excellent value. In fact, I felt the price of the meal would have been justified had they just offered soup, fish or meat, and desert and not all four. The value was in the quality of the preparation not just the quantity. If I had to eat lièvre à la royale for the second night in a row, I would not have been too unhappy. In fact I did, a bit. With soup, fish, meat and dessert coming, I got to taste Esilda's lièvre.