Mon Vieil Ami-New Bistro

[Explorer]

This new bistro has opened in the Ile Saint Louis, ex- Le Monde des Chimeres. Antoine Westermann (Buerehiesel) has taken it over installing one of his sous. Apparently, the food isn't Westerman's per say, but Alsacian of course.

We're planning to go there next week. (Closed Mondays and lunch Tuesday)

Has anyone been there already?

69 rue Saint Louis

01 40 46 01 35

[Bux]

There are any number of ways to open a restaurant and any number of reasons, although profit is always part of the picture. Profit is not the worst reason either. If a chef respects his metier and his clientele, he's going to try and make that profit by having a restaurant that draws a clientele attracted to a good quality to price ratio. I don't think it necessarily matters if the chef is the controlling influence, a guiding hand or just the backer of another chef whose cooking he respects. Neither does it matter if the cooking is haute cuisine or rustic. Having had a recent and very successful meal at Aux Lyonnaise in Paris, I'm encouraged to hear about Westermann's plans here. I look forward to your report.

[tighe]

There are any number of ways to open a restaurant and any number of reasons, although profit is always part of the picture. Profit is not the worst reason either. If a chef respects his metier and his clientele, he's going to try and make that profit by having a restaurant that draws a clientele attracted to a good quality to price ratio. I don't think it necessarily matters if the chef is the controlling influence, a guiding hand or just the backer of another chef whose cooking he respects. Neither does it matter if the cooking is haute cuisine or rustic. Having had a recent and very successful meal at Aux Lyonnaise in Paris, I'm encouraged to hear about Westermann's plans here. I look forward to your report.

Bux, what is this post in response to exactly? It almost looks like you're anticipating people ripping this place, or the owner, before it's actually happened?

[Bux]

Bux, what is this post in response to exactly? It almost looks like you're anticipating people ripping this place, or the owner, before it's actually happened?

Then I've expressed myself poorly. I don't expect a negative review, but I sense that many diners feel too many chefs are expanding in too many directions. In some cases they are almost franchising their name and overextending themselves. This venture seems more along the lines of Guy Savoy's backing one of his trained chefs in their own restaurant and that of Ducasse's connection with Aux Lyonnaise. I really don't know how much influence Ducasse has at Aux Lyonnaise, but I know he contributes from his other kitchens. Nevertheless, it seems as if this is a business arrangement rather than just another Ducasse controlled restaurant. If I'm willing to pay the price to eat in the expensive three star restaurant, it's reasonable that I'm going to be interested in the bistro that same chef supports by backing it. Who better than a successful chef with some money to invest, to pick another chef to back?

[Bux]

P.S. I suppose it's also true that I'm generally more interested in exploring the concepts behind food and dining than just knowing about which restaurant is good and which are not worth my time and money, but I also sense there's a large audience at eGullet that thinks this way as well. This is not to discount the interest in having another good address in our portfolio of restaurants in Paris.

[Mark Sommelier]

M. Westermann is the consulting chef for a restaurant here in Washington, DC. Café 15 in the Sofitel Hotel is run by people who cooked for Westermann in Alsace. He visits every few months to update the menu. It is a very good restaurant and it is always dead.

[Louisa Chu]

It is a very good restaurant and it is always dead.

One of the most frightening statements you can make to a restauranteur.

[fresh_a]

A few colleagues of mine went, and were quite impressed. A clean modern decor, good creative food at reasonable prices (38 euros menu)

[John Whiting]

Some of my best dining experiences have been at short-lived establishments launched by fine chefs pursuing an ideal, but who had misjudged the market.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

We visited MVA last week. It is indeed sleek and chic. Welcome is pleasant and seating is comfortable. I immediately noticed that the silverware was heavy and good-feeling, and that the handle of my knife was covered with fingerprints. The menu was much as Patricia Wells described, as was the immediately offered (and offert) glass of Alsatian pinot blanc. I found the bread much more ordinary than Wells described. We ordered the pate en croute and the root vegetbles in broth. We went on to veal kidneys (rare) with small potatoes in Pinot Noir sauce and cod with carrots, raisins and dates in a citrus broth, finishing with a warm chocolate tart and apples in Grand Marnier with pear sorbet and brioche "french toast". This all sounds much more interesting than it was to eat. There were no major mistakes in concept or execution, nor anything that seduced the palate. We traded every course midway because our plates failed to hold our interest. Major selling points: 38 euro 3 course menu; open for Sunday dinner.

Note: this appears to be a minority opinion.

[picaman]

Pictures of some of the dishes here.

Jamie

[Gary Marshall]

quattre jours a paris: day two lunch at mon vieil ami

[Moderator's note: day one was posted here.]

to keep things orderly, i'll file this here, jamies pictures help a lot and bring back some great memories

Friday morning we eventually rose late at 11am following a disturbed nights sleep due to a room slightly cooler than a sauna, despite supposedly having air con and the fact there was a school next door whose bell kept ringing loud enough to make me think the hotel fire alarm was going off in my half asleep state.

By 11.01 thoughts of lunch were paramount. I had read patricia wells report on mon vieil ami and thought of the 38e menu fitted with my new, unextravagant ways.

A quick phone call secured a table and we were on our way, again braving the metro but as per last night, no idea where the place was. I knew it was on ille louis and just hoped it was a small ‘ille’ .Luckily we found the main street and just as I was about to give up and turn back sarah noted that we were in fact stood with our backs to said restaurant looking up and down the road. I don’t think I’ll abandon finance for the world of exploring just yet!

Part of the reason I didn’t spot the place was it didn’t look anything like I was expecting, I thought a small traditional décor bistro for some reason, I was not expecting a black very designed space with half exposed dry stone walls and minimal décor, obviously the 80’s are back as atelier robuchon, here and maitre albert all have monochrome schemes.

Inside there are two rows of tables along the walls with a central serving table and a couple of round tables with the second long table slightly raised, which I thought looked cool. Initial thoughts were good especially as on the serving table was a fantastic looking chocolate tart and huge chunks of comte and chaource (?) that looked in perfect condition.

The menu looked great, daily specials (as in a dish for each day of the week) together with a couple of market specials and the menu. Although they advertise the menu at 38e it is split into 10e starters, 20e mains and guess what, 8e for desert (though cheese was 11e).

Massive indecision over the menu saw me go for the safe choice of foie gras pate en croute (although wifey refused to believe that ‘pates’ was pasta, and pate is well, pate, and thought she’d caught me out ‘how do you wrap foie gras in pasta?‘ She should have realised by now I’m never knowingly wrong!). Although she did get her revenge with her starter which was more interesting than mine, marinated sardines, served in a cool staube cast iron pot and served with provencal –esque peppers etc, a really good fresh and stimulating dish. My foie was a technically excellent preparation accompanied with hazlenut dressed mache leaves and remoulade .

My main thought was just what le doctuer ordered, a stuffed roasted chicken breast (mmm) with pomme puree (mmmm) and caramelised choucroute (mmmmm). The breast was large (insert own joke here) and perfectly cooked with a bit of chickeny jus the pomme not quite robuchon level but not far off pomme lovers. The choucroute was the revelation, although caramelised it actually tasted slightly curried, it was great. When they invent teleportation I’ll go every week for this dish! Sarah had a skate wing which was good from memory but paled against the mighty poullette combo.

The choc tart was calling but the cheese had been facing me all lunchtime and although thoughts of leaving room for the evenings adventures entered my mind I had a portion of cheese. It was goodly chunks of the aforementioned comte and chaource together with an altogether smellier livarot I think. They tasted as excellent as they looked.

On the drinks front we had the alsatian pinot blanc freebie to start then a bottle of kottabe riesling 02 which was a little green, a coffee to finish and remarkably, no calva!

Everything was well until I paid and asked for a menu which they refused, which pissed me off more than it should have done, especially when I had seen another waiter give one to another couple. It was the only sour note, the young waiters were (with the exception of mr no givy away menu) good and spoke french to me rather than the irritating answering you back in english when you ask a question in french school that tends to predominate.

Being a big man, I can overlook the menu issue and say you should try it, it is a very good restaurant, especially so at the prices.

[bleudauvergne]

.Luckily we found the main street and just as I was about to give up and turn back sarah noted that we were in fact stood with our backs to said restaurant looking up and down the road. I don’t think I’ll abandon finance for the world of exploring just yet!

I'm so happy to read your adventure and excellent descriptions of the food you had. Thank you.

[tate]

I, too, had a great meal at Mon Vieil Ami. My favorite sous chef helped out with their opening and highly recommended it. We weren't disappointed! I chowed down on the sardines, skate wing, and pear riz au lait...and all for only 38 euros. The skate was divine, with a classic garnish of capers, croutons, and lemon. But the lemon was, er, with a twist (ahem), instead using moroccan-stye preserved peels. My favorite!

Due to its size, you end up getting to know your neighbors, which for us was the only drawback! We had to endure wafting noise pollution a la, "My business made so much money last year." and, "MY business made lots of money last year, too." Gross. Then, one of the ladies proceeded to complain of an allergy to red onions (is that possible?) and sent the first of two plates back to the kitchen. I sent her the evil eye between bites of my yummy, yummy pudding.

We'll soon be back to try out their spring/summer menu!

[bleudauvergne]

I have this favorite cooking show on French TV where chefs come as guests to cook in Joel Robuchon's kitchen. They do the most amazing recipes. I like to follow them when I can at home. I've done a whole lot of them. Anyway, There's Westermann the elder and Westermann the younger. Clearly father and son. I'm not sure, excuse my ignorance, who is the one who produced this kitchen in Paris.

edited to say we threw out the t.v. proper and now see programs a la carte from the internet, a big step up from the minitel I must say

Edited to fix Mr. Robuchon's first name which I got completely wrong

Edited April 15, 2004 by bleudauvergne (log)

[naf]

I have this favorite cooking show on French TV where chefs come as guests to cook in Paul Robuchon's kitchen.

Joël Robuchon's show, you mean? It's called Bon Appétit Bien Sur. And actually this week, the show is featuring Westermann the junior (Eric Westermann). I have to agree that this show is indeed amazing.

To answered bleudauvergne, Mon Vieil Ami is operated by the father, Antoine Westermann

[bleudauvergne]

I have this favorite cooking show on French TV where chefs come as guests to cook in Paul Robuchon's kitchen.

Joël Robuchon's show, you mean? It's called Bon Appétit Bien Sur. And actually this week, the show is featuring Westermann the junior (Eric Westermann). I have to agree that this show is indeed amazing.

To answered bleudauvergne, Mon Vieil Ami is operated by the father, Antoine Westermann

Yes, that show! I don't know how Joel turned into Paul... Duh.

[John Whiting]

Pre-website posting

Friends old and new

Mon Vieil Ami

Where should I look for reliable information on the ever-changing restaurant scene in Paris, which I visit at most a few times a year? Once upon a time, the Blue Guides, which were used until they fell apart, included restaurants and hotels. To patronize them today you’d have to travel back in time in a tardis with Doctor Who.

There are the standard guidebooks such as Michelin, but the restaurant world is now so volatile that by the time the latest edition has reached the shops it’s already out of date. (And recently an ex-employee revealed that even the great stars in its culinary firmament are not necessarily visited every year.)

The Time Out Eating and Drinking Guide has been as useful as any at the bistro end of the market, which I’m most interested in, but new editions only come out every few years. Then there’s the all-inclusive Pudlo Paris, but its very catholicity makes it scarcely more useful for short visits than Les Pages Jaunes.

What of the Paris newspapers and magazines, available via their websites? There’s a constant demand for fresh copy that makes it necessary for journalists to keep coming up with a new Greatest Restaurant of the Year. Back in 1973 John Hess reluctantly agreed to review restaurants for the New York Times; he packed it in after nine months because he found so few new places that were even acceptable.

So what I need is a judicious authority with no commercial interest in what he writes, who could survive indefinitely without discovering a single new chef worth patronizing. Enter John Talbott.

Dr. John Talbott is a professor of psychiatry for the University of Maryland in Baltimore and in Paris who seems to spend much of his time editing a running wrap-up of the Paris restaurant scene for the food website eGullet, together with quotes from the Paris press and brief personal reactions to those places he has visited. His reports suggest that although he is keeping up with the latest developments, he is at heart a classicist who measures his discoveries, not against the ephemeral magnets of fickle celebrity, but against those survivors that form and maintain loyalties born of long familiarity.

And so Mary and I set off on our latest Paris pig-out with a short list of five bistros which John had recommended but which had not yet found their way into the guide books. Risky? Less so, it turned out, than all those authoritative and expensively bound volumes. Not only did all five prove to be slam-dunk certs (in the elegant phraseology of George W’s former CIA director), but we returned to a couple of them with equal satisfaction.

One of these was Mon Vieil Ami, a Paris spin-off from a favorite Strasbourg restaurant, Antoine Westermann’s Buerehiesel. His former sous chef, Antony Clémot, has been put in charge.

This thoroughly up-to-date bistro has taken over an old stone space on the central street of Ile Saint Louis and modernized it without violating its nature or its neighbors. In fact, it is so discreetly signposted as to be easily passed by, as we did on our second visit.

Inside, the massive wall of old stone together with an adjoining gray wall with accentuating dark wood beams give the room a solidity and quiet dignity – nothing extreme, either of ambiance or of décor. The American accents we heard at adjoining tables, together with the alternative English cartes, told us that the very favorable review from Patricia Wells in the International Herald Tribune at the end of January had done its work.

As for the carte, the fact that the vegetable content of every dish was itemized before the meat or fish gave a strong indication that the former were receiving a lot more attention than in traditional French cuisine. It promised an approach to dish building rather like that of California’s distinctive restaurants such as Chez Panisse. I had already noted the same approach at Westermann’s home base in Strasbourg half-a-dozen years before, although back then the meats were as usual listed first.

If further proof were needed, it came in Mary’s first dish, Légumes printaniers en salade tiède, máche et petites girolles poêlées. This contained so many lightly poached, perfectly blended vegetables that she set out to list them. They included yellow carrots, courgettes, yellow squash, green beans, green onions, peas, cauliflower, mange toute, asparagus, celery, fennel, bibb lettuce, alfalfa and two kinds of mushrooms, served in their own vegetable jus. Like a well-made ratatouille, each was cooked to the proper degree, suggesting that they had been added successively, each at the crucial moment.

My own entrée was an ordinary-sounding Pâté en croûte de Mon Vielle Ami, salade à l’huile  de noix which proved to be anything but ordinary. The crust retained a rare crispness, even underneath; the solid meaty bits actually tasted of duck rather than “some form of animal protein”, the bouillon was intensively flavored and springily jelled, and there was an eye of fresh foie-gras in the middle that I felt obliged to share with Mary, to our mutual delight.

For a main course, I ordered the much-praised Carottes et navets étouvés aux épices, canard de barbarie braisé et caramélisé. I could tell immediately why the meat was mentioned last. In itself it was of modest flavor, but it had distributed its essence into the carrots and the turnips with an unaccustomed generosity. These had maintained their own distinctive identity; classic French cuisine would typically have utilized them as a mere flavoring agent. Modern French cuisine involves, in a very real sense, a shift in perspective.

In Mary’s Légumes cuits façon Bouillabaisse, lotte rôtie, the monkfish was similarly incorporated into the vegetable totality, the name indicating that the method of bouillabaisse was employed, but equal billing had been given to the vegetables.

For desert, my Tarte aux chocolate was very satisfyingly warm, rich and creamy. Not the most sensational I’ve ever had, but no complaints. Mary’s Salade de fruits frais et exotiques aux épices was again a winner: like her warm salad at the beginning of the meal, an extravagant mix of ingredients. In the fresh syrup she noted strawberries, cherries, peaches, pineapple, kiwi, raspberries and fig.

Both the food and the ambience had been so satisfactory that we decided to return for Sunday lunch, at the expense of some other bistro which would have given me subject matter for another review. As the room filled up, we were delighted to hear that this time the clientele were mostly French-speaking. Sunday lunch is the archetypal French family meal – it’s normal to see three generations together at the table. Mon Vieil Ami had demonstrated that its friends were not exclusively from across the ocean.

For a starter, Mary returned to her warm salad. This time the vegetables were not quite so prolific, but the dish stood up well on its own without demanding comparison. My own choice, Confit de légumes et l’oignon, sardines marinées et tartines grillées, proved to be a generous serving dish of cold vegetables and fish, a sort of concentrated, slightly caramelized ratatouille – an ample serving for two which I nevertheless had no trouble in finishing off with only a little assistance.

This time Mary went for the Pommes de terre rissolées aux oignons et à l’ail, rognons de veau poêlé au Pinot Noir. It was a gargantuan helping of monumental proportions which featured a Stonehenge circle of five whole kidneys. I generously helped her to dispose of them. I returned to my fine barbarie duck dish of the previous visit; nothing new to add.

Part way through our meal, a lone American wearing a designer T-shirt occupied an adjoining table. Unsurprisingly he proved to be the owner of an avant-garde clothing shop in Santa Monica. Certain small-scale couturiers, he informed us, were now identified as “artisanal”, like rural Italian sausage-makers, and commanded correspondingly inflated prices. One worker in leather, he said, takes his raw materials to Afghanistan, where they are subjected to the elements; their much-abused remains are then made into remarkable garments whose origins one would never imagine.

As he spoke, I thought of what a cuisine might be like that was similarly born of battlefield extremity. (I didn’t share my thoughts with him and so we parted on friendly terms.) Fortunately, even the most trendy of gastronomically scientific chefs has not yet gone to the surrealistic lengths of haute couture. As for Mon Vieil Ami, it stays firmly within the boundaries of the rational and the pleasurable, and so we would gladly pay it another return visit.

Mon Vieil Ami, 69 St-Louis-en-l’Isle, 4th , Tel 01 40 46 01 35

©2004 John Whiting 

[Bux]

While we have a vested interest in having al your readers navigate their way through the site and hit as many pages as possible on the way to John's Digests, they'd be served well if you put in a clickable link to the heart of the matter.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=42908

I agree that the DIGEST: Paris Restaurant News & Reviews is worth the price of admission to eGullet and would be reason alone to pay a fee, if there was one, just to read the forum. As no good deed goes unpunished, we'll see if we can reward John by getting him to do more around here.

[marlena spieler]

at mon vieil ami we were treated like "old friends" before we even entered the place. as it was a quiet, hot summer day, chef antony came out and started chatting with my husband as he stood with our suitcase waiting for our lunch companion to show. Chef antony didn't know we had reservations and was busy chatting about the good things he was cooking for lunch that day. when husband, aka the british husband, said we are in fact coming to lunch, chef antony grabbed his suitcase and rolled it in, said oh, i'll take care of it.

chef antony has the biggest warmest smile anywhere by the way.

but i wasn't to know any of this at that moment as i was busy first at the cheese shop across the way, and then at cocoa et chocolate next door.

when i did arrive at our table, the chef-owner of islands best sushi resto was already sitting and lunching, along with whatever poor parisian souls were left now that the heat had descended and summer had begun.

since we ate several of the dishes reported in the review above, i won't dwell on them, except to say that if you order the carottes et navets caramizee aux epices, canette roti, and you are sitting at my table, i'm afraid you must accept that fact that my fork will find its way onto your plate. and you might find this happening even if you are at a nearby table........be forwarned.

i will say that i ate divine morelles, and when i spoke with chef antony in the kitchen later, he said: it is the end of the morels, perhaps i had eaten the last morels of the season that very day.

chef antony and his co-chef, from washington dc whose name please forgive me i forget, but blame it on the wine with lunch.....chilled with me awhile after our meal, after "le coude fou" that is the kitchen rush to get the food ready and out to waiting tables. i poked around at what they were cooking, putting away, getting ready for the next meal. it was hot in the kitchen but the food that came out had great big clear flavours and an abundance of freshness.

I have huge pangs of remorse over not ordering the cheese plate......... the roasted pineapple with pineapple sorbet was perfect for sweltering summer however.

and i only regret that they didn't open earlier so i could have included them in my Williams Sonoma book: Paris, which is due out on the bookshelves this autumn.

Marlena

[John Whiting]

It's reassuring when one's impressions are reenforced by a fine bouche.

[Bux]

John, isn't that how you determine if someone is a fine bouche? I do.

[John Whiting]

Un oiseau dans la bouche vaut la peine deux dans la main, I always say.

[picaman]

Here is a link to my report on a dinner that my partner and I had here with LKL Chu back in April.

Somewhat fuzzy pictures included.

Jamie

[VivreManger]

MON VIEIL AMI

69 rue Saint Louis en l’Ile, Paris 4.

Telephone: 01 40 46 01 35.

Fax: 01 40 46 01 36.

Closed Monday, and Tuesday at lunch

Awhile ago Figaroscope listed this resto as veggie friendly. On the other hand much of the reportage I have read emphasize the solid meat dishes, e.g. sweetbreads with noodles & mushrooms (Bittman), veal breast in pastry (Wells).

Has anyone eaten veggies there and can recommend the options? The link to the Figaroscope veggie-friendly article might help.

Is my info above, taken from Wells, still accurate? Is there any problem with reservations? Is the 30 to 38 Euro range for a meal still accurate? Is the recent Bittman praise in the NYTimes likely to raise the price and make access more difficult? Any informed guesses?

Edited January 27, 2006 by VivreManger (log)