Feb 2006: Drouant, Bistral, 144, Baratin, F'r'd'se

[John Talbott]

Feb 2006: Drouant, Le Bistral, Le 144 Petrossian, Le Baratin, La Ferrandaise, Au Pied de Sacre Coeur, Fogon, Le Vieux Bistro, Chez Casimir, Gallopin, l’Archelle, Les Racines

8.5 - Drouant, 16-18, place Gaillon in the 2nd, 01.42.65.15.16, open everyday, plat de jour = 20 E, menu of the day = 45 E, menu-carte 67 E. Wow/Great/Wonderful, throw in any superlative you want. What a great re-launch of the venerable old gal. I take my hat off to Antoine Westerman and Antony Clemot (ex-Viel Ami) who moved over here after successfully launching that off-shoot of his famed Buerehiesel in Strasbourg. I haven’t set foot in the place in 35 years, but my, it’s held its charm. Make no mistake – it’s pricey – one can easily drop 100 E for one, but there are several ways around this: (1) they have daily specials that are a gentle 20 E and are listed on the carte outside (today a matelote of sandre, with a huge chunk of perfectly cooked fish in a sauce that tasted like that that surrounds quenelles and had mushrooms and scallions and pasta and just a tad of lemon, butter and cream – oh my! sopped that all up,) that my waiter strongly urged me to take, (2) one can order only one entrée (25 E; everyone was having six oysters which seemed silly, since Gerard Depardieu’s oyster bar sits but a few meters across the street and serves them for half that) or one main (30 E) which a food critic pal told me would be sufficient to feed me for the day (the meat dishes did look big, although they only gave folks four scallops – in case you haven’t heard, everything comes in fours – four entrees, four veggies, etc.), (3) they have a 45 E menu of the day, which has an entrée (in my case a lovely stew of artichokes, exquisite egg and baie berries, choice between the special and another dish of the day (today, duck with smashed potatoes) and dessert (today an incredible deconstructed tiramisu) as well as super mignardises of confited oranges and an intense, dense bar of chocolate and (4) they have a bar menu which despite all the frou-frou cocktails the French now consider amusing, had a more interesting selection than Senderens’s bar menu, e.g., marinated scallops, a platter of charcuterie, a terrine of duck liver and smoked salmon, each only 10 E. The wines start low (17 E) and go to the heights. In any case, I had great, friendly service (the waiters wear blindingly white open shirts with black scarves), good bread and a fine time. With a glass or two of wine one can escape for 55-65 Euros, which I challenge anyone to find the equal of in this fine town. The downside: not really for a geezer like me, but I swear that every Royalist left in France was eating there that day and everybody but two men had suits and ties (the good part of that, of course, is they speak kindly of the United States in the slow, articulate French of Cardinal Lustiger, President Chirac and Queen Elizabeth, so you can over-hear everything). It was chock-a-block full – go quickly!

8 – Le Bistral, 80 rue Lemercier in the 17th, 01.42.63.59.61, closed Sunday and Monday lunch. Lawrence Block said it best - “Some Days You Get the Bear” and Some Days the Bear Gets You. Today we got the bear, wow! In business for four years but undiscovered except by A Nous Paris + Zurban, this place is a wonder. A Nous issued ample warning that the dishes contained strange combinations and great but quirky stuff and that they featured new and different natural wines; both very true. Let’s start with the blackboard’s description of the food:

Entrees

Pumpkin soup with cream and iced oyster(s), sliceable sausage and a “fudge” of leeks (3 E extra)

Beef on mashed potatoes with the marrow bone and gingerbread with chestnut vinaigrette

Salad of blancmange of goat cheese with dried fruit, chorizo, sweat garlic, orange and coriander and saffron oil

Tatin of fresh lettuce stuffed with buffola mozzarella, then braised in ginger juice and finally caramelized (3 E extra)

Mains

Saddle of lamb in a crust of pralines with a fricassee of cabbage and cumin

A “bonbon” of “enchaud” of pork roasted with honey and 4-cheese polenta

A “cutlet” of pigeon stuffed as if with frangipane, cream of parsnip and bitter cherry juice

A brochette of poached scallops with a “barigoule” of root veggies a la clementines, coffee syrup and cardamom foam

Cheese

From Alleose

Desserts

Pastry with three apples, a mousse of Carambar and fleur de sel

French toast with tumeric, caramelized raspberries, iced “Petit Suisse” and a “milkshake” of banana.

Had enuf? Get the idea?

Does it matter what we had? every bite was better than the last and every wine, better as well. Three dishes here are 30 E, wine runs from 28 E for the Arbois (but unless you know how it tastes and some folks on eGullet didn’t/don’t, please try something else) to 59 E. Our bill; well, if we hadn’t been into wine and eau de vie de café tasting, trips down memory lane (via the menus - visit the toilet - and experiences of the owner and chefs in places from Bocuse thru Le Timonerie - Philippe de Givenchy, for fans, is either still in Poland or has recently returned and is in Normandy - to l’Epi Dupin) and lessons in where next to eat, it could have been a bit over 100 E. We eat a lot of meals where we feel gypped paying much less; here every Euro was well spent. Run don’t walk, you heard it here first.

5.5 – Le 144 Petrossian, 18, bd de Letour Maubourg in the 7th, 01.44.11.32.32, closed Sunday and Monday, menu at lunch 35 E, dinner 45 E, a la carte 60 E and up depending on wine chosen (from 40 E to the hundreds) and caviar ordered, that is 39 E an ounce. You (and I) have probably walked by this place a hundred times without going in, but lately because of their new chef and lowered prices, they’ve been getting a lot of press. The resto is above the boutique and very well-appointed. The new chef in chief (formerly of their own kitchens) is a Senegalese-French woman who starts with a base of Petrossian’s fine products (caviar, salmon, blinis, etc) and uses everything from curry to Asian and African spices and preparations. The results are universally good (save an 11-hour lamb that was too “muttony,” but I know there are those who love it that way.) The amuse-gueule was a fluffed salmon mousse with buttered toast-thins. Then we had three kinds of thick marinated salmon with more fluff (favored with cumin and the essence of smoked potatoes) on top of artichoke hearts and a dish made from carnaroli rice with codfish caviar that was divine. Mains were the 11-hour mutton on top of a blini stuffed with raisins and a dorade with a terrific citron-vodka sauce, accompanied by tasty kasha. Finally we had a cool coulant (moelleux) of chocolate with ice cream and a “Kyscielli” of jellied quince. The bill = 85 E. Why do I rate it only a 5.5? Because of the “muttony” lamb, incredible wait between courses and lack of reasonably-priced wines.

5.25 – Le Baratin, 3, rue Jouye Rouve in the 20th, 01.43.49.39.70, open Tuesday lunch – Saturday night, except Saturday lunch, menu at lunch 14 E, a la carte dinner about 30E. This is the place that nobody writes up (until this week’s Zurban) and everybody talks about. Why? Because (1) it’s nowhere, one of those locales, F. Simon says, is a sure fire place for success, (2) because Raquel Carena is Portuguese but the food is 90% French and (3) because while she’s been there for twenty years, everyone guards the “address.” I was invited by a food writer doing a piece that morning for a monthly who was cooking with her for two hours; we then dined on the regular carte (caveat emptor: quite less formidable than the evening dinner apparently). And what a carte: it looks unimpressive, the requisite pumpkin soup, some salads, etc – oh no! My roulade of chicken with chopped innards on a dressed bed of specialty salad leaves was divine and my friend’s log of raw salmon was sushi quality but super-sized and terrific; second; gotta be a let down, non? Non. I had a lotte that was carefully, perfectly, undercooked (someone had to be pressing the fish’s doneness every few minutes and his lamb was simply divine (I hesitated to order it because I hate last year’s mutton, see above, and it’s too early for the pascal lamb.) Last: he had a great slice of brie and I stewed prunes; guess what?; we put the prunes on top of the well-affinated brie et voila!; even better. Bill - well I’m fudging a bit here, he was on a shoot, I was on a toot, if we’d been normal citizens it would have been 56 Euros. Yes my friends not simoleons or pounds, Euros. But don’t tell anyone, it’s our secret place, right, and besides it’s way up the Belleville hill.

5 – La Ferrandaise, 8 rue de Vaugirard in the 6th, 01.43.26.36.36, closed Saturday lunch, Sunday and Monday, menu at dinner or 3 courses at lunch = 30 E plus wine running 14-63 E. Lebey’s Bistrot of the Year in 2005 was the Table Lauriston and the awardée this year was La Ferrandaise; they couldn’t be more different. While both cater to businessmen, the former is an upscale resto and the latter a down and dirty place. It’s on a funny street (the east end of the rue de Vaugirard), it has a tiny front window covered with favorable reviews, and its idea of décor is to line the stone walls with photos of cows. While the food may be familiar-sounding and “old school” in this case it comes with a new twist. It is very much in the tradition of Aux Lyonnais, Cinq Mars + Ripaille – it presents good solid, classical food (what the critics love to call “old school”) with surprising twists. The amuses gueules were slices of excellent ham, sausage and terrine and the bread, like that at Le Regalade. Most every dish was a variation on standards: a potato “stuffed” with escargots in a camembert sauce and a fricassée of mushrooms with two poached eggs; mains were a huge slice of milk-fed pork with salsify and truffle sauce and a wonderfully flavored and pink-cooked tranche of veal with a “blini” of pumpkin and spinach; desserts were a cold “soup” of intense chocolate with rum-soaked bananas and an almost deconstructed layered glass of minced mango and meringue. The wines ran from 14-63 Euros. This is a bargain place (84 E for two) for such good food but with a window full of good reviews, I suspect not for long.

4.75 – Au Pied du Sacré Coeur, 85, rue Lamarck in the 18th, 01.46.06.15.26, closed Monday lunch. This was the revelation of the week. For years, I’ve been seeing this place “hyped,” I thought, by the web-based “resto-a-Paris” a sort of wipedia of French food, it has been reviewed by not one of the guidebooks and tho’ I pass it frequently on the Butte, I’ve never gone. Silly Boy! This is a find, a secret place, a don’t tell anyone, you won’t, will you, promise, me too. Ok, seriously the food is not at all bad and the prices astonishing. First, the food prepared by the Sri Lankan chef-owner; we started with a salad of good quality greens with a melted crottin of goat cheese (delicious with its crispy baguette in the dish) and a salad with a huge portion of chicken livers; then my friend had a filet of beef with a foie gras sauce and I had a whole rouget with a few grains of salt, both well-cooked and delicious. The wines start at 14 (we chose a Gigondas at 22 E). Now the prices: lunch menus are 9-11 E, at night a la carte is 20-30 E (entrees are only 5-14E, mains 11-16E and desserts 5-7. The bill without wine was 50 Euros for two and that for very fine food.

4.5 - Le Vieux Bistro, 14, rue de Cloitre Notre Dame in the 4th, 01.43.54.18.95, open from noon to 10:30 PM continually everyday, is a place I first ate at 21 years ago and despite the new female chef, Sarah Peronnet, a former lawyer who trained in cooking in England and Canada – it is unchanged – which is good and bad. The good part is why one comes – it’s right in the shadow of Notre Dame, it looks like it must have been, in the 16th century, and is still now a great place to plotz in the middle of tramping around Paris (so long as you reserve ahead – two couples were turned away the day we ate there) and you get the Lyonnais comfort food that your parents and grandparents loved – onion soup, boeuf bourguignon, quenelles de brochet, a magnificent cheeseboard and a tarte tatin with thick quarters of apple, flambéed with calvados and slathered with crème fraiche. The bad part is that it’s full of Anglophones, has pricey food (they used to have a menu, menu-carte and formula and offered one an aperitif) and even pricier wine (the cheapest wine is 29 E – ouf!) On the other hand, if what you want is a trip down memory lane (visually and gustatorily) this is your place. We started by sharing three big filets of rouget that were on a bed of fresh lettuce dressed perfectly with a vinaigrette whose tartness perfectly offset the sweetness of the fish, then did our best to do justice to a huge pot of boeuf bourguignon and two big quenelles de brochet swimming in much too much cream and butter sauce; terminating with this enormous slice of tarte tatin. Even after sharing the 1st and dessert we staggered out into the cold fully full. The bill = 100 E. The food gets a 6, the décor 7, clientele 3 and wine prices 1; which I why it logs in as only a 4.5.

3. - Chez Casimir, 6, rue du Belzunce in the 10th, 01.48.78.28.80, closed Saturday and Sunday, has had a bumpy ride the past few years. Once the apple of Thierry Breton Chez Michel’s eye, Philippe Tredgeu encamped for his own place, L’Entredgeu in the 17th some 3 years ago. His place was filled for two years with a chef who never got rave reviews and then about a year ago, Breton brought in another one who has also produced mixed results. Two of us started with a terrine of beef like pot-au-feu (eg carrots and endives) and foie gras of duck with a prune puree, both of which were good. But the mains were a disappointment; my guest’s pot-au-feu of monkfish was pretty bland and my rable de lapin was desert-dry, although the potatoes were first-class. The desserts were the highlight; roasted figs in honey sauce with a tuile stuffed with ice cream and a chocolate cake with a caramel sauce. The bill was an easy 84.50 E.

2. – Gallopin, 40, rue Notre Dames des Victoires in the 2nd, 01.42.36.45.38, open everyday from noon to midnight with formulas and menus from 19.50-33.50 E (too complicated to explain,) has been open since 1876 and it was about then I went last (or was it just a dream?) It has the original wood trim, brass-coat racks (like at l’Ami Louis,) faux-Tiffany glass ceiling and wall coverings and hustle-bustle waiters. The menu is like that of hundreds of old restos. So why did I go and drag one of Paris’s best food writers and her business partner there? Because Pudlo declared it a Coup de Coeur (I know, after my experience at his Bistrot of the Year, Les Racines, I should’a’v figured out Gilles P. was slipping, or over-delegating or eating different food than I was.) Anyway, get to the point Dad. After the meal, my famous guest asked how I was going to rate it: “Satisfactory?” No, I said “Fair.” But on reflection, that’s much too generous. The olives with our aperitifs (my guests were celebrating a financial coup with champagne) tasted like they came from a local 7/11; the fish soup was enormous to make up for its banality; but the escargots were reportedly OK. Our mains were all weird: none of us was asked how we wanted our flesh cooked, but miraculously the entrecote was rare although the lieu and biche both were overcooked and the fries were allegedly made there but were absolutely without redeeming value. Dessert, at that point, oh no, run away! The bill = 142.80 E for three. 1876 must have been a great year for art (Bartholdi and all that) but for food, I’m not so sure.

1 – l’Archelle, 83, ave de Segur in the 15th, 01.40.65.99.10, open Tuesday through Saturday, is in the old de Lagarde space, which chef Yohan Paran departed Spring-Summer 2005 to take over Beauvilliers. It re- opened the 20th of September 2005 under this new name with a new chef, Bernard Gauzy, ex-Marius et Janette and has successfully escaped review since then, being listed only in the indispensable DAWN-type culinary early warning system website, lesrestos.com. I think I know why; no one has the heart to tell Gauzy he needs more seasoning. The prices are right, at lunch 20 E for two courses from a Hobson’s-choice menu and a glass of wine, 25 E for two courses from a bigger menu and 30 E for three; with 35 E getting you dinner. I had the lunch menu, which came with banal amuse-bouches of cheese sticks and mignardises of floury cookies and a glass of passable wine. I chose the mackerel fried in nut oil on top of mache with endives stuffed with sliced round fried potatoes and for a main: lotte a la bouillabaisse with toast, rouille and cheese. Neither dish was bad but the product was not great either and the cooking was uninspired and lackluster from start to finish. You know how when you’ve had a substandard meal you feel stuffed but unhappily so, well, that’s the way I felt all afternoon. The place had two other couples both speaking English at least some of the time, but since it’s near UNESCO that’s understandable. I hope when the reviews come out, the big boys will prove me wrong in my judgment, but I fear not. The bill = 26 Euros for one.

0 – Les Racines, 22, rue Monsieur le Prince in the 5th, 01.43.26.03.86, closed Sundays, was Pudlo’s Bistrot of the Year for 2006. I cannot figure this out for the life of me. True it’s in a captivating neighborhood, has all the trappings of a really old bistro (although it’s relatively new) and the servers are young and very nice. But the carte has all the ordinary stuff you’d expect in your neighborhood dive (terrines, salads, standard plats like entrecote, sausage and steak tartare, desserts, etc.,) it’s only the blackboard that sounds interesting with oysters and a terrine of wild duck for firsts and beef with potatoes and chicken in red wine for mains). Three of us had: the oysters (well, small but OK), mache with beets (OK) and wild duck terrine (banal). Then two had the beef in a watery sauce with over-salted potatoes and I had tough, dry chicken in watery sauce whose only saving grace was some baby onions. We should have quit at that but we persisted with a chocolate cake, cherry tart and crème caramel – all the same quality as any local bistro could produce. The wines ran 14-46 Euros; the bill for three = 80 Euros. A bargain but if we wanted cheap we should have stayed home.

NR* - Fogon, 45 quai des Grands-Augustines in the 6th, 01.43.54.31.33, closed Monday and Tuesday, open Wednesday-Sunday nights and Saturday and Sunday lunch, moved here from it’s old site upriver in September 2005. It’s bigger, brighter and better (but pricier.) Two of us ate a Sunday lunch (a rare good non-brasserie open then) and had a fine meal. The carte is a bit limited - essentially one has Spanish charcuterie for firsts, paella, that they call rice, for mains that must come for two, and a variety of desserts. As firsts, we had the “tapas” of fried fish with two types of capers, cuttlefish with spices and sweet potato with a pistachio-mayo-crème with pumpkin seeds topping;

then a good sized paella with perfectly cooked and split langoustines, cuttlefish and vegetables; and a terrific crème catalonia and dessert “tapas” of a “cream” of yogurt with mango, something called a crème caramel, something supposedly containing licorice and a sweet wine. Alberto Herraiz is justly credited with running the best Spanish resto in Paris; to my untrained palate, he takes top-product, basic Spanish recipes, but spins them a la francaise, producing a wonderful result. The bill = 109 E, over the magic limit, but a wonderful Sunday rade.

(*NR indicates no numerical rating since I don’t know Spanish places in Paris well enough to grade them.)

Edited February 11, 2006 by John Talbott (log)

[VivreManger]

Feb 2006: Drouant, Le Bistral, Le 144 Petrossian, Le Baratin, La Ferrandaise, Au Pied de Sacre Coeur, Fogon, Le Vieux Bistro, Chez Casimir, Gallopin, l’Archelle, Les Racines

8.5 - Drouant, 16-18, place Gaillon in the 2nd, 01.42.65.15.16, open everyday, plat de jour = 20 E, menu of the day = 45 E, menu-carte 67 E.  Wow/Great/Wonderful, throw in any superlative you want. What a great re-launch of the venerable old gal. I take my hat off to Antoine Westerman and Antony Clemot (ex-Viel Ami) who moved over here after successfully launching that off-shoot of his famed Buerehiesel in Strasbourg.  I haven’t set foot in the place in 35 years, but my, it’s held its charm. Make no mistake – it’s pricey – one can easily drop 100 E for one, but there are several ways around this: (1) they have daily specials that are a gentle 20 E and are listed on the carte outside (today a matelote of sandre, with a huge chunk of perfectly cooked fish in a sauce that tasted like that that surrounds quenelles and had mushrooms and scallions and pasta and just a tad of lemon, butter and cream – oh my! sopped that all up,) that my waiter strongly urged me to take, (2) one can order only one entrée (25 E; everyone was having six oysters which seemed silly, since Gerard Depardieu’s oyster bar sits but a few meters across the street and serves them for half that) or one main (30 E) which a food critic pal told me would be sufficient to feed me for the day (the meat dishes did look big, although they only gave folks four scallops – in case you haven’t heard, everything comes in fours – four entrees, four veggies, etc.), (3) they have a 45 E menu of the day, which has an entrée (in my case a lovely stew of artichokes, exquisite egg and baie berries, choice between the special and another dish of the day (today, duck with smashed potatoes) and dessert (today an incredible deconstructed tiramisu) as well as super mignardises of confited oranges and an intense, dense bar of chocolate and (4) they have a bar menu which despite all the frou-frou cocktails the French now consider amusing, had a more interesting selection than Senderens’s bar menu, e.g., marinated scallops, a platter of charcuterie, a terrine of duck liver and smoked salmon, each only 10 E.  The wines start low (17 E) and go to the heights.  In any case, I had great, friendly service (the waiters wear blindingly white open shirts with black scarves), good bread and a fine time. With a glass or two of wine one can escape for 55-65 Euros, which I challenge anyone to find the equal of in this fine town.  The downside: not really for a geezer like me, but I swear that every Royalist left in France was eating there that day and everybody but two men had suits and ties (the good part of that, of course, is they speak kindly of the United States in the slow, articulate French of Cardinal Lustiger, President Chirac and Queen Elizabeth, so you can over-hear everything).  It was chock-a-block full – go quickly!

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Thanks for these resto recos. This is particularly attractive since it is a few minutes walk from where we will be staying. A small correction after mapping this on-line and discovering that 16-18, place Gaillon did not compute, I pagejaunesed it to yield slightly different coordinates, 18 r Gaillon 75002. Either address would get you there I am sure, but the rue listing seems more compatible with on-line search engines. As for the atmosphere, it seems that Drouant maybe plus drouyalist que le dRoiTE. I am not certain how comfortable I would be in a place where " they speak kindly of the United States". Of course that tends to be more of a problem on the Right Bank.

[John Talbott]

8.5 - Drouant, 16-18, place Gaillon in the 2nd,

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Thanks for these resto recos.  This is particularly attractive since it is a few minutes walk from where we will be staying.  A small correction after mapping this on-line and discovering that 16-18, place Gaillon did not compute, I pagejaunesed it to yield slightly different coordinates, 18 r Gaillon 75002.  Either address would get you there I am sure, but the rue listing seems more compatible with on-line search engines. 

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The rue Gaillon runs through the place Gaillon and for whatever reason, snobisme perhaps, or familiarity, Drouant has always listed itself as on the Place. I don't think they were worried about computers when they settled on its address in the 1880's.

[Carlsbad]

Great Reviews, as usual. I can't wait to try Drouant.

[raisab]

(the good part of that, of course, is they speak kindly of the United States in the slow, articulate French of Cardinal Lustiger, President Chirac and Queen Elizabeth, so you can over-hear everything). It was chock-a-block full – go quickly!

John I will go there just for this! I love it!

[Felice]

2. – Gallopin, 40, rue Notre Dames des Victoires in the 2nd, 01.42.36.45.38, open everyday from noon to midnight with formulas and menus from 19.50-33.50 E (too complicated to explain,) has been open since 1876 and it was about then I went last (or was it just a dream?)  It has the original wood trim, brass-coat racks (like at l’Ami Louis,) faux-Tiffany glass ceiling and wall coverings and hustle-bustle waiters.  The menu is like that of hundreds of old restos.  So why did I go and drag one of Paris’s best food writers and her business partner there?  Because Pudlo declared it a Coup de Coeur (I know, after my experience at his Bistrot of the Year, Les Racines, I should’a’v figured out Gilles P. was slipping, or over-delegating or eating different food than I was.)  Anyway, get to the point Dad.  After the meal, my famous guest asked how I was going to rate it: “Satisfactory?” No, I said “Fair.”  But on reflection, that’s much too generous.  The olives with our aperitifs (my guests were celebrating a financial coup with champagne) tasted like they came from a local 7/11; the fish soup was enormous to make up for its banality; but the escargots were reportedly OK.  Our mains were all weird: none of us was asked how we wanted our flesh cooked, but miraculously the entrecote was rare although the lieu and biche both were overcooked and the fries were allegedly made there but were absolutely without redeeming value. Dessert, at that point, oh no, run away!  The bill = 142.80 E for three.  1876 must have been a great year for art (Bartholdi and all that) but for food, I’m not so sure

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How disappointing. I loved it when I was there in December and found the food much better than places like Lipp and Balzar.

[VivreManger]

I am thinking of taking lunch at Drouant next week. My wife does not enjoy a smokey meal, though she recognizes that she may have to put up with some fume. For a Paris establishment, how smokey is lunch likely to be? I imagine that towards the end of lunch service, as it gets less crowded it might be more comfortable, though the food might be tired and the choices reduced.

[John Talbott]

I am thinking of taking lunch at Drouant next week.  My wife does not enjoy a smokey meal, though she recognizes that she may have to put up with some fume.  For a Paris establishment, how smokey is lunch likely to be?  I imagine that towards the end of lunch service, as it gets less crowded it might be more comfortable, though the food might be tired and the choices reduced.

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I think in the main dining room/area there was one person smoking. I also think in the alcove-type arwa there is no smoking. Ask to be seated in no smoking, it's big enough that they should be able to accomdate you.