Passage 53 - the rumor mill turns and turns...

It's all rumors peoples. Talk. Nothing official or signed.

Au Passage

Best little place I've eaten in a while but haven't had the chance to blog about! Au Passage is a tiny table located on a forgotten side street in the 11th more popular with century old silversmiths than anything else. The place has a rickety, funky feel to it with uneven wooden floors, old leather couches and a restrictive, but excellent 16,50€ lunch menu and evening time tapas with brand name charcuterie, natural wines, burrata and the like. If they were in my 'hood, I'd eat here every day. Thanks to ex-Springers Audrey and James Henry the Australian-chef-who-was-temporary-but-decided-to-stay, this place offers quality above the norm, a great deal, and nice friendly vibe.

Au Passage 

1, bis passage Saint Sébastien 

A au Kei - Bangin' with flavor !

I've been intrigued by this new table for quite some time: a Japanese former Alain Ducasse second at the Plaza with seven years under his hat, the former Gerard Besson space, now a minimalist zone serving studious, classic and good looking French gourmet cuisine.

All well and good. I'm not sure I can be totally impartial to my excellent experience here, as this drunch (c) was enlightened by the presence of a Maltese/Australian foodie who made me lose my concentration and normal common sense. I remember wine, laughter, humorous blunders and tomfoolery, and an interminable afternoon happily shared with a likeminded friend.

Le Dauphin

A lot of ink has been spilled on Le Dauphin, so I’ll keep it brief. It’s one of the funnest tables in town. The tapas-y style menu lets you eat as much as you want. The arty farty crowd is perfect to make fun of while swilling decent natural wines and cracking jokes at their expense. The interminable line forming in front of the next door Chateaubriand is also quite amusing. Standout dishes were a delicious wagyu with onions, their usual amazing burrata and roast potatoes on the side as well as the ribaut ice cream. Tandoori octopus needed more spice and the mixed mushroom and ricotta dish lacked zing. But we really didn’t care.

Mixed mushroom and ricotta dish

Tandoori octopus

Melt in the mouth wagyu

Creamy buratta 

Lait Ribot ice cream

Agapé Substance

This “gourmet counter” opened a few weeks back by Laurent Lapaire (former Arpege alumni and creator of the one star Agapé) and David Toutain (the brilliant chef at the helm) is the new insider darling of the Paris blogosphere and one of the best tables I’ve done for a looooong time, IMHO, the numero uno taste sensation of the moment. 

After raves of “genius” from the establishment food press , I was understandably cautious, and luckily no critics or undercover blaggers were to be found (although François Simon did pass by the night before) basking in the mirrored neon glare of the communal dining room. Toutain, who did time at L’Arpege, Veyrat, Mugaritz and NYC’s Corton, looks, at the tender age of 30,  to be one of the most exciting (and modest) of chefs in Paris. A little birdy told me that Alain Passard once termed him his spiritual heir and that he thought his talent even rivaled that of Astrance’s Pascal Barbot. Indeed, he should have been the chef at the original Agapé, but shit happened. 

The menu is composed of a list of ingredients, from which the diner chooses either three (39€) or four (51€) dishes or the carte blanche (65€)  surprise tasting menu. We went for the latter. Each and every dish was a subtly kiss ass culinary karate chop to the taste buds with each dish eclipsing the one before. The amuse bouche of berce (a plant coming from the Jura mountains) with a yuzu jelly and crispy rice wafer set the tone for an onslaught of unique and pristine ingredients. Other dishes included fresh hen’s egg with verbana and garlic cream, crab with pink grapefruit and grey shrimp consommé, carrots from Annie Bertin with galanga, zucchini with baby squid, monkfish with tonka bean cream and a fab nutty crumble and red forrest fruits with pistachio sponge cake and avocado ice cream. The wine (nature heavy bottles presented in iPad form) was a delish 2009 Domaine de Montrieux. I won’t go much further (the table has been covered better than moi by others) , but I do encourage to reserve now before it’s too late.

Oops, it already is.

Agapé Substance

66 rue Mazarine, 6th

+33 1 43 29 33 83

www.agapesubstance.com 

L'Absinthe - 69 word review

L’Absinthe Saint Honoré

Good value less than 40€, three course menu in high rent district. Skanky waiters. Menu of hot and cold fish and meat and a few blackboard additions. Annoying smug, self satisfied and all together strange clientele. Starters of shrimp/courgette rolls and ceviche good although uninspiring. Black Angus with béarnaise delicious with side of grenailles. Pork jarret NOT (overspiced). Go again? Jury’s out. I’d say probably not. 

Figaro figaro figaro figaro, figaaarrrrrrrr-NO! (Restaurant L'Opera, first look)

I was pretty excited to check out the new restaurant (and the first since 130 some odd years) at the Palais Garnier Opera House yesterday. It's been open since June 27th and for an establishment which (proclaimed from the rooftops by their PR people), combined cutting edge design by Odile Decq that "affirms the historic building's character" and a cuisine by two star Michelin chef Christophe Aribert, it wasn't that impressive. And even less at more than 100€ per head. The curtain of glass enveloping the front of the restaurant gave strangely distorted views of passing Asian tourist groups and the concentrate of traffic and pollution outside, however the the red-tinged interior with ho-hum furniture, a real let down for a supposed 6 million € investment did resemble the culinary character of the place, a sort of gastronomic equivalent of a Fiat Multipla (with all options). The menu is short. The portions are tiny. We were offered two, yes two! gougéres with our champagne (I was surprised they weren't doled out with white gloves and a pair of golden tweezers). The following "contemporary" smoked salmon with a mustard sorbet was ok, as was the trout, although as with the following Pata  Negra pork chop (sprinkled with popcorn and with a honey sauce made from opera honey) , vastly overpriced. The oeufs a la neige in a red berry soup were ok as well. Just ok. When the server explained that they "opened too early" and that the chef "wasn't really in the kitchen, just a consultant" , it didn't really surprise. Clients all around were complaining about their bills. Noone seemed to be having a good time with phrases like "bof.." and "ho hum" being bandied about. The only ones who really seemed to enjoy it were the American tourists next to us being invited out by their French friends: eyes rolling in ecstacy, dribble running down their chin. What curiously deluded creatures!

"Thus begins the story of one of the most long awaited restaurants of all time" says the press release.

Smoked salmon with brioche and mustard sorbet

Pata Negra pork chop with popcorn, honey and side of polenta

Oeufs a la neige

Tomorrow I shall blog

L'Auberge du 15

Rising from the ashes of a former "Irish bistro"in the far flung 13th and headed by Nicolas Castelet former chef at (yes) Ralph's is an honest new table offering homestyle cooked dishes designed to be shared around the table with friends.  Despite most recently working for the sinking gastronomic ship in the Left Bank Yankee boutique prized by French yupsters and tourist bloggers,  Castelet cut his teeth with Passard at Arpege, Lesquer at Ledoyen and in Robuchon's establishments, and has been honing his skills professionally since he was 15. Starters such as watercress soup, served in a tureen generous enough for four or five people, was served with fresh cream and roasted pistachios and green asparagus and morel mushrooms with white wine were followed by a superb farm raised organic chicken from the Aubrac region, accompanied by Paris' best aligot. Raspberry sponge cake finished it all off.

So shall I predict? Food Intelligence, Fooding, three stars in the Figaroscope, L'Express, expat bloggers, etc etc, and ze next big thing. So go now before it's impossible to snag a table.

L'Auberge du 15

Nah-nashi

I've always loved the Rose Bakery (forgetting the nice but inept Anglo service, overpriced organic fare) for its comfort food, edgy industrial décor, cool-crowd-fallen-out-of-bed-for-brunch vibe, so when Kaori Endo and André opened the first Nanashi in the 10th, my ears perked up. The local food press/blogger brigade did their usually circle jerk putting the the hot new table up their somewhere with the second coming of Jesus, but, as it was okay food at reasonable prices in a funky place, and the staff was really friendly , it got my seal of approval.

The new corner spot in the Marais tries with the same formula (Japonesy food, bentos, expensive RB inspired desserts) but somehow it just left me cold. Service, although friendly, was interminable , the food ugh (salmon onigiri with inedible, mealy rice, papery spring rolls, yuzu fondant au chocolat sans yuzu..) and there were far too many backpacking food blog reading expats and local pregnant bobos with oversized hipster glasses (but what did I expect?).  I won't be back, but finally there is a perfect place for the backlog of ravin' hipstas who can't get into the Rose Bakery ;)

Qui Plume la Lune

 

Hidden away on a sub level street off of the boulevard Beaumarchais is the latest gastronomic OVNI that has the Parisian food world's panties all in a bunch. Formerly Christian Constant's C'Amelot, perhaps the city's first bistronomique (long before the term became a bobo catchphrase) , the tiny table has been taken over by an interesting chef who dropped off of the face of the culinary scene years back. Jacky Ribault, one of the first to bring the japanesy/French fusion cooking to the French Capital at Shozan (his foie gras sushi and salmon tataki are still on the menu, partly for sentimental reasons), creates a menu with all French produce, hand selected by himself (Annie Bertin veggies, organic meat from the Pas de Calais' Monsieur Boucher) and cooked with a Nippon eye, with a few unusual tastes thrown in from the Land of the Rising Sun. That Ribault worked with Gagnaire, Legendre, Passard and Ladurée-epoque Hermé is pretty evident in the technique, but it's his own poetic generosity that shines through, and the chef promised some interesting things (think market suprise menu) as soon as they are able to maintain cruising speed. The fact that this is the first time he is his own master seemed to please him. His maitre d' (something of a French/Asian fusion himself) worked variously at Rostang, Closerie des Lilas and the Pavillon Montsouris before teaming up with Jacky. The beefsteak with St. Jean de Luz sardine tartar facon béarnaise and the scallops with vanilla'd artichoke (although the apple sorbet seemed out of place) were two standouts.  For the moment, thanks to the local foodie blogosphere and press, expect a two to three week wait for dinner and two or three days for lunch. I want to go back and try the rest of the menu.

**Plates tasted (see above):
Shrimp with pea purée
Scallops with vanilla flavored artichoke, green apple sorbet
Turbot with mashed vitélotte (a blue/violet heirloom spud), Thai spring onions and mango
Lamb with matcha tea, quince, ginger and legumes anciens
Just sautéed organic beef with sardine tartar façon béarnaise and potatoes
Rhubarb sable tart with cotton candy**

Menus at 43€ with two dishes or one dish and cheese or dessert, 53€ with two dishes and cheese or dessert and 63€ with two dishes cheese and dessert. The 29€ three course lunch menu (Mon-Fri) looks like a bargain.

Condé Nast Traveler Hot List 2011

There's a fine line between liking and eating in new restaurants and then writing about them, getting them massive exposure and ruining the possibility of other people getting in because of the increased demand. Sorry peoples..

So, without further adieu, here is my latest sinful work in choosing the Paris and Copenhagen sections of the Condé Nast Traveler Hot Tables List 2011. If you can't get in, it's partly my fault. Consider me your gastronomic Jesus up on the cross to pay for your hot insider tables.

Le Dauphin

Rino

Relae

BTW You should all buy this

GoGo App

Posting soon about my flash visits of Florence (JK Place, Michelin one stars, trattorias and general wine-fueled mayhem), London (Wolseley, Mandarin cocktail bar, Bar Boulud...etc) and elsewhere .. stay tuned !

Alice Pizza - off my radar

I've been blessed (cursed) with restaurant radar. You know, that inkling you get when something just isn't right. The absence of the patron, who in former days was omnipresent, new staff (who seems new to the restaurant business) , groups of English speaking tourists being fawned over. Dishes that bear the marks of culinary ineptitude (ie vegetables that haven't been cut by someone who knows how to cut them, bad seasoning). I got all of these in rapid succession last night at Alice Pizza, and , as usual (to my my general discredit), I ignored what my radar was telling me. I should have walked out after waiting 25 minutes for a menu, but then I told myself they seem pretty busy with all these Anglo/student/tourist groups (ping!), then came the crostini with clumsily cut tomatoes complete with the inedible parts and accompanied by a wilted salad with a mouth puckering sour balsamic vinaigrette (ping, ping!), and the pizza, inspired by the memory of another (a gorgonzola, raspberry balsamic dream of a pie) , that was only a pale impression of what came before: microscopic squirts of sauce, two dollops of gorgonzola, and a crust that tasted like a naan from the takeout a few doors down. I should have gone there.

...but more importantly..

Michelin Guide Paris 2011

Everyone will be frantically googling tomorrow the results of France's most well known (and increasingly less relevant food guide) , but here's what's come to pass:

No new three stars. There. Said it.

New two stars: Passage 53 (yay! I told you Guillaume ;) ) and Jean François Piege (open mere months....) and Joel Robuchon's new Atelier Etoile at the Drugstore Elysees (open, again, only a couple of months.......)

Cheers to Frederic Simonin for his first at his namesake restaurant and Les Ambassadeurs for getting back their first with new chef Chistopher Hache. Other new one stars include the relatively off the radar Le Baudelaire (huh?) , Sensing (what??) , Antoine (fish restaurant) and La Fourchette de Printemps (okay..)

And apparently lots of the little tables have been recognized with a total of 601 "bib gourmands" (117 new tables) where one may eat for less than 35€ for a three course meal (29€ outside of the city).

Don't think there'll be many more surprises tomorrow, but then again, we're getting used to it .......

Kudos to Stephane Riss for being first at the jump

A day in the life

Walking into Inaki and being introduced to Rene Redzipe in front of the Verre Volé and the ensuing couple hours of drinking, conversing and generally having a fun time was the high point of my day. Week. Month. Blogging any more about it seems wrong.

Flo-rida inspiration

Temporary hiatus with lots of sun, alternating questionable and wonderful food (often on the same plate) , open blue skies, luxury resorts and down home eateries and mucho mayhem. Soon, dear readers, soon.

(One of the) Best burger(s) in Paris? Floréal

Thanks to Phyllis (although rumours of this place having excellent burgers and cocktails have been infiltrating arcane web food sites for a few weeks now..), I checked out this backside Canal hipster hangout the other day. A former PMU, still hanging on to its funky deco (disco balls, truly funky and disgusting toilets, jukebox) , and a real magnet for local (would be? real?) rockstar types, the friendliness of the staff, excellent quality burgers , although too greasy fries, (an American style 30% mat. grasse instead of the very French 5% that makes all the difference..), cocktails by David who formerly worked at Hotel Particulier (and three absinthe cocktails made with Vieux Pontarlier ! ) , make this a future local for me. Wonder what the revamp (next month) will bring?