2013 - End of the Line

As the hours tick down to Jan. 1, it's time to put a wrap on 2013.  I had a bad feeling about '13' last year at this time and I was right.  Was 2013 a shitty year or what?  Anyway, as commissioner, owner, president, and CEO of this here  restaurant blog, it is my duty to provide my readers with something I am sure they are waiting for regarding 2013 - closure.  So without further adieu, some highlights and lowlights, from my own personal, egocentric, and biased perspective.  I promise to keep this short and sweet and keep my fingers crossed for good things in 2014.

• Bones - despite all the hype, I liked this new entry into the Paris bar/tapas/bistrot scene anyway.  Co. was less than impressed, but I'm looking forward to a return trip.

• Alain Milliat - way over there near the Eiffel Tower, this venue has a lot of potential.  Small but innovative dishes.

• 6 Paul Bert - Paul Bert has expanded into more gastronomic country.  This may have been my  favorite new venue of the year.

• For tapas, Mary Celeste rose to the top of the list.  Innovative food and drinks, lively place.  Braisenville didn't reach those heights, but there's something intriguing about braised tapas.

• L'Apibo - enjoyable late summer dinner, bears watching.

• The grilled fish in Lisbon.  I want more.

•  Les Caves du Roy (31 Rue Simart, 75018 Paris) - finally I find a place that sells bitters for my martinis.  And where else in Paris can you find Aviation, Citadelle, and 6 Ravens gins (for the martinis)?  And speaking of the Ravens - the ones from Baltimore, that is - thanks for bringing the Lombardi trophy back to my original starting point Baltimore (Super Bowl 2013).

• The Splendid Table - with nothing else to listen to on the radio on Sunday mornings, this show really fills a void (via TuneIn's WNYC feed on my tablet).  Lynne Rossetto Kasper's laugh and other vocal mannerisms are nerve wrenching, but boy does she know food, or does she know food?  http://www.splendidtable.org/

• My new Fang laptop and Nexus 7 tablet.

• Old favorite: Les Magnolias. . . keep on truckin'.

• Le Gaigne - RIP.  Why, why, why?  Please come back, as you promise online.

• La Gazzetta - au revoir chef Petter Nilsson, who returns to Sweden.  Bienvenue to  Luigi Nastri, who has big shoes to fill

• Mansouri - I remember when this was a very good couscous restaurant.  Not any more.

• Mama Shelter - interesting place, lively bar, blah food.

• Septime - such a great restaurant, such a nightmare to reserve.

Au Revoir 2013, less than 7 hours to go.  And don't come back.

Bones - Skeletal Remains

So Co. and I finally got around to another much talked about neobistrot/wine bar in the 11th - quite simply, Bones, as in bare bones, dem bones: unadorned decor, stoney walls, basic ingredients.  King of the B's - beards (scruffy), boys (servers, save the one female on the waitstaff who was busily carving up a suckling pig at the bar), BO(effin)HEMIA.  I put my straightedge on the shelf last month and so fit right in amidst all the scruffiness.  If I didn't know better, I would have thought I had taken a time machine back to Seattle grunge.  Walk right in, sit right down at the wine bar in front or one of the little tables to while away an hour or two with your homies, washing down some oysters, jambon jambon, or the aforementioned pig, with a well-appointed, all-natural red or white.  Or, like us, reserve a table in the spatially challenged raised dining area and work your way through the server rotation.

Florent Ciccoli's venue, manned in the kitchen by Aussie chef (via Au Passage) James Henry (pictured), offers a bare-boned 4 plate tasting menu (40€; add 8€ for a cheese course), with a couple tasty amuse bouches to start.  For the evening of our visit, the menu belied the slowly unfolding Paris spring, with the obligatory May offerings of asparagus, oursin, and miel.  (Yes, it does snow in Paris, but not in May.) Noisy, but not overly so, I never could quite figure out what music was filtering out from the back amidst all the surrounding albeit low-key chatter.  But no need to further aggrandize, extemporize, improvise, or existentialize, we're talking Bones, so just the facts, Jack.


Interior:

 

 

 

The Carte:
 (click to enlarge)

Amuse Bouche 1:  oursin, ricotta, & oyster

                                       
 Amuse Bouche 2:  broth with smoked eel

1st course:  bonite, petits-pois, cresson

2nd course:  Asperge d'argenteuil, seiche, encre

 

3rd course:  Cabillaud (in lieu of the veau basque, the latter of which underwhelmed Co.):

4th course:  miel, noisette, lait de chevre

 

The verdict is a split decision - thumbs up from your's truly and a thumb horizontal from Co.  Bones comes off a bit like Chateaubriand's younger brother, energetically emulating but falling short of equaling the old pro.  Still, I had an enjoyable evening - the bonito and fish were really excellent, the bread homemade, the vibe hip, and the wine suitably imbibing - a reasonably priced Roussilon, aptly named (given the Aussie chef) HOP La Laffite (26€).  My guess is that it won't take much arm-twisting to drag Co. along for a return visit when, I am sure, it will be much more difficult to reserve.

BONES

43 rue Godefroy Cavaignac

Paris 75011

tel: 09 80 75 32 08

website: pretty much useless