L'Ebauchoir - Eat A Peach

I was up for something off the beaten path from the tour of the fancy neo-bistrots, which in the past months has included some old favorites and some new discoveries.  Something more traditional, an old Parisian mainstay, popular and summery with outdoor dining possibilities, now that we are deep in the heart of summer in the capital, and for once the weather is temperate and sunny and the livin' is easy.  Fish are jumpin', etc.  What do you want, I just learned a new jazz arrangement for Summertime on the guitar, so the tune keeps haunting me.

And so, verdict is in, L'Ebauchoir it was.  According to minimal research, everybody loves L'Ebauchoir for its conviviality, traditional and tasty cooking, at - drum roll, please - low prices and space for twenty diners out on the 'terrace,' facing the rather non-descript and shady rue de Citeaux in the heart of the Faidherbe - Chaligny area, where one week earlier, Co. and I had a terrific meal a couple blocks away at 6 Paul Bert.


One of the main reasons I chose L'Ebauchoir was to dine outside, but by the time we arrived in the early evening, the sun had deserted rue de Citeaux and Co., feeling a chill, pushed me through the door and the host did the rest, leading us to a small table by the window.  Even inside though, L'Ebauchoir was airy and open enough to suggest outdoor dining, so what the hey.  Well, no question, this is a convivial and popular joint - the host and his minions made for a laid-back, friendly, and competent staff and the atmosphere, filled with apparent locals, wall mural, and antique mirrors certainly made us feel at home, home being Paris, France.  The food and prices, however, served to undermine the overall experience, with disappointments on both fronts.


Heavy on meat, with a couple entree and dessert specials on the posted blackboard, it was quickly evident that long-term owners Thomas Dufour and Thierry Bruneau had a run on peaches this week, because a majority of dishes included peaches in one facon or another.  I was tempted by the entree special - a crab salad on avocado (14€) but instead opted for mozzarella buffalo with peaches in a green pea sauce (13€).  This dish looked better than it tasted, the taste being rather bland, although the pea sauce definitely served well for sopping via the tastier than usual slices of baguette.

Co's entree, the tuna tartare (14€), was probably the hit of the evening, with its large chunks of marinated tuna bearing an unidentified spice that left a curiously interesting aftertaste - in a good way.

On to the plates, with your's truly opting for the one main course fish dish on the evening's carte, a slab of tuna on a hefty and heavily marinated slice of eggplant, with pea pods, small roasted potatoes, and aforementioned peaches (22€).  Again, this looked better than it tasted.  I really had a hard time finishing this for lack of interest halfway through.  The potatoes were tasty, but the fish, which I had asked to be cooked 'a rose,' was in fact overcooked for my taste, and dry as a result, and the eggplant did not compute at all.

 

Not to brag or anything, but the fish tacos I concocted the night before were far superior to L'Ebauchoir's tuna dish, so why not take a gander at my own personal baby.  Light, spicy, and tasty - everything my main course at L'Ebauchoir was not.  Attention - you cannot order this fish taco dish at L'Ebauchoir, but if you would like the recipe, let me know.

Co. complained less, but was nonetheless uninspired by her lamb, potato puree (with three pieces of garlic embedded), and courgettes melange (20€).  Maybe it needed some peaches...

My dessert was a no-brainer, L'Ebauchoir's trademark dish, the traditional gateau riz (rice pudding cake), just like your mammy used to make if your mammy made rice pudding cake.  This arrived in a metal cooking container that contained enough gateau riz to feed four diners - you take as much as you want, which mirrors the restaurant's 'au comptoir' option for wine if you choose not to select an entire bottle.  For the wine, you pay as you go; for the dessert, you pay 7€, regardless of how much you consume.  Well, I don't deny, this was really good.  I disagree with one disenchanted diner's  online assessment arguing that this dish was overrated because the caramel syrup overwhelmed the cake.  I think that syrup really made the dish special.

 

Co. went with the dessert special, an almond mouse with raspberries, and seemed perfectly happy with her choice (8€).  Oddly, the chef apparently deemed the peaches to be appropriate for all menu items save the desserts. 

 As for wine, we opted for the special of the evening, a bottle of Poivre et Sel (Gamay, Pineau d'aunis), which was as light and fruity as the waiter promised (no peaches included, thankfully) (26€). Otherwise, the wine menu is copious and fairly priced.

As you can surmise, the meal was hearty - a carte, save the peaches, that would have been at home in the middle of winter, with its heavy emphasis on meat among its main dishes (with a vegetarian dish included, it is fair to say), more traditional than innovative, and no great shakes.  That's well and good when all you are expecting is an unpretentious, low-priced meal in a popular, pleasant Parisian bistrot.  But whereas I had been led to expect, from my humble pre-dinner research, something around a 60€ bill, we ended up paying nearly twice as much (110€), something you already know if you were keeping a running score as you read the above.  That's not outrageous by Paris standards and is, in fact, around what we usually pay (or at least not significantly lower) for the innovative neo-bistrots I usually write about.  In fact, it's a couple euros more expensive than the far more interesting and satisfying meal we had last week at 6 Paul Bert - in fact, no comparison.  L'Ebauchoir would have received less of my chagrin had their carte included a reasonably priced three-course menu, but alas, that was not to be had, and what you end up with is a price/quality ratio overwhelmingly favoring price.  My recommendation, if you must, is to go there for lunch.  Especially if you have a peaches fetish.

L'EBAUCHOIR 

43/45 rue de Citeaux
75012 Paris
tel. 01 43 42 49 31
website:  http://www.lebauchoir.com/

Le Chateaubriand - Movin' On Up

That's what I'm talking about - originality, surprise, subtlety, outrageousness. What am I talking about? Last Friday night's dinner at Le Chateaubriand (let's say LC, for short), quite possibly the best meal I've had in Paris all year. LC has been on my radar for some time, but each time I came close to reserving, something held me back. 'You'll either love it or hate it!' 'Noisy and crowded!' And this one from Le Fooding: 'Impossible to get a table. Impossible to get a table: need further explanation?' And also from Le Fooding: 'Gourmet works of art.' There you have it, yin and yang, to go or not to go? Well, when someone tells me 'impossible to get a table' I immediately reach for my phone. Let's face it, if it were truly impossible, how could the restaurant make any business? And sure enough, I was offered a table two Fridays away without difficulty. 'Impossible to get a table' -don't believe it.

LC sits on a busy section of avenue Parmentier in a funky area of the 11th, and that funky atmosphere follows you into LC, an old-style Parisian bistro that once was an old-fashioned grocery, remnants of which appear in their antiquity here and there on the otherwise unadorned walls, save the obligatory chalkboards announcing the available wines by the glass. This is a roomy bistrot that starts feeling more intimate once the room fills, and believe me, it doesn't take long for the place to fill up. Nonetheless, Co. and I were ushered to a cozy corner in the back room, apart from the more hustle-bustle of the larger front room/bar area. And it does get noisy, but in a quasi-bawdy way that adds to the atmosphere, if you get my drift - this is what a Parisian bistrot is supposed to be all about.

But all that noise and crowdedness is for a reason - the evening's 50€ set menu created and prepared by chef Inaki Aizpitarte, who emanates from the French Basque country, and previously held court at La Famille. Alexander Lobrano (Hungry for Paris, Random House) put it very well when he described Aizpitarte as 'a brilliant miniaturist, composing original origami-like compositions of taste that are often potent and pretty.' Our menu for the evening was explained by a young, bearded waiter, slowly, with questions saved for the end. We started off with a set of five amuses bouche, wham bam thank you ma'am, one after the other. First up, a small plate of four gougères - savory little puff pastries, with what may have been subtly embellished by pomegranate seeds sprinkled on top. (Photo thanks to the great eye and camera of gourmet traveler.) A low-key start, with hints of the miniaturist concoctions to come. Our empty plate was soon replaced by two small bowls of cheviche with tiny scallops in their liquid, which our spunky waitress informed us should be consumed in a single gulp. Up next came a dish of two grenouille enveloped by a mysterious sauce with bread crumbs. If frog turns you off, never fear, this looked nothing like aforesaid amphibian. The string of amuses bouche continued with a bowl of miso-like bouillon with small cubes of foie gras. And that was followed up by a plate of tiny crevettes grise with berries and pineapple. Bear in mind, this was all to wet our appetite for the set dinner, which hadn't started yet! I suggested to Co. that this wouldn't be a bad time to pay for the wine (an adequate, but rather light, 36€ Bourgueil) and leave, our stomachs filled with the pre-meal tapas selection, but of course, this was solely in jest, as both us really wanted to see what was next.

What was next was a mulet noir, perles du Japon, huitre, cresson dish. My blurry photo will give you some idea, but the photo really doesn't do justice. Next, a cabillaud, pil pil, betteraves dish. Pil pil reflects the Basque origins of this recipe (i.e., the dish was prepared in a special sauce originating in the Basque country), which was highlighted by a delicate, sweet lump of beet, which really brought the steamed cod alive with flavor. Well, it's been two years that the betterave has been showing up in one way or another in finer restaurants around the world (see my Finland reviews), and when this much maligned root is cooked right, it can't be, sorry I can't resist, beat. But I'm starting to get that 'been there, done that' attitude about the beet. With 2011 right around the corner, I say, 'Next trendy vegetable, please!'

At this stage of the festivities, Co. partook of the boeuf, beurre noisette, racines offering, while I was granted an appropriately bloody portion of canard in lieu of the beef. The dish worked well with either meat, and this was just fine. Up next, two desserts, a dish of pommes, butternut, rose, obligatorily consumed before the crunchier chocolat, celeri invention. (You have the option of going with the desserts or the fromages du jour.) And that was that. Each dish reflecting the confidence and skill of the artisan in the kitchen, not a false note during the entire epic meal.









Don't take my word for it, just go. With Rino and LC under the belt this month, I feel like we're movin' on up quality-wise. Yet in both cases, the set menu approach keeps the prices down, with LC topping out at 139€, including one post-meal cafe and the wine, and how many courses, if you include the amuses bouche and two desserts? I count 10. While I also liked Rino very much, if I was stranded on a desert island and could only take one of the two bistrots with me, it would be Le Chateaubriand, hands down.

Note: other than my pitiful photo of the appetizer (Mulet noir), the other food photos from the aforementioned gourmet traveler; others from qype and The New York Times.

LE CHATEAUBRIAND
129 ave. Parmentier
75011 Paris
tel. 01 43 57 45 95
website: can't find one

P.S. There's another Le Chateaubriand restaurant in Paris, in the 17th. That's not the one I'm talking about.

Le Gaigne - Another Winner

Le Gaigne, close enough to the French 'gagner' (to win) and 'gagnant' (winner) to project a boastful, winning facade even before one enters, but the name itself is reference to owner and chef with the strong pedigree and substantial CV, Mickael Gaignon.

Am I detecting a pattern here? Small storefront restaurant just off the beaten path of a trendy quarter (I counted a mere 12 tables at Le Gaigne), run by a dynamic and young couple - he of culinary expertise manning the kitchen, she of efficient and amiable hosting and serving in the dining room, evidence of a creative flair in the dishes (sometimes a hit, sometimes a miss, but who's counting?), fresh produce, unique ingredients, modestly priced menus and a decent price/quality rapport. If this reminds you of some of my previous reviews (see Fabrique 4, L'Agrume), then I rest my case.

Co. and I reached Le Gagne, which sits on the edge of the Marais, following a leisurely stroll that commenced at the Forum Les Halles. Three or four blocks along rue Rambuteau, past Beaubourg (Pompidou Center), navigating around the hordes of tourists in the center of Paris on a mild Friday, August evening, past the little cheesecake shop that I fortunately espied for the first time (but certainly not the last), one reaches the tiny rue Pecquay and the now off-white restaurant Le Gaigne. Lucky enough to reserve on their last weekend before the restaurant joins everyone else on vacation until the end of August, I wasn't expecting much of a crowd during our meal, bearing in mind that a 'crowd' in Le Gagne would comprise about 20 patrons. And as it turned out, as we entered around 8:30 pm. we had our choice of all but one table, the one occupied by a sole woman contentedly already having begun her first course, working on an especially difficult New York Times crossword puzzle (I'm still only half done myself). Well, it didn't take long for the restaurant to fill up, until only one tiny, lonely table remained unoccupied, it's intended diners having bailed without notice, much to the chagrin of the couples, sans reservation, who were turned away during the course of the evening.

Le Gaigne's carte changes on the first of each month, but can be consulted online prior to one's visit (September's will appear on August 31). The relatively short August menu, a continuation of July's for obvious reasons (August only equals one week in this case) nonetheless posed more than one difficult choice dilemma, easily leading us to opt for the 5-course menu degustation. I guess I can gripe about the fact that Le Gaigne doesn't offer the standard menu for dinner (lunch offers a 17€ two-plate menu and 23€ three-plater), but the 42€ menu degustation is a great deal, and relatively speaking, the far better alternative to ala carte. For an additional 17€, your dishes come accompanied by three glasses of wine (Sancerre 'Les Grands Champs' blanc, Cotes de Brouilly 'Les Muses', and a Muscat de Rivesaltes 'Chateau les Pins'). Never having understood the point of vin blanc, I went the traditional route and selected a Bourgogne Pinot Noir (29€) and was glad I did.

On to the food. Up first was a millefeuille de legumes aux olives noires de
Kalamata, a delicately prepared entree that was summer refreshing, with (if memory serves me correctly) pieces of cauliflower, green beans, and eggplant (see photo - the one I got without anyone looking). I don't think the payoff warranted the obvious amount of preparation that went into this dish, but it was a more than functional start. As is often the case with menu degustations, portions often are about mid-size what you can expect if you just order the damn dish off the carte, but happily, M. Gaignon didn't scimp here, but instead presented the full-size version. This was followed by a plate consisting of two croquettes de queue et pied de veau au curry, requettes et amandes fraiches, salade de sucrine et lange de veau (try saying that five times in a row as quickly as you can). Not a veal eater myself, I was granted permission to exchange dish 2 with one of the following from the ala carte menu: (a) Filets de sardine farcis d'une creme d'avocat a la brunoise de radis et concombre, artichaut poivrade marine, or (b) Poelee de champignons du moment, marmelade d'oignons de Trebons, omelette aux oeufs bio de la ferme de Champignolles. I was torn, and sans coin in my pocket, drum roll please, I chose (b). Bingo - this was a terrific dish, the taste growing in complexity as I delved deeper, the rectangular slab of omelette with onion marmelade topping providing a nice counterbalance to the mushrooms. A highlight.

Moving on to stage 3, the fish dish, which consisted of a relatively small filet de daurade cuit au plat et brandade, coulis de persil, pommes-de-terre grenaille mitraille aux oignons nouveaus. I really appreciated the complements to the fish with crispy skin intact, a tasty mound of brandade and the accompanying dish of small rounded potatoes with persil and 'new' (whatever that means) tasty onions. Dish four was perhaps the most inventive - Lapin en trois facons, aubergines grillees, poelee de courgettes. None of the three rabbit preparations looked anything like you would imagine a rabbit dish, and without attempting to describe them, please just take my word for it. Another hit. At this point in the festivities, one has the option to take a cheese detour with a nuage de camembert fermier, but it'll cost you an additional 3€ supplement (M. Gaignon, come on, why not just throw it in the deal?). I overheard the crossword woman really raving about this dish to a couple of guys at the next table, and if I had still been hungry, and a little less drunk, I would have sprung for it and been in a position to explain what the fuss was about. To finish up, for dessert we received a plate of peches pochees, parfait glace a la verveine, meringue et noisettes caramelisees. Call me strange, please, but I am not a big fan of peaches. Still, even beyond the half poached peach (try saying that . . ., oh forget it) there was enough about this rather original dish to keep it interesting, especially the minty verveine leaf and the caramelized nuts.

Overall, a very satisfying, relaxing, August meal in the up and coming storefront category of the Parisian gastronomique scene. I'm looking forward to checking out the changing Le Gaigne cartes, once this summer vacation nonsense is over and done with. [Two menu degustation, wine, and one cafe totaled 115.50€]

LE GAIGNE
12, Rue Pecquay
75004 Paris
tel: 01 44 59 86 72
www.restaurantlegaigne.fr