Aaron Ayscough clocks the first review of the long-awaited Le Servan from sister duo Tatiana (formerly Arpège & Astrance) and Katia Levha. He’s impressed: “Almost every component of my meal at Le Servan was sterling, a tour de force of talent and good taste.”
John Talbott calls chef Levha the “very attractive Filipino… consort of Bertrand Grebaut (of Septime),” which hurts us inside. Apparently he likes this, naming Le Servan “the best prix-qualité ratio of the year 2014.” Talbott isn’t alone in tittering about Levha’s love life: the number of writers who have managed to review this restaurant without mentioning the chef’s boyfriend can be counted on three fingers.
This is the first restaurant for globe trotting chef William Pradeleix who has worked in London under Hélène Darroze, in Bora Bora with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, and most recently, headed up the kitchen at Manger. His precise, Asian-inflected cuisine is drawing diners to the Aligre market area.
So picture this: you’re walking down the street in Paris on a cold night, and you’re hungry. All of a sudden something smells so damned good, so rich winey earthy and rutting, that you absolutely have to hunt it down. You work out that this irresistible olfactory lure is emanating from a ramshackle looking little place on the corner. You step inside, and one of the most power sentimental semaphores ever created—the red-and-white checked table cloth, tells you that yes, you’re in the right place, this is a real Paris bistro.
The former construction yard turned bistro has been around Père Lachaise for years, but the arrival in Spring 2014 of chefs Shaun Kelly and Eleni Sapera, formerly of Au Passage and Bones, brought new attention to the place. They’re both gone now, and we haven’t been back since Nye Smith took over the stove.
The Parisian coffee scene continues to heat up in the Haut Marais and outside of France.