John Talbott
Blogger Buzz: The Cafe Tolo in the 10th
Sep 9th
On a nice day, on the Canal St-M, what could top it?
5.0 Cafe Tolo, 3, rue Eugene Varlin in the 10th (Metro: Chat. Landon), 01.42.05.22.51, closed Sundays, Monday and Tuesday nights is a place the SJTR (Star of Journalism, TV and radio), formerly the RFC, and I tried to go to a few days ago until he became famous.
On a cloudy winter day (in fact, I was at this exact spot last, along with thousands of other sports-nuts, greeting the Olympic torch-bearers as they came through in 1992 en route to Albertville), it’s a dismal location, but in September, with sun, no humidity and temperatures reaching 75-80 F, it’s Canal St Martin heaven. So despite my posing as someone who only rates restos only on the quality of their food, ignoring the locale, acceuil, decor, napery and ambiance, I’ll admit I was lying and it does make a difference.
The place has gotten a lot of buzz since it opened/reopened as a Basquesque joint about a year ago and it finally came up on the list to a reachable position. I called for a reservation at 12h30 – not necessary, but Dear Reader, by the time I left it was packed.
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Blogger Buzz: Le Petit Vatel in the 6th – more than a neighborhood place
Sep 8th
5.5 Le Petit Vatel, 5, rue Lobineau in the 6th, 01.43.54.28.49, closed Sunday and Monday, says it is open 12 noon to 11 PM, but when I arrived at 12h30 they were not ready to take orders, a bit of wine of course, but the delivery man shorted them on several veggies and 5 kilos of potatoes (I was eavesdropping) and I thought, oh man, is she going to do a “complete Vatel” and off herself over the potatoes; whew, no.
Now backstory: I was actually headed to A Nous Paris’s #2 rec this week, Jambon Jambon by l’Alycastre aka l’Arcade a Tapas across the street in the Marche St-Germain, but since they didn’t answer the phone despite supposedly being open (Figaroscope clearly no longer has fact-checkers, who does?,) I had two backups - Le Petit Vatel and the Cafe Odeon, which from the Carrefour I could see was open; but when I passed Le Petit Vatel, its menu looked inviting, so after determining that the folks from the Bistro d’Alycastre, which was open, weren’t staffing the annex, in I went.
Now I’d read about Le Petit Vatel when it opened around the same time as La Regalade St-H, but Rubin didn’t like it and despite various mentions of it since May, I didn’t think seriously about going, although the name kept rattling around in my ever decreasing cerebrum.
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Blogger Buzz: Les Temps Modernes in the 12th
Sep 5th
5.5 Les Temps Modernes, 91, rue Charenton in the 12th, (Metro: Gare de Lyon), 01. 43.46.81.94 is open 7/7 (ah ha, and that means Sunday lunch.) It was a perfect Rome afternoon, sunny, warm, streets full; simply delicious.
There was the theme of Charlie/Charley Chaplin’s Les Temps Modernes, especially with a cool clock over the bar and kind of industrial metallic decor but otherwise it was a Bobo/Branché place.
The waitperson was terrific and throughout the meal I felt very well served indeed. I started off with rillettes of daurade with a sauce that was not complimentary but the salad and lime were.
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Blogger Buzz: Pena del Medio in the 18th – it seemed like a good idea at the time
Sep 4th
-0.2 Pena del Medio, 65 Rue du Ruisseau in the 18th (Metro: Jules Joffrin), 01.42.23.31.23, closed Sunday nights, is the latest place to plotz in this cursed site (I know, one shouldn’t have such thoughts but like the song sez “I believe in witchcraft”) and this place goes up and down every few years, from a dull fungible place to a gay bar to a hip/good resto.
Right now, it’s a tapas joint, full of Bobo’s, yes, we have them in the 18th, kids in pousettes and yesterday on my way to the bus, I looked, saw the old 2PC sign draped in crepe, went in, talked to a nice Spanish lady and thought “Finally, a great place.” Not.
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Blogger Buzz: Moustache in the 6th
Sep 2nd
6.5 La Moustache, 3, rue Sainte-Beuve in the 6th (Where? Ah, next to Le Timbre), not to be confused with the gay Cafe Moustache on the Fbg St Martin in the 10th, 01.42.22.56.65, closed Sundays and Saturday and Monday at lunch, has been open since mid-June but received little notice and may suffer from being #2 to Spring in this week’s Figaroscope, which would be a pity, because it can stand on its own, very well indeed, thank you.
I went with my friend R., who has a keen palate and writes for another webpub and the two of us did well. He started with the green asparagus with a parmesan crisp and I had a “salad” of calamars and Tiger shrimp with sliced zucchini that had a wonderful Asian zip to it.
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Blogger Buzz: Cornelius in Levallois-Perret – terrific, but you’ll never know
Sep 1st
5.7 Cornelius, 9, Place Henri Barbusse in Levallois-Perret, 01.47.57.63.45, closed weekends, is a place written up only in A Nous Paris, I think, but is in an area of town I like: just far enough away from the hustle and bustle but not too far. It’s been open a few months and is not only huge (100 covers maybe) but has a really fresh, energetic feel to it.
I started with white asparagus with a poached egg (done to perfection) and crisp’d chorizo; it took a bit of juggling but if you speared the asparagus with the white of the egg, then dipped it in the yellow and manoeuvred the chorizo on top, the combo was wonderful.
Then I had a lamb parmentier which was sort of like an elegant, high-class lamb patty, very, very tasty, with a nice salad. I (once again to my chagrin) couldn’t finish it because I was going for a trifecta of 20 E with dessert.
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Blogger Buzz: Le Saotico in the 2nd – a solid, solid meal by the team that made Le Reminet great
Sep 1st
5.5 Le Saotico, 96 rue Richelieu in the 2nd (Metro: Richelieu-Drouot), 01.42.96.03.20, currently open only weekdays 8 AM – 8 PM, has been open Madame Surcouf informed me for only three weeks and Alexander Lobrano has already written it up on his “Hungry for Paris” Diner’s Journal. In the article/review, he notes that Madame and M. used to run Le Reminet on the Left Bank, one of his and my favorite places.
That resto had maybe 30 covers and this two-story place has about double that number, in very commodious space. We were supposed to be five and for that we needed to be able to communicate. Even with the four that showed up, I’m glad we were on the second floor.
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Blogger Buzz: Q-TEA restaurant in the 9th – home-cooked Chinese
Aug 31st
Q-TEA restaurant, 19, rue Notre-Dame de Lorette in the 9th (Metro: ND de Lorette) is a place a Chinese/American woman who lives in Paris I know came across in her neighborhood and indicated that it had real “home” (that is from scratch) Chinese cooking. I asked what area in China and she all over. Even though it seats only 14, 8 of us were able to sit at one table and share the food and wine (it’s BYO).
While each dish takes about 20 minutes our hostess said, once they started appearing, they came in prompt succession and if I’ve got it right, we had a salad of bitter cucumber and some kind of sliced sweet pear, Shanghai spring rolls with bok choy, fish with slightly hot red pepper on cellophane noodles, a seafood, tofu and XO marmite, chicken croustillant (that I thought was the hit of the evening), turnips stuffed with shitakes, a whole fried bass (my #2), a mango/melon melange and a vanilla “milkshake.”
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Blogger Buzz: La Terrasse at the Galeries Lafayette in the 9th – high prices, high quality
Aug 30th
4.5 La Terrasse on the 8th floor roof at the Galeries Lafayette, 40 blvd Haussmann in the 9th, 01.42.82.34.56 (but getting to them via phone is like dealing with american airlines), open only for lunch store days, thus closed Sunday, is open from March-Sept. A friend who’d been asked me why I was going since it’s just fancy soups and salads and I had no good answer, but today I needed a light place I could eat early at since I’m going to a Chinese banquet tonight.
I chose a seat with a view towards the side of Sacre Coeur I don’t usually face and regarded the menu: expensive soups, salads, sandwiches and pastry and ices by Herme. OK, I’m a big boy, I knew what I was into.
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Blogger Buzz: Batofar in the 13th
Aug 29th
An unusual place, an unusual experience, and an unusual result.
Batofar, Port de la Gare (or more descriptively, really down at Seine-side, Left Bank, alongside 6-8 other boats) in the 13th, 01.53.60.17.00 (but no reservations when they’re serving outside), is open lunch and dinner except for dinner Sundays and Mondays. It reopened earlier this year with a ”new team, [new chef], new spirit, methodical cleaning” and positioning between jazz joint and restaurant (said Figaroscope at the time.)
Usually when I go to a place, I’m calculating a rating between 0 and 10 in my mind as I move through the meal, and this time, I realized there was no one “summative” one and instead I had to break it down into components.
The location: 6-8, because if you live within access to the #14 Metro, it’s a cinch (a half hour for me from the deepest 18th), otherwise it’s a schlep.
The setting: 8-9, beautiful situated as it is between the other such boat/soiree/restaurants, facing the lovely Gardens of Bercy rather than ugly towers of F. Mitterand’s Library with the neat Beauvoir double-swooping bridge just West.
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Blogger Buzz: I Cugini – bit of Italian in the 10th
Aug 28th
I Cugini, 33, rue de Paradis in the 10th (Metro: Chateau d’Eau), 01.48.01.65.34, closed Sunday and Monday is a place that fit my new boss’s requirements: open Saturday, near enough to her place and quiet enough to be able to do some business. It opened earlier this year and has the sparkling but genuine feel of a neighborhood trattoria. Its menu is pretty representative of those in most major Italian cities, no surprises but no goofiness either.
The Boss-lady had pasta (tortiglioni) with gorgonzola (not pictured) which I thought was quite fine but she thought stuck a bit to the stomach; our collaborator/friend had the daily special – penne with porcini that was also quite good but my linguine with vongole was about the best I’ve ever had, even though it needed doctoring (massive amounts of freshly ground black pepper and parmesan [I know, I know, no cheese with seafood pasta for purists, but I'm not]) to bring out the maximal flavor.
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Blogger Buzz: Les Fines Gueules Redux – new chef but the old formula still works
Aug 27th
6.0 Les Fines Gueules, 43, rue Croix des Petits Champs in the 1st, (Metro: Les Halles), 01.42.61.35.41, is open everyday (including in July and August) and has recently undergone a change in chefs to a Japanese guy (according to the last A Nous Parisbefore the Great Flight). It seems totally unchanged – seamlessly transitioning from one chef to another; which is all to the good, since the original formula – good product, well cooked, presented in a pleasant manner by friendly staffers – worked well when it opened in April 2007 and has stood the test of time.
I started with beautifully-marinated ceviche of sardines with chopped tomatoes and lovely greens and then moved on to the chunk of cochon, crisp on the fatty outside and tender and tasty on the lean inside with a huge amount of sauteed girolles.
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