LE MINI-PALAIS, A Tasty Modern Riff on the Paris Brasserie, B; LE RESTAURANT DU MARCHE, A Superb Paris Bistro, A-
Saturday, September 11, 2010 at 17:33After lunch the other day at the Mini-Palais restaurant at the Grand Palais, the beautiful glass-and-steel domed building 1900 vintage building just off the Champs Elysees that's one of Paris's premier exhibition venues, I suspect that this newly revised restaurant--Gilles Choukroun was formerly chef here, and now the kitchen is run by Stephane d'Aboville, who cooked with Eric Frechon at the Hotel Le Bristol for many years, is going to be very popular. Why? First of all, it's open daily, serves non-stop from noon to midnight, and the dining room by trendy designers Patrick Gilles & Dorothee Bossier is absolutely stunning.
Dining room of Le Mini-Palais Their post-modern riff on an artist's atelier is, in fact, one of the best restaurant designs in Paris in a longtime, since it celebrates the soaring space with a ceiling of cast-iron beams and huge windows giving on to one of the nicest terraces in Paris at the same that an oak parquet floor makes the space warm and plaster busts make a pretty, knowing post-modern nod at the fact that this restaurant is adjacent to a gallery space.
Handsome though this room might be, I'd never be tempted if the food weren't good, and happily it's very good. Head consultant chef Eric Frechon and acting chef Stephane d'Aboville have created a stylish menu that's fun but serious and very French but appealingly cosmopolitan. Dining with friends, we loved the brilliant clafoutis of ceps mushrooms, squid with pil-pil sauce--the menu notes that this product comes from Mr. Good Fish, a local initiative to only use seafood that isn't threatened with extinction, and shrimp and onion tempura with tandoori spices to start, and all of us eyeballed a gorgeous looking rock-lobster club sandwich as it went by on a waiter's tray, too--this dictionary sized beauty is the star of the "En Cas," or off-hours menu that will be served here during the afternoon between lunch and dinner services.
If service at the old Mini-Palais followed unfortunate Costes Brothers tendencies--a pretty but stand-offish hostess, good-looking but absent-minded and disinterested waiters, the new crew is well-trained, attentive and quite charming, too.
As the dessert menu proved, Le Mini-Palais is going to be a swell spot to stop by for afternoon tea, since they offer ten choices, including a superb baba au rhum with vanilla-bean flecked whipped cream for two, a delicious salad of Granny Smith apples and raspberries in a light coriander-infused syrup, and a wonderful made-to-order fig tarte served with almond ice cream. There's a nice selection of wines by the glass for a quick meal, and a well-composed wine list for a more leisurely meal. All told, with it's strategic location and relatively reasonably prices, this is a terrific overhaul of a restaurant space that always had a lot of potential.
Le Mini-Palais, Avenue Winston Churchill, 8th, Tel. 01-42-56-42-42. Metro: Champs-Elysees-Clemenceau. Open daily from noon to midnight. Lunch menu 28 Euros, Dinner a la carte 45 Euros.
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After dinner last week with two sweet and seriously tatooed guys from LA, and David and Romain, an adorable Franco-American couple who live in Paris, in one of the oldest and best-known bistros in Paris, Chez Denise, an old-timer in Les Halles, I had a bee in my bonnet as I walked home. If we ate well, the real pleasure of being at this place was the high-testosterone sepia-toned Parisian atmosphere. But since the Los Angelinos really know and love great food, I felt as though we'd let them down a bit--they were waiting to be clobbered by a knock-out good bistro meal, which, unfortunately, was what I had the following night at the Restaurant du Marche in a remote corner of the 15th arrondissement. Point blank, this was one of the best meals that I'd eaten in Paris for a longtime, and if the service hadn't been a bit unfriendly--polite but poker-faced throughout the meal, I'd have rated this table a flat-out A.
It took Bruno and I a longtime to find it--it's way out on the very edges of Paris between the Porte de Versailles and the Porte de Vanves, but the moment we arrived, I knew we were in the right place. I hadn't even hung my jacket over the back of my bentwood chair when a saucer of finely sliced sausage arrived at the table, and it was delicious with a modestly priced glass of white Cotes du Gascogne. I've had this place on a Post-It note stuck to my computer for ages, but what finally propelled me to go was a rave review by Francois Simon, the estimable food critic of Le Figaro, one of the major French dailies. I've worked with Francois several times--I suggested that he write the endpaper for a GOURMET special edition of Paris--it seemed too colonial for us to do an entire edition with only American writers and not a single French voice, and then translated it into English as gently as I could, since he has a wonderfully idiosyncratic style, and we've also collaborated as editors on Zagat's Paris Guide. Through this work, and having read him for years, I know that we share not only almost identical food but restaurant tastes, and so his enthusiasm goaded me on to this remote bistro.
Even before the chalkboard menu arrived, I suspected we'd eat well, since on a Saturday night, the snug dining room with a broken tile floor, bare wood tables, Bordeaux painted trim and a zinc-clad service bar was occupied almost entirely by folks from the 'hood, or a quiet, residential corner of the quiet, residential 15th arrondissement. Then the chalkboard came, and we ordered salmon prepared like herring (translation) and cucumbers with crab to start, and roast shoulder of lamb and hachis parmentier made with confit de canard (duck preserved in its own fat). The starters arrived with lightning speed in little verrines, or squat mason jars, and were delicious, if rather modest, when eaten with some of the best bread I've had in Paris for ages. If these dainty first courses were appealing, however, the mains were just plain brilliant. Bruno's shoulder of lamb was impeccably cooked, crusty on the outside and rare in the middle, and came with quartered sauteed baby potatoes, while my hachis Parmentier, a French take on shepherd's pie, was an unctuous preparation of shredded duck in jus de truffe covered with mashed potato and served with an excellent little mesclun salad.
With a 22 Euro "wine of the month" bottle of very good Coteaux du Tricastin, from the Enclave des Papes in the Vaucluse, I was in heaven. Bruno skipped dessert, but since I never have anything sweet to eat at home, I went with the plum tart, which was fabulous--caramelized fresh plums with dollop of caramel cream on a disk of excellent homemade pastry. Even the coffee--almost invariably the weakest link in a bistro meal in Paris, was good, and we celebrated this great find with a shared glass of Vieille Prune from Souillac in the Lot. It's really been an age since I've had such a good bistro meal in Paris, and this for 32 Euros for three courses, and despite the fact that it's a pain in the neck to get here, I'm already looking forward to my next meal at a restaurant where I intend to become a very happy regular. Now if only the service was a bit less mannered and a little warmer, this place would be truly perfect.
Restaurant du Marche, 59 rue de Dantzig, 15th, Tel. 01-48-28-31-55. Metro: Porte de Versailles or Porte de Vanves. Closed Sunday and Monday. Prix-fixe menus, lunch 18 Euros; dinner 26 Euros, 32 Euros.
Reader Comments (1)
Alexander, thanks so much for telling us about Restaurant du Marche! We went tonight and had the most wonderful meal. We love your blog and look forward to every posting, just wish you'd post more often, but you're probably very busy. Best regards, Randall