The Clown Bar - How Do You Say 'Clown' In French?

Source: https://www.eater.com/2016/10/19/13314418/paris-clown-bar-veal-brain

The answer is 'clown' (pronounced 'cloon'), but you probably already knew that.  But I already used the obvious 'no clowning around' as the sub-heading of a previous post (Bondi, same neighborhood) and I hate to be redundant.

This was mine and Co.'s second visit to the much touted Clown Bar on rue Amelot in the 11th for dinner.  Co. couldn't remember the previous visit at all.  I could remember exactly where we sat, but nothing we ate, but then again, that must have been 4 or 5 years ago and my memory cells have decayed a lot since then, or, the food just wasn't that memorable.  No doubt, a combination of the two.

In fact, we had no intention to return to the Clown.  Earlier in the week I reserved online for one of our favorites, restaurant Louis and then, memory cells again, I completely let slip the fact that I never received an email confirmation from the restaurant.  So perhaps it wasn't surprising when I called Louis (the restaurant) on Friday afternoon to confirm, gave my name, and received the dreaded response, 'Who?'  I was then informed what an ignoramus I am for thinking that I could get a reservation outside of the 10 days to 2 weeks window.  Ah yes, I remember the good old days when Louis was relatively obscure.  But I take full responsibility for my blunder.  Anyway, faced with the 'we're going out to dinner tonight' mojo and no place to go, Co. fumbled through her recent Telerama clippings, called Clown, and they were kind enough to offer us a Friday evening table if we got there in one hour, which we did.

BORING.. I know, you probably could care less about all this crap and just want me to get down to the business at hand - dinner at Clown.  So I'm not going to leave you on the edge of your seat any longer - the food was, uhm, 'meh'?  No, that's a bit unfair - the food was pretty good, but I still don't get the effusive praise.  For example, according the The Eater Guide to Paris (the eater guide to Paris?  yikes, what a name):

 'Clown Bar Is the Most Thrilling Restaurant in Paris. You won't find anything more  exciting, innovative, fun, or (literally) cerebral.'

Well, I wasn't inordinately thrilled, excited, or bowled over by innovation and raucous fun during our visit, although the carte did get a little cerebral (literally), with it's calf brain entree offering. As I prefer to use my brain rather than to eat brain, maybe that diminished my 'fun' experience.  No brain, no fun?  Pretty good title for a spunky little punk song.  I will file that one for later.  Nonetheless, I've been seeing many 'Eater'-like accolades over the past year lavished on the Clown, and I'm still not sure why.

I have to admit, it is sometimes difficult to dissociate the eating experience from some element of the dining experience that lingers in one's cerebral hemispheres (literally) long after the meal has ended.  I remember having a meal at one casual bistro that I had frequented a couple of times, but this time, plans having already been made, I happened to read a review in which a diner complained of a mouse skittering around the restaurant floor during his meal and the waiter simply pooh poohing the diner's complaint.  So I'm sure my reaction to the food would have been more favorable if I hadn't been constantly looking around my feet for any evidence of rodents (it didn't help that my table was shoved into a corner toward the back where mice are no doubt more prone to congregate).  Now, mind you, the Clown had no such rumored rodent problem, at least that I am aware of, so let's not go down that route.  However, there was - literally - a quartet of elderly Cuban/Miami denizens sitting at the table next to us extolling the merits of the Donald (the clown president, literally).  I won't get into the irrelevant details, and our interaction was cordial enough, but as I said, it's kind of difficult to dissociate those sorts of things from the meal itself.

Source: http://www.clown-bar-paris.com/

 

The bistro/bar is a real throwback to Cirque d’Hiver circa early 20th century, with circus-inspired decorations and painted tiled walls.  But other than atmosphere, don't expect a Ringling Bros. experience (hell, they're defunct now anyway).  English spoken here - by patrons and servers (Americans?)  Given the quality of the food - pretty good, not really great - I found the carte to be somewhat over-priced, including the wine list, which only had a couple of choices of reds for under 40 euros.   36€ for a turbot filet with asparagus seemed pretty unreasonable to me and I didn't like the fact that no menu was available.  Granted, the dishes were rather copious and, rare for French bistros, the main courses each came with an accompanying side dish.

The nitty gritty - click to enlarge

As for our choices from the carte above, read on...

Co. chose the crab meat wrapped in beet (15€), a tasty starter, if not extraordinary.  I opted for the moderately-priced (16€)  black rice with fava beans and tuna (the latter veritably missing).  Black is my favorite color, I must admit, and that includes pasta and rice.  This dish was good, but ala the crab/beet appetizer, hardly spectacular and my attention wavered after 4 or 5 forkfuls.

Crab in beets entree

Black rice with feve and disappearing tuna entree

Two hefty main plates followed - pigeon for Co., with accompanying courgette (24€) and, for me, a rather intriguing canard/foie gras pairing with an unimaginative salad and vinaigrette on the side (30€).

Co.'s pigeon, as seen from the other side of the table, wine and bread in foreground.

Pithiviers de canard et foie gras, dates and yuzo included

Our desserts provided a refreshing finish to the meal, but lacked the thrilling, exciting, innovative fun that Eater site had promised: lemon tarte for yours truly and a crème brûlée with banana ice cream for my counterpart, both reasonably priced at 10€.

Tarte au citron with flowers

What was left of Co's crème brûlée by the time I got my camera focused.

For a warm end of Spring Friday evening last minute selection, it's hard to complain about dinner at The Clown Bar.  But for what is becoming a Paris institution, the restaurant had a distinctly ex-pat feel about it (it takes one to know one, I guess).  And for the second time out of two visits, I was left with the impression that the meal fell short of what we expect from our favorite dining venues in Paris.  We could have spent roughly the same amount (148€ including a 33€ pretty decent bottle of Roussillon) for a much more rewarding culinary experience at our preferred choice (Louis), which left a bittersweet taste in my mouth as we hit the pavement and began our walk back toward Republique.


THE CLOWN BAR
114 RUE AMELOT
PARIS 11
TEL: 01 43 55 87 35
Web: http://www.clown-bar-paris.com/
Closed Mon/Tues.

Les Déserteurs - Still At the Top

I hate to repeat myself.  Having already reviewed Les Déserteurs a year ago, you may wonder why I bother to post about  Daniel Baratier et Alexandre Céret's Les Deserteurs, a restaurant in the 11th that they created after 'deserting' Le Sergent Recruteur (get it? from recruiter to deserter).  There's a simple answer to that question - it's really good.

Source: L'Hotellerie

After another terrific dinner with Co. a couple Friday evenings ago, I felt compelled to share some images of our six-course meal (60€).  So without further adieu, here they are.  Bear in mind, this is another one of those venues where nothing is listed on the carte and everything - since we are four years old - is a surprise.  So my limited descriptions are based solely on my wine-muddled memory.  As always, the menu changes regularly depending on the market, so it's not like you can go in and say, 'I'd like that pintade dish that Mortstiff had a couple weeks ago.' The upside is, chances are you'll get something even better.

Bruscetta with courgette, mint, and olive flakes

Eggs with pintade, mushrooms, and moules

Fera, poisson du lac, with flowers and peas

Volaille and gnocchi

Really good dessert 1

Really good dessert 2

I hope the photos speak for themselves (click on them and they will look even tastier).  Les Deserteurs is a highly recommended experience, from the fresh, creative, and precise dishes to Alexandre Céret's expressive and iinformative explanations.  A bit pricier than some of the venues reviewed here (you can order a more limited 45€ menu for dinner, and lunch is a more economic option with 28 € and 35 € menus that include a glass of wine and cafe), but well worth it.

LES DESERTEURS 
46 rue Trousseau
75011 Paris
web: facebook page
Tél. : 01 48 06 95 85

Louis, Quietly

Maybe it's just my usual cantankerous nature, but it is so much easier to complain than to say nice things.  Which is why discussing Louis, the restaurant, for a second time is so boring.  I must admit, there is nothing to complain about when it comes to Louis.  I came to that conclusion last June, shortly after the restaurant opened, and I again conclude that the folks behind this small, quiet establishment in Paris 9 just about do everything right.  The food is fresh and interesting, the service impeccable, the prices reasonable, the wine list is well-composed, and despite the small room, it is possible to have a conversation without other patrons listening in on more than half of what you are saying.  There are positive reviews of Louis to be found, but not a lot of buzz - this is a quiet success story, so far.  Hell, it's not even included in the 2016 Le Fooding guide, a serious lapse on the part of that otherwise stalwart reference.

Given that I've already reviewed Louis fairly recently, I'll just illustrate the meal that Co. and I had a couple Friday evenings ago.  If you want more details, you can scroll down to the bottom  and click on where it says 'Older Posts' to reach my June 2015 review.  Just to remind you, at Louis you have two choices - six courses (48 euros) or eight (62 euros, including a cheese dish).  Our 2012 Languedoc (Montpeyroux Sylvain Fadat) was priced at 37 euros.

An amusing amuse bouche to start off - the third in the row is a polenta cube beside its accompanying vinegrette.

Celery tiramisu

The final amuse bouche - poached egg and something, something.

(Another blurry one ..)  Foie gras with light-as-a-feather brioche for dipping.  If you went with the 6 course menu, you wouldn't have gotten this one, a serious loss.

Fish and seaweed

Perfectly cooked canette with vegetables

Chevre with toasts and pebbles, the latter not for consumption

A subjective look at dessert 1, reflective of the amount of alcohol I had consumed prior to getting there, but much, much clearer in real life.

Dessert 2, a deadly ganache

For good measure, some extras, minus the one I already consumed.  And not mention the little plastic doggy bag with some more patisseries for Co., a sexist discrimination of the worst sort.

Before bringing this one to a close, I have to complain about something, despite my saying I had nothing to complain about.  As is the case in many Parisian bistrots (and, no doubt, beyond), whose carte is comprised of a tasting menu and often nothing else, the courses are not listed, but are left as a surprise.  What am I four-years-old?  If I'm shelling out 150 euros or more for a meal - however terrific it might be - I'd prefer to know up front what I'm paying for.  But I guess that's an idiosyncratic quirk that you are likely to view as reviewer nitpicking, or worse.  So forget I mentioned it.  Did I say that  I really like Louis (the restaurant)?  Don't forget that.

LOUIS (Stephane Pitre)
23 rue de la Victoire
75009 Paris
tel. 01 55 07 86 52
web: www.louis.paris

Pierre Sang on Gambey - Voila, A Winner

I'll admit right from the start that this is going to be a piss-ass review, pardon mon francais.  I don't have the names of dishes, I don't have a photo of the carte - there wasn't one - I quickly forgot two or three key ingredients of each dish about ten seconds after our servers described them, and the place was dark enough to render most of my photos as illegible.  That said, I loved everything about Pierre Sang on Gambey, not to be confused with Pierre Sang on Oberkampf a few doors away on the corner (where Oberkampf, surprise, surprise, meets Gambey). PSO is also supposed to be pretty good --albeit less creative cuisine and less pricey - and it was livelier on the summer evening when Co. and I passed by.  PSO also looks more like a restaurant from the outside than the non-descript PSG, which I wouldn't have located if I didn't already know it was only a couple doors down from PSO.

 

 

We were seated at the counter, right in front of the open kitchen - a front-row seat - having passed on one of the few scattered tables.  Next time, we'll probably opt for a window seat, assuming the season calls for that.  The deal is a great one - six dishes for 49€ - and they were all excellent - unique, flavorful, fresh, compelling, and eye-opening.  The whole Gestalt traversed various ethnic cuisines, with some Asiatic permeating throughout, not surprising, given chef Pierre Sang's Korean and French roots.  The carte changes regularly, soley as a function of Monsieur Sang's whims, and the evidence suggests he throws caution to the wind when conjuring up an evening's selection of dishes.  Since I was so lame in noting the details of our meal, get a load of le Fooding's description of another selection:

...mandoo (fried dumplings) filled with poultry, anchovy cream, mussels and lemon caviar; seared chinchard mackerel, eggplant caviar with yuzu and cucumber kimchi; sliced prime rib, a chili dip, reduced jus and sweet rice with butter; magic wagyu flank steak with sweet miso, accompanied by a killer pork ragout and noodles made with sweet potato flour; beautiful cheeses with yuzu jam…

Yep, we had some of that, particularly the yuzu (an East-Asian citrus fruit, part sour mango), sweet miso, and cucumber kimchi, but with radishes, shrimp, fish, calamars, etc.  The cool part - or insipid, depending on your level of cynicism (hey, I'm cynical but even I thought it was cool) - is that you're not told what you're eating until you've already consumed the dish - only then does the server provide the details, and only after you've made your guesses.  I was pretty proud of my hits, but there were misses, and of course, there's a bit of cheating involved if you are sitting directly in front of the cooks in the kitchen, watching their every move.  I only have a couple photos that turned out, below, well, two out of the three below turned out - and I'll only tell you what they consisted of after you've eaten them:

 

 Throw in a superb Corbieres Ribaute (44€) and the bill for two, including one espresso (2.50€) came to 144.50€, a steal for what was maybe my best meal of the year.  With one visit under my belt - the first of many, I presume (visits, not belts), Pierre Sang on Gambey has quickly risen to the top of my list, with a bullet.

PIERRE SANG ON GAMBEY

6 rue Gambey

Paris 75011

TEL: No phone number

Metro: Oberkampf, Parmentier

Website: http://www.pierresangboyer.com/

Graffito on the way to Pierre Sang on Gambey

L'Apibo - Underrated on Tiquetonne

I don't know why, but I love street names like Tiquetonne.  It would be cool to live on that street, just to be able to tell people that I live on Tiquetonne.  Like I said, I don't know why.  Well, one reason I would like to live on rue Tiquetonne, a casual 5-10 min. walk from the Forum LeHalle, is that I'd get to go to L'Apibo more regularly.  As it is, Co. and I made our second visit to said venue this past Friday night, nearly a full two years from our initial excursion.  We liked it then and we like it a lot more now.

L'Apibo chef Anthony Boucher

Again, I don't know why, but L'Apibo doesn't seem to rate the well-known gastronomic review channels.  Not in Le Fooding - a big surprise.  Way back - especially in culinary timespace - in 2012, Le Figaro didn't exactly pan the restaurant, but dissed it with the following comments (translated from original):  "... young staff strives to make a copy out of the ordinary, unfortunately spoiled by too much haste. Nothing catastrophic, but that feeling of a school setting, hardworking, middle class.."  Ouch.  However true that may have been at the restaurant's debut, if at all, those comments ring hollow today.  Headed by chef Anthony Boucher, L'Apibo is all grown up, professional, yet laid back.  Nothing apparently hasty in the food's preparation and the service was right on.

I've now eaten at L'Apibo twice and never made it inside, both times opting for the small (8 tables?) and narrow terrace on the indubitably animated Tiquetonne - I've copied an image of the interior for your viewing pleasure anyway.  As for the carte, for dinner you basically have two options: (1) a menu carte - entree, plat, dessert for 35€ or (b) the more extravagent carte blanche au chef - 5 servings at 55€.  We did (1).

The meal started off with a summer-appropriate, mise en bouche of watermelon gazpacho - fresh and ephemeral - ephemeral because although I am 100% positive I snapped a photo, it has apparently evaporated into the heat of mid-summer Paris night.  Try this, imagine a small glass bowl filled with  semi-thick watermelon juice - there, that's what you're missing.  I did better with the other courses, as you will see below.

 The formal menu got underway with two excellent entrees.  I went with Le Thon Rouge - half cooked, with sweet red onions, soy sauce, chick peas, and some assorted vegetables.  Perfectly cooked and I was impressed, given that slightly cooked tuna Germon is a dish I experiment with regularly in my very own kitchen.  Co. opted for something more Mediterranean, mozarella wrapped in zucchini in a tomato broth.

Le Thon Rouge

Courgette

Something very fishy about the main plates - we both ordered fish.  Co. got there first to the one I would have taken if she hadn't got there first - deep down, yes, I am a true gentleman - Le Bar - cooked on a bed of salt and black rice, tandoori, and caviar d'aubergine.  I didn't suffer too much - my choice turned out to be pretty good, although coming in second to the bar - La Lotte - roasted, with potatoes, celery, and enveloped in a fish soup, all in the direction of a bouillabaisse.

Le Bar - no, you are imagining Co. playing with her phone in the presence of such a grand fish

La Lotte

The greatest disparity came at dessert.  I hit the jackpot with Le Chocolate (don't you just love these original names L'Apibo came up with for the dishes?) - mousse onctueuse, ganache chocolat, tuile grue, cacao - all I can say is go there now and get this.  Co., however, was very disappointed with her more fruity choice - La Framboise.

Le Chocolate - epic, trust me

Le Chocolate again, excavation underway

La Framboise - Co. was underwhelmed

Add a couple chocolates with the cafe, and that's a wrap.

Speaks for itself

All of this washed down with a fine Chinon, reasonably priced at 29€, one of 6 or 7 featured bottles.  Grand total for two, 102€.

Once again, I'm not sure why L'Apibo isn't up there with the other usual subjects.  Creatively, of course, it doesn't compare with say, Les Deserteurs - the current bees' knees in the capital (for good reason) or Louis - but you could do much, much worse.  I'd say L'Apibo ranks at the top of some of my other underrated favorites, like Lilane, Fabrique 4, and Vilia.  Mainly because their street names aren't nearly as fun to say as 'Tiquetonne.'