Missed Post on L'Ecailler-Visited Saturday, Feb 26, 2011

L’Ecailler du Bistrot: Bistro Rollin Goes to Paris

Posted by: restaurants - Posted in Restaurants on Mar 04, 2011

Small Bites readers: This is Paul Bratone, owner of Bistro Rollin in Pelham, reporting on his culinary trip to Paris last week. Sorry the delay in posting!

So today represented a unique opportunity — an intentional departure from our previous style of bistro meals.

After a light breakfast in the apartment of croissant, reblochon cheese, dry cured ham, duck confit rillettes (which is shredded duck confit meat mixed back in with duck fat to create a kind of heavenly pate) and fresh baguette, we waddled out the door to the next stop on our gastronomic tour de force.

L’Ecailler du Bistrot is famous for seafood of all kinds, particularly raw oysters, raised on the owners own oyster farm in Brittany. Given this reputation and our protruding waistbands, Manny and I decided that we were going all raw bar…but we ended up going LARGE.

At Bistro Rollin, oysters have become an important part of our menu. We now over at least four varieties on the half-shell almost every night and try to have a selection of both East Coast and West Coast. We are also very proud of the quality of our fish. So we were fascinated to see what full seafood Parisian bistro would be offering. We just had to just had have a large sample size a proper statistical analysis!

On the walk to the restaurant two things caught Manny’s eye! One in a food shop window. Now that is a quiche that any man would eat!

The second was at the curb. Let’s drive that to lunch!

Dad decided to skip lunch today, better to prepare himself for tonight’s sure-to-be-epic dinner at L’Ami Jean…but more on that in a few.

So Manny and I forged ahead, confident that we would be able to eat “light” at lunch and preserve our delicate constitutions….didn’t quite work out that way however…observe:

Wasn’t so much the raw shellfish plateau as the delicious bread, fantastic butter (two kinds, one w/ sea salt and the other infused with different types of seaweed) and the bottle of crisp Muscadet from Brittany.

Oh..and I almost forgot, an aperitif of champagne and an amuse bouche of salmon rillettes.

What you see on the platter are small sweet shrimp (eaten whole, heads and shells included) a few larger shrimp, a whole jumbo tourteau crab, two types of clams, a dozen oysters, fresh sea urchin, periwinkles, and whelks. To top it all off the owner sent us four Belon oysters that we slurped down with some fresh ground pepper on top – the owners suggestion. As I mentioned before….light lunch. Notice that Manny and I left no stone unturned.

They also offer a lobster menu, check out the Blue lobsters from Brittany that they bring in.

Cute little guy isn’t he?

At the beginning of our meal the waitress mentioned that the owner, Bertrand Auboymeau, would like to meet us and invited us to his other restaurant next door (Bistrot Paul Bert) for a coffee and a chat after lunch.

He was a great guy, friendly and open, we discussed his family oyster farm in Brittany, his plans for an organic vegetable farm to supply his restaurants, family, children and the like, truly enjoyable company.

He has a great way of storing his wine. He found old wooden doored refrigerators and had them refinished to store his wine and installed chalkboards on the inside of each door listing the wines in each locker

And to cap it all off he asked us where we were going for dinner that evening, when we told him it was “L’Ami Jean:…he said great choice, and mentioned that the chef happens to be a close friend of his. He grabbed one of his business cards, wrote a brief note on it, signed his name and told us to hand the owner the card when we got there and to put ourselves in his hands…should be interesting…stay tuned.

We exchanged emails and promised to stay in touch. We, of course, invited him to be our guest at Bistro Rollin and he said he would be delighted! With that we strolled back through the Paris streets thinking of dinner!

Paul Bratone



L'Ami Jean - Our Last "bistronomique" dinner in Paris

L’Ami Jean

It is hard to believe that we are about to eat our last ‘bistronomique” dinner in Paris. Tomorrow is Sunday, and all the bistros we are interested in are closed. It will be a day for sightseeing and maybe some oysters at a brasserie. As you can imagine the week has flown by! But tonight is L’Ami Jean. When Paul and Manny were finishing lunch today, Bertrand Auboyneau, the owner  of Paul Bert, asked them where we had been eating and where were going tonight. When he heard L’Ami Jean he heartily approved and said that Chef Stephane Jego was a little crazy but one of his best friends, so he wrote a note on his card and told Paul to make sure he got it when we arrived! Sounded good and was good! We arrived at 8:00 when we had made all our reservations and were joined once again by our friend Marc.

We walked in and the place was jumping. Paul gave the card to the hostess and we hoped it would find it’s way to Chef Jego, and sat down at another plain wooden table pretty close to another similar table with four folks from Japan.

An extremely attractive and friendly server-manager got us seated and our waiter took over. We discussed having the tasting menu but it was 80 euros without wine and we were not looking to spend that kind of money on dinners. It was also seven courses and we were just not in the mood for that.

We asked the waiter for some suggestions and he recommended we start with a Charcuterie for the table. This was a Basque restaurant and they are known for their charcuterie. We agreed that would be how we would start. Turned out to be a great choice. An unbelievable selection of patés (that Marc said reminded him of those his mother used to make!) hams, sausages and other cooked meats began to arrive. Along with delicious baskets of bread!

Paul and I had decided to share a beef dish for two, Manny ordered the Sweetbreads, and Marc a Veal Chop as our main courses. So far, no evidence that our note to the chef had arrived! But after we had managed to do serious damage to the charcuterie, and would have been expecting our main courses, additional course began arriving. First was a delicious soup that even Chef had a hard time parsing out the ingredients, but all agreed it was extraordinarily good. This was followed by strange dish that we were never able to get a clear description of. The place was really busy by now and we didn’t want to pester the waiter too much. We all liked it but were not crazy about it. It was like everything we ate in France, very attractively presented, see the picture below.

We had now demolished a charcuterie big enough for 10, had a soup course, a third course and now arrives our mains! For Paul and me platters of beef topped by huge globs of beef marrow.

For Manny his sweetbreads

And for Marc his Veal Chop.

This is serious eating. I am proud of the work we are doing! Our waiter was terrific and he and Manny were having a ball.

We started with a Basque wine that was interesting but not our favorite, we then went to Cotes du Rhone that was perfect with the meats. Everything was delicious. Marc thought that his veal chop was a little underdone, but he can be a little picky at times. The table next to us was having the tasting dinner and it looked terrific. Next time I might give that a try.

An absolutely fabulous way to end our eating tour of Paris! Delightful servers, great food, wonderful ambiance. Warm, delicious, welcoming, what more could anyone want? Below is our chef. A little crazy...maybe? But crazy good...without doubt!

Arthur Bratone



Salon de L'Agriculture

We had one extraordinary non-restaurant food experience while in Paris that was a complete surprise. When we first arrived, my friend Marc, said we were extremely lucky because the Salon de L’Agriculture, the largest food and agricultural exposition in Europe, and possibly the world was being held in Paris this week. He strongly recommended that we go. As he put it “we had a moral obligation to attend” Marc some times is a little overly emphatic, but I as he suggested, I checked around and confirmed that this was something not to be missed.

So Friday morning we blew off our plans for lunch at ‘Dans Le Landes” the new bistro of Chef Julien Duboué from the acclaimed “Afaria” and instead head for the outskirts of Paris to the Ports de Versailles exhibition halls.

We arrived to throngs of people heading for the show. Fortunately it seemed most had bought their tickets before hand and we were able to quickly but three tickets for 12 euros each and head for the first building. At this time we had no idea the show was spread over seven massive halls!

We walked into a hall the size of the Javits Center in NYC, which was completely filled with livestock of an incredible variety.

Dozens and dozens of different beef cattle and cows, the largest weighing in at over 1600 kilos which over 3500 pounds! No need to ask “where’s the beef?” here.

In addition there untold varieties of lambs, pigs, goats, chickens, you name it! A huge rodeo ring with grandstands around it full of people where livestock of all types was being judged and sold. Some of the livestock had the name of the butcher, or in some cases, restaurant, who had bought the animal. You did have to watch your step since the various animals had to be led down the aisles to get to and from their pens and some substantial residue remained!

While this was all fascinating the area we had been directed to by Marc was the salon that held the exhibitions of foodstuffs of the all of various regions of France, i.e. Perigord where you find dozens of foie gras stands! Also, we were told we would find “bistros’ surrounding these exhibitions that were serving the various regional cuisines. Not knowing yet the scope of the exhibit we wandered into the next hall which was all flowers, and plants of all types.

We began to realize we seriously needed a map, other wise we could be there for days. We located one and found the correct exhibition hall and it was amazing. All of the regions of France have a section of the massive hall

Where purveyors of wine cheese, sausages, foie gras, hams, chocolates, patés… you name it and you will find it.

In fact Manny had been unable to find a source for Tarbais beans, the traditional bean used in Cassoulet. As we wandered through hall, sure enough we see a package of the beans and conversation with one the folks at the stand got us the name of their purveyor in New York. Now Manny’s cassoulet will be even better. As if that’s possible!

We found the Perigord section. You needed your cardiologist at your side. They are selling Foie Gras sandwiches. Thick slabs of foie gras terrine on baguettes. Chef wanted one of those so badly, but we had a big dinner coming up that night at Le Chateaubriand and had to not go crazy

In the 4- 5 hours we were there we barely scratched the surface. We tasted beers, wine, hams sausages, tiny paté in pastry

We finally succumbed to tired feet and our looming dinner and headed out, grabbed a cab and started to get ready for dinner. A truly unique experience! Would love to go back and spend a complete day.

Arthur Bratone

Le Chateaubriand and Rock-Star Chef Inaki Aizpitarte!

It is Friday night and our dinner tonight is at Le Chateaubriand, probably one of most anticipated meals of the trip. The anticipation has been aroused by the reputation of the place due the rock-star status of the chef, Inakii Aizpitarte, a young Basque who has garnered high praise for his daring and inventive cooking. Like most of the “bistronomiques” we have visited this week, the dining room was small, about 40 seats, maybe 45, and completely lacking in décor – clearly these chefs have decided to make the food the focus. This was the only restaurant with a totally fixed menu, no a la carte choices and no options on the chefs menu whatsoever, the only choice you get is to either take the wine pairings offered with each course or order your own bottle (we went with the pairings). The staff was young, knowledgeable, affable and English speaking, each dish the menu was explained to us in detail and then it was off to the races.

To confirm the status of Le Chateaubriand as "hot" suffice it to say that Chef  Rene Redzepi was there that evening as well, so we were in the house with the chef of the #1 restaurant in the world!  His place NOMA in Copenhagen bumped El Bulli from the top spot after a 10 year run. So we had Bistro Rollin checking it out and NOMA. NOMA was in good company!

There were four, count ‘em, four amuse bouche, and a "pre-amuse-bouche" which interesting for a cutting edge restaurant were a proto-typical traditional gougeres. The classic pate choux cheese puffs. These were lovely and excellent.

Then on the real amuse-bouche! The first was described as “live” baby shrimp quickly pan fried and served without adornment, they were tasty but nothing really special.

The next amuse was a small dish of haddock ceviche, clean and refreshing indeed but once again….just good, nothing GREAT about it – (thought as you will see from the empty bowls - we were so wrapped up in this food we forgot the picture until all three of us had downed them!)

Our thought was maybe this multi-course extravaganza was going to be a slow build that culminated in culinary fireworks – and besides, these were just the amuse bouche. Next and last of this first wave was a small piece of burrata w/ a few dried capers….and once again, meh….!

So on from the amuse bouche to the menu items…and here we really got going, first course was raw scallops with tamarind powder and purple potatoes – the dish was outstanding, the texture of the potatoes melding perfectly with the scallops, the tamarind powder providing a bracing finish.

But as quickly as the meal took off it the meal stalled – the next course of steamed turbot with a jus iberique was gorgeous as you will see belwo but when it came to taste - just OK - but nothing memorable. The blandness was continuing, not at all what we were anticipating!

And the final course of a take-off on veal blanquette that’s was flavored with smoked hay (huh?) and a foam of some sort fell completely flat. We all had to add salt and then it picked up. I think something went seriously wrong with this preparation in the kitchen!

The cheese course was classic and very good.

And the desserts were tasty (by this time we were so disappointed that we were trying to figure out what was going on a forgot to take pictures of the desserts!) But, it is hard to describe this meal as anything but a letdown. ……I wonder what Chef Redzepi  thought? In a conversation with another chef in Paris about our meal, he agreed that as much as he liked Chef Aizpitarte, he didn't like what he was doing at Le Chateaubriand

The wines, although very unusual were paired extremely well with the dishes. A couple of times we remarked that although we didn’t love the wines by themselves when we first tasted them, once we had a bite of food they made a lot of sense.

For you oenophiles;

Cuvee’ Prestige (Savignin) Jura, J.F. Ganevat

Ribolla Gravener (Ribolla Gialla, Sauvignon Blanc), Francesco Josko

Chambolle Musigny (Pinot Noir), Fred Cossard

So although I believe its unfair to judge a restaurant by just one meal, La Chateuabriand would rank towards the bottom of our experiences this trip, we’ll see what Inaki is up to next time we are in town – maybe we just caught him on an off night.

Paul Bratone



It's Thursday- It must be L'Epigramme

Small Bites readers: This is Arthur Bratone, owner of Bistro Rollin in Pelham, reporting on his culinary trip  to Paris this week.

 If it’s Thursday, it must be L’Epigramme!

Foie gras terrine.

Time is flying. We are out late, waking up kind of late, since it has been a little overcast everyday (but perfect walking weather) and the days are shorter here since we are further north than NY, which not everyone realizes. That plus the arduous work of eating and writing, eating and writing is just brutal! But, we do the best we can.

We had a superlative lunch today, as you know at Jadis and we are having drinks tonight at 6:30 at our friends Henri and Chantal Capdeville’s beautiful apartment on Rue Dante, off the Boulevard Saint Germain in the 6th.

Then dinner at L’Epigramme which is just around the corner. Our friend Marc Briké, who lives in the neighborhood as well is also joining us. So there will be six for dinner tonight. Our friends have never heard of L’Epigramme, so we are teasing them that they need to contact us for recommendations as to where to eat in their neighborhood!

We now know what to expect, a small unpretentious restaurant, with a tiny kitchen (which we never fail to point out to chef!) and a friendly staff, though as it turns out, not as friendly here as in some our earlier visits!

We settle in to a comfortable table for six, surrounded by stone walls certainly hundreds of years old.

The place in tiny, we count 30 seats at most. This seems to be a family operation with father, mother and daughter handling the dining room. Chef Pierre Neveuserve was not very welcoming to Paul and Manny when they were offered a look into the kitchen, Granted it was tiny, and a fairly busy night (though we waited until things had quieted down before even approaching the kitchen!) It is not possible that everyone could be as open and welcoming as we had been experiencing, and the dining room staff was pleasant and professional at all times.

We started off with some excellent appetizers. I had a simple dish of Squid over Pureed Potatoes that was beautifully presented and terrific eating. Absolutely fresh, perfectly cooked squid with lovely edible flowers, and greens. Excellent!

Paul, had the same dish and as you can see it was presented a little differently. A nice touch.

Marc and Henri and Chef had the Foie Gras Terrine and the consensus from both sides of the Atlantic was that is was great. I had a taste and couldn’t have agreed more.

Chantal had a Pumpkin Cappuccino Soup with Prawns that she was also very enthusiastic about. I didn’t taste it but she is a wonderful cook and knows her food!

We then moved on to the Main Course, Paul and I had the Breast of Duck with Beets (you can see that we were slipping from making sure we all always ordered something different) An attractive presentation, though the plate looked a little bare. Neither one of us was too thrilled with this dish. The duck breast was huge, and a little tough, that might be the nature of the bird more than anything else, but the big beet didn’t do anything for us and didn’t seem to complement the duck in any significant way.

Our friend Henri had the Lamb, as you can see a beautiful presentation and he liked it very much. It appeared to be cooked perfectly and was accompanied by an attractive stack of Mushrooms and a Celery Root Puree.

Chef had the Cod over Risotto with a Lemon Grass Foam. Great to look at but disappointing in the mouth. Again a very fresh piece of fish, but poorly seasoned so that the overall experience was bland.

For dessert I had a poached pear, because I love pears and we do one at Bistro Rollin, so I was interested in the presentation and the taste. It came out looking great and it was very good eating. The tuile cooking with it had chocolate woven into the mix and was delicious and pear was poached perfectly and nice fresh finish to the meal.

Chef had Chocolate cake with a Molten Chocolate center and Meringue topping. He thought it was excellent, and reminded him very much one they did at L’Absinthe in Manahattan where he was the Sous for several years. I tasted some of his and got a great chocolate jolt!

All and all a very good meal. We would all go back, though not up to the standards of Regalade, Saturne or Jadis, but all the same a meal that anyone would feel lucky to have had!