Bienvenue a Paris, 'Le Chateaubriand'

 

The first restaurant burnt down. Chatelet des Isles, according  to the voice message had a 'force majeure' a fire, and was closed. My friend that I am visiting couldn't think of anything so I gave her the recent NY Times article on Paris to jog her memory.

Donc, it is how we ended up waiting In line to get into 'Le Chateaubriand'.
We were told they took non reservations in a half hour, so we went to a lovely wine bar or cave a vin across the street and had a WONDERFUL bottle of red, which made us very silly. Perhaps it was the alcohol of the first bottle, but my friend suddenly remembered coming to Le Chateaubriand twice before, remembering it as terrific. Emerging from the cave a vin close to an hour later, there was a line in front of the restaurant. Actually, a LINE. The waiter came out and told us, (the line) that it would be an hour wait and anyone behind us on said line would be MORE than an hour wait. Nobody budged. The waiter was mildly astonished. A few asked if they waited would they be fed. The waiter was a bit more astonished, "Why, yes...yes you will eat." The stoic gourmands quietly nodded their heads, set their jaws and did not budge. This being France, people could wait in line outside the restaurant with a glass of wine. Our trio declined this activity, being lubricated enough for the time being. We waited....waited...40 minutes my friend pulls out a half eaten 'Larabar' declaring it dinner if things went amiss....50 minutes later, we were thinking, saying, "Chateau-peut etre, briand-mon cul. (translation: Chateau-perhaps, briand-my ass)
We found out from the people behind us, the British father being less stoic, complaining he wasn't about to wait for an hour he had to work the next day and didn't care what this place was..... The French mother told us that the chef of the restaurant had won a world culinary award the week before in London, #9 in the world which puts him in the 'Young Turk' category beyond Ducasse. So the buzz was real. It was not only the NY Times article.
BTW- One of the daughters of the franglais couple knew the chef and shortly after the Dad's declaration (10 minutes into our wait) were quickly escorted a interiuer.I had assumed because it is Easter and Paris is empty of Parisians, we would be sitting next to people from New Jersey with Connecticut a few tables away with perhaps Wash DC in the corner. There was a lot of English spoken inside the restaurant by the patrons. Actually we did end up sitting next to a swanky young couple (he Gucci shoes, she Chanel bag and large bling ring) from New Jersey.
Go figure.
Anyway, back to the LINE.

Eventually we made it inside to the counter, had a glass of not so great champagne and glared at the table (that we knew would be ours) of people sitting on their check. I don't think we were the only ones glaring....
Enfin, we are seated. The magic begins...

The menu is prix fixe and a fixed menu. I think we were served 9 dishes and they were all quite amazing. Some were tiny and delicate and a couple had strange things like frozen parmesan with peas and cream fraiche or something creamy. It sounds weird, but it was kind of transcendent. There were two small mains, a pork and a fish (see below). The fish had pink tamarind powder and it was quite wonderful.

It was all worth the wait. An interesting different scene for me and Paris. The trio of us had a good time: we ate, we drank, we laughed. I's a t nice memory of the trip. Have had good gastronomic range from the great heights described. above to a quintessential jambon, fromage, beurre on a baguette with a Leff beer....also quite yum, a macarron (cafe) and a strawberry tart. Did I mention the wine? More to report of earlier parts TK. Bonne nuit from Paris.Bises xxxo D