April 2006
Paris ’06
by Cynthia Sin-Yi Cheng
LES PAPILLES
30, rue Gay-Lussac
75005 Paris
01.43.25.20.79
Friends with whom I was staying highly recommended Les Papilles in their neighborhood in the 5th arrondissement. I found a review that said the chefs, formerly of Taillevent fame, were serving remarkable fare alongside a good wine selection. What’s more it was an occasion for me to discover a new street near the Luxembourg Gardens (FYI: Les Papilles is about five minutes from Le Mauzac).
This bistro is part wine store, meaning that one wall of the restaurant displays wines for sale. All that you see can be served with your meal for a €6 corkage fee. Besides a champagne à la coupe, though, there was only one red and one white served by the glass. I was a bit bummed by this, especially since Celia and I were there at lunchtime and only wanted a good glass or two. The logic goes you can take home whatever you don’t finish. Well, the problem is that unless you are planning to go home directly after a meal — especially inconvenient for a Saturday lunch — it isn’t all that practical to be carrying a half-empty bottle of wine while wandering the streets.
So, we each ordered a glass of the bubbly, which turned out to be the Drappier Brut Nature (€7) that I have a crush on! We continued with a Gaillac — obviously the appellation of the moment — with our lunch, for which I didn’t even bother to jot down the producer since I was more interested in Les Papilles’ store-displayed selection. A couple of bottles that caught my eyes: Jacques Selosse Substance (€106) followed by the Selosse disciple Jérôme Prévost’s La Closerie Les Béguines (€40,20), a 2002 Domaine du Caillou Les Quartz (€74,20) and two vintages — 2001 and 2004 — of Pascal Cotat’s Sancerre Chavignol (both €29,40).
Hands down for the cuisine. The four-course meal (€28,50) was just lovely (albeit a bit indulgent for lunch). A starter of tasty potato soup (seasoned with o.j. and garlic) was poured over slices of sweet orange and tapenade on croutons in a wide soup bowl, showered with sprinklings of chives. For main, dark meat from the wings of free-range chicken was roasted and served with skins wrapped around medaillon pieces accompanied by a light sauce of pearl onions and champignons de Paris. The transformed texture of the meat tasted more like flavorful red meat than your usual non-descript chicken. Ingenious!
A Fourme d’Ambert with prune marinated in red wine proved a winner cheese course. And the finale was a pineapple panacotta that Celia very much enjoyed, but I skipped it because of my aversion to milky-tasting sweets.
My sentiment is that it’s a bit heavy for lunch. The meal we had would be a perfect dinner. At night, in good company, it would be my top choice for an evening out. But still, it can be pricey due to wine cost but entirely enticing. A splurge wine bar!
