Restaurant Week: Le Périgord in New York, NY

One of the first things I do for Restaurant Week, before looking for the menu, is to look for the cost. Opentable has this $ sign that goes from $ to $$$$, the latter meaning expensive. So I decided to apply a filter and picked Le Périgord, a French restaurant located Midtown East, that has been on my list for a while now. 

Périgord is a region in the South-West of France, known for its cuisine often made of duck or goose, such as confit or foie gras. Well, Interestingly, the family who started the restaurant are not from there! George Briguet, who opened the restaurant in 1964 is from Switzerland and his wife, Marie‑Thérèse, that I met after our meal, from Brittany. 

This is an old school place: fresh flowers on the table, white tablecloths and upholstery on the walls that transported us back in time.

Menu wise, they only brought us the Restaurant Week menu and I wondered at that time if it was some kind of profiling, restaurant bringing usually the regular menu as well as this one...

They first brought us some bread

And butter.

I admit that I was disappointed with the bread: it is a French restaurant bon sang! I mean serve a good baguette, not a bread that seems to have been store bought and is not what you would expect for this type of restaurant.

For her entrée, Jodi ordered the salade mélangée that is baby mixed green salad and goat cheese.

Frere de Lys, French restaurant on the Upper East Side, NY

Please note that the meal was complimentary. However, the opinions expressed in my blog are 100% my own!  

Frère de Lys is a French restaurant located on the Upper East Side that discovered last week end. I met with two of the owners of this place Alexis and Thibault Piettre, who before that worked in other restaurants in New York, before fulfilling the dream to open their own restaurant. Their mother was even there and chat proudly about this adventure. I was intrigued by the name as it seems to be a play on fleur de lys (iris flower), a symbol of monarchy in Europe; According to French historian Georges Duby, the three petals represent the medieval social classes: those who worked, those who fought, and those who prayed (source: wikipedia). 

Alexis told me that they are not royalist at all, but wanted to celebrate the renaissance period, their renaissance and as he and his brother have a fleur de lys tattooed on their arms, they thought about Frère de Lys as the name to their new adventure, frère meaning brother in French.

Decor wise, it is a simple place with a lot of warmth thanks to the dark wood of the tables, chairs and long banquette, keeping a touch of modernity. 

At the entrance is the bar with its bulbs that give a vintage feel.

Then, the dining room, simply decorated.

With of course a photo of an iris in the back.

Menu wise, do not expect to see a bistro type menu: there are no escargots, no confit de canard and no steak frites. There, the menu has classic French dishes, modernized and sometimes changed with an American twist. Know that we were there for a tasting, so the portions were smaller that what is shown on the actual menu. In fact, they were perfect portions for sharing and trying plenty of dishes and, who knows, their menu may include smaller dishes at some point!

Like any good French menu, it started with bread (toasted and served with olive oil) and wine. I got to try two wines:

The first one was a château de la sèlve palissaire 2012:

Paname, French restaurant in New York, NY

Please note that the meal was complimentary. However, the opinions expressed in my blog are 100% my own!  

Paname, that means Paris in slang, is a French restaurant located Midtown East, opened a year ago by Chef Bernard Ros, a veteran of the New York food scene, known not only for his cuisine, but also his mentorship in the industry, helping people get jobs or training them, solely for the love of food. The adventure started in 1967, when Chef Ros came to Montreal for the World's Fair. He then decided to go visit New York...and never went back to France, working in many restaurants, before opening Meli Melo and then Paname.

Chef Bernard Ros with the "Marilyn Monroe's legs"

I spoke at length with him during my dinner at Paname and truly felt that he was more interested in making his customers pleased with the experience at the restaurant, serving them classic bistro dishes, reinvented, at low prices, creating a loyal clientele, instead of one time diners. 

Chef Ros goes everyday to the market to pick ingredients, putting an emphasis on the quality of the meat and seafood he will serve. If you go to Paname, you will definitely see him (he is there 7/7) going from table to table, to ensure everything is fine. 

Menu wise, you will find classics, but as I mentioned before, reinvented. For instance, there are escargots (snails), but not cooked the usual way, with garlic and butter. Also, everything is homemade, including the desserts, that can be a challenge for a Chef, but not for Bernard Ros, as you will see in this post.

We started our meal with an amuse bouche that was made with gorgonzola and a tomato coulis, a perfect combination. 

Then, I tried few appetizers:

Tomato and mozzarella:

Per Se in New York, NY

We dreamt about going to Per Se for a while and decided, for our wedding anniversary, to go there instead of traveling. It was worth it. Acclaimed Chef Thomas Keller and his crew, led by Chef de Cuisine Eli Kaimeh are like magicians. They not only make disappear your appetite and a large sum of money from your bank account, they also erase any memory or reference to any good meal you had before going to Per Se. Yes, after dining at Per Se, any good restaurant will be like going to MacDonald's after tasting the burger at Minetta Tavern. This team shows so much technique and artistry that we were blown away.

Before I talk about the food, let me tell you a bit about this restaurant. Located on the fourth floor of the Time Warner Center, the American Chef Thomas Keller opened Per Se in 2004. It soon received the accolades of critics and easily gained three Michelin stars, reaching the top of the New York dining scene and being constantly mentioned in best restaurants ranking, including world best. 

Arriving at the restaurant, my heart was beating faster from the excitement to finally go there. We sat few minutes in their anti chamber of heaven, looking at the blue doors that are a reference to Thomas Keller's flagship The French Laundry in California (the dining room has 62 seats like The French Laundry - another reference?).

Then, it was time to start this culinary adventure. We were warmly welcomed by the staff and got seated at a table overlooking Columbus Circle and Central Park, the latter reminding me that I would probably need the gym later on...

To make sure everything was at its place, they brought Jodi a little stool for her bag...

I started by ordering a glass of wine picked from their impressive list displayed on an IPad. 

I went for a glass of Jean Foillard Morgon Côte du Py, 2012:

We made our choice from the menu. Per Se proposes two prix fixe for $310 service included: the vegetarian menu (Jodi's pick) and the Chef's Tasting, each of them having 9 courses. For each course, you have two choices, some of them including an up charge, as prepared with luxurious items such as foie gras, caviar or truffles. Know that the menu will change on a daily basis, although some of the dishes, search as the first course I got seems to be a recurring choice.

So, let's see what we got!

Amuse-Bouche:

For Jodi, it was a cone with Belgian endives, grapefruit and cream cheese:

For me, a cone with marinated salmon and cream cheese:

Le Bernardin in New York, NY

Before stating that you definitely do not like fish, go to Le Bernardin, the three Michelin starred restaurant of Chef Eric Ripert and Maguy Coze, located in Midtown Manhattan. This place, opened in 1986 is the pinnacle of seafood in America and kept a solid reputation all these years. There is no doubt Chef Ripert is talented, crafting an elegant and tasteful menu that even the most skeptical will rave about, but, behind the scenes is one man, an incredible fish butcher by the name of Justo Thomas, who takes care of more than 1,000 pounds of fish per day, requiring three people to replace him when he is on vacation! Thanks to his craftsmanship, you will not find one bone or fish part that you cannot eat, filleting fishes to perfection and ensuring you have the best quality on your plate, making the whole experience there unforgettable (I just drooled by the way just thinking about it).

We went there for our wedding anniversary, for a first celebration (yes, we had two!). I do not really remember the decor, three years ago, when we went for dinner, right before their renovations, adding a lounge to the restaurant, where I believe you can just walk in and have a more casual experience than in the dining room (Gentlemen, jacket is required). The decor is classy, modern and warm, with a beautiful painting in the back from Brooklyn artist Ran Ortner representing the sea, dominating the entire dining room.

As we were still deciding what to pick from the menu, they brought us an amuse bouche.

It was composed of:

Goat cheese and beet in phyllo:

Oyster from Washington State with sea beans:

Carrot and ginger soup with a tuile:

That was a great way to start, my preference going to the soup because I thought that it had complex flavors. Even Jodi, who does not like carrot loved it.

Then, they brought us some bread and butter.

My trip to Europe: L'Eden in Coublevie, France

Few years ago, we discovered L'Eden, a seafood restaurant located in Coublevie, Isère (check out my previous post). This is a spot that my family knows well, so we decided to go there to celebrate Mother's Day. Know that Mother's Day in France is always the last week end of May. 

The place was packed with families when we arrived, but we were the last to leave, after a three hour lunch...

The service was a bit challenging because the restaurant was clearly understaffed on a pretty demanding day. 

While making up our mind with the menu, we ordered the house cocktail that was made with champagne and curaçao, the latter giving a nice light blue color. Floating in the glass was a raspberry that went up and down as time went. 

We also ordered a bottle of wine, a Rasteau from 2010:

The brand is ORTAS that is an anagram for Rasteau.

Few moments after the brought the drink, they gave us a delicious velouté de champignons (cream of mushroom):

They had a set menu for the event, although they agreed to allow Jodi to order a vegetarian dish, as she did not like what they were proposing. Similar to last time, we ordered a Saint-Marcellin cheese salad. 

My trip to Europe: Le Rempart, Tournus, France

Our last Michelin Star restaurant we tried in our trip in Bourgogne was Le Rempart in Tournus. Nice small city of approximately 6,200 inhabitants, located along the Saône river; it was very quiet at the time we were there, if not for the activity surrounding a small cruise boat where one could dine while sailing on the river.

The restaurant Le Rempart is located in a hotel with the same name. There is in fact the restaurant, as well as a low key bistro, located at the opposite side. 

The impressive building was a 15th century guardhouse, built on the ramparts that were surrounding the city, hence the name Le Rempart (The Rempart), and their logo that is everywhere. 

The decor is pretty elegant and it is definitely one level up from Pierre the restaurant that we visited the day before. At the entrance is a very small lounge where you can enjoy a drink from their large selection of alcohol. 

Then, the tables, not too close to each other. 

The menu, crafted by Chef Sylvain Gohier is very elegant, with an outstanding presentation that would make you think that the Chef is a painter and the plate his canvas. Again here, the food is not only for the pleasure of the palate, but also for the pleasure of the eyes. Showcasing incredible creativity, the Chef interprets dishes from different regions of France, sourcing the high quality ingredients he is using from French producers. 

We decided to start our meal with the house cocktail, made with whiskey, sweet wine (it might have been martini) and Pacherinc. 

With it, they served us some amuse-bouche. 

It was composed of:

Goat cheese