It is now new that Paris, more than most cities, has some of France’s finest restaurants within its hotels. As much capital and effort goes into the dining rooms as into the public and private rooms, and by drawing on period architectural designs already in place they are able to create a new look within an old property. Here are two of my favorites I visited this past September.

LES JARDINS
DE L’ÉSPADON

The Ritz Paris

15 Place Vendôme

1-33-1-43-16-3030 

 

  Certainly among Paris’s most beautiful dining rooms is Les Jardins de L’Éspadon, adjacent to the more formal dining salon, L’Éspadon, both overseen by Chef Nicholas Sale.

         The $400 million restoration makes the totality of The Ritz Paris an extraordinary achievement, and the staff is now younger, multi-lingual and obviously proud to be part of the experience, nowhere better shown than in Les Jardins, whose sun-suffused and star-lighted greenhouse is as airy as any in Paris.  The room’s teal coloring of metal arches put one in mind of a Parisian train station; the big pots of greens and flowers, the art deco lawn cushioned lawn chairs and superb linens that allow for an elegant drape are all part of the lightness and gaiety of dining here, made more so by the amiable ministrations of the staff, not least wine director Estelle Touzet, who may be the least pretentious sommelier in Paris. Oh, and Francis Perret has been declared the Best Hotel Pastry Chef of Les Grandes Tables du Monde. (It is he who is responsible for my favorite croissants in Paris.)

         My friend and I went for a tasting menu that began with a creamy of foie gras terrine with sweet yellow plums and lemony verbena, and delicate tortellini stuffed with mussels and artichokes surrounding a juicy fillet of pan-fried  dorade with a vibrant saffron sauce. Crabmeat was sandwiched in crisp pastry with puffs of creamy coral and accents of fennel and the Eastern flavor of curry.

         Tomato stracciatella with basil cream and black olive powder was a lovely twist on Mediterranean tradition (above), while a plump pigeon was perfectly cooked to achieve a medium-rare interior and crisp skin, with beets and a tangy raspberry vinegar sauce.

         Sale does not dress seafood to excess, so his nubbins of lobster are set in an intense reduction of cherry marmalade, ginger and a verbena stock.

         Perret applies the same principle to desserts so as not to hide the season’s best fruit, as in his Einset grape compote and sorbet with whipped cream set on a crisp meringue; and a lovely yellow plum Tarte Tatin. There was, of course, a course of perfectly ripe regional cheeses.

    A two-course meal at Les Jardins is €95, three €115, four €135 five €150, service and tax included. The menu is also available as à la carte.

 

Les Jardins is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

 

 

 

V

Hotel Vernet

25 rue Vernet

44 31 98 00

 

         The very posh Hotel Vernet is steps from the Champs-Élysées but pleasantly away from its bustle, so its restaurant, named V, is an excellent respite from the rush of that main artery both at lunch or dinner. 

         The building dates to the Haussmann era, and V’s most extraordinary feature is an exquisite stained glass art nouveau barrel ceiling designed by Gustave Eiffel that bathes the 35-seat dining room in soft Parisian light.

         The décor, on the other hand, provides a decidedly modern contrast by way of a Matisse-like figured carpet and cushy, crayon-colored armchairs, all reflected in an arched wall mirror opposite an open kitchen.

         Chef Richard Robe, born in Manchester, England, and raised in Normandy,  offers both a remarkably well priced seven-course tasting menu at €95 and à la carte (service and tax included) that maintain their links to classical French cuisine while taking advantage of ingredients and ideas from contemporary cooking. Daintily composed plate presentations are impressive.

         We started off with one of Robe’s signature dishes—a fat Scottish langoustine just barely cooked through, with Spanish citrus, passion fruit-avocado puree  and seaweed leaves. Crisp, rosy quail was cooked in fennel with a tomato confit and caramelized yellow tomatoes, dashed with an acidic orange vinaigrette, with which we enjoyed a Clarendelle Bordeaux 2017.

Pink-orange rouget was based on a recipe served at Paris’s famed La Taillevent restaurant (where Rove once worked), here done with zucchini flowers, ratatouille of eggplant, sweet tomato and onion and a saffron-scented seafood soup and fennel crusted brûlée.  He smokes rabbit on the bone barbecue-style then, in the classic manner, serves it with a patty made of rabbit rillette, and potato gnocchi with parslied girolles mushrooms (above).

         V’s desserts are as lavish as what precedes them, and Robe’s work with chocolate is especially delectable, as in his little cannons filled with ganache and sided with chocolate gelato, while his sweet, ripe fruits of the season are topped with intensely flavorful fruit sorbet (left).

         Robe is doing some dazzling work, and if some dishes are a bit too complicated for one plate, he is a chef to keep one’s eye on as a true innovator.

 

V is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.

NEW YORK CORNER
By John Mariani

NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR

 

    In so many ways, from climate to the fish in the sea, the east and west coasts of Sicily are very different, as further evidenced by the wines made on those coastal regions. Firriato, founded by Salvatore by Di Gaetano in 1984 and now involving his wife, Vinzia Novara, as CEO, their daughter Irene as chairwoman and her husband, COO Federico Lombardo di Monte Iato, pioneered modern viticulture around Trapani in the west and Mount Etna in the east.

    The family has also been involved with building first-class resorts on their properties: Baglio Sorìa, outside of Trapani, is a reclaimed farmers’ village overlooking the vineyards and the sea, with a restaurant and a “wine experience” tour and tasting; Calamoni, on the small coastal island of Favignana, has a secluded, very private residence in the middle of the vineyard just meters from the sea; Cavanera Etna in Etna is also set within the vineyards.

    I visited each of Firriato’s wineries with COO Federico Lombardo di Monte, who masterminded the company’s success in becoming certified as 100% organic and carbon neutral. In the Etna-based vineyards Firriato is growing a wide range of traditional grapes, including Nero d’Avola, Perricone, Nerello Mascalese,  Zibibbo, Grillo and Catarratto, along with European varietals like Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

    At dinner at La Riserva Bistrot (above) at the Cavanera estate, we began with Firriato’s first-rate sparkling wine Gaudensius Blanc de Noir ($30) made from Nerello Mascalese grapes in the méthode champenoise, with an Etna DOC. It is tingling and refreshing, showing off that volcanic soil, weighing in at 12.6% alcohol. Next up was a Le Sabbie dell’Etna Bianco 2018 ($25), under 13% alcohol, spends three months on the lees in stainless steel with “daily shaking” to distribute the flavors and add complexity. The red alternative by this name ($25) is a blend of Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio, which spends no time in oak and is expressive of a new, lighter style of red wine from Sicily, at 13.85% alcohol. With swordfish or veal, this is a wonderful match.

    The next wine was Cavanera Ripa di Scorciavacca 2017 ($45) is both literally and figuratively a mouthful, with grapes from a 50-year-old vineyard that spend a year in bottle and emerge as a bold white wine excellent with shellfish or poultry. The simply named Cavanero Rosso 2014 ($25) is a single vineyard wine with 90% Nerello Mascalese and 10% Cappuccio.

   A visit to the Cavanera resort reveals an ancient wine press room that shows how far modern Sicilian wine making has come (right).
    There are several more Etna wines in the line-up, but, after driving to Trapani, I was able to taste many of the wines more specific to the terroir of the west coast and the island of Favignano, which enjoys the Mistral winds from the Northwest, the Sirocco from the Southeast, the Greco from the Northeast and the Libyan from the southwest, and the evidence of salt in the soil is tasted on the palate and sensed in the aroma of the air and seaweed on the beach. Firriato’s wines from here are under the Favinia label. La Muciara 2017 (no price currently available) is composed of west coast varietals Grillo, Cataratto and Zibibbo, giving it depth and levels of flavor that make it a good wine to go with the region’s sardines and anchovies.

    Among Sicilian wines of this century, Nero d’Avola has made enormous strides at very reasonable prices per bottle. Favinia Le Sciabeche 2015 (no current price available) is a blend of Nero d’Avola with Perricone, with 13.5% alcohol and a bold, bright, lush burst of flavor on first sip. They also make a 100% Perricone called Sorìa 2016 ($22), a slightly bigger red that spends nine months in barriques and three in bottles, as well as a 100% Frappato that only sees stainless steel plus three months in bottle.

    Firriato is trying all sorts of blends in all sorts of ways, so its Santagostino Bagli Sorìa Rosso 2014 ($27) is an amazing price for this marriage of Nero d’Avola and the Syrah that gives it its bold fruit and velvety texture. It spends eight months in American barriques and, at 14.35% alcohol, is one of Firriato’s brawniest wines.

    L’Écru 2017 ($40) is made entirely of Zibibbo as a sweet passito dessert wine with a lemony nose that keeps the sweetness in check. It is excellent with dessert or Gorgonzola.

    I noted in my earlier article on Firriato that prior to the 1990s most Sicilian wines were made by farmers’ co-operatives and the wines they made were invariably oxidized through outdated viniculture methods. There are still co-operatves but they have largely modernized so that there are very few oxidized bottles any more. By the 1990s Firriato had become a template for just how well and how varied modern Sicilian winemaking and sustainable agriculture can be.