French Restaurant Review: Aux Lyonnais, Paris | EUROtoday

Drawing from Lyon’s conventional bouchons eating places and the cooking of Les Mères de Lyon, the brand new chef of Aux Lyonnais in Paris, Victoria Boller, has created a daring and fashionable menu that has yielded attractive and scrumptious outcomes.

I’ve beloved this restaurant close to the Palais Brongniart, or former Paris inventory alternate, within the coronary heart of Paris ever since I first parted the heavy, darkish purple velvet curtains on a horse-shaped brass curtain ring that block draughts at its entrance door on a chilly, wet September day in 1988. That day, the entrance home windows have been streaked with rivulets of condensation as a result of the besuited stockbrokers and bankers eating right here at midday have been speaking a blue streak. I stood on the reservation desk ready for the hostess and admired the repeating floral garland of the Art Nouveau tile wainscotting, the tile-framed mirrors and the disused fuel chandeliers that hung from the excessive ceiling of the place, which opened in 1890. The older , largely blonde waitresses in black attire with white aprons distributed wisecracks that drew guffaws as they threaded their approach by way of the crowded eating room, cracking with locker-room ranges of testosterone and whooping laughter, a spot that was bluntly perfumed by the smells of damp wool and moist shoe leather-based, purple Beaujolais, and the plates of plump, sliced ​​pistachio-speckled sausage with boiled potatoes and squares of golden sapper apron (breaded deep-fried tripe) with fries, which have been the day by day specials. I used to be assembly my pal Judy, {a magazine} editor in Paris, as a part of a narrative I used to be writing for her on eating places serving regional French delicacies in Paris.

That day, we ate a giant salad Lyonnaise – curly endive with lardons and poached eggs in a pointy French dressing – after which heaps of sausage and potatoes washed down with easy-drinking Coteaux du Lyonnais purple wine served with stringor from flasks the place you solely pay for what you drink, Cervelle de Canut adopted –faitselle whipped with bitter creamolive oil, chopped shallots, minced garlic and a sprinkle of chives, parsley and tarragon. We each beloved this homey Lyonnais consolation meals, and eventually we break up a slice of tarte à la praline, a tart topped with crushed, dark-pink candied almonds, an area specialty, for dessert.