Paris Guide: Dinner at La Bourse et La Vie
Address | 12 Rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris, France
Good morning, everyone! It's just before 6:00 a.m. in New York. Is it just me or is jet lag more real returning home from vacation in a different time zone than it is when you go on the vacation? You too? Just me? In any case, I guess it's better this way because I enjoyed my time in France without feeling the effects of jet lag too much, although I'm paying for it now.
There's so much from France that I still have to share with you. That being said, I know Thanksgiving is next week and I PROMISE a post before then for a fun, indulgent dish to bring your host or to add to your Thanksgiving menu. For now, let's return to Paris.
When planning our first night in Paris, we knew we would want to have a long dinner to catch up and begin our wedding celebration. We also wanted to account for the early morning we had planned for the day we exchanged vows. Wanting to stay in the 11th Arrondissement, where our hotel was, to avoid what would be a late night going on too late, we settled on Daniel Rose's La Bourse et La Vie. I've been to his NYC restaurant Le Coucou so I knew it was a solid choice. We also liked the small, elegant but low key setting.
First, upon entering the restaurant the waitstaff were incredibly warm and welcoming. While fluent in English they indulged me in practicing the little French I know. Our server had a great sense of humor and attended to the bottle of champagne or wine at the table, filling each glass as it neared its end. The food was also very good. Let's get to it!
The bread basket. Let me just say that while in France there was no bread basket put before us that was safe from being fully consumed. The bread itself was perfect, crusty outside, soft and airy in the middle. It was served with a soft house made cheese. The spread was good, a few times in France I found myself thinking "this needs more salt" but short of that it was tasty.
For starters we began with a classic French dish, Leeks and Hazelnuts from Piemont in vinaigrette. The leeks were cooked to the perfect texture. Of course, they are soft so the hazelnuts gave a nice crunchy texture to the dish. The vinaigrette had just right amount of acidity. And we shared the smoked eel with beetroots and horseradish. This was my favorite appetizer. It reminded me of bagel fixings. As a New Yorker, this is a true compliment.
Our dining companions went with the French classic, steak-frites au poivre and obliged me a bite or two. The steak is 30 day aged. The flavor is different from US beef which I'm accustomed to. French beef is much leaner, primarily grass-fed. When you go to the Butcher shops in France you can see there is less marbling on the beef. In the US beef is mostly corn and grain fed making it more fatty and flavorful. The cattle breeds in France and the US are also different. The steak was well-prepared but it falls a little flat compared to US beef. The frites were good and well salted!
As always, I asked our server for their signature dish, what are they most known for/proud of. I gladly ordered what was recommended to me, the roasted pigeon, foie gras, vegetables, warm vinaigrette. The pigeon, also known as squab, was really well seasoned and cooked to a nice medium rare. The worst thing you can do to pigeon is over cook it so I was really pleased that it was served to me cooked to perfection. The fois gras
was a wonderful pairing adding a lot of fat and flavor. The vegetables in vinaigrette served in a copper pot helped break up the richness of the dish and gave it more texture which I really enjoyed.
And my wife, the pescatarian ordered the barbue, turnips, beurre blanc sauce. She always insists on sharing with me and loves offering me the "perfect bite" combining a little bit of everything from the plate onto the fork. This was a nice fresh dish. The bass was cooked well in another French classic beurre blanc sauce.
Dessert! We ordered all three desserts offered on the menu. My friend has an egg allergy so finding dessert in Paris was a bit of a challenge for him. Fortunately, Lemon & Thyme sorbet, olive oil and chocolate was egg free and made it to our table. It was cool and citrusy. We also had the Chocolate & Coffee mousse was my favorite dessert. It was rich and smooth. And finally, the favorite of the ladies at the table the Baba au Rhum, perfectly soaked in rum, fluffy and delicious!
All in all La Bourse et La Vie was an excellent experience. It was a perfect spot to celebrate and enjoy an indulgent meal. Below is a video of our evening. As always, comment below.
