Unauthorized

This two-story restaurant behind the Church of St. Vincent de Paul is not easy to find, but proprietor and chef Thierry Breton runs a heck of a fine bistro that I hadn’t been back to for about five years. It is an attractive bistro with a very attentive staff and a so-so wine list, but the great surprise was that they actually had two vintages of one of the hardest-to-find Châteauneuf du Papes in the world, the Vieilles Julienne, on the list at the remarkable price of 50 euros. We started with the 2004, which was excellent, but the 2005 was in another league altogether, denser, richer, more complete, more backward, but obviously having far more upside than the fully mature 2004.

The food is certainly very good, and I would go back here, but the meal was not as exciting as I had hoped. My paté en croute was a generous serving, but it seemed to lack much flavor, as if it were perhaps not as fresh as it could have been. Of everyone at the table, my main dish was the best and had the most flavor. It was long-cooked beef cheeks, which I adore, in a nice, rich broth, with lots of crunchy vegetables. It was a very tasty dish, but my wife’s dish, which contained a lot of black truffles (and it’s a great year for black truffles after several so-so ones), simply didn’t have any flavor and was hardly worth the premium price paid for that dish. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the restaurant, had a good time, and the prices are very fair.