Unauthorized

Two dinners are combined here, if you’re wondering about the amount of wine that was consumed, and of course, in January the food is always the same menu for me. It is no secret that this restaurant, which opened in 1924, has been my favorite culinary destination since I first ate their in 1975. The current maitre d’, Louis Gadby, has been running the bistro since 1978 for his boss, Thierry La Brosse, who has now partnered up with famed Chef Ducasse to resurrect another close-by famous name in bistros, Benoit. We ate here two nights while in Paris, and unlike previous times, both nights were full of French guests as the world economic crisis, which doesn’t seem to have affected L’Ami Louis at all, has meant that the French are able to get in here more easily than when many Americans used to descend on this place, especially for dinners and on the weekends. The most expensive bistro in the world has not changed, and neither has the food, thankfully. This is my favorite time to eat there, since this is the only time of the year where the baby leg of lamb is available, from January through the end of May. The famed Brittany scallops arrive at the restaurant live and are shucked here before being sauteed in abundantly sweet garlic, wonderful French butter, and gobs of parsley. We started with their house terrine of foie gras, which is always good, but it is by no means the best foie gras one can find, although it is certainly very satisfying. As I have said before, the following three courses are the best I have ever had in the world – anywhere. The huge, fresh Burgundy snails, cooked in incredibly finely diced parsley and garlic butter are as profound as snails can be. And then, of course, there are those incredible scallops. It is always somewhat dicey to eat the coral that is attached to scallops, and that is why most restaurants simply serve the scallops without it. But at L’Ami Louis, they are so remarkably fresh, one gets the chance to experience this incredible delicacy at its best. We followed that with the world’s greatest lamb, an eight-week-old leg that is just barely enough for two people, and then, of course, their famous roast chicken, which tends to vary, but it is classic French chicken that has significantly more flavor than anything I have ever found in the United States. Accompanying those, of course, is the world’s greatest potato dish, their Pommes Bernaise, which are potatoes sauteed in goose fat then baked in their incredibly hot ovens, and finally doused with fresh garlic and fresh parsley as they are brought to the table. I don’t think potatoes can be any more sublime than this dish. Of course, their matchstick French fries (they’ll cook the French fries any size you want, just tell them in advance) are also wonderful, but still, they are French fries.

As for the wines, over the course of two nights, we drank two bottles of the exquisite Deutz Rosé Champagne, the 1999 Cuvée William Deutz. It is starting to show as well as the 1996 did in its prime. This is one of my favorite bottles of Rosé Champagne. The first night, with guests we consumed two bottles of the 2006 Janasse Vieilles Vignes Châteauneuf du Pape (in magnums, no less). It is obviously very young but a fabulous wine with enough flavor and spice to stand up to all the garlic one encounters at this restaurant. This is certainly one of the great successes of the vintage. The second night, after the Deutz Rosé Champagne, we had a fabulous bottle from the resurrected house of Remoissenet, the 2006 Bienvenue-Bâtard-Montrachet. These wines are still under the radar as the American ownership (board member Ed Millstein and his Canadian partner, Todd Halpern, along with my former colleague,. Pierre Antoine Rovani) have totally rebuilt Remoissenet from the ground up and are in the process of making some of the best white Burgundies I have tasted in many a year. This all started in 2005, but they clearly hit their stride in 2006. This is a wine with extraordinary minerality, a fabulous honeyed richness, but with terrific acidity, freshness, and depth. It is unlike anything anyone ever tasted at Remoissenet under the old regime, and that is good news. This is a sensational wine that should evolve for 10-15 years. We then had a 1978 Louis Jadot Musigny, which was a sort of homage to surviving thirty years writing The Wine Advocate, and it was a beauty. Forest floor, roasted herbs, sweet cedar and almost autumnal vegetative notes, along with a round, rich, earthy, plum and fig fruitiness were fresh and lively, and the wine still had that nice acidic edge which has kept these 1978s alive. The wine was throwing a good bit of sediment, but was a beauty, although it faded quickly in the glass after it had been opened for about 45 minutes. In total contrast was the young, enormously endowed, potentially monumental 2003 Château Montrose. Inky purple to the rim, with amazing concentration, high but noble, sweet tannins, this is entirely too young to drink, but I enjoyed it and think, along with the 1990 and 1989, it is one of the three greatest wines I have ever tasted from Montrose. It has at least 30-40 years of life ahead of it and will certainly be strutting its stuff long after I’m pushing up daisies.

Two great meals at L’Ami Louis in January is indeed living well!