First, Apartment-Based Dinners, then Verjus! - Tuesday, 25 July

Restaurant Verjus was a favorite of mine for several years.  Prior to opening the restaurant in 2011, the (American) couple Braden Perkins and Laura Adrian (a native of Saint Paul MN!) hosted regularly scheduled dinners in their apartment for just a few guests under the moniker “Hidden Kitchen.”  I read about this years ago, but it never worked out for me to snag a spot at their table.  Then they decided to open Verjus, which overlooks a lovely courtyard of the Jardin du Palais Royale.  Just before the pandemic they closed for some renovation of their exhaust system, and then, BANG!  So it’s been a few years!  They just re-opened in May.  They grow much of the fruit, veggies, poultry and meat they serve at their farm south of Paris.  Love this!

I learned from one of my servers that there was new management (ownership? kitchen? both? it wasn’t clear).  The food and wine was good, but not quite up to the level of my former visits, nor to the level of the Michelin 1-stars this trip (of course).

They are open only at dinner and offer only a prix fixe menu.  

A bunch of little nibbles were brought for my amuse bouche:

• a slice of Champagne watermelon (just now in season, per my server) - crisp, mild melon flavor, covered with a slightly too-generous sprinkle of mint julienne
• a just-warm soft-boiled eggyolk topped with herbaceous honey
• a chunk of smoked trout wrapped in wilted spinach
• a homemade cracker with an intense creamy saffron-garlic cream
• a delicate cone filled with cauliflower purée and topped with a marigold flower (little cones filled with various purées seem to be all the rage this year!)
• a cornbread “taco” filled with hummus, vegetables and herbs 
• 
  trout eggs and chives on a little slice of potato “pavé” with a lovely cream sauce
• cured salmon with raw onions and a terrific lovage vinaigrette (nice sharpness against the sweet fatty salmon)

With the amuse bouche, an Adrien Berlioz Cellier des Cray “Cuvee Grand Zeph” from the Vin de Savoie appellation of eastern France.  100% Roussanne, medium body, yellow and slightly tropical fruit flavors, a bit of minerality.  It’s hard to find something to accompany the wide range of flavors in these little bites, but it did pretty well!  (Sorry, I somehow failed to snap photos of the wine bottles at this resto.)

The main course was roasted lamb loin in a slightly lemony lamb stock jus, with very fresh and toothsome peas and beans.  On the side, some dark and sweet confit of the leg meat with zucchini and shallots.  Nicely done!  My server told me that a whole lamb had been brought up from the farm, and the chefs had broken it down for the meats, stocks, etc.  Nose-to-tail cooking!

With my main course, a Domaine Le Sang des Cailloux “Cuvée Lopy” from the southern Rhône.  75% Grenache, 25% Syrah.  Beautifully concentrated, tasting of black fruit, stone, parsley, sorrel, honey, tobacco, spice - and a sense of cherry wood exploded with the lamb.  Wow!

For dessert, a vanilla semifreddo (it had a slightly sweetened-condensed-milk quality to it) on a brown sugar biscuit, with a quenelle of strawberry sorbet served over cookie crumbs, and a cream puff filled with blueberry cream and topped with Italian meringue and a strawberry slice.  A good lesson: one should always serve sorbet and ice cream over cookie crumbs!

With dessert, a lovely Domaine des Huards Cremant de Loire “Amiral” (a sparkling Chardonnay) that unfortunately didn’t really do anything to enhance the dessert.  Nice on its own, though!  White fruits, cream, almond, a bit floral.  

Only English spoken within earshot.  One other party-of-one in the place while I was there!  The two steps up into the restaurant are a bit steep, and there’s no railing, but very helpful and muscular servers came to my assistance! 

Give it a try!  I dragged my friends Liz & Michal Sobieski there a few years ago, and they were glad that I did!  Restaurant Verjus.  52, rue de Richelieu, 75001, https://www.verjusparis.com/