30-year-old Chef Tom Meyer opened his first Paris resto, Granite, late last year. It is getting rave reviews, and it just received its first Michelin star in record time! It’s in the 1st arrondissement, in the former Spring Restaurant space on rue Bailleul. Chef Meyer previously worked as sous-chef to Anne-Sophie Pic (whose food I ate yesterday!) at her Michelin three-star restaurant in Valence, and was the runner-up finalist in the Bocuse d’Or cooking competition in Lyon in 2019. I add my voice to the praise chorus after today’s lunch at Granite!
The open 4-sided kitchen looks pretty much the same as Daniel Rose brilliantly designed it for Spring - work stations in the center and on three sides, with a couple of stools and the reservation/host desk on the fourth side. (I had a wonderful time chatting with Chef Daniel Rose, a Chicago native, about Al Franken when I sat on one of those stools during my first visit to Spring in 2010! Deets of that meal here:
https://mariellen-musing.blogspot.com/2010/11/spring-in-fall-wednesday-3-november.html ). At times, six cooks were working in the kitchen simultaneously - a delightful circus to watch! Granite’s furniture, décor and tableware are new, but the exciting vibe remains.
They offer a 3-course lunch menu, but you can also order the evening 5-course or 7-course menu. I went for the lunch menu this time around.
For today’s aperitif, a Rosé Champagne by Elise Dechannes that was 100% Pinot Noir - dry, with the essence of strawberry, cherry and tarragon expressed with tiny bubbles.
Three amuse bouche:
White bean purée with smoked clams, served in a clam shell, covered with seawater foam - salty, earthy, smoky, what more could you ask for?!?
A crispy (just-shy-of-burnt) fluted pastry cup with smoked mackerel purée, diced dried yellow pepper, herbs, and ginger
Absolutely pure, delicious, finely diced beef tartar topped with slightly sharp teriyaki gelée (clever!) and toasted sesame - wow!
Their spectacular bread basket! And the bread ain't bad, either.
For my first course, a cube of brioche French toast set in a just-under-room-temperature orange and carrot juice sauce, with marigold oil and sea urchin. Sweet, comforting, vegetal, fruity, herbal, with a hint of the sea. My goodness. The cleverness and refinement blew me away.
With the first course, a 2020 Cab Franc Domaine des Closiers Saumur-Champigny from the Loire region - floral and black fruit on the nose, and a bit more peppery and flinty on the palate. Something you might normally pair with meat, but it really worked here!
Next, suckling lamb that tasted like the herbs and grasses in which it frolicked in its short life! There really wasn’t much of a crust on it, yet the surface was perfectly salty. Next to it, a chickpea puree with strawberries, fingerling potatoes and pickled onions. Surrounding it, a very light herby lamb stock.
On a second plate, confit lamb shoulder with black olive and garlic broth.
And on a third plate, deeply caramelized Jerusalem artichokes with slices of braised but slightly crunchy parsnip and coffee & malted barley sabayon.
With these courses they served two wines - a 2020 Beaujolais Gamay from Domaine Grégoire Hoppenot to accompany the lamb and a 2020 Loire Pinot Noir from Domaine Denizot to accompany the vegetables. They were right, of course! I tried switching back and forth, but the partnerships they recommended balanced things out perfectly.
In addition to the three courses, they offered an optional cheese course. When have I ever turned down a cheese course? (OK, maybe once or twice, but rarely!) This one was very interesting - crumbles of a bleu from the Pyrenees over a disc of iced (almost frozen) goat cheese in a pool of rhubarb jus with watery julienne of celery and a disc of mellow and sweet jelée (I can’t remember if they said what it was made from). This was very refreshing!
With the cheese, a 2017 Pino Gris from the Valentin Zusslin Estate in Alsace. The wine was terrific, but it seemed like it hit all the same notes as the cheese.
My pre-dessert was a quenelle of vanilla ice cream on chocolate crumbles with nuts and a squiggle of beer jelly caramel. Yup, that’s what they called it (unless of course my auditory capacities were failing me at that point!). I have no idea how you would make beer jelly caramel.
For dessert, a shell of crispy sweet rice paper ribbons encasing French kiwi, yellow Chartreuse gel, crème fraiche and sable cookie crumbles. I asked my server about the rice paper since I have never tasted a sweet version like this - she told me that rice was cooked down until it was very mushy, then honey was added, then it was spread out almost microscopically thin, then dried - genius!
With dessert, a sparkling pear cider from Eric Bordelet - very refined and refreshing, it cut through the cream and beautifully emphasized the kiwi.
For your espresso you could select from a couple styles/sources of beans. I went with one from Peru that had been aged in wooden casks - it was complex and smooth, and maybe it was my imagination, but I could taste the wood as well. Two mignardise with the coffee - a chilled white chocolate shell containing lime gel, and a chocolate truffle with hazelnut crème.
Brilliant food and drink, a comfortable and beautiful setting, gracious service, an entertaining kitchen circus to watch, an opportunity to experience the work of a rising superstar - what more could a girl ask for?!? You can bet I’ll be back! I get to have three favorite restos, right?
Granite - 6, rue Bailleul, https://granite.paris/
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