Disclosure: I was a guest of the property for this meal.
I dine out with enough frequency that I’m tough to surprise, so when a chef is plating up truly innovative combinations, I take note. It’s exactly what Chef Léo Giorgis is offering at his l’Almanach Montmartre, a cozy restaurant on the far side of the butte. Just three people work in the open kitchen in clear view of the airy dining room, where tables are bedecked with vases of flowers. And while on this particular Tuesday evening, most chairs seemed filled with Anglophones, I can see how this place run by a chef who easily flits in and out of the kitchen to help the sometimes harried server, could become a local fave.
Four appetizers, five mains, and four desserts are on offer at any given time, all developed in partnership with an artist currently exhibiting in the space. One dish in each course is created in association with the visiting artist, who on our visit was Janique Bourget. Her monochromatic white paper creations lined the walls, overlooking the contrasting parade of technicolor dishes.
I began with the last of the season’s oysters (11), here sourced from Marennes-Oléron. They were topped with a dough infused heftily with spring garlic before being broiled, revealing a lovely interplay between the sweet, briny oyster and the salty, buttery topping.
Most of the time, when I eat gratinéed oysters, they’re topped with a béchamel. While delicious, the resulting oyster ends up watery, with a sauce that has a tendency to split. Not so with this method, which offers a double texture of pleasingly plump mollusk and toothsome pastry, the latter of which soaks up much of the oyster’s water, giving it even more flavor.
My dining companion opted for an equally seasonal offering: white asparagus with vin jaune hollandaise and haddock (12). Bits of a lively mayonnaise joined the rich hollandaise, and the chunks of smoky haddock were a lovely counterbalancing touch. I might have preferred that the dish be served warm, but the flavors here were on point, and the plating was pretty as a picture.
Interesting vegetarian options were once few and far between in Paris, and it’s lovely to see that young chefs are getting creative in this space. This deconstructed mushroom ravioli (25) saw a mushroom duxelle wrapped in rice paper wrappers and topped with a tumble of pan-fried wild mushrooms and mushroom emulsion. Bits of cédrat (citron) and crispy fried garlic were interspersed atop the ravioli, adding welcome bursts of brightness and allium depth.
I adored this creative cuttlefish dish (27) – one of the artist collabs – which saw rings of cuttlefish interspersed with a generous number of sweet sunchoke gnocchi, the latter of which had been pan-seared in butter until caramelized. A few chunks of roasted sunchoke were interspersed among the other elements, and two sauces – one sunchoke, the other cuttlefish ink – married in the bowl, just waiting to be swept up with copious quantities of excellent country bread. The cédrat and garlic garnishes reappeared here, and happily so. My only two quibbles? A slight lack of salt and a relatively paltry presence of the actual cuttlefish rings, especially for the price.
It proved extremely difficult to decide which dessert to order, from among a carrot cake topped with purple carrot icing (11) to a generous roast brioche with roasted clementines, salted butter caramel, and mascarpone cream (12). We deliberated for quite some time before I ultimately tossed the baton to my pastry chef girlfriend, who decided that the idea of a coconut-infused tiramisu topped with kiwi (12) was too novel to miss. And I’m glad she did. This rum-kissed, deconstructed play on the classic was redolent with coconut cream and coconut mascarpone enrobing the layers of delicate sponge. The bright kiwi served mainly as a garnish, lingering beneath a generous blanket of dessicated coconut. We wiped the plate completely clean.
This ultra-creative restaurant is sure to surprise even your most adventurous foodie friends, and yet there’s something here for everyone. The portions are generous – even copious – especially for the price. And while on the service side of things, there was a bit too much uncertainty and tableside squatting for my liking, it’s a restaurant I can happily recommend.
L’Almanach Montmartre – 35, rue Ramey, 75018