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Lettres d’Uzès #18: Endgames, Lisa M and other stories

2/10/2011

3 Comments

 
On Tuesday, our new chum Peta Mathias, the Kiwi TV chef who runs a cooking school in Uzes, left for a few months in Morocco and India, after hosting a farewell party at the Logis des Arts. “I don’t do winters” she said. On Wednesday, the Sox ended the regular season on a new low. On Thursday, we were lucky enough to be part of one of the last services at Lisa M in Vers. And on Friday, we were at the Bar du Marché  in the village for the farewell to Raymond and Natalie, who took over the bar five years ago and restored it to its position at the heart of the community.

It’s that time of year. The vendange is complete, and the harvest party at la Gramière is scheduled for tomorrow. Summer people are leaving, back to Paris, Belgium and the Netherlands, the UK and the US. Even Jill and I have, reluctantly, a date in mind. Shops and restaurants are closing. Leases are expiring.

It is an expiring lease which has prompted Lisa Muncan to move her restaurant to the Luberon. Her landlord is repossessing this beautiful 15th century house in the centre of Vers for his own purposes, leaving bereft thousands of patrons of this restaurant gastronomique. Our friends Tom and Unity had charmed a reservation for us on Thursday, and not a single mouthful of the seven course menu disappointed.

After the Sox débacle the previous evening, reports of Tito’s resignation, and a succession of triumphalist Yankees tweets from someone called Salman Rushdie, I was in need of restauration, literally restoring. I left totally restored in every respect.

The building itself is magnificent. Patrons pull a bell and are admitted through a pair of ancient oak double doors. One eats in an imposing room with vaulted ceilings, once the refectory of a nunnery in the 16th century and the dining room of a private school in the 19th century. Tables – there are only 16 covers - are set well apart to allow privacy. Service is impeccable and, when necessary, multi-lingual. The wine list is well-chosen, with priority rightly given to local and regional wines, but Bordeaux and Burgundy also represented.  We drank a white Côtes du Rhône and a superb red Pic Saint Loup: Le Gouletier 2007 from Domaine Chalazon.

The menu lists seven courses, but I think we had nine. There were two rounds of amuses-bouches, and a pré-pré dessert as well as pré-dessert and dessert. Between these, we were treated to delicious scallops, a gorgeous fricassé with a jus d’Estragon, and the highlight for me, Quasi de Veau de Lait, which was one of the tastiest, tenderest meat dishes I have ever eaten. (I am informed that the cheese course was also exceptional.)

And here’s the beauty of it. Despite clearing our plates completely, despite the number of courses, and despite the gorgeousness of the home-made bread, we left the table three hours later not unpleasantly full, not bloated, but totally satisfied: each dish had been ‘an elegant sufficiency’.

I envy the residents of and visitors to the Luberon next year. But I suspect that our side of the Rhône will also be blessed with new and rewarding places to eat. Rumours abound of Parisian chefs taking over established restaurants in Uzès. Frederik is taking over the Bar du Marché  and will be re-opening after the obligatory two week closure, during which customs and licensing authorities carry out their due diligence (or not, if you listen as I do to the locals).

The winter here is a little like the off-season in baseball: there are sales, retirements and trades and, most of all, there is gossip and rumour about these things. In baseball, this is called the Hot Stove: it’s a pretty appropriate phrase for what has already began here.

This is the cycle. It happens every year. In my end is my beginning. As one door closes, another opens. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. Here’s to 2012.

Today's listening: Thea Gilmore, John Wesley Harding. The complete Dylan album, reinterpreted by this brilliant singer.

3 Comments
Leon
6/10/2011 02:06:43

Thanks for this, Max. The nearest I can offer to an equivalent culinary bulletin from this ‘bread-and-butter’ corner of Southern Burgundy is a brief report on the decline of the Belle Epoque, the café/restaurant opposite the Chateau in La Clayette. I can report that this establishment is doggedly pursuing what appears to be a planned programme of self-destruction. This began with the installation of ‘fashionable’ decking over the uneven but perfectly serviceable pavement /terrace outside; it continued with the replacement of the cheerful yellow umbrellas and awning by funereal purple ones which cast an unhealthy pall over the (fast-diminishing) clientele; the next step was the introduction of a policy to shoo out coffee-only customers after 11 am to make way for the hoped-for lunch trade; and it culminated with the planting of an encircling, bushy bamboo screen which totally blocks the view of one the town’s (and the restaurant’s) principal attractions, the pretty XVIII century chateau. Genius.

Luckily, there are still good places to eat in the area. So a visit to your old chums in Burgundy on your way back to UK might still mérite un détour!

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parn123
8/10/2011 12:41:33

Let's hope that the Frederik (?) taking over the Bar du Marché will do at least as good a job as Raymond ... The place could do with a bit of sprucing up during this interval though.

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parn123 link
15/10/2011 15:24:33

More Endgames/Full Circles ...
The Bar du Marché in St Quentin la Poterie opened on Friday with minor changes! It's going to be fine.
What was unexpected was the closure of the Chai de Uzès. We were going to eat oysters there today (the oyster chap was there on his own) but the establishment was closed up. Later, on the way back to the car, a few tables with champagne bottles were out and the new proprietors were having a small party. The place will reopen - under a new name - in mid-November. We were assured that the oysters and everything good will continue to be served. Looking forward to that.
Distinctly cooler today. Hope the snow hasn't come to you yet.

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    Max Smith

    European writer, radical, restaurateur and Red Sox fan. 70-something husband, father, step-father, grandfather and son. Resident in Warwick, England.

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