Paris - La Maison Champs Elysees

VPAR12 COVER NEW 6mm 31/03/2014 13:21 Page 1
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Fashion show
The Palais Galliera has reopened with a gorgeous display.
ince the reopening of the
Palais Galliera (10 av Pierre
1er de Serbie, 16th, www.
palaisgalliera.paris.fr), it’s been
hard to decide whether to be more
impressed by the building or
the clothes on show inside.
This extraordinary mockrenaissance folly has
been brought back
to its full glory of
Pompeiian red walls,
black woodwork,
mosaic floors and
vaulted ceilings
painted with
grotesqueries and
arabesques. The
fanciful villa was
built in 1879-94
by architect PaulRené-Léon Genain
for Marie BrignoleSale, Italian
aristocrat and
widow of the Duc
de Galliera, a
wealthy banker.
Surrounded
by pleasure
gardens, it was
originally intended to house
Brignole-Sale’s art collection
(ultimately left to the town
of Genoa). The house then
became the property of the
Ville de Paris and has played
host to exhibitions, salons,
auctions and, since 1977, the
municipal fashion museum. It
has also regained its name of
‘Palais’ rather than ‘Musée’ –
an appropriately theatrical
showcase for some truly
theatrical clothes.
As before, the Galliera is
dedicated solely to temporary
exhibitions – due to the fragility
of the fabrics, clothes can only be
exhibited for four months at a time
under strictly controlled lighting –
but the shows manage to provide
S
Chic sleep
Maison Martin Margiela’s new hotel is simply stunning.
elgian designer Martin
Margiela, the Howard Hughes
of fashion, vanished from
his brand in 2009 leaving a strictly
anonymous collective to continue his
avant-garde work. It is this talented
crew who are behind the design
of Maison Martin Margiela’s first
couture hotel, the Hôtel La Maison
Champs Elysées (8 rue Jean Goujon,
8th, 01.40.74.64.65, www.lamaison
champselysees.com). Beyond the
cream stone façade in a quiet street
between the Grand Palais and
Avenue Montaigne awaits an Alice
Through the Looking Glass world.
Black cabochons on the cream
marble floor seem to have been
scattered by the wind as you enter
the lobby. To the right is the White
Lounge with its grand piano,
illusional mirrors,
and rows of
hanging bulbs
and stuffed
flamingos in
a glass case.
To the left is
the cigar bar,
done out in burnt
black wood with
leather chairs. Blackclad tailor’s dummies line
the way to the Table du 8
restaurant (see p52) and
the secret urban garden
beyond. The numerous
young staff are professional
LA MAISON CHAMPS ELYSÉES: MARTINE HOUGHTON, ALAÏA EXHIBITION: PIERRE ANTOINE, PALAIS GALLIERA: DI MESSINA
B
but relaxed, making this hotel
feel more like Los Angeles than
the Golden Triangle.
Previously a Sofitel, the building
was also once the private club of the
‘Centraliens’ (graduates of the Ecole
Centrale des Arts et Manufactures),
and a gilded staircase leads to a
series of magnificent Napoleon III
salons that can be booked for
weddings or other gatherings.
The main building has 11 rooms
and six couture suites. The black
Curiosity Case suite hosts revolving
exhibitions in its floor-to-ceiling
glass cabinet; the Gilded Lounge
suite features cunning Napoleon III
reproduction mouldings on the walls
and a library of classic literature just
behind the bed. The other suites
are more classic Margiela with
visual puns on minimalist white.
Through a silver corridor that
feels like the entrance to an
exclusive club are the other
40 ‘boutique’ rooms offering
fantastic all-white
bathrooms and
plenty of high-tech
minimalist cool –
all are equipped
with Apple TVs,
iMacs or Mac Minis
and Nespresso
machines. The only
downside is working
out how to switch
off the lights.
a decent glimpse of the Palais’
incredibly rich collection, which
stretches from late 17th-century
period costume, via the birth of
haute couture, to today’s creators.
After reopening in September
2013 with an exhibition
dedicated to the sculptural
figure-hugging dresses
of Azzedine Alaïa,
forthcoming treats
include ‘Glossy
Paper’, fashion
photography
from Condé Nast
magazines (until
25 May 2014);
and the glamorous
belle époque
wardrobe of
the Countess
Greffulhe (Dec
2014-Feb 2015).
Flamboyant
new director
Olivier Sainsard,
a fashion
historian and
former curator
of the Musée
de la Mode in
Marseille, has undoubtedly
introduced a new dynamism
to the Galliera. As well as
the internal exhibitions,
he’s organising adventurous
collaborations with other
institutions and crossover
events with contemporary
art and theatre.
Part of the Alaïa show took
place inside the Musée d’Art
Moderne de la Ville de Paris
across the street. And ‘Eternity
Dress’, at the Ecole Nationale
Supérieure des Beaux-Arts as part
of the 2013 Festival d’Automne,
saw Sainsard performing the entire
process of making a single dress
in a show with British actress Tilda
Swinton. A follow-up is already
planned in the Palais Galliera itself.
Time Out Paris for Visitors 3
VPAR12 CONSUME 48-61 RESTAURANTS 31/03/2014 13:28 Page 52
Miss Kô Chinese
Philippe Starck’s latest venture is set
up to look like a narrow Chinatown
street, bustling and colourful at night
with open kitchens at the end where
chefs work away beneath an array
of suspended woks and neon lights.
There are a dozen dishes, of which the
star is beef tataki at €29 – a sort of
carpaccio with teriyaki sauce, shiitake
mushrooms and purée perfumed with
ginger. The ‘black salmon & Kô’ burger
at €19.50 is equally alluring, the bread
coloured black with squid ink and
garnished with avocado, mizuna,
gravlax and tempura-fried green beans.
The bar and terrace are suitably hip.
49 av George V, 8th (01.53.67.
84.60, www.miss-ko.com). Mº
George V. Open noon-2am daily.
Main courses €17-€29.
Pierre Gagnaire Haute cuisine
At Pierre Gagnaire the prix fixe
starts at a staggering €115, which
seems to be the price of culinary
experimentation these days. This
cheaper lunch menu is far from the
full-blown experience of the carte: the
former is presented in three courses,
whereas the latter involves four or five
plates for each course. Even the amusebouches fill the table: an egg ‘raviole’,
ricotta with apple, fish in a cauliflower
jelly, and glazed monkfish.
6 rue Balzac, 8th (01.58.36.12.50,
www.pierre-gagnaire.com). Mº Charles
de Gaulle Etoile or George V. Open
noon-1.30pm, 7.30-9.30pm MonFri. Closed Aug. Prix fixe Lunch
€115, €290. Dinner €290.
Restaurant L’Entredgeu Bistro
Reading the menu here will make you
seriously doubt your capacity for
pudding. But have no fear. The
heartiness of the dishes belies refined,
perfectly gauged cooking, served in
civilised portions. The table turnover
is fast, but this is not a place to linger
smoochily in any case – you’ll be too
busy marvelling at the sharp gribiche
sauce cutting through the milky crispbattered oysters, the depth and aroma
of the fish soup, the perfect layered
execution of the caramelised pork
belly, and the delicate desserts. The
wine list is creative and assured.
83 rue Laugier, 17th (01.40.54.97.24).
Mº Porte de Champerret. Open noon2pm, 7.30-11pm Tue-Sat. Closed 1wk
Apr, 1st 3wks Aug & 1wk Dec. Prix fixe
Lunch €25, €35. Dinner €35.
Stella Maris Haute cuisine
Tateru Yoshino has divided his life
between Paris and Tokyo for many
years. Trained by Robuchon and
Troisgros, he turns out food that is
resolutely French. You might float
your way through foie gras with
carrots, truffles and pistachio oil,
pan-fried sea bass with saffron risotto,
and a perfectly lopsided Grand
Marnier soufflé. The exquisite,
powdery blandness of the tasting
menu going-home present, cake aux
marrons glacés, brings it all softly,
dreamily, back next morning at
breakfast. Expensive but wonderful.
4 rue Arsène-Houssaye, 8th (01.42.89.
16.22, www.stellamaris-paris.com).
Mº Charles de Gaulle Etoile. Open
12.30-2.30pm, 7.30-10pm Mon-Fri;
7.30-10pm Sat. Closed 2wks Aug.
Main courses €41-€75. Prix fixe
Lunch €52. Dinner €75, €130.
La Table Lauriston Bistro
Serge Barbey’s dining room has a
refreshingly feminine touch. The
emphasis here is firmly on goodquality ingredients, skilfully prepared
to show off their freshness. In spring,
stalks of asparagus from the Landes
are expertly trimmed to avoid any
trace of stringiness and delightfully
served with the simplest vinaigrette
d’herbes. More extravagant is the foie
gras cuit au torchon, in which the duck
liver is wrapped in a cloth and poached
in a bouillon. Skip the crème brûlée,
which you could have anywhere, and
order a dessert with attitude instead:
the giant baba au rhum.
129 rue de Lauriston, 16th (01.47.
27.00.07, www.restaurantlatable
lauriston.com). Mº Trocadéro. Open
noon-2.30pm, 7-10.30pm Mon-Fri;
7-10.30pm Sat. Closed Aug & 1wk
Dec. Main courses €21-€44. Prix
fixe Lunch €26.
George V. Open 12.15-1.30pm, 7.159.30pm Mon-Fri. Closed Aug. Main
courses €54-€240. Prix fixe Lunch
€88, €104, €218, €320. Dinner
€218, €320.
Taillevent Haute cuisine
Prices here are not quite as shocking as
in some restaurants at this level; for
instance, there’s an €88 lunch menu.
Rémoulade de coquilles St-Jacques
is a technical feat, with slices of raw,
marinated scallop wrapped in a tube
shape around a finely diced apple
filling, encircled by a mayonnaiselike rémoulade sauce. An earthier and
lip-smacking dish is the signature
épeautre – an ancient wheat – which
is cooked ‘like a risotto’ with bone
marrow, black truffle, whipped cream
and parmesan, and topped with
sautéed frogs’ legs. Ravioli au chocolat
araguani is a surprising and wonderful
dessert. Men must wear a jacket.
15 rue Lamennais, 8th (01.44.95.
15.01, www.taillevent.com). Mº
Bar à Sushi Izimi Sushi
This tiny sushi bar quickly made a
name for itself when it opened in 2011,
educating Paris diners about the
delights of fatty tuna, eel and wagyu
beef. The eel arrives still smoking,
perfectly grilled, swiped with a sweet
sauce then arranged in a bowl with fish,
omelette and prawns on a warm bed
of rice and sesame. The wagyu beef,
with its remarkable texture and nutty
flavour, is served as tataki (a sort of
half-cooked carpaccio) or sushi. Have
it with one of the sakes – a fruity
Tatenokawa, a flavourful Muroka, an
intense Kenbishi, or a taster of all three.
55 bd des Batignolles, 8th (01.45.22.
43.55, www.lebarasushi.com). Mº
Villiers. Open noon-2.30pm, 7.3010pm Tue-Sat. Main courses €4.50€28. Prix fixe Lunch €12.50-€17.50.
Dinner €23-€90.
RECOMMENDED
La Table du 8
MONCEAU & BATIGNOLLES
Atao Seafood
Atao looks like a dream of a
fisherman’s cabin – marine blue
on the outside, then wood, white and
colourful touches inside, with an old
mariner’s portrait, an anchor and a
black-and-white flag. This pretty place
is owned by the daughter of an oyster
farmer from Morbihan, who serves
up platters of fine oysters – flat native
plates and huge Japanese creuses (alive
and cooked). Main dishes – fish stew,
dorado with basil, scallop carpaccio –
are pricey but worth every cent.
86 rue Lemercier, 17th (01.46.27.
81.12). Mº La Fourche. Open noon-2pm,
7-10pm Tue-Sun. Main courses €30.
Lazare Brasserie
See p56 First Class Food.
Parvis de la Gare St Lazare, 8th
(01.44.90.80.80/www.lazare-paris.fr).
Mº St Lazare. Open daily 7.30am-midnight. Plat du jour €19. A la carte €55.
AmEx, DC, MC, V.
PASSY & AUTEUIL
Rech Bistro
Alain Ducasse’s personal touches are
everywhere in this art deco seafood
restaurant, from the Japanese fish
prints on the walls of the upstairs
dining room to the blown-glass
candleholders on the main-floor tables.
The kitchen turns out the kind of
precise, Mediterranean-inspired
cooking you would expect from
Ducasse: glistening sardine fillets
marinated with preserved lemon, silky
lobster ravioli, and octopus carpaccio
painted with pesto. As the fish dishes
are light, you can justify indulging
in a perfectly aged camembert and
the XL éclair, an event in itself.
62 av des Ternes, 17th (01.45.72.
29.47, www.restaurant-rech.fr). Mº
Ternes. Open noon-2pm, 7.30-10pm
Tue-Sat. Closed Aug & 1wk Dec. Main
courses €34-€65. Prix fixe Lunch €39,
€72. Dinner €54, €72.
52 Time Out Paris for Visitors
It may be housed in a fashion hotel, but the emphasis at the Maison Martin
Margiela-designed Table du 8 is on couture, and that extends to the plate.
After a starter of pumpkin soup with cracking belotta ham tartines topped
with red sucrine leaves, opt for the ‘retour du marché’ wild sea bass with
black truffles or the venison with quince, red cabbage and celeriac purée.
Afterwards, sink into digestifs and cigars in the black cigar lounge.
Hôtel La Maison Champs-Elysées, 8 rue Jean Goujon, 8th (01.40.74.64.94,
www.lamaisonchampselysees.com). Mº Champs Elysées-Clemenceau.
Open noon-2.30pm, 7-10.30pm Mon-Fri; 7-10.30pm Sat; noon-3pm Sun.
Astrance Haute cuisine
When Pascal Barbot opened Astrance,
he was praised for creating a new style
of Paris restaurant – refined, yet
casual and affordable. A few years
later, this small, slate-grey dining
room feels just like an haute cuisine
restaurant. Most customers, having
reserved at least a month ahead, give
free rein to the chef with the ‘Menu
Astrance’. Barbot has an original
touch, combining foie gras with slices
of white mushrooms and a lemon
condiment, or sweet lobster with
candied grapefruit peel, a grapefruit
and rosemary sorbet, and raw baby
spinach. Wines are reasonably priced.
4 rue Beethoven, 16th (01.40.50.
84.40, www.astrancerestaurant.com).
Mº Passy. Open 12.15-1.30pm, 8.159pm Tue-Fri. Closed 2wks Dec, 1wk
May & late July-early Aug. Prix fixe
Lunch €70, €150, €230. Dinner €230.
LA TABLE DU 8: MARTINE HOUGHTON
Restaurants
Salvador Dalí were regulars. But its
illustrious past is nothing next to the
food: chef Christophe Moret (ex-Plaza
Athénée) and his pastry chef Claire
Heitzler (ex-Ritz) create lip-smacking
delicacies to die for. The upstairs
dining room is a sumptuous affair.
17 av Franklin-Roosevelt, 8th
(01.43.59.02.13, www.restaurantlasserre.com). Mº Franklin D Roosevelt.
Open 7-10pm Tue, Wed, Sat; noon2pm, 7-10pm Thur, Fri. Main courses
€80-€120. Prix fixe Lunch €90, €120,
€220. Dinner €220.