Breizh Café

Bertrand Larcher, winner of the 2011 Fooding d’honneur award

Strong Breton wind warnings in the Chartrons neighborhood! After opening cafés in Cancale, Paris and Tokyo, Bertrand Larcher, the king of neo-galettes, set up his billig hotplate, AOP churned butter and bags of organic stone-ground flour in a tiny Breizh Café in Bordeaux, complete with a marine blue storefront. The day we went for lunch, instead of the iconic galette made with farm-fresh ham from Brittany, an organic egg and Comté, or the one decked out with pastrami, Comté, red cabbage, caramelized onions and a yuzu kosho cream, we opted for the galette of the moment, made with melted leeks and the first scallops of the season, flash-seared and tickled by briny Bordier seaweed butter and some tangy raw cream; before a clever and devilishly good sweet crepe (made with buckwheat flour, just like the savory versions!) with ginger-infused salted caramel, plus a scoop of Madagascar vanilla ice cream and dark chocolate shavings. Want more? There are Prat-Ar-Coum oysters to keep the Breton mood going, and an Umi bar upstairs for a taste of Japan via a selection of Nipponese sakes and whiskeys. // Raoul Taburin  

FEELING THIRSTY? : A stunning collection of sparkling hard ciders made with the forbidden fruit: a rustic dry cider from the Breizh Café farm in the Ille-et-Vilaine department (€19.50 a bottle), an intense dry Nérios cider from Johanna Cécillon (€24) or for something different, Authentique, a pear cider from Éric Bordelet (€8 a glass, €28 a bottle). 
PRICE: : Galettes €11.80 to €19.50, crepes €5.90 to €14.50, oysters €18.50 for six, set menu €19.80 (weekday lunch, glass of hard cider or apple juice included in the price).