Jackpot for Carole Eckert, who traded her tiny Comptoir à Manger in Strasbourg (winner of the Fooding d’amour award in 2018) for this loft in Barr, a winemaker’s town near the Vosges mountains’ first foothills. Still as dedicated to locavorism as ever, the sommelier now spends her days in a former carpentry workshop that’s been given a modern makeover, bringing together felt grey walls and flooring, leather placemats and a long tiled bar behind which chef Lucas Engel (ex-Auberge Frankenbourg) is busy at work. That night, the four-course menu featured: tzatziki made with cucumber, watermelon, Wingen trout and squash, with freshly baked garlic herb pita bread for dipping; a surrealist catfish from the Rhine River prepared fish and chips style, topped with fried yellow squash and a silky tartar sauce; slow-braised caramelized pork belly, with a sticky blackberry and beetroot jus; before a nod to bourgeois gastrology, an indulgent dessert cart that carried fromage blanc cake, crème brûlée, a giant creampuff filled with whipped cream and homemade sorbets. On nights and weekends, Lucas really knocks it out of the park with his eight-course menu where you’ll find fine cuts of meat or whole fish, like Arctic char or Salers steak. // Adrien Nouviaire

FEELING THIRSTY? An impressive selection of terroir-heavy wines: a Sylvaner from Lucas Rieffel (€7 a glass), a Riesling from the Domaine Hering (€28 a bottle), a macerated wine from André Kleinknecht (€32), a Pinot noir from Valentin Zusslin (€42)…

PRICE: Menus €36-46 (weekday lunch), €76 (8 courses, dinner and weekends).