Popôte

It’s been a successful move back home for Laura Duboscq and Anthony Guilhaume (she’s a nurse, he’s a chef), who make the people of Tarbes proud with their bistro in the Arsenal neighborhood (waxed concrete floors, blonde wooden furniture and bar, straw light fixtures). After stints at Ithurria in Ainhoa, La Table des Merveille in Castanet-Tolosan and the Vinea cave à manger in Toulouse, Anthony cooked up all of the following the day we went for lunch: a lovely squash velouté – made using veg grown on the Deth Bosc farm in Aureilhan, with chicken liver, croutons and toasted pumpkin seeds; an excellent noire d’Astarac chicken supreme, grilled to golden perfection on the plancha and then in the oven, paired with a tasty jus and mashed potatoes with sautéed garlic, micro arugula and chives; before a sweet frangipane dessert with pear compote, vanilla whipped cream and marigolds from Beaudéan. There’s also Iberian mangalica charcuterie plates to share. // Gérard Roubeix

FEELING THIRSTY? : Exclusively living wines! Grin-Galets, a Côtes-du-Rhône red from Les Vignerons d’Estézargues (€5 a glass), La Juscle, a dry Jurançon from the Domaine Vignau (€31 a bottle), Le Lac aux Cochcons, a cahors from the Château Combel-la-Serre (€45).
PRICE: : Charcuterie plate €18, set menus €22 (lunch), €34 and €45 (dinner), food and wine pairings €12-24.