Olivier Fonteneau, Club Med’s ex-HR manager, traded in his white collared shirts for a chef’s apron! Located up in the Vieux Lyon neighborhood, his épicerie overflows with mouthwatering goods: charcuterie from the Ain department, Cornand pasta from St. Etienne, Kura de Bourgogne miso… But that’s not all! There’s a nice bistro tucked away in the backroom (blonde hardwood floors, duck green walls, hanging Edison bulbs), where two missing persons from the Lyonnais food scene are hard at work: Davia Chambon, one of the former chefs of the now-closed Deux Filles en Cuisine, and Mélik Debadji, the founder of L’Ebauche. Together, they created a well crafted lunch menu the other day: adorable pan-fried red mullet fillets with a silky celery cream and pomegranate seeds; thick slices of flash-seared Charolais beef with mashed kabocha squash, sunchoke chips and purslane; before a delicious apple-quince millefeuille. It’s worth noting that Wednesday and Saturday lunchtimes, everyone gets roast chicken or roast beef. And as for the evenings, even cheapskates are unable to resist the unbeatable six-course prix-fixe menu (€35!) for all the family – eg.: leeks, bottarga, pistachio; onions, Parmesan cream, hazelnut black bread; roasted cauliflower, almond milk, anchovies, etc. // A.S.
FEELING THIRSTY? Nice naturalist wines: a Beaujolais-Villages red from Fabien Forest (€6 a glass), a Régnié from Christian Ducroux (€35 a bottle), a Loire Chenin from the Mosses (€42)…
PRICE: Prix-fixe menus €19 (lunch) and €35 (dinner).
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