Ever since this former SNCF train station was taken over by a group of friends – Juan Sanchez (Semilla and Freddy’s in Paris), Emilie and Cédric Bouchard (winemakers in the Champagne region) and Peter Lippmann (a photographer) –, gourmet diners from in and around Gyé know where to go for something good to eat. What should you expect? A restaurant with immensely high ceilings, terrazzo tiling, a big kitchen-bar and a terrace, which rolls out onto a hefty one-hectare organic vegetable patch, where chefs Sakaya Sawaguchi and Gil Nogueira go to pick their produce, with a helping hand from Nathan Fallowfield and José Neves. The day we went for lunch the menu featured: sardines marinated in vinegar and delicate tomatoes from the garden, plus good homemade sourdough bread for saucing up the juices; a hearty flank steak from La Ferme de Clavisy, dry-aged for eight weeks and served flash-seared with a tasty potato gratin; before a floating panna cotta infused with hay and paired with poached peaches. At night and on the weekends, the monumental fireplace embraces the entire pantry: leeks, oysters, line-caught swordfish, lamb shoulder… Can’t decide what to order? The chefs make your life easier with a five-course tasting menu. Good call. // G.B.
FEELING THIRSTY? A Savennières from the Domaine de la Bergerie (€8.70 a glass), a sweet Loire wine from François Chidaine (€57 a bottle), a Coteaux-Champenois red from Robert Barbichon (€49)… And even forty-some Champagnes, including Les Bulles de Comptoir from Charles Dufour (€59).
PRICE: Prix-fixe menus €22 (weekday lunch), €38 (dinner and weekends), plates €6-19.
