Category: French

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2020Dog FriendlyFrenchGone But Not Forgotten

La Crêpe Michel – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno1:53 AM

FROM THE LA CREPE MICHEL WEBSITE: We have decided to permanently close La Crepe Michel.  I want to thank everyone for making more than 30 years possible.  We will miss you all and we have wonderful memories that will last forever.  Again, thank you.  – Claudie and all the staff at crepe michel The crêpe is, at its essence, not much more than a very thin cooked pancake, but ask even the most accomplished chefs to relate their initial attempts at baking crêpes and you’ll be regaled with tales of exasperation, woe, despair and misery. Use too much water or milk and not enough fat and the crêpes will turn out elastic and tough. If your pan isn’t hot enough, the crêpes will stick to it; too hot and the crêpes turn out lacy. Roll them too tight and they’ll explode and scald your face… Or at least that was the experience of Dominicans trying to pass off as Cuban cigar rollers in a hilarious episode of Seinfeld. When the owners of the Magic Pan crêperie became incapacitated, Jerry had the “Cubans” fill in at the restaurant rolling crêpes. Not surprisingly, the “Cubans” rolled the crêpes cigar tight, causing the…

CaliforniaClosed in 2018Dog FriendlyFrenchGone But Not ForgottenUnited States

Cafe Chloe – San Diego, California (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:57 AM

From your seat on the sidewalk patio of Café Chloe, you can see Petco Park, the open-air home of the San Diego Padres. You’ll have a front row view of a veritable cavalcade of motorized and foot-powered conveyances—from swanky Maseratis to sleek inline skates. Passers-by on foot include some of the city’s most downtrodden as well as its captains of industry. As you take in your surroundings in the cozy, urban neighborhood café and wine bar in San Diego’s chic East Village, you might occasionally be transported, perhaps more than fleetingly, to a quaint Parisian cafe of your past or your dreams. More than any other French bistro we’ve visited, Café Chloe takes us back to leisurely spring days in small, homey bistros by the Seine where we sipped coffee as intense and spicy as the city in which it’s served. That’s the magic of Café Chloe, a culinary gem which may have the look and feel of Paris, but whose heart and soul belong to San Diego. In fact, Café Chloe has been recognized by Eater San Diego as one of the “38 essential San Diego restaurants,” a compilation of myriad restaurants across a gamut of cuisines. These are…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2014FrenchGone But Not ForgottenRating: Excellent

Chez Bob – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno10:48 PM

Even if you’ve never had the pleasure of a meal there, it’s hard not to like a restaurant named Chez Bob. Much as poetic French words are apt to do, the term “chez” seems to impart instant credibility, authenticity and just a touch of haughtiness to any restaurant sporting that appellation–even though “chez” is just a preposition which means “at the home of.” So, Chez Lucien is essentially “at the home of Lucien.”  On restaurants, the term “chez” usually prefaces the name of the chef or owner, as in Chez Pierre or Chez Emile.  The ordinary nature of the “Bob” portion of the name Chez Bob counterbalances the haughtiness of the term “chez” because Bob is one of those “every man names” we all trust. It doesn’t have those intimidating metrosexual qualities of Hollywood names such as Troy and Brad or the perceived hauteur of a French name. Bob is a vanilla name, a name your friends and neighbors might have. You would probably feel more welcome at a restaurant named “Chez Bob” than you would at one named “Chez Arnaud” which sounds more than a bit pretentious and expensive. The Bob in Chez Bob is Robert “Bob” Maw. Bob’s…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2016FrenchGone But Not ForgottenRating: Outstanding

Cafe Jean Pierre – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:23 PM

A few years ago when France was the target of xenophobic sentiment and  some political commentators even advocated boycotting all things French, my vivacious friend Janet Resnik remained a fervent Francophile.  With the simple retort, “ah, but the food,” she found it easy to diffuse dour diatribes in which not a single good thing was said about France.  Not even the most ardent anti-French could argue that French food isn’t among the very best in the world. In Albuquerque, chef Jean-Pierre Gozard has been more instrumental than anyone in providing fine French alternatives to the ubiquitous chile laden cuisine that seems to define the city.  Chef Gozard started it all in 1975 with the launch of La Crepe Michel, a hugely popular restaurant that’s still going strong nearly four decades later.  In 1979 he opened Le Marmiton, one of the four or five restaurants I’ve missed most from among all those which have closed since we returned to Albuquerque.  From 1987 through 1995, Chef Gozard plied his talents in Casa Vieja, a Corrales landmark. After leaving Casa Vieja, it looked for a while as if Albuquerque had seen the last of the über chef, but in 2008 he turned up at…

FrenchSanta Fe

Cafe Phenix – Santa Fe, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno10:02 PM

“A mythical bird that never dies, the Phoenix flies far ahead to the front, always scanning the landscape and distant space. It represents our capacity for vision, for collecting sensory information about our environment and the events unfolding within it. The Phoenix, with its great beauty, creates intense excitement and deathless inspiration.” – Feng Shui Master Lam Kam Shuen, The Feng Shui Handbook It’s only appropriate that a cozy little restaurant named Cafe Phenix would be part and parcel of a neighborhood revitalization effort being spearheaded by a close-knit community of artists. Much like the advent of Soho, a New York City neighborhood regenerated by a community of Bohemian artists and activists, Santa Fe’s “Triangle District” is emerging as a destination for dining and a sense of community. Geographically defined as the triangle formed by St. Francis Drive, St Michael’s Drive and Cerrillos Road, the Triangle District is the antithesis of Santa Fe style and its Anasazi inspired adobe facade. In fact the Triangle District seems to be an architectural hodgepodge of neo-industrial warehouse structures, studios, cafes and galleries. It does not fit the stereotypical Santa Fe template that seems to preternaturally draw so many seekers to “The City Different.”…

AlbuquerqueBrunchClosed in 2013FrenchGone But Not Forgotten

Brasserie La Provence – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:35 AM

The French have long cultivated the idea–some would say myth–that their cuisine is the very best in the world. This self-aggrandizing hype has been carefully and condescendingly orchestrated for centuries. Even Alice B. Toklas, the American writer far ahead of her time (in 1954, she published a literary memoir with a recipe for “hashish fudge”) was caught up in the myth. Toklas wrote “The French approach to food is characteristic; they bring to their consideration of the table the same appreciation, respect, intelligence and lively interest that they have for the other arts, for painting, for literature, and for the theatre.” Where other nations prepare and serve food, the French festoon the tables with cuisine. Where cultural mores in America take a relaxed approach toward table manners, the French insist upon prim, proper and prudish etiquette at any repast. Where Americans practically inhale their food, barely stopping to taste it, the French savor their food. They actually focus on it and give themselves time to enjoy each and every morsel. Where our blood pressure elevates if we’re forced to wait more than two minutes at our fast food drive-ups, the French set a time and place for eating. They actually…

FrenchNew MexicoRating: N/R (Not Rated)Santa Fe

315 Restaurant & Wine Bar – Santa Fe, New Mexico

Gil Garduno4:15 PM

>Compared to the extraordinarily perceptive 19th-century detective Sherlock Holmes, his best friend and confidante Dr. John H. Watson was an ordinary man, a perfect “foil” for the brilliant Holmes. Though lacking his friend’s deductive abilities and almost prescient ability to solve problems, Dr. Watson was, however, prone to occasional observations of brilliance and statements of profound eloquence. For example, in the 2004 novel Sherlock Holmes and the Hapsburg Tiara, Dr. Watson describes a three-hour French meal: “Each dish was more fantastical than the last. One can only conclude that it is the special purpose of French cookery to dissolve the entire substance of a dish into polish, so that no trace of the primeval beef, pork, or chicken remains, converting the whole into a sort of puree raisonne that can then be shaped and reshaped by an abstract and extravagant fancy far closer to architecture than cookery, a fancy whose sole intent is to remove from its creations all taint of the hearth and kitchen, not to mention pasture and field.” Juxtaposed against the fluidity and clarity of Watson’s vivid appreciation for his meal, my review of 315 Restaurant & Wine Bar (formerly known as Bistro 315) may seem provincial…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2008FrenchGone But Not Forgotten

Cafe Voila – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno4:16 AM

Mon ami Francophile who spends months vacationing in France likes to talk about his dining experiences in the land of haute cuisine and haughty waiters, regaling anyone who will listen with tales of surliness, scorn and condescension the likes of which Americans are unused to. His favorite tales of woe involve a churlish waiter at a sidewalk cafe in Paris adept at ignoring customers to the full extent of their patience then tossing menus at them. When taking their order, he will roll his eyes and tap his pencil on the menu as if aggravated that his valuable time is being wasted. Leaving the table, he will swing the menu around and hit at least one customer on the head (an eye on a good day). Invariably he will deliver the wrong entrees and blame the mistake on the patron’s horrendous French pronunciation of simple dishes. My Francophile friend (whom I suspect has more than a little mean streak) sees such surliness as part of the charm of the stereotypical French waiter. He says they’re in a hurry and if you leave in a dither, someone else will take your place who won’t be so sensitive about “a little” abruptness.…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2014FrenchGone But Not ForgottenNew Mexico

Le Cafe Miche – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno11:37 AM

Cafe Miche has been regarded as one of Albuquerque’s best restaurants since its 1996 launch and according to the Zagat Survey, was the number one rated French restaurant in the state for three consecutive years. Honored with an Award of Excellence by Wine Spectator magazine and boasting of one of the city’s best wine lists, Cafe Miche has a passionate following of faithful followers. I suspect some of them visit almost as much for the wonderful cuisine as to enjoy the company of effusive chef Claus Hjortkjaer and his statuesque wife and partner Linda, both of whom seem to know most of their patrons (and if they don’t know you, they still make you feel quite at home). A great Dane who studied classic French cuisine in Denmark, Claus has an impressive pedigree that includes previous stints at several highly regarded restaurants in New Mexico. In 2005, he began hosting a Sunday morning radio show on a local FM station, adding to the “Miche Man’s” celebrity status. When we complimented him on that show, he remarked that anyone could do it if they’re “full of it.” Full of talent might be more like it. He can meld seemingly disparate and…