Restaurant Graindorge, Paris, France

A June, 1999 photo by John White's son, Graham

The Graindorge offers exceptional food, combined with outstanding Speciality Beers. It is the only place I know in Paris that combines top-class food with an exceptional Specialty Beer list. The list is not massive, but there are no duds in it, just superbly chosen Speciality Beers.

A World-Class Beer Cuisine Restaurant

Restaurant Graindorge, Paris, France
15, rue de l'Arc de Triomphe. tel 01 47 64 33 47

Although a restaurant, the beer list is full of superlative beers. There are places in Paris with much bigger beer lists, but none go anywhere near to matching this place, when it comes to one of the things that the French truly excel in: La Cuisine. To avoid disappointment, it is advisable to book in advance at this most popular of restaurants.

Descriptions of places such as this are normally taken from Beer Guides that have been prepared for White Beer Travels Beer Hunts, all participants getting copies: they typically get well over 100 A4 pages of information per trip. Certain of these guides, including the seventy-eight page Paris one featuring this place, can also be obtained from this website. Click on Downloads for more information, either in this sentence or using the buttons at the top or bottom of this page. If anyone knows of a more comprehensive guide to Specialty Beer outlets in Paris, I will be very interested to hear about it.

Any prices that were not in Euro (€) at the time of a visit have been converted into them. This has resulted in some prices that in reality would have been rounded up or down when the Euro came into circulation in January, 2002.

This 17^e Arrondissement establishment is close to the Avenue des Champs Élysées (the world's most famous street) and the Arc de Triomphe (the city's second most well-known edifice), these both getting the maximum three star rating in the Michelin Green Guide, i.e. they are world-class tourist attractions. Outside the restaurant, one notices a simple, but fairly elegant façade, with the restaurant's name followed by B. Broux, its proprietor/chef. The windows are noticeably trendy, with a modern pattern in them. Inside, as one would expect, it is very pleasant, with excellent lighting, and a number of segregated areas. In one it is possible to see into the kitchen through smart venetian blinds. My wife Joyce and I had our meal in this room, at a corner table, sitting together, with the continuous wall seating to our backs. The tables are decorated with bouquets of barley, the source of malt, beer's most important ingredient.

The name of this place, the Barleycorn, caught the eye when trawling through a couple of guidebooks. From these I ascertained that the chef/proprietor is Bernard Broux, the former chef of the highly rated, Michelin-starred Au Trou Gascon, 40, rue Taine (tel 01 43 44 34 26), in the 12^e Arrondissement, which specialises in food from the South West (Gascogne). However, Bernard is from French Flanders, and now that he has his own place, he specialises in food from his native area, whilst, according to one of the books, his wife Sophie is " ... able to recommend something from the superb collection of rare brews".

With such a background, I made a reservation for an evening in February, 1999, for 7pm. We arrived at ten to, a little early; there was someone still going round with the Hoover. However, we were greeted very warmly by Bernard himself; it was only later that I read that the doors only officially open in the evening at 7.30pm, closing at 11pm! It also opens for lunch at noon. As is typical with French restaurants, if one books a meal for, say 8pm, there is no pressure on you to vacate your table for a second sitting. However, service is not as overtly slow as in some other fancy places. It is closed all day Sunday, and at Saturday lunch time. It also typically closes between the 31st of July and the 20th of August each year.

The short beer list - all bottles - is real class, with zero duds. There are two of the 3 Épis range, the Noir and the Blanc, for €5.34 (33cl). But, as would be expected, there are representatives from French Flanders (all at €11.43 for 75cl bottles): one of the Ch'ti range; L'Angelus; 3 Monts; La Choulette Ambrée; and of course Grain d'Orge, brewed in the Lille suburb of Ronchin, by the Brasserie Grain d'Orge (former Jeanne d'Arc), which was acquired, in 2002, by Patrick d'Aubreby, of the Brasseurs de Gayant (www.brasseurs-gayant.com). The Grain d'Orge website is www.graindorge.com, which was under construction , in October, 2004 (www.graindorge.fr, is the Web the site of a Cheese Producer in Livarot, in the Département of Calvados). Livarot, Pont l'Évêque and Camembert are the three classic, Appellation Contrôlée Cheeses of Normandy.

The Belgian Beers on offer will please the most hardened Beer Hunter. It is nice to see so many classics from Wallonia, beers rarely seen in this number together on one list, even in Belgium: at €13.42 (75cl bottles), there are Blaugies' Saison d'Épeautre and La Moneuse; in 33cl bottles, Abbaye des Rocs' Blanche Des Honelles and Brunehaut's L'Écume des Jours, are both €5.34, and the rare and magnificent Hercule Stout from Ellezelloise (www.brasserie-ellezelloise.be) is €6.86; and, in a 25cl bottle, Dupont's La Moinette Blonde is €4.88.

There are some classic Lambics and derivatives: in 75cl bottles, Lindemans Faro is €11.43, Cantillon's Gueuze Lambic and Bruocsella Grand Cru are respectively €13.42 and €14.48; and, in 37.5cl bottles, the same Brussels Brewery's Kriek and Framboise (Rosé de Gambrinus) are both €9.91.

Two further representatives from the Flemish half of Belgium are Van Eecke's Het Kapittel Prior and Westvleteren Extra (8^o). This place and La Taverne de Nesle (32, rue Dauphine, tel 01 43 26 38 36, Métro Odéon), are the only places I have come across in Paris stocking the rare and exquisite beers from the Westvleteren Trappist Monastery, beers which are only available in the Monastery itself, i.e. not in beer shops. Write-ups on these places and many others are to be found in the White Beer Travels downloadable guide to Paris, mentioned above.

Needless to say, all the beers sampled were served in the correct glass, and at the right temperature.

As an alternative to a beer aperitif, Angelus being an outstanding one, the house aperitif, Le Graindorge, is a superb genièvre-based champagne cocktail, for €6.86. In fact we sampled one and then had the Angelus for our starter and main course. We have drunk this classic on a number of occasions, and found it excellent, see a photo of its superb bottle label at the end of the Recce Trips page. This place somewhat magically lifted it further. Most of such beers do not benefit from a lot of bottle age, so one would expect that one bought in a high turnover hypermarket would be no different to one here, provided one allowed it to settle for a couple of days and then served it at the right temperature. However, I can swear than the one here was the best one experienced, including that sampled at the brewery itself, in Annœuillin. There must be some magic in the place, as this was the experience with everything that we had. Adjoining tables were ordering Grain d'Orge itself, as both an aperitif and as a beer to accompany the meal. There is a good wine list, see below, but on our visit, practically all were drinking beer. Most were fairly smartly dressed, but no ties were in evidence.

The wines on offer have been well selected. Bottles range in price from €14.48, for a 1996 Château Canet Bordeaux Rosé, to €99.09, for a classy St.-Estephe, a 1988 Château Montrose. There are some half bottles in the range €7.62 to €18.29. Champagne is from €35.06 to €99.09 a bottle, with a half of Krug Grande Cuvée at €54.88. There is a good selection of spirits, including, of course, a Genièvre, for €7.62, the example being from the Distillerie Persyn (www.genievredehoulle.com), in Houlle, near St.-Omer.

A very classy fortified wine (Vin Doux Naturel), from Pyrénées-Orientales, Maury "Mas Amiel", is recommended in the menu to accompany the desserts. This rarity is €6.40 a glass. Of course, you can have a suitable beer, such as Rochefort 10^o. Bernard is very quick to suggest that a beer chosen will not suit the food course that it will be drunk with, and, indeed, to suggest an alternative.

Graindorge has a number of beer cuisine options, in the starters (Les Entrées), the main courses (Les Plats, here Les Poissons (fish) and Les Viandes (meat)), and the sweets (Les Desserts).

Graindorge is not a place where one can just pop in for a drink; it is a very classy, Art Déco-style restaurant, which happens to have a beer flavour. Service is impeccable, but unfussy. For Speciality Beer and food lovers, a meal here is a must, when in Paris.

The food that we had was some of the best we have ever tasted, in any type of restaurant. One can go into Michelin-starred places, and have a very enjoyable starter and main course, to be let down by the dessert. Here, everything was perfection. The place should unquestionably be étoilé (starred), but for some reason it is not, although in the 2006 guide, it has a "Bib Gourmand" symbol, which stands for "Good food at moderate prices". (www.viamichelin.com covers the Michelin Red guide (restaurants and hotels) and the Green Guide (tourist attractions).

We had the €28.66 menu, which contains a number of the à la carte dishes. For our starter we both chose "Kippers de Boulogne, chou rouge à la flamande" (slices of Boulogne Kipper on Flemish Red Cabbage). For our main course we were still as one. We fancied having a non-menu dish, the "Noix de St.-Jacques grillées et orge perlé à la façon d'un risotto, jus crémeux à la bière blanche" (Grilled Scallops on a bed of Pearl Barley in the form of a Risotto, bound together with a Creamy Wheat Beer Juice). Bernard told us that this dish was not included with those on the menu, because the bad weather had driven the price of scallops sky high. However, he said that we could have them for an additional €4.57. We gladly accepted. What heaven the dish was. Superbly cooked (not over-cooked) scallops, and the best pearl barley ever experienced! Oh, the joy of French cooking! For my dessert I had a variant on the more usual Rum Baba, the rum being substituted by Gueuze, and on top of the cream there was jam made from Cantillon Kriek, which is (a good buy if visiting the brewery in Brussels, see www.cantillon.be or the unofficial sites, www.ifrance.com/cantillon and White Beer Travels Web page. The first two sites have a list of Cantillon outlets in Paris. This dish was magnificent, the Baba being unbelievably light, and really suiting the tart Gueuze Sauce. Joyce had a superb Fruit Soup and Dates dish.

Many other items tempted and will have to be sampled on return visits. For example: Soupe crémeuse à la bière, lard et croûtons, a Creamy Beer Soup with Bacon and Croûtons for €8.84; Escalopes de foie gras chaud de canard des Landes à la Kriek, Hot Foie Gras from Les Landes, cooked in Cherry Beer for €14.94; Waterzooi, the classic Flanders Stew, often chicken based, but here, made with Scallops (St.-Jacques), and other shell fish (coquillages), and Grey Shrimps (Crevettes Grises) from Ostend, for €18.29; Carbonade de joue de bœuf "à ma façon", chou rouge à la flamande (mariné à la bière brune et pain d'épices), Cheek of Beef Stew "in my style" marinated in Brown Ale with Gingerbread for €14.48; Salade d'agrumes à la fleur d'oranger, granité à la bière blanche, Citrus Fruit Salad with Orange Blossom, with Wheat Beer Water-Ice for €8.84; and pain perdu du cramique caramalisé à la cassonade, crème glacée au pain d'épices, Bread and Butter Pudding based on a Raisin Brioche with Caramelised Brown Sugar and Gingerbread Ice-Cream for €8.84.

Note that these were the dishes available on the night of the visit, but guidebooks list some different ones, so it is clear that certain of the dishes are changed depending on time of year, or whatever.

In a place where quality is the key, even the Mignardises, accompanying the end of meal coffee, were in a different plane to what one is normally offered. There was some candied orange peel with these, of exceptional quality. Joyce asked how it was made. The waiter did not try to fob us off with his own explanation. He consulted someone in the kitchen, which then enabled him to give us very fine, accurate details on the process. He also brought us a bowl full of the superb stuff, which is made in-house, a marvellous touch, but typical of the place.

The nearest Métro (Underground Railway) and RER (Fast Métro) is Charles de Gaulle/Étoile, this being the old and new names for the square at the centre of which is the Arc de Triomphe. I prefer to use a Métro station just a little further away, the less complicated Argentine (leave by Sortie/Exit "N^os Pair" (even numbered, [Northern side of the Avenue de la Grande Armée])).

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