Just a while ago I was dining with one of my willing co-conspirators who mentioned that she had really liked a place I wrote up not too long ago and been back several times – had I?
No I hadn’t. She wanted to know why. I mumbled and stumbled without a good answer. Then I sat down one evening for an apero with someone we’ve been eating with here and in New York for over four decades and brainstormed all the places we used to like and no longer frequent.
Some we stopped going to for cause: because they kept bumping up the prices without any visible improvement in the quality of the products or food (see Thierry Burlot, Tante Marguerite); because they never changed their cartes (Les Jumeaux, C’Amelot); because they closed despite their apparent success (Grande Rue, Bistro Cote Mer, Table de Lucullus, La Timonerie); or because they changed their generous offerings (the Brasserie Lorraine, Goumard.)
But that doesn’t explain dozens of fine places we used to flock to season after season, places like:
Au Bon Acceuil
Biche au Bois
Chez Les Anges
Cinq Mars
Clos des Gourmets
Passage
Passiflore
Petit Marguery
Rech
Quincy
Senderens
Stella Maris
Violin d’Ingres and so many others.
Nothing wrong with them at all, not even the quote allegedly from Yogi Berra that “Nobody goes there anymore because it's too crowded.” No, we just stopped going and moved on.
However, a few weeks ago the above mentioned friend said, “You know I was walking past La Cerisaie and they’ve got stuff on the carte, like a civet of tripes, we should try again.” Why not?
Well, it was terrific.
So maybe, just like playing a “record” with ‘60’s or ‘70’s music every so often, we should occasionally try places we used to love 30 or 20 or 10 years ago.
Its coordinates are:
La Cerisaie
70, Boulevard Edgar Quinet, 14th (Metro : Montparnasse-Bienvenue)
T : 01.43.20.98.98
Closed Saturdays and Sundays
A la carte around 40 €