4.9 L'Eté en Pente Douce, 23, Rue Muller or 8 rue Paul Albert, whichever you prefer, in the 18th, 01.42.64.02.67, open 7/7 and in August, which is why I went on a Sunday, but more about that later (Bus: Montmartrobus or #31). It's a colorful, Xtremely funky place with a tattooed waitstaff, goofily colored chairs on a wonderful terrace and a great ceiling tile(s).
Backstory: I awoke this morning to pouring rain (it's been a strange year weatherwise up here on the Mont, freezing one day, blistering hot the next) and I decided not to venture out of my quartier. A few weeks ago I'd read on Paris by Mouth (disclosure: I'm involved) that one Joan loved this place and in sorting through my voluminous archives found a 2010 A Nous Paris article listing it as the only good terrace resto in the 18th and it's open 7/7 and in August. And thus,......
The carte is something right out of the days when we on the Mont used to fire down on the folks below who paid taxes but alas, we fire nothing more now on Paris than tchotchkes made in China and pay taxes for the privelige; and I couldn't really find a true entrée and only warmed to the stuff on the list of daily specials.
I negotiated with the wait-guy for a salad as a starter which had a most interesting and strange but good dressing on top of hot-house tomatoes (in late August?), great lettuce and teeny, tiny but tasty olives; then the rabbit special whose temperature wandered all over the lot (a moment to explain, the rabbit and potimarron were room-temperature but delicious, the potatoes were warm and the onions were hot); and finally a fondant of chocolate and nuts which was quite good.
With a filette of Southwest wine, no bottled water, great whole-wheat not baguette bread and a coffee the bill if calculated for a couple would come to 65.60 E.
Go? Humm, I knew you wanted to know. Well:
On the one hand
- it's a cool place
- with a great terrace
- with inexpensive wines by the glass, carafe and bottle, and
- open 7/7 and in August
But on the other hand,
- it has a limited menu, esp. for starters,
- there's a creepy cat crawling around your legs
- they put the silverware you use back on the table between courses
- the dishes come in a bizarre spectrum of temperatures
- there are long periods between courses
- it's elbow-to-elbow, except at my "primo" table
- and it's full of tourists, granted they're French, but still.
