Backstory 1: I have lived around the corner of/from this site for 25 years, and pass it every day on my limpies or to my Gym; and it's gone from a scarry gay bar, to a pseudo-Brit joint called Le Bulldog (Winston right?), to a fine place called 2 Pièces Cuisine, to a pathetic tapas place to its newest incarnation as a burger joint. I sort of ignored the change but then I saw the JDD last week and realized that Aurelie Chiagneau had actually reviewed and given a 7/10 to Le Ruisseau.
Backstory 2: I called about 11h30 this morning and was told there were no reservations until 13h00; "OK" I said, "I'll just drop by at 12h30"; "Nope, pas possible, 13h00." What is this? This place is nothing more than a jerk-off Yankee-pretending burger bar. "Screw-'em" think I. I'll go when I like, kids.... and prompty fell asleep in my great IKEA chair.
6.0 Le Ruisseau in the 18th, 65 rue de Ruisseau in the 18th, 01.42.23.31.23, (Metro: Jules Joffrin, or Bus #31 or 60) closed Sunday nights and Mondays. Whoa, what is that crowd in front of it? Screw'em, squeeze in past tens, hundreds, millions of young Froggies in coats and ties, coats and ties?, sipping champagne and gnoshing on delicious looking bar mitzvah-type food. "Dude, what's happening here, in my secluded undiscovered nabe?" Belly up to the comptoir, "Hey, I reserved for one for 13h00, Talbott's the name" (sort of like "Bond, James Bond, Bond's the name"). "Yes'sir, right this way, through the legions of celebratants (I just made it up and it doesn't mean priests). dB's 82.5.
Finally in, I look around and see tattered seats, folks digging into their hamburgers with knifes and forks, huh, knives and forks - still, young'uns who've been to Vegas and Tucson and Brooklyn, eating with.....oh well, and order up a burger from the Pas de Calais where all those poor Somalians are camped out, waiting to jump on the Eurostar to St Pancras, pity that Pancras got his head beheaded. A spot of wine and we're off.
I started off with zippy nachos with zippy melted cheese (just like I see in Yankee movie houses and no where else) and zippy chunky guacamole; then a zippy cheddar cheese burger (requested Black and Blue; "we can't do that, which do you want Black or Blue?" - "Blue.") - not bad with a roll that was second only to Camille Malmquist's when she was at Blend; but wait, we've got Heinz catsup and what looks like French's mustard but wait again, it's Mississippi Belle mustard, described as America's Traditional Mustard." Really? Why have I never heard of it? The fries were not much of a much but dipped in their Russian dressing sauce - OK.
"A dessert?" Why not. 2 scoops of pear ice cream with a bit of Poire Williams. Nice
A bill for two with a shared nachos starter, 2 burgers, 2 desserts and 2 coffees but no bottled water (in the 18th, are you kidding?) would come to 77.40 E.
Go? Well, we've got a lot of competition in the Northern part of Montmartre (NoMo) these days, with the Bistro de Maquis, L'Atelier Ramey, La Table d'Eugene, its next door sister, La RaLLonge, Sens Unique and L'Insolite, but for a nice burger, this does the trick.
