Dining in Bordeaux

First published: January 13, 2010 by France Today Editors

For many years, the epicurean culture of Bordeaux was defined by its wines rather than its cooking. With wine starring at the table, food was cast in a supporting role, meant to be pleasant and correct but not too distracting. The result was a conservative restaurant culture that specialized in classic southwestern French cooking, dressed up on special occasions with fancy garnishes like truffles.

Today things have changed. As the wine business went global, Bordeaux became more cosmopolitan and gastronomically adventurous. Sophisticated public works projects and intelligent urban renewal created an affluent new clientele for local cooks by making city life appealing again, and a cluster of adventurous young cooks has now put the city and its surroundings on the map as one of the most interesting food towns in France.

Almost no restaurant in the city better mirrors its delicious evolution than the legendary Le Chapon Fin, which opened in 1825 and was one of the original thirty-three tables to receive a third star when Michelin started awarding them in 1933. During the Belle Epoque, Le Chapon Fin was the preferred table of the local wine gentry, who loved its lavish decor, replete with a rocaille grotto, potted palms and caged doves. It also became the de rigueur Bordeaux address for such visiting grandees as King Alphonso XIII of Spain.

After serving classic French luxury food for almost two centuries, it sputtered out in the 1960s. Eventually reopened, it turned a whole new leaf with the arrival of young chef Nicholas Frion in 2003. Frion’s light and inventive variations of southwestern French classics have made this elegant restaurant a hit once again. Recently on the menu: lightly smoked sea bream with thin slices of raw foie gras and red beets, and longuets toastés aux huîtres et farce crépinette, a witty riff on a traditional Bordelais favorite, oysters with small grilled chipolata sausages.

The best-known restaurateur in Bordeaux may be Jean-Paul Xiradakis, whose La Tupina, tucked away in a narrow lane in Le Vieux Bordeaux, not only brought authentically gutsy southwestern French farmhouse food to town but was also a catalyst for the renewal of the historic city center. When he first opened some 20 years ago, the neighborhood was a no-go zone, and, in the face of the city’s traditional restaurant formality, the place itself was quite a surprise: the first sight that greets diners as they walk through the door is a mechanical rotisserie over an open fire — an atmosphere decidedly more chaud than château. Though the prices have gone up a lot through the years, La Tupina still serves delicious southwestern French comfort food, including dishes like Pauillac lamb, country ham sautéed with shallots or roast chicken with frites cooked in duck fat, and the wonderful wine list includes lots of lesser known but excellent Bordeaux at very fair prices. More recently, Xiradakis has also opened Au Comestible, a casual bistro in a renovated but still charmingly old-fashioned grocery store right across the street — waiters dash back and forth carrying the slightly less expensive fare prepared in the main Tupina kitchen.

For an extreme version of the new Bordelais cooking, adventurous diners might try Cordeillan-Bages. Avant-garde chef Thierry Marx is often described as the French Ferran Adrià — the Spanish chef notorious for his daring and often rather surreal dishes. Installed in a 17th-century manor, now a Relais & Chateau hotel, on the outskirts of Pauillac in the Haut-Médoc vineyards, Marx offers one of the most intriguing and challenging menus in the area.

Seated alone in the dining room a few months ago, I was wondering at the whispering high-seriousness of the dining room, where the staff is dressed in somber gray suits, when my first course, a “virtual sausage,” arrived. Dangling a bulging, elongated white balloon over my soup bowl, the waiter snipped off its end, releasing a cascade of lentils, meat juice, and ground pork. I was just about to tuck in, when the well-groomed American woman at the table next to me spoke up in her southern accent. “Excuse me, I don’t mean to butt in, but honey, I wouldn’t eat that. It just, well…” she shook her head, “I just wouldn’t eat it.”

I agreed that it looked unappetizing, but ultimately it was delicious, as was an absolutely brilliant main course of Pauillac lamb. Every morsel of the lamb was individually cooked (the chop was grilled, the shoulder slow baked, the leg spit-roasted, and the saddle roasted), to maximize the natural deliciousness of the lamb. Marx is clearly one of the great chefs working in France today, which why I wish a meal here was more fun. But don’t miss it.

The places I like best in Bordeaux are a bunch of small, casual wine bars that are new to the city. One of the best is the Bo Bar, a tiny, friendly place that specializes in biodynamic and organic wines, and offers terrific charcuterie and cheese plates, along with a small selection of hot dishes like the Basque omelet piperade and boudin noir. It also has an outdoor terrace in a lovely public square. Similarly, the nearby Le Bouchon Bordelais, an attractive bistro with exposed stone walls, offers an excellent wine list and a variety of excellent bistro dishes, including a pot-au-feu salad, grilled cod with new potatoes, and tarte Tatin.

Gravelier, a stylish contemporary brasserie run by chef Yves Gravelier and his gracious wife Anne-Marie (daughter and sister of famed three-star chefs Pierre and Michel Troisgros), offers a good wine list and appealing fixed-p

rice menus of excellent dishes such as king crab cake with arugula cream and wasabi, or lamb en brochette topped with a crumble of Indian spices.

Le Petit Commerce is the perfect spot for fish-lovers to discover the local catch of the day, including oysters from the Arcachon basin, mullet, sturgeon and whitebait. This very good restaurant is run by a friendly young team, and the kitchen has a deft modern touch that favors precise cooking times and subtle garnishes. The white Entre-deux-Mers is good buy at €22. The place pulls in a lively crowd, so book ahead.

Of course wine will always play a major role in any meal in Bordeaux, and La Winery is one of the best places to give the vine its due. Located at a highway roundabout near the village of Arsac, in the Médoc, this sprawling loft-like complex with a sleek industrial-style decor includes a wine shop and tasting center, a wine bar, art exhibits and concerts and a big restaurant, called Le WY, with a wine list of more than a thousand different choices. Chef Olivier Garnier’s wonderful menu finds a perfect equilibrium between wine and food, too, with superb dishes that are the perfect foil for any really good bottle without being too shy. At a recent dinner, both my chicken with crayfish, tomatoes and preserved lemons and a friend’s veal chop with fava beans and Parmesan provided terrific backdrops for a sublime Lalande de Pomerol (€29) suggested by crack sommelier Sebastien Kolanowski. Lunch is a fixed-price three-course menu with no choice, although some substitutions can be arranged.

NOTEBOOK

BORDEAUX

Bo Bar 8 pl Saint Pierre, 05.56.79.38.20. €25

Le Bouchon Bordelais 2 rue Courbin, 05.56.44.33.00. Prix-fixe menus lunch €17, dinner €35, à la carte €30

Le Chapon Fin 5 rue Montesquieu, 05.56.79.10.10. €70

Au Comestible 3 rue de la Porte de la Monnaie, 05.56.92.69.43. €40

Gravelier 114 cours de Verdun, 05.56.48.17.15. Prix-fixe menus lunch €24, dinner €28 and €39

Le Petit Commerce 22 rue du Parlement Saint Pierre, 05.56.79.76.58. €35

La Tupina 6 rue de la Porte de la Monnaie, 05.56.91.56.37. €60

HAUT-MEDOC

Cordeillan-Bages Route D2, Route des Châteaux, Pauillac, 05.56.59.24.24. €100

La Winery Rond-Point des Vendangeurs, Route D1, Arsac, 05.56.39.04.90. Lunch menu €23 (€30 on Sunday), à la carte €50