Our second night in Paris was spent in the dining room at Daniel Rose’s Spring – its elegant floor-to-ceiling windows peering out onto a quiet cobblestone’d backstreet, an openness that extends to the restaurant’s tidy cold kitchen.  The design is both industrial chic and rustic, clean lines of white, wood, and iron alongside the dull gleam of copper pots and warped support beams from another era, encased in glass.

Chef Daniel’s story is compelling, the story of an American moving to France and of food and learning and cooking and doing it at an extremely high level.  In some ways it is unique, because of how Spring started as a one-man show in one of the most food-obsessed and -particular cities in the world.  In other ways, it is a story of falling in love.  This Charlie Rose interview is pretty cool (Chef Rose’s part starts around 31:00).

Service was cordial, unpretentious, attentive.  The sommelier brought us some champagne, and recommended me some ridiculously tasty peach nectar from Alain Milliat (unpictured).  At our 7pm sitting, the restaurant was just whirring to life, with only a table or two having started before us. The meal started with small bites: fried oysters, cured foie gras with artichoke hearts, and marinated scallops.  The foie gras was especially delicious, cold and intensely savory, with a bit of crunch from finishing salt and cracked pepper.  Then this amazing langoustine tail, in a broth of enormous depth with crisp bok choy, atop of a bed of tapioca pearls.  It conjured obscure memories of some magnificent soup that an old Chinese restaurant might nurture out of a master stock, but with the precision in that langoustine tail of a technically savvy kitchen. After the bread, a filet of red mullet with baby spinach, squid, and shredded Galician beef.  Again the broth was very satisfying, enhanced by the beef’s pungent salinity.Roasted venison with venison jus, kumquat, and another garnish I don’t remember:  A play on shepherd’s pie with braised venison and celery root purée:A glimpse of the restaurant: A trio of sweets – sorbet, clementine, and pineapple (the last cooked in butter). And Spring’s play on a traditional bûche de Noël – a little hazelnut cake with meringue and caramel hazelnuts.Chocolate truffles and tea & coffee to finish:A view of the passe as we were leaving:Spring Restaurant (map)
6 Rue Bailleul, 75001
Paris, France
Tel: +33 1 45 96 05 72
(le fooding)