After leaving his Aux Berges du Cerou in Salles, a tiny village (50 habitants) near Toulouse, and spending some time at the Verre Volé, Patrice Gelbart has opened Youpi et Voilà, a modern French bistro on a nondescript side street in Paris’s 10th arrondissement.
The restaurant is small and the decor simple with stone walls, a handful of dark wood tables, cherry-red leather banquettes, industrial lights, and an open kitchen where 5 lucky customers can dine while watching the chef perform.
Gelbart, a self-taught chef, is passionate about working with small local producers and the best seasonal products, many of which are organic. His cooking is subtle and creative, using generous amounts of fresh herbs and plants with a mix of textures and flavors. There are no heavy sauces, and little fat-just clean bright flavors.
As you might expect, the wines are natural, which means they are made in small quantities by an independent producer, from organic, handpicked grapes. Natural wines have no added sugar, yeasts, or sulphites. So, in short, all you are getting is the terroir, the grapes, and what the wine maker is able to express with them. At the moment they are serving some 20 wines which will change regularly in order to allow people to try wines they may not have had before.We had a Vain du Ru, a crisp, refreshing natural white wine from Gascony.
The menu is short, with a choice of 2 entrées, plats and desserts, or you can do as we did and get the four-course “menu à l’aveugle”, a blind tasting menu for 36 €. Each course is served with no explanation until the end, which had us trying to discern each flavor and guess exactly what was on our plates.
The first course was a delicate vegetable broth with squid, oysters and clams perfumed with fresh herbs which turned out to be dill and broccoli sprouts.
Then came a seared scallop with mandarin butter and velvety puree of Jerusalem artichoke.
The main course was perfectly seared veal, served with addictively good polenta and wilted spinach, blanketed with a delicious Gruyère emulsion.
Dessert was the only dish we couldn’t quite figure out. We knew it was a vegetable, but what? It turned out to be black radish served ‘rice pudding style’ with chicory ice cream. My French guy wasn’t crazy about this dish, but I liked the playful originality of the dish.
Upon leaving we got their business card which says, “cuisine philanthropique” which our waitress explained was the chef’s philosophy of bringing together the community and producers which made me like the place even more. I left feeling charmed by the atmosphere, the warm service, and obvious passion of the chef. This is a definitely a restaurant I look forward to returning to.
Youpi et Voilà
8 rue Vicq d’Azir
75010, Paris
01 83 89 12 63
Open: Tuesday-Saturday, lunch and dinner
Menu: 36 € for 4 courses or à la carte without wine
If you like the sound of this restaurant, you’ll also like Vivant, Septime and Saturne.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Love what I see, can’t wait to try!
I’d go back if you want to join me!
Thanks for this, Phyllis! We’ll make it a point to get there ASAP.
Booked this morning. By the way, Phyllis, yours seems to be the only report at this time. aka SCOOP! Well done.
Margaret, I would love to hear what you think. A Nous Paris and L’Express have written it up and I’m sure Figaro will soon, if not this week. It’s my neighborhood so I’ve been waiting for it it to open since there’s aren’t too many great restaurants in the immediate area. Now we have a bunch–Philou, Verre Volé, Youpi, Le Galopin, Chateaubriand, and Le Dauphin.
Patrice is one of my favorite chefs. Let’s go together sometime in April.
I would LOVE to, any time!
we’ll be going there this friday for dinner, so looking forward to it!
grtz from a belgian blogger!
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Back to you, Phyllis. Had a perfectly executed dinner here last week. None of the surprises you described, but faultless treatment of excellent product. Would love to see the kitchen relax a little. Play a little more. But what they were doing when we visited was outstanding. Many thanks.
Looks great – really looking forward to trying this!
-Kim
Pat & I went there Thurs. with our mutual friend J.T. our take was about half way between his and yours.
I saw John’s review (http://bit.ly/IensDS) and have posted a reply saying I disagree! That said I don’t think this is a restaurant that everyone will like. There are some dishes which were more interesting than delicious and that’s probably not what a lot of people are looking for.
Did they serve you “kool-aid” as an aperitif?, Y et V is un-recommendable in every facet of parameters anyone would give to casual restaurant, a waste time in the purist sense. Plates can be interesting and delicious, plates can sometimes be delicious but not interesting the co-exsitence of both is possible. When plates are delicious that might not make them interesting?…hmmm. Wines and wine service are joke and unfortunately and extension of long should close up unpleasant Verre Vole. Casual service is expected but unknowledgeable pompous service is just not enjoyable, maybe that is interesting? So in the end Paris has too many casual tables that offer so so much more than Y et V period!
La Tache, I’m sorry you had what sounds like a pretty bad meal at Youpie et Voila. It is not the first time I have heard a negative review of Y et V so they obviously have some problems. Our waitress couldn’t have been nicer and I loved my dinner but I’ve also heard too many negative experiences to chalk yours up to a bad night. They clearly need to make some changes. I plan to go back in the next week or two, so I will report back here.