Lunch not Brunch on Sunday!

I’ve written twice before about eating lunch on Sundays, so it’s clearly a preoccupation. Why? Because so many places are closed then, even if they open Sunday night and because those that are open, often only serve brunch or even if they say they serve regular food, it’s on an abbreviated carte. I faced this problem last week when I glanced at my carefully constructed rentrée list and saw that I really had only one new place to take Colette and our friend Felice. So I reviewed the information I had and there were the deadly words – brunch Dimanche – brunch Sundays. Oh oh, I quickly reviewed my list of existing places that I’d liked from prior meals: Pinxo, 9, rue d’Alger, 1st, 01.40.20.20.00 La Mediterranee, 2 pl de l’Odeon, 6th, 01.43.26.02.30 L’Ardoise, 28 rue du Mont Thabor, 1st, 01.42.96.28.18 La Cagouille, 10 Place Constantin Brancusi, 14th, 01.43.22.09.01{mainly for burned finger moules and buttered coques} Vintage, 46, rue d’Argout, 2nd, 01.40.26.57.54 La Marée Passy, 71, ave Paul-Doumer, 16th 01.45.04.12.81 Petrus, 12, place du Marechal Juin, 17th, 01.43.80.15.95 Mon Viel Ami, 69 St Louis en l’Ile, on the Ile St-Louis, 01.40.46.01.35 {off last time} Brasserie aka La Lorraine, 2, place des Ternes, 8th, 01.56.21.22.00 {off last time} Well that should do it I thought; so many choices. Colette, musing in the corner said, “You know, if it’s as nice a day as today, we should eat somewhere, like…….” “Ah,” I said, “like Garance aside the Canal St. Martin, where we had a fine meal one bright sunny day.” So off we set. It was glorious – a sunny, mild, day with the Canal glistening, the skaters, runners and bikers buff and the world a better place. I don’t want to blow the meal out of proportion; it wasn’t Giradet or Bocuse at their height of their craft, or even Ledeuil or Rose now, but it was the perfect place that Sunday. And we had a great experience. I ordered a tempura of calamari on a dusting of piment d’espelette with a homemade tartare sauce for dipping and the three of us declared that while certainly white (a deadly color according to the great food god Atar) it was very good. Then one of the ladies had scallops on top of mixed fall vegetables and the other bass with a side of greens and I the veal liver prepared exactly as I’d asked – blue. The two others shared a moelleux of chocolate with ice cream that were gold standard. With three coffees and a bottle of fine Morgon the bill was 87 Euros. Where should you go for a real lunch on Sundays (no brunch available)? Garance 96, quai de Jemmapes,10th, (Metro : Republique, Gare de l’Est) T: 01.42.02.87.95 Closed Mondays Lunch menu (except Sundays) 18 €; a la carte 30-40 €. © John Talbott 2008