Taste the Best of Alsace at Elsass

When you think of cuisine from Alsace, you probably think of hearty dishes like baeckeoffe (a meat-and-potato casserole) and choucroute (sauerkraut piled high with a variety of meats). A meal at Elsass — a standout restaurant in the 10th — will have you rethinking everything you know about the region in eastern France abutting the German border. Opened in 2023 by Alsace native Guillaume Keusch and Johan Duchaussoy, this resto transports you to the Route des Vins with a wine list that was conceived as a celebration of the magnificent Alsace wines that are so often stereotyped as “sweet” Rieslings and Gewürztraminers.

The location is fitting — the 10th arrondissement is home to Gare de l’Est, from where trains depart for Alsace. Inside a former garage, the industrial style space is decorated with a stained glass window and wood tables topped with vases of fresh flowers. The menu itself is an expression of the establishment: the restaurateurs worked with an Alsatian artisan to craft the fine leather book. Likewise, the knives were created by an artisan who repurposes old, discarded wood from the restoration of half-timbered houses in Strasbourg. And the wine menu was designed to look like a glossy, photo-filled magazine. Often restaurant wine lists can be intimidating and the idea here is to introduce diners to the world of Alsace wines in an accessible, pleasant way.

A recent lunch was delightful. Greek-born chef Michalis Papafilis honed his skills in the kitchens of top chefs Yannick Alléno (Le Meurice), Eric Fréchon (Epicure) and Yannick Franques (La Tour d’Argent). Here his refined French cuisine pays homage to Alsace with subtle nods (mushrooms cooked in Crémant d’Alsace, the reinvention of the classic spaetzle dish as a carbonara).

There was a well-priced lunch menu (25 euros for starter and main, or main and dessert) which featured an elegant choucroute with three types of meat. If you go with a la carte options, start with the pike quenelles (pictured here with mussels and clams), followed by the pigeon — not something we’d normally choose but it was recommended as a chef signature, and it was delicious. Perfectly cooked, it was accompanied by artichoke prepared in a medley of ways.

Following our lunch, we were pleased to see Elsass recommended in two Le Monde articles: one praised its wine list, the only one in Paris dedicated to bottles from the Haut-Rhin and Bas-Rhin, while the other recommended the restaurant as a top spot in the 10th. We couldn’t agree more.

DETAILS

Elsass
153 avenue Parmentier, 10th
Tel: +33 (0)9 55 66 77 68
Open Tue-Sat for dinner, and Wed-Sat for lunch.
Lunch menu from 25 €. À la carte around 70€