Valentin Allard and Joseph Gastinel © MR
It was J’GO, a beautiful hideout from the South West coming from Toulouse. It became the Club Cochon, under the aegis of a well-established team. With a continuation of their ideas, the two young partners, Valentin Allard and Joseph Gastinel, who had created a first Club Cochon, like a dining cellar doubled as a grocery store in the Passage des Panoramas, have just done it again at the same brand in the glory of the noble animal. And they saw the big picture by creating their Auberge on two or even three levels. The two merry men only had to cross the boulevard to set up shop right next to the town hall in the 9th arrondissement, bringing together a team of experts on the theme, well versed in their subject.
All-pig pâté en croute © MR
The chef, Romain Brechignac, 35, worked at Michel Rostang, at Meurice and at Négresco, and serves a “traditional” score tinged with pretty exotic notes. Sommelier Antoine Chevalier moved to Jacques Faussat and to Braisenville, after working for five years in Shanghai. Brand new, very beautiful, the place is, of course, a Parisian bistro event of the moment, with its wooded and neat decor, its double dining room on the first floor, its ground floor – with wooden counter – serving as a cellar and “naughty” grocery store. We add the cellar itself with its stone walls and its vaults plus the adjoining tasting room where you can enjoy a bite with friends with some of the house’s favorite wines.
Romain Brechignac © MR
As for the dishes, the house plays the classic chic, the canaille and the taste of always married with refinement to the pretty seasonal dishes. We start with the hors d’oeuvres in a trilogy including the very digestible velvety cucumber, melon and fig, the pâté en croute or the beautiful all-pig terrine (throat, back and foot), the fried chickpea panisses to dip in a piquillo cream. Gold in bars! And we also notice that this very pro-porcine house knows how to adapt to everyone’s taste, with squash gnocchi with lemon, sage and pecorino, very transalpine – memories like the panisses – of the stay in Nice (at the Rotonde du Negresco) from Romain also knows how to pamper vegetarians.
Stuffed cabbage © GP
Added to this are the lively weekly dishes such as the exquisite lamb and poultry kofta flanked by its herb tabbouleh from Thursday, the Aveyron sausage with a knife, mashed potatoes, from Thursday or the chicken stuffed with carrots and purslane and trout with charlotte apples and dill condiment. But the various homemade formulas, which do not lose sight of the good value for money, offer a beautiful range of main courses between the splendid stuffed cabbage, so light, so tasty, the vol-au-vent, the magnificent coast roast pork with verbena, served in its cast iron casserole with onion fondue or even duck breast with sweet pepper juice.
Roasted pork chop with verbena, onion fondue © MR
Everything is accompanied by a mixed salad and raw vegetables, new potatoes with onion and candied lemon, but also very well prepared seasonal vegetables. The desserts (pastry flan and crème brûlée with pink pralines, but also puff pastry tart with seasonal figs and whipped cream) have style. And, on the liquid side, the house is rich in good wines unearthed by Valentin and the expert Antoine who presents them with forceful educational explanations in the room. Thus parade this champagne from the Moussé family “l’Esquisse” rich in pinot meunier, this seductive Burgundy chardonnay signed Pascal Prunier-Bonheur in Saint-Romain and this fruity Beaujolais “cuvée Kéké” from the fine artisan Kevin Descombes.
Crème brûlée with pink pralines © MR
In fineon the table of varied digestives, we easily rally around the strong beautiful Armin Armagnac “10 years old”, offered there in magnum and stamped “pig club”, telling ourselves that life has many good things in it. 4 rue Drouot.
Armagnac © BB
Club Pig L’Auberge
4, rue Drouot
Paris 9e
Such. 01 40 22 09 09
Menus : 25 (weekly), 33, 39 (formulas) €
Carte : 55-65 €
Weekly closing. : Monday evening, Saturday noon, Sunday
Nearby metro(s): Richelieu-Drouot
Site: clubcochon.com
