Last night we dined there on Chateaubriand and foie gras (Tom), a pastilla and foie gras (me), and pain perdu with a memorably rich caramel sauce (shared).
I've lost track of how many years O Fil Rouge (the red thread) has been in business, but I remember when the place was newly opened on Rue Saint Charles, just a 20 minute stroll from our apartment. I admired the restaurant's clever decorating that was clearly done on a tight budget.
Each year since then we noticed improvements in the decor. Now the lighting and colors have softened to perfection, and the place has a look of clean elegance. The decorating budget has expanded along with the restaurant's continuing success.
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| O Fil Rouge is looking good! |
Pascal Perotto is the manager and maitre d' for this lovely and comfortable restaurant. He is always welcoming, and he remembers his regular customers well. The chef, Adil Fakhour, specializes in the cuisine of the south of France, with a hint of North Africa. His recipe for his pastilla is a secret, according to the restaurant's web site.
I think that pastilla is wonderful. Because the menu changes with the season, the pastilla is not always on it. But last night it was, and so I ordered it with enthusiasm.
Wikipedia says a pastilla is "is an elaborate meat pie traditionally made of squab (fledgling pigeons). As squabs are often hard to get, shredded chicken is more often used today; pastilla can also use fish or offal as a filling. Pastilla is generally served as a starter at the beginning of special meals."
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| The pastilla at O Fil Rouge, on the Rue Saint Charles. |
In the case of last night's pastilla, it was the main course, and the pastry was two thin-as-can-be crispy
rounds with flavorful, marinated, shredded quail from Landes, a region in the southwest of France. In Landes, quail are raised on farms and are marketed with a "red label" mark of quality.
Pastillas are considered to be a Moroccan dish, mainly, so here Philippe is combining the southern French with his North African cultural influences.
The pastilla was accompanied by small round potato halves, roasted to perfection, topped by a couple small pieces of melt-in-your-mouth foie gras entier.
There was a soothing, savory sweetness in the pastilla's filling; this is effective and soothing comfort food.
This restaurant is one of the few places in France that we trust for steak. So Tom ordered the Chateaubriand, a big, tender chunk of flavorful beef, served with a big piece of that delicious foie gras entier, and the same kind of potatoes that arrived with my dish. The steak was cooked perfectly to Tom's liking.
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| Chateaubriand Rossini at O Fil Rouge. |
When we go to O Fil Rouge, we almost always order a pain perdu (lost bread; like French toast) to share; we love it for that caramel sauce.
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| Brioche façon pain perdu at O Fil Rouge. |
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| The menu at O Fil Rougee is also available in English (but we prefer French). |
Why the name O Fil Rouge? According to expressio.fr, in French this is an expression that means, "Thread of an enigma, a game; Guiding idea, something that gives coherence to a disparate whole. A repetitive element, a point of reference that comes up regularly in a discussion, a story, a presentation."
At this restaurant, I think the name applies in the way that the chef has a bit of a common theme, a taste of Morocco, woven through his thoroughly French cuisine.
The origin of the expression may have come from Goethe's early 19th-Century description of how a red thread was woven into ropes used in the royal fleets. That red thread could not be pulled out without undoing the entire rope. So, according to expressio.fr, this thread not only identified ownership of the rope, but also was "something whose absence made it unusable."
A similar expression that we would use is "a common thread," such as a common thread in a set of stories or chapters, one that holds the narrative together.
And so it goes . . . .
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