Sole with soul

Fish, that's my dish.  That's how we felt yesterday evening when the dinner hour rolled around.

I selected Le Bistrot d'Eleonore et Maxence, also known as Le BEM.  The menu items listed in Lafourchette indicated an emphasis on seafood, and the place's rating is above 9, with more than 800 reviews submitted.  The bistrot's distance from our apartment made for a nice evening's walk, and the location is in the chic and safe 7th arrondissement not far from the Place Georges Mulot neighborhood (in the 15th), one of our favorite quarters in Paris.  

Using Lafourchette.com, I reserved a table at 7:30PM and elected to use 2000 of my YUM points for a 25 euro discount.  Only people who use Lafourchette frequently can accumulate enough points to do this.  A restaurant manager is smart to accept YUM points because people who have them are people who dine out often.  That's a potential valued customer.

The bar area at the Bistrot d'Eleonore et Maxence

Rather than walk directly, we started early and took twice as long as necessary, wandering so that we could enjoy some of our favorite avenues:  Suffren, Breteuil, and at last Duquesne, where the bistrot is situated at number 39.  Why not take our time?  The weather was perfect.

At last we arrived at Le BEM, a place that is new to us.  What a discovery!  One of the specials of the day was sole meuniere, with steamed potatoes -- a favorite Cooley dish.

The sole arrived at the table partly deboned -- only the larger bones and spine remained.  It was perfectly cooked, with just the right amount of salty melted butter on the plate.  The steamed potatoes had just a touch of butter and were also perfectly done.

La sole meuniere chez Eleonore et Maxence

Dessert was pineapple with heavy, sweetened cream for Tom, and a chocolate ganache for me.  Delicious!

Pineapple with heavy cream, above, and chocolate ganache, below.

Bravo, Chef Omar Ouffroukh!

It turns out that Chef Ouffroukh used to work for Chef Pierre Sahut, at La Gauloise -- one of our longtime favorite restaurants.  He also worked for Frédéric Vardon at 39 V and Hans Zahner at the Royal Monceau.

Our server was good, but he seemed fairly distant until the end of the meal.  After we complimented the food, I told him that we loved the music that had been playing (soulful blues, hits from the 60s, etc. -- all American music).  The server lit up, enthusiastically saying that he, too, loved this music.  Then I told him Tom is a drummer.  The server asked for the name of his band, and we told him Island Jazz.  The server seemed to be thrilled.

We had decided to dine inside rather than at one of the many tables out on the wide sidewalk, even though the weather was so lovely.  The whole front of the bistrot was wide open anyway, and we were seated near the edge, almost outside.  The outdoor area is, unfortunately, where the smokers sit.  We prefer to avoid the smoke, so we usually dine inside.

After dinner, we walked all the way up the Avenue de la Tour Maubourg, from the beginning to the end at the Seine.  The sun had just set as we walked past the Ecole Militaire and gazed over at the Eiffel Tower.  The sky was smeared with pink just above the horizon.  Simply beautiful.

Here are some scenes from yesterday evening's walk:

St. François Xavier church on the Boulevard des Invalides.  The back of this church is near the
Bistrot d'Eleonore et Maxence on the Avenue Dusquesne.

The Place de President Mithouard, next to the church.

Place de Breteuil on the Avenue de Breteuil is graced by a lovely monument to Pasteur.

This space on the Avenue de Saxe is home to an outdoor market on Thursday and Saturday mornings.