Great food plus jazz

[brownie]

The other day, I had lunch with a friend in a highly recommended recently-opened restaurant on the Paris Left Bank near the Sorbonne University. Restaurant is called 'Le Pre Verre' (a play on the French words Pasture and Glass and the name of late poet Jacques Prevert who loved those kind of bistros and restaurants).

The place was crowded with happy-looking people at lunchtime. The owner behind the well-stocked bar looked familiar. Turned out he was a regular at the jazz record store Paris Jazz Corner where he often dropped in and regaled the man in charge of the store and some happy customers with delicious bottles of wines.

It was just great to mix jazz records purchases to the delights of good wines.

Lunch at the Pre Verre turned out to be a gastronomic adventure.

If you travel to Paris, that's the place to go to enjoy the delights of French gastronomy.

The New York Times had a report on several Paris restaurants in its Travel Section several days ago.

This is how they described 'Le Pre Verre'. Note the reference to the jazz albums decorating several sections of the place.

Le Pré Verre

Once upon a time the Delacourcelle brothers updated French classics by combining them with exotic spices in a nondescript, expensive restaurant in the depths of the 15th Arrondissement, a neighborhood of equally nondescript modern buildings where few tourists tread. They recently moved to a more central location, around the corner from the Sorbonne. The restaurant is as friendly, as casual, as come-as-you-are as the neighborhood; its small tables set cheek-by-jowl, its walls decorated only with vintage jazz LP covers like Ella Fitzgerald's ''Lady Time'' and

Coltrane's ''Soultrane.''

As for prices, I don't know where you could find better value than their $15.40 lunch. Dinner, too, is a bargain: all appetizers cost $10.25; main dishes, $18; and desserts, $6.40. Everything is listed on the blackboard.

While there are fusiony touches here, the food, for the most part, is good, solid bourgeois French cooking, as in two appetizer terrines. The first was a hearty blend of cold daube of beef cheeks studded with carrots and capers; the second, a napoleonlike layering of mashed potatoes and foie gras, a suave combination nicely complemented by a garden-fresh mesclun salad dressed with hazelnut oil vinaigrette.

Cinnamon and star anise gently seasoned milk-fed piglet and its delectable lightly creamy gravy; lamb shanks were equally toothsome and satisfying and came with what seemed like puréed ratatouille spiked with hot red pepper. Roasted figs with olives and ice cream were surprisingly delicious, with just a suggestion of olive oil.

The wine list alone is enough to win my devotion. We chose the 2001 pinot blanc ($34.50), a beautifully fragrant Alsace white from Barmes-Buecher, and the 2000 Faugères ($37), a rich, structured red from Léon Barral.

Estimated prices, at $1.28 to the euro, are based on dinner for two with a bottle of wine.

Le Pré Verre, 8, rue Thenard, Fifth Arrondissement; (33-1) 43.54.59.47. Closed Sunday, Monday

for lunch. Menus: $15.40 (lunch); $32 (dinner). Dinner about $85. A nonsmoking section can be arranged.

[king ubu]

Sounds very very tempting, brownie!

If and when I'll make it to Paris some day, I'll sure drop you a line...

ubu

[tonym]

Great Brownie, I'll have that one in mind as I think we (my wife and I)may be visiting again soon -- we were last there in 2002.

I was very taken with the left bank; apart from all the history, the buildings and streets are all very romantic.

On our last visit we didn't get chance to hear any jazz, although we dropped into a chansons bar/restaurant called La Limonaire. Fantastic.

I did though call into that vinyl shop on the road down to Notredame --- I bet you were one of the guys in there that day!!!

[bertrand]

I had the great pleasure of meeting Brownie last week in Paris. Brownie, Vincent (also on this board) and myself had drinks at a neat place called La Tartine in the Marais district (rue de Rivoli). We had a great time.

I have been able to meet several board members in various cities around the world (this board and the old board). I love how the internet brings us together!

I had an amazing time in Paris. I saw seven concerts in 10 days: 4 Wayne Shorter concerts, Milton Nascimento (without Wayne), Ravi Coltrane and Ralph Alessi, and Julian Priester. Wayne was outstanding - truly inspired by the French crowd.

More details to come.

Bertrand.

[brownie]

Bertrand, next time you're in Paris, we will have a reserved table at Le Pre Verre

Also there was a showing of the Granier-Deferre flick 'L'Homme aux Yeux d'Argent' on cable TV which I stumbled upon a few minutes after the film start. Watched it just to get to listen to the sountrack score.

Did not like the film, a subHitchcock thriller - but there was just a bit more music to it than on the Philippe Sarde sountrack CD, mostly by Toots Thielemans. And the credits at the end of the film did list all the players including Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Clark Terry et al...

[Peter Johnson]

Brownie, my wife and I are going to be in Paris this summer (late June/early July). I'll ping you when it gets closer, and we will definitely reserve a table at Pre Verre' (I read the article in the Times and have been salivating since!)

[brownie]

Peter, if you read The New York Times article on Paris restaurants, let me recommend you also the one called 'Le Petit Pontoise' on rue de Pontoise. Another excellent Paris bistrot. I live near that one and know the owner. His restaurant has always done good business (and for the right reasons) but he is now turning diners away since the New York Times article appeared!