La Tour d'Argent
Lunch at the legendary Paris restaurant
I’ve been wanting to eat at La Tour d’Argent ever since I was about 10 years old. My family had an oversized book, the Picture Cook Book, published by Life magazine in 1958, which had a picture of people dining at the top-floor restaurant overlooking the Seine with Notre Dame cathedral lit up in the background. That whole book fascinated me, and I loved flipping through the pages, showing everything from California’s open-air barbecues to layouts of the fine dining establishments of Europe.
I don’t know what happened to that book, but I found a copy of it a few years ago at a bookstore in the States and gave it to a French friend, who’s interested in vintage French recipes and cookbooks. I don’t see it on his bookshelves, though, so I suspect he was less interested in global cuisines than I am.
So I can’t confirm if that’s where I saw the picture of La Tour d’Argent, since my parents’ copy is long gone, but there’s a picture taken in La Tour d’Argent in my copy of Salvador Dalí’s cookbook, Les Diners de Gala (above), which I lugged to Paris with me, originally published in 1971. I see it now selling for $13,500, which is still less than Mark Zuckerberg’s $900,000 watch, but Taschen reissued an edition of the book that’s $50 and worth it.
(But if anyone wants my copy, I’ll give you a deal…at $13,000.😂)
My friend Jane Bertch, owner of La Cuisine Paris cooking school, and I made an agreement last year to take ourselves out to a nice restaurant for our birthdays, which fall a few days apart at the end of December. Since most restaurants are closed during that period, and everyone’s pretty much worn out from all the food and festivities in Paris that month leading up to Christmas and New Year’s, we go out in January, when we can give each other the full attention that two people with birthdays deserve.
Last year we went to Le Clarence, set in a 19th-century private mansion, and this year, to La Tour d’Argent, known for its spectacular view (and its pressed duck, of which they’ve sold a total of 1,178,727 orders as of October 2023, and you’re handed a certificate with your number on it after you’ve had it) and which has undergone a complete remodel and transformation and recently reopened under the guidance of Chef Yannick Franques, who’s refreshed the menu in the last few years. (So it looks a little different than when Salvador Dalí ate there.)
The restaurant evolved as dining tastes and traditions have changed. (They were also reeling after a substantial wine theft last year.) But I liked the new, bright open space with an expansive open kitchen.
And to tell you the truth, I’ve eaten at some multi-starred restaurants, including some three-starred, and I’m generally disappointed. Some of it is that it’s not really my style of dining. I don’t care about being fussed over, or waiters hovering, or tiny bits of food that I’m supposed to savor. And to be honest, again, the food is generally better at smaller restaurants. But as a French friend told me when I moved to Paris, “In France, we eat to be with our friends first, the food is secondary.” So there we were.
I’d been warned about the wine list, which is something like 800 pages. It’s huge and neither one of us is a wine expert, so it took a while to peruse it and figure out what we wanted. I’ve stopped telling sommeliers or waiters that I want a “dry, minerally” white wine since they tend to steer you toward something relatively standard. And you may be missing out on some truly outstanding white wines, such as Chablis and the rounded white wines of the Jura.
It’s fashionable to say that you don’t like sweet wines, but I’ve had extra-dry, zero-dosage (no sugar added, as in “aggressively crisp and tart, the sort of thing that brings tears to your eyes”) Champagne, and it’s too steely for me and lacks finesse. Just a tiny sprinkle of sugar in a bowl of sliced strawberries brings out their natural sweetness and voluptuous flavor.
The sommelier came by to give us some help. We told her what we liked, sort of, and our budget, and she led us to two wines, one from the Jura and another, a Mâcon from Burgundy, so we chose the latter.
We’d selected the four-course fixed-price lunch (€160), which you choose when you reserve. They brought out a succession of small tastes, which began with warm Peanut-Emmenthal gougères, then came tiny little sardine tartlets, an excellent kalamata olive enrobed in something green and wonderful, and a few other savory treats, to kick things off. The flavors were bold and direct, and we were off to a good start.
The first dish was Egg Mystery, an egg slow-cooked sous-vide (above), generally at a low temperature (60ºC/140ºF) for about an hour. This one had a crust of toasted brioche breadcrumbs, a sauce they called a “mousse” of roasted celery root, and black truffles, which they certainly weren’t miserly with. It was really delicious and a miracle of culinary engineering, with the cooked egg whites separated from the yolks, which are revealed when you slice the dome open.
Next up were Scallops, each topped with little seeded biscuits served on a pool of Jerusalem artichoke cream with roasted Jerusalem artichokes. It was a lovely, seasonal dish with a rich, flavorful sauce that unexpectedly paired perfectly with the scallops. Root vegetables have taken off in Paris, which were often referred to as légumes oubliés, forgotten vegetables, and it’s nice to see they’re being fondly handled and remembered.
The dish was also close to perfect. My only suggestion would have been a few roasted, coarsely chopped hazelnuts added for a little more crunch; their earthy flavor would have married nicely with everything else on the plate. But it was very good without them.
The next course included their famous duck, here roasted with Assam pepper, along with red currants and a red cabbage and chestnut confit, which was sort of like a chutney, but without any acidic component.
Once again, it was nice to see a dish that truly reflected the season (people often say they’re cooking seasonally, then you get a dish with blackberries on it in January), with chestnuts and lowly cabbage, elevated into something special. A nice touch was the whisper-thin biscuit in the shape of a duck feather lying on top.
(No need to leave a comment that cabbage isn’t lowly. I love it too. But it’s considered a very common ingredient.)
The only downside of the meal was that we didn’t love the wine. A friend in the wine world told me there were some gems there, but for an amateur like me, it’s hard to know what those gems are in an 800+ wine list. When the sommelier suggested a Macon from Domaine Comté Lafon, whose wines are invariably good, we ordered it.
They make some of my favorite wines, but I was a bit overwhelmed trying to order wine from the massive list. This one was from 2011—I wasn’t quite paying attention to the year—and was a tad old and had a slightly oxidized taste. It hadn’t turned, but it was definitely aged. It became better the longer it sat in our glasses, but we weren’t thrilled with it. We did allude to the fact that it wasn’t exactly what we were looking for but, and was a bit odd, but no one on the staff made any moves to change it.
Jane and I mentioned later to each other, and a few friends we mentioned it to in the wine world, told us that they should have explained the qualities of such a wine in advance.
And at that level of dining when they saw we weren’t enamored with it, offered to change it. It’s not an expensive wine; it retails for €24. Being polite Americans we didn’t say anything, but if Romain were with us, he would have brought it up and asked for something else.
At €130, it was one of the lower-priced wines on the menu, but you should likely plan on spending at least €160-€200 (and up) for a bottle here, although on the lunch menu, they had a bottle of red for €90 and some whites in the €150 range, as well as wines by the glass.
They wheeled over the cheese cart, which featured cheese from nearby Laurent Dubois (€37 supplement), and there was an Exceptional Comté that’s been aged for 36 months (€23), which we didn’t indulge in. But the cheese selection was quite lovely.
Desserts started off with a small dish of mango compote with chestnut ice cream, accompanied by a little bâton of meringue. Then they brought out the final course, a roasted pear tartlet with tonka bean ice cream.
The restaurant does ask if you have any food aversions when you reserve, and when you arrive they confirm them, but I never think of telling them that I don’t like tonka beans. They’re banned in the U.S. but are popular in France, and whenever I taste anything made with them, the flavor (which tends to linger long after you eat them) reminds me of shoe polish.
A friend with a chocolate shop in Bordeaux told me that the reason I don’t like desserts made with them is that people always use too much. He made me taste one of his chocolates infused with tonka beans, and he was right. The flavor didn’t bother me at all. It was the same way with the ice cream served with the tartlet; it was just right and the mark of a very good pastry chef.
We finished with a plate of little sweets (along with Jane’s commentary on how she wants me to look at her like I look at mignardises), which included house-made chocolates and jam-filled mini madeleines.
We also had coffee, which wasn’t as memorable as the rest of the meal. But the food was really great, and when the owner made the rounds of the dining room, visiting each table, he seemed a little surprised when I said how much we liked our meal. (That’s my American enthusiasm for ya…) And I’d definitely go back, although we’re already trying to decide where to go next year for our birthday, and we’re open to any suggestions in the comments ~~!
La Tour d’Argent
15 quai de la Tournelle (5th)
Reservations obligatory
Notes:
There’s also an apartment you can rent in the building (€1800/night), a nod to their beginnings in 1582 as an inn (although I’m certain it was more modest then), as well as a rooftop bar, Le Toit de la Tour, that’s open to all.
More down to earth is their pastry shop and bakery, La Boulanger de la Tour, on the corner just across the street, where you can get their breads and pastries to go.
Prices mentioned in the post are subject to change.
Part fifteen: Michelin stars with the love of my life.
By 1969, I had graduated to a pretentious devotee of fancy restaurants. That’s what three years in the ad biz does for you. A German ciient invited me to come to Frankfort to design a complicated research study. My first trip to Europe!
What better chance would I have for a family trip to Paris. Our daughter, Lisa was three and Michael a toddler. We engaged Betty Jackson to come with us to babysit our kids while we enjoyed Paris nightlife. Betty, a lovely woman who had cared for the Hamburger children was happy to go! My plan was to spend four days in Germany taking care of business, then fly to Paris to meet up with Ellen at our apartment hotel in the 16th
Days were spent with the kids visiting parks, gardens and playgounds. Nights were devoted to the two of us. It was so romantic going out with Ellen to these elegant places, and I was proud that I was able to organize this trip.
I researched restaurants obsessively and chose Prunier, a famous place famous for oysters and shellfish, Lucas Carton, a 3* with a famous chef, La Grand Vefour, another 3* place, and the crème de la creme, La Tour D’Argent, considered among the top five restaurants in France.
I made sure that I did not wear white socks and sneakers to these gourmet palaces. First up, La Tour d’Argent.
Stars in our eyes, Ellen and I entered this temple of dining with a feeling of reverence. I had booked a month in advance and requested a table with a view of Notre Dame.
We were greeted by an elegant man in a tux, taken to a lovely elevated table, and then greeted again by Claude Terrail, the well-known owner and host of the place.
I had suggested quenelles and pressed duck, and we added another app (probably something with foie gras). Ellen does not drink wine, so I selected three half bottles, a white burg, a red burg. and a Bordeaux. I'd lie if I said I remembered which ones, but they were very good.
The room was magical, and the view of the cathedral, lit up by the restaurant, was truly awesome. The quenelles were light as air and in a delicious sauce. I remember the white wine had good acidity and was a match for this course. The pressed duck was, of course, a ritual. We were shown the bird, given its numbered tag and served in two courses. We watched the duck being pressed and the blood and juices running into a silver cup below.
The meal was good, but not having any standards of comparison, I can't be objective except to say the tastes were delicious. The service was amazing.
As we left, we entered a small elevator with the walls covered in red plush. The doors slid open, and instead of being in the lobby, we were in a wine cellar. We were greeted by a man with a tastevin hanging from a chain around his neck. He led us on led a tour though the twisting museum of meals and bottles that, to a neophyte wine collector, was a mind-boggling event. I'll never forget it.
Ellen was impressed that we were given this special tour. It was an evening that both of us remembered and talked about with excitement many years later.
I had taken my love to Paris! I was no longer a hick from Jersey.
Happy Birthday, David. Yes, La Tour D’Argent is iconic. Can one not order numbered duck for lunch? I need to try a meal here, but I fully expect their Sommelier to be helpful. I would have politely mentioned my disappointment and asked for another. Note, in my life, I have only sent a bottle back twice and both times, because they were corked. But that Sommelier at that restaurant with those prices, and that reputation, needs to be attuned to their customers.