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In search of a sip of Paris
Restaurant reviewed 12/31/98 by Sheryl Julian
Prices: Appetizers and salads $6-$9; entrees $14-$19; desserts $6-8.
Hours: Sun.-Wed. 5:30-10 p.m.; Thurs.-Sat. 5:30 p.m.-11 p.m.
Credit cards: MasterCard, Visa, American Express.
Access: One step up at front door.
Hours: Breakfast Mon.-Fri. 6:30-11 a.m.; Sat.-Sun. 7 a.m.-noon. Lunch Mon.-Fri. 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Dinner Mon.-Fri. 5-11 p.m.; Sat. noon-11 p.m.; Sun. noon-10 p.m.
Credit cards: All major credit cards.
Access: Fully accessible.
Hours: Lunch Mon.-Fri. 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; sandwiches and salads Mon.-Fri. 2:30-4 p.m.; bar menu 4-6 p.m.; dinner Mon.-Thurs. 6-10:30 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 6-11:30 p.m.
Credit cards: All major credit cards.
Access: Four steps up at front door; restrooms not accessible.
BRASSERIE JO
LES ZYGOMATES WINE BAR
BISTRO
In France, the bistrot a vin (wine bar) opens early because if you awaken with a thick head, the French say that a glass of wine will cure it. It's the hair-of-the-dog theory, which they call "tuer le ver" (killing the worm).
In this country, a bar-bar serves that purpose. A wine bar is a place to sample different wines and get a nice meal, all atop a stool or at a little barside table. We haven't quite perfected the wine bar here, at least in terms of getting both wine and food right in one place, but if looks are everything, they're fabulous. Wine bars in this city look very French indeed - with their zinc and mirrors, wine bottles on display, and waiters in traditional aprons.
You want to arrive before or after the crush. You'll be grumpy if you arrive with it (most restaurants have their big seatings at 6 and again at 9). By sheer accident, we got to Brasserie Jo just as the early crowd was moving in a pack up Huntington Avenue to Symphony Hall. We leaped onto a table that parked us squarely in front of the giant clock that looks as if it had had another life in a French train station.
The bar was packed and lively. We wanted the small classic menu we might have found in a Paris wine bar, where pate, sandwiches, crudites, a little salad, and a single plat du jour are about all that's available. Here, the abbreviated menu du bar offers that and just a bit more. It feels like France. But none of the wines or food are exceptional. The jostle at the bar, the little round tables, the buzz in the room might as well be 1930s Left Bank, although both food and wine have an Alsatian slant.
The pate assortment offers three slices, so you can get creamy liver and coarse-textured meats side-by-side. These looked rather ordinary and tasted dreamy, which is the amazing thing about paté. Frisée salad with bacon and poached egg was overdressed, as this salad often is here, but it's also too dressed in France. I happen to like it this way because there's plenty of dressing left on the plate to mop up with bread.
Steak with fries (the classic French "steak frites") was cooked perfectly, the fries hot and crisp, but at $24.95, it was very steep for this no-fuss plate.
Whites, as expected, are the food-friendly wines on this Alsatian menu. They're mid-priced and smartly chosen. They arrived in dinky stemware, the kind you can get four to a pack.
The stemware prize goes to Aquitaine. Its thin, expensive glasses make your wine feel important, though the wines themselves are not that interesting. You'll find familiar, serviceable wines.
You expect something more creative. The bar is very beautiful, very French, though small. Bistro a vin, etched onto the mirror behind the bar, has the accent pointing the wrong way over the "a." The bartender hardly acknowledged the Frenchwoman next to me who said something about it. He wasn't exactly contrary, but then he wasn't that welcoming either. Let's say efficient, incredibly tidy (it's so small here you can't help watching him clean up), and disinterested.
But the food is remarkable. It's very stylish, with nice details like thinly sliced cornichon pickles on the pate plate. But nothing looks fussed over.
No bar menu, so we ordered appetizers. A mousse-y duck and foie gras pate with homemade water crackers was magnificent and incredibly luxurious. The cornichons were heaped beside delicate shreds of radish and a lovely mustard from Burgundy (another French spelling error on the menu).
A baby lettuce salad was perfectly coated with a Dijon dressing. The large slice of Provencal goat cheese, tangier than most American goat cheeses, tasted nice with the bitter greens. Caramelized onion tart had smoky bits of country bacon and nutty Gruyere inside its buttery crust.
Les Zygomates seems to hit both food and wine just right. The zinc bar is inviting, and along the window overlooking South Street, small tables feel intimate. There wasn't a cliche on the wine list; and though there were a few on the food menu, the duck pate with figs was worth a detour. Made with duck and pork, highly seasoned like sausage, the pate was cooked inside duck skin with mission figs buried in the meat.
Roast chicken and mushrooms inside a parchment paper sack was a simple, warming dish in its own juices, perfect on a chilly night. Cheeses were very ripe. Just right for me, but I wonder about others.
Les Zygomates' wine list is truly eclectic, not just French. There are dozens available by the taste or the glass and the prices are reasonable. Co-owner Lorenzo Sazona, who chooses the wines, was conducting a wine tasting near us and it was all we could do not to join in.
The French community that frequents this bar appreciates the fact that they can still smoke here, which drives some customers crazy. I think it adds to the tenor of the place. I don't smoke, but I imagine it helps kill that worm.
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