| | the jules verne restaurant at the eiffel tower
It takes months to get a reservation here because there are only 110 seats. And about as many servers. Lunch here was over the top in every way. The typical price here for lunch is $200 per person.
One of the first things I noticed was the chairs. I thought - these are those boring banquet chairs that people always substitute with "Cane" chairs because they're so ugly.
Then when I sat in it - I thought, whoa - this leather is really nice, it's not vinyl like I thought. Then I looked at the construction. The chair is made of carbon fiber.
Carbon fiber for those of you car geeks out there was for a while the most ridiculous thing you could get. On one of the America's Cup sailboats, I saw them delivering the carbon fiber mast at a cost of over 400 thousand bucks. So to make banquet chairs out of them, that's kind of nutty. While it is cheaper now, to have a porsche center console of carbon fiber it was like six thousand bucks.
Everything in this restaurant is special. The butter spreaders were made out of some kind of hand-carved bone. The knives were amazing - pure ebony handles as dark and rich as on the neck of my Les Paul. Handmade, the blade extends uninterrupted through the handle, which is riveted with the precision of a nice watch.
Then they start presenting the food. I am starting to learn a little about cooking, and this makes me want to give up forever. Like when I heard Andre Segovia play the classical guitar, I thought - "I can do that". When I saw Rod Laver play tennis, I thought, "I can do that". But when I saw what these people did to a piece of sea bream or rack of lamb, or most ridiculously the dessert, I just know that I will never ever ever be a great chef.
One thing I'm not sure of is why the "soap suds" looks is a big deal. They sure are very proud that the Plat Principal comes out with something that looks like soap suds. Maybe it shows that it is fresh from the kitchen, because you see the bubbles popping as soon as it lands on your table. It made me a little afraid to eat it but one thing is if you pour either Ketchup or A-1 sauce (the concierge told me that I should bring my own) then it pops the bubbles.
|
| | Posted 6/8/2008 11:40 AM - 1218 Views - 14 eProps - 9 comments
Give eProps or Post a Comment |
