Paris With a Parisian

Le Coq Rico, or when the French cockerel conquers Montmartre

Up on Paris’s most celebrated hill, everybody gossips about this new poultry centered restaurant.

Duck Foie Gras dumpling in a broth, eggs « Russian style », baked Poitou pigeon or roasted Challans farm guinea fowls makes of this new Montmartre venue a ornithological gastronomy academy. And Montmartre is such a good choice for its location, as the restaurant stands right in front of the Moulin de la Galette, where feathery « cocottes » used to come and dance the French Can Can with other partying birds…

Chef Antoine Westermann came from Alsace -a place where they sure now how to treat well a farm hen- to Montmartre and opened this very poetical place, hiring a dream team of cooks and artists, under Thierry Lebé who became the wizard turning Westermann’s visions into hot and crusty realities. The name, le Coq Rico, induce right away that the place is for poultry lover, as it not only means the “cockerel Rico”, a bird whose tale you can find once in the restaurant or on its website, but it is also a sound pun with “Cocorico”, French for “Cock-a-doodle-doo”. The team is performing their show behind the kitchen-bar, in a very Moulin Rouge way, and an endless selection of sexy birds will march all evening long in front of your amazed eyes, dropping off there feathers just for your in a very, very sensual way…

The room, in clear rough wood and minimalist design, decided to go on the opposite way of the traditional rôtisserie, and the classic ambiance of 17^th century tavern is here replaced by a more sophisticated spirit, where the roasting flames burn in what could be a Brittany shack by the sea or a Scandinavian country house. An ambiance of quietness comes out of the walls and partakes in conveying the right spirit to appreciate eggs and poultry.

Because in your plate, you never saw the farmyard in such a good shape. To start with, a selection of “Béatilles”, different parts of a bird such as the heart, the gizzards or the wings, is the perfect finger food to think about what to chose from the menu, along with a glass of Burgundy.

Then you can wander through all the appetizers, between all the different eggs – a must try- the different foie gras -after all, the 2 chefs are from Alsace and Gascony, the two most famous foie gras producing areas in the world, and here it’s still legal!- the broth and more.

The choice gets a little bit harder for main course, between all the legendary birds on the menu. The well-known Poularde de Bresse, the Guinea Fowl of Auvergne, the Challans chicken, the Pigeon of the Poitou, you would like to taste them all. Because they will be perfectly cooked and seasoned. Tender, with the right crust, and an outstanding poultry flavor that had almost disappear from our plates… A dream…

Before stepping out and down the hill, a few provocative desserts might seduce you, just like an end of the night cocotte might catch the attention of a smiling bourgeois in 1880…

And then you’ll be home, wondering how long it will take before you can sample the rest of the menu!

Le Coq Rico

98 rue Lepic

75018 Paris

tel: 01 42 59 82 89

website: www.lecoqrico.com