Drawing from Lyon’s traditional bouchons restaurants and the cooking of Les Mères de Lyon, the new chef of Aux Lyonnais in Paris, Victoria Boller, has created a bold and modern menu that has yielded enticing and delicious results.
I’ve loved this restaurant near the Palais Brongniart, or former Paris stock exchange, in the heart of Paris ever since I first parted the heavy, dark red velvet curtains on a horse-shaped brass curtain ring that block draughts at its front door on a cold, rainy September day in 1988. That day, the front windows were streaked with rivulets of condensation because the besuited stockbrokers and bankers dining here at noon were talking a blue streak. I stood at the reservation desk waiting for the hostess and admired the repeating floral garland of the Art Nouveau tile wainscotting, the tile-framed mirrors and the disused gas chandeliers that hung from the high ceiling of the place, which opened in 1890. The older, mostly blonde waitresses in black dresses with white aprons dispensed wisecracks that drew guffaws as they threaded their way through the crowded dining room, crackling with locker-room levels of testosterone and whooping laughter, a place that was bluntly perfumed by the smells of damp wool and wet shoe leather, red Beaujolais, and the plates of plump, sliced pistachio-speckled sausage with boiled potatoes and squares of golden tablier de sapeur (breaded deep-fried tripe) with frites, which were the daily specials. I was meeting my friend Judy, a magazine editor in Paris, as part of a story I was writing for her on restaurants serving regional French cuisine in Paris.
That day, we ate a big salade lyonnaise – curly endive with lardons and poached eggs in a sharp vinaigrette – and then heaps of sausage and potatoes washed down with easy-drinking Coteaux du Lyonnais red wine served à la ficelle, or from flasks where you only pay for what you drink, Cervelle de Canut followed –faisselle whipped with crème fraîche, olive oil, chopped shallots, minced garlic and a sprinkling of chives, parsley and tarragon. We both loved this homey Lyonnais comfort food, and finally we split a slice of tarte à la praline, a tart topped with crushed, dark-pink candied almonds, a local speciality, for dessert.