A piece of France in....Cleveland??

[bhmc449]

chattanoogan.com/articles/article_167790.asp


I suspected B.S. on this and Janet's observations confirmed my suspicions. THIS PLACE IS FULL OF IT.

(1) No French known classics? leads me to believe fake french food with an intimidating, overpriced menu

(2) Frozen Veg? If I want frozen veg I can go to Applebee's, Chili's or some other chain restaurant where my total bill is the price of one en tree at the LPlace. As a matter of fact, I can stay home at eat frozen veg and soon people will realize that too. If I am going to pay $30.00 for a duck dish I better damn well be dazzled into thinking it was the best thing I ever ate...period, no excuse!

(3) Tacky "OPEN" sign and hideous red rope lighting SCREAMS "Chinese Buffet", and certainly not a fine French dining experience


While it does appear to have some Italian influences to it, Pasta and Tapenade certainly are no stranger to French cuisine.

[LimitedRecourse]

Maybe they are just the rude and smelly part of French...

[Police Moderator]

After that, I am glad I am still boycotting anything "French".

And, "non", I cannot remember why I am boycotting them, but it must have been de la plus grande importance .

[mikeydokey]

I'll bet they don't even have REAL french fries.

P.S. From what I understand, when "Dos Coronas" was in the same location, it was just a place for high schoolers and young college students to go get drunk, this will probably be the same, every town has one, or four or five.

[ssmynkint]

Used the ride back from Knoxville as an excuse to try La Place. Clean, airy house (formerly a Mexican restaurant?) with very helpful staff who would get answers to any questions we had that they couldn't answer.
Menu is limited, missing many French bistro standards: coq au vin, sweetbreads, confit, cassolet, omelets, etc. Additionally, the menu oozes with poetic over statement. I'd call it hyperbole, but I believe they mean it.
Janet wrote that two duck dishes were the same (and apparently over-cooked), others have called the food bland. The tapenade (olive spread) brought when you are seated was bland; brined not cured olives were used with little flavor of garlic. The soup of the day, cream of zucchini ($4.99), was nice and rich, but lacked a developed flavor of the squash. The froie gras terrine (3 slices w small salad, $11.99) was nice and showed some creativity in bolstering the flavor a less the stellar piece of liver.
Bourride is a Provencal fish stew, always with garlic and some fennel,potatoes and carrots often with saffron. At La Place it is a seafood stew without vegetables ($17.99), and tho' they promise aioli (garlic mayonnaise) the garlic was completely masked by an over abundance of mustard (!?), which also masked the seafood (scallops, shrimp, mussels, salmon and white fish) all of which seemed to have been defrosted (except perhaps the mussels).The rich yellow color seemed to be from food coloring, or perhaps a large amount of flavorless saffron.
Beef bourguignon ($14.99) (their spelling) was a wine flavored pot-roast, meat falling apart, without pearl onions or (many) mushrooms AND WITH NO SAUCE!. The potato gratin had irregularly sliced potatoes (no knife skills there) cooked in milk. The broccoli and carrots were over cooked. You would do better with pot-roast at a meat and three.
The limited wine list is being changed and the $20 a bottle house wines are a bargain. The bread was fresh and had a good crumb and crust.
Sooo. There is an excellent little restaurant in Knoxville (Le Parigo) and French-American Brasserie in Atlanta is superb. Better to drive 100mi then the 20 to Cleveland. (13-Feb, 10)

Sadly, Le Parigo has deteriorated along with it's owner's mental health. I can no longer recommend it.

[rstewart]

Jan 30, 2010 19:00:30 GMT -5 Police Moderator said:

After that, I am glad I am still boycotting anything "French".

And, "non", I cannot remember why I am boycotting them, but it must have been de la plus grande importance .

We agree on something! I refuse to purchase anything made in France.
When I smoked I even had to change papers from JOB to EZ-Widers or Jokers. LOL

[BlackFox]

What's with all the hating on France? You do know there would be no U.S.A without them, right?

[rstewart]

And I think we more than repaid them in 1917-1918 and again in 1941-1945.

[Felix]

Colonel C. E. Stanton.(General John Pershing's aide, at Lafayette's tomb, 1917) “What we have of blood and treasure are yours,” Stanton intoned. “In the presence of the illustrious dead, we pledge our hearts and our honor in carrying the war to a successful conclusion.” And then the final line of his speech: “Lafayette, we are here!”

A generous and apt speech, acknowledging historical truth, not partisan soundbites.

[ssmynkint]

Are you serious? We didn't enter WWI to save France OR make the world safe for democracy. We entered for economic reasons (like seizing the assets of Bayer and being able to ignore patents, etc,. re: aspirin, for example).
And we were still shipping oil to Nazi Germany when The Japanese attacked, well after France had fallen. America'sdiplomatic/militaristic "altruism" has always been economically based.
Now; can we shift this discussion to another thread and reserve this one for food commentary?

[TNBear]

Go git 'em SSM.

[ssmynkint]

Snarl, snap. More cheese, please.

[Tsavodiner]

Sept 24, 2010 10:43:05 GMT -5 BlackFox said:

What's with all the hating on France? You do know there would be no U.S.A without them, right?

YEAH! And there'd be no French..., er, ah, uh well, YOU know......

(that 'cheesy' enough for ya?)