Glad it worked out well. It’s always nice when a good somm recognizes a knowledgeable customer and works with you.
I Googled it and it made want to taste it!
Make want taste?
I am not much help here but that is a super hipster list and super high mark up.
Service is included / no tipping at Agern
Had an excellent meal last night at Agern. Four-top and Chad chose the wines based on our collective input. I was fairly blown away by each selection.
Started with 2001 Roots Art Brut Blanc de Noirs, then Tatomer Sylvaner (2014?), Littorai 2012 Savoy Vineyard Pinot, and finally a 2012 Piedra Sassi Arroyo Grande Syrah.
All were absolutely stunning. The entire list is well outside my comfort zone, but in the end, what was in the glass mattered most and everything worked well with the food.
Have to queue it up as I work right there. Food was good I take it?
food is excellent. on par with the best. also excellent beer and cider list - some rare things on it that are worth going for. the chef is a true master.
Another take - the food was very good, never crossed the line into excellent. Enjoyable, but nothing to blow you away. Absolutely worth a visit or multiple visits. I just try and be careful to only put the truly great into the category of truly great. This was not. And that’s just fine.
depends on what one likes. i am not sure what you guys had. we did the “meat” version of the set menu. We have had Gunnar’s food before - in Iceland. This was less adventurous but more composed. at the same time - the flavors popped. there was a great play of acidity and depth in each dish without the heaviness. there was a lot of modern technique and yet it never felt gimmicky …as i said - depends on what one likes. we were lucky to go before the review (having dined at Dill we couldnt wait to try more of his food)
anyhow - let the people judge for themselves - i would agree that is is absolutely worth the visit.
i fall somewhere in between sarah and mikhail on the food. there were a handful of dishes that popped and i didn’t eat anything that i could have gotten anywhere else. i’d say it’s a very approachable version of that cuisine in a fantastic setting with everything else you’d want.
I think people misunderstand when I say the food doesn’t reach the level of excellence. I’m not in any way denigrating the restaurant or the meal, which I really liked. I agree with most of what Mikhail and Yaacov say, in fact. But to put this restaurant on the level of the very few in the world I consider to be excellent, the very best, would be inaccurate and I really don’t think many people who travel and eat at that level would do so. That doesn’t say anything bad about it, it only says I am stingy with what I think is excellent. I think too often everything we like gets called “amazing!” So I am careful not to be over-the-top in praise. That way, when I say something is superb (like my meal this past Friday at David Toutain in Paris) it truly means something. It’s like saying that something “isn’t my favorite.” I can only have one favorite, so nearly everything in any category falls into that bucket, with no insult attached.
i would not put it in that echelon either. but to be fair to Agern - i’m not sure they’re aiming for that. they certainly don’t charge at that level.
i’ve thought this a lot before, and this is a tangent, but it brings up the question of whether there’s a realy place for that type of execution; being in the no-man’s land of “lower” high-end or upper “mid-end”
tourtain is very special and even unique for paris.
Agreed, I don’t think they are aiming for that. I’d rather see a restaurant with lower aspirations overachieve than the opposite. And we need restaurants that know who and what they are. That’s part of the reason I’m careful with how I describe them. I think it’s respectful of the respectable choices they’ve made. I think Thomas Keller mentioned something of the sort in that article in Town & Country.
Good; not outstanding.