saturne

Well. This weekend has been pretty much dee-lightful so far.

After my day off on Thursday, I had work on Friday and my mom spent the day lunching and seeing museums with her friend/neighbor Joleen who traveled from San Diego with her. When I got home from the office, we had a champagne and little appetizers at my apartment before going out to a late dinner at the brand new restaurant Saturne.

      

The restaurant is only a month or two old and the chef is a 23 year-old Swede. It's a beautiful restaurant- lots of blonde wood, very minimalist design. The menu was pre-fixed and we started off with an amuse-bouche of something that was like a cross between a donut hole and a soft pretzel with an sardine filling. The appetizer was raw scallops with finely shaved radishes and chervil. The main course was a lightly poached turbot with a delicate sauce I couldn't identify. After dinner came the cheese course, which was unusual enough that I actually snuck my camera out to take a photo:

It's a comte, shaved into long very thin strips. Ooo, aaaah!

There was also a delicious dessert of a chestnut mousse sandwiched between very thin discs of fragrant dark chocolate. 

It was a completely relaxed, leisurely meal. 

Saturne is also a wine shop/bar and after dinner, we spent some time looking at the different bottles they have lining the shelves along the walls. The restaurant has partnerships with a number of wine makers and the have some unusual bottles on their shelf (my favorite was labeled "Robert est un con"). Joleen bought a bottle of a wine labled "Chi Wah Wah" with an illustration of a chihuahua wearing sunglasses and a diaper.

After dinner, I took the ladies to Le Coeur Fou, a bar right around the corner from my apartment. I first came to Le Coeur Fou when I was studying in Paris in college and it's pretty much the reason I decided to move to this neighborhood when I came here for work. It's just a casual little bar, but it's fun and young and Parisian to the core. 

We went home a little after 1, tired and happy. 

Restaurant Saturne

17 rue notre dame des victoires

75002 Paris

Le Coeur Fou

55 rue montmartre

75002 Paris