Skip to main content

BAR LE 40, QUARANTE - A REVIEW

RETURNED FEBRUARY, 2017. THIS INITIAL REVIEW FEBRUARY, 2015. SEE EDIT AT END.

I live in the little French town of Quarante. Quarante also happens to be the French word for the number 40. Is it any wonder that the local sports bar/cafe is called Bar Le 40?

Let's be honest. Bar Le 40 is a local joint with no ambiance whatsoever, inside or out. Sitting on a busy intersection with cars whizzing by all day, you are protected from even a minimal view of that traffic by cars parked at the curb, obstructing your view (such as it is) because the sidewalk is only a few feet wide. Except for a few posters, the interior hasn't been redecorated since the town was liberated...in 1918. But as the only place in town where you can sit down at a table and be served a meal, nothing really matters as long as the food is edible. On a recent Friday, lunching with a couple of my neighbors while Cathey was out of town, the food was edible. Not great, but not bad and worth the price.

The three of us each chose the menu of the day for 12 Euros, add a Euro for a liter of house wine. For starters, choice of salad with a wedge of a cheese tart or a simple plate of charcuterie. For the main, fish filet or biftek with a side of either frites or spinach. Several dessert choices including an apple tart and ice cream, but we all chose the caramelized flan. As I said, all edible. I think the beef was a better choice than the fish, but that's me. And the spinach looked a bit limp, but I chose the frites...also a bit limp. The flan was just fine. All in all, we filled up and didn't feel cheated.

They say that the house confit de canard is a good choice for dinner. I'll give it a try. Yes, I will be back. After all, it's the only place in town where you can sit down at a table and be served a meal.

EDIT, FEBRUARY 2017: There's been a change in ownership and in the kitchen. If I understand correctly, the new chef is the son of a previous one. There's been a dash of paint here and there and I'm told that the bathroom is now up to handicap standards. I generally do not frequent the restrooms in bars. I'm funny that way.

But wait. Another change in early 2018. Another new chef. Another new menu. And this time, success. An upgrade that really did the trick.

I would rate the new lunch menu as about 50% better than the previous. The starters continue to be simple - charcuterie and salad, but each above previous levels with an occasionally interesting salad combination. The major change is the main plate. The new formula is just that bit more adventurous. Oh, there's still that chewy beef that we've come to expect but at least the fries are cut from whole potatoes and not reconstituted. But the second choice has upped the game - one day parmentier of beef, one day duck hearts, one day grilled and marinated chicken. The desserts are more interesting, too. And better ice cream. So the possibility of a potentially interesting surprise exists.

Suddenly, our local bar has us checking Facebook daily to see what's up. Wow!

Read more of my reviews HERE.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

RESTAURANT TEN, UZES: RESTAURANT REVIEW

Ten sits just off the market square in Uzes, one of the prettiest villages in southern France. The newly renovated space is airy and comfortable with tables of sufficient size and sufficiently spaced to provide for a pleasant dining experience. Service was cheerful, fully bilingual, and attentive without being overbearing. The food presented well to both eye and tongue. And the rate of approximately 30 € per person for a party of five included starters, mains, a dessert or two, two bottles of local wine, and coffees at the finish. Reasonable if not cheap eats.  So why am I hesitant to give an unqualified thumbs up?  It took me a while to figure it out. Uzes is a quintessentially French village in a quintessentially French region of southern France. There are those who will say that the Languedoc is just as beautiful but less crowded and less expensive than its eastern neighbors. I know. I'm one of those people. But the fact remains that for many people, villages like Uzes are t

Kreuz Market vs. Smitty’s Market: Texas Barbecue in Lockhart

I was born and raised in New Jersey. I didn’t taste Texas barbecue until I was twenty-two years old. What the hell do I know about barbecue? And what could I add to the millions of words that have been written on the subject? Well, I know a bit about food. I’ve managed to check out a few of the finer joints in Texas – Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse in Dallas, Joe Cotton’s in Robstown before the fire, the dear departed Williams Smokehouse in Houston, and the incomparable New Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Huntsville . So I can speak from a reasonably wide experience. This will not be a comprehensive discussion of the relative merits of Texas barbecue as opposed to the fare available in places like Memphis or the Carolinas. It’s simply a take on our recent visits to Lockhart and the relative merits of Smitty’s versus Kreuz from our point of view. I’ll get all over academic in a later post. On our way out to the ranch in Crystal City, we stopped at Smitty’s. You have to look

LE CHAT QUI PECHE (THE CAT THAT FISHES), ARGELIERS: RESTAURANT REVIEW

You would think that after over five years of searching for restaurants serving good food at reasonable prices, I would have made my way to Le Chat Qui Peche before now. After all, it's only about ten minutes from our house, in a beautiful spot along the Canal du Midi. But it took a friend to suggest that we would like the place. So we went. And we did. Port-Argeliers isn't much a port, just a spot along the Canal du Midi that boats use as a stopping place. Like a town that might be described as just a wide spot in the road, there hardly seems to be a reason for it to exist other than the fact that it does. So Le Chat Qui Peche, at the foot of a narrow but driveable bridge over the canal, commands a view of the canal that can't reasonably be described as bustling and scenery that might best be described as bucolic. We were among the first to arrive on a lazy summer day, breezy so we chose an outdoor table with less of a view but sheltered. Our server practiced his