This past week we found ourselves in Paris showing the Tibi FW ‘24 collection at our showroom in the 8th arrondissement. Fashion week in Paris is always a hectic scene as stylists, editors, models, brands and their respective teams descend upon the city to display next season’s ready to wear collections and set the tone for what the world will be buying come September. Although we spent most of our days in the Tibi showroom with our amazing specialty stores who flew in to visit us, we made sure to find time in the evenings to escape the fashion chaos and experience the incredible restaurant culture that makes Paris one of the greatest food cities in the world.
Coincidentally, our music director of almost 30 years, Javier Peral, was also in Paris, having just directed the music score for the Helmut Lang FW ‘24 show, and we were lucky enough to catch up with him at Gramme 11 on his last night in the city. Gramme 11, opened in 2023, is the newer and larger rendition of the original Gramme concept. Opened in 2017 in the Marais, Gramme is a hole in the wall type cafe/kitchen known for its wonderful pastries and unique versions of well known dishes like their banh mi hot dog and chipotle popcorn tempura.
Gramme 11 can be defined as a modern Parisian brasserie serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The morning and afternoon menu is adorned with traditional French bakery classics as well as modernized and creative takes on these traditions, one of these being the Gramme Grammola, a wonderfully tasty granola made with rolled oats, almonds and hazelnuts, puffed rice, coconut, cranberries and honey. The evening menu is representative of a variety of cultures, served in a tapas style, with Asian, French, and South American cuisine influences most prevalent the night we dined (the menu changes daily depending on the local availability of produce and ingredients).
When Chef Marine Gora and Romain Tellier opened their first petit Gramme location, they sought out to cook fun and comforting food by reimagining more serious classic dishes from their diverse origins. Hailing from an Asian/European family background (Vietnamese mother and Polish-German father), Chef Marine actually started out in the music industry and did not make the jump into the culinary world until the age of 35. The influence of her family history is ubiquitous throughout the menus and cooking techniques employed at both of her restaurants and can also be seen in the design elements of her version of the traditional Parisian brasserie, with little nods to her Vietnamese origins sprinkled throughout.
With respect to its cuisine, hospitality, and wine selection, Gramme 11 is a great example of unassuming luxury practiced with humility and intention. The creativity, modernity, and playfulness of the menu is particularly impressive because of the incredible level of skill required to achieve and execute the simplicity of dishes represented. Some of our favorites were the beet and radicchio salad, potato mille-feuille, and lamb skewer with parsley, cilantro, and pomegranate, each evoking a sense of nostalgia and a taste of the future simultaneously. Before one can reimagine and reinvent a classic, one must garner a deep and innate understanding of the cultural origins of the dish in its most simple form. I think this holds true not just of cooking, but in fashion as well, and in many cases even life.
While working at Este in Austin, TX, I cooked on nearly all the stations in the restaurant, but the sauté station was by far my favorite. There was something about the heat, the pace, and the balancing act of speed and precision that brought out my best cooking. One of the dishes on that station is a steak au poivre but reimagined from a Mexican point of view. This steak was the best steak I had had in Texas and was one of the main reasons why I initially wanted to work for Chef Fermin. It is also probably the most difficult dish on the sauté station to master because of the nuance and intricacies involved in perfecting an au poivre sauce. It was not until I tasted the inspiration for the dish, the filet de boeuf au poivre at Bistrot Paul Bert in Paris, that I truly understood what to be striving for: the consistency, spice profile, color, fat ratio, etc… I had to go all the way back to the roots of the dish to properly execute Chef Fermin’s interpretation of what it could be. Because of experiences in the kitchen like this, I have a great respect and admiration for the dishes I was privileged to try at Gramme 11.
A great Chef (also Fermin) once told me that the best ingredient (the most important) is the one you leave off the plate, and this philosophy clearly prevails in Chef Marine and her team’s approach to cooking. To replicate something great and do it well is very difficult. To then take this replica and reimagine its form to become unique, modern, personalized and relatable at the same time is even harder. Finally, to take this reimagined replica and simplify it yet again to achieve a luxurious and minimalistic, yet profound status may be the hardest feat of all; this is how I would describe the potato mille-feuille on the menu that night.
As we shared a beautiful 2022 pinot noir by Patrick Bouju and discussed Tibi runway show songs dating as far back as 2004, Gramme 11 provided our team with a much needed respite from the commotion and craze that can at times engulf Paris during fashion week, and for that we are very grateful and equally as excited to return next season.
Sounds utterly delicious! I'm jealous.
One of my favorite restaurants in Paris!