Juveniles: eating the heatwave, a review
When I went to live in Paris over forty years ago, there was a thriving British community in the city whose interests spun around the bottle. At its head was Steven Spurrier whose Caves de la Madeleine shop in the Cité Berryer by the Madeleine prided itself on offering Parisians mostly French wines that they had possibly never tasted before. There were tastings and courses, and Spurrier himself was already a celebrity figure in the world of wine since he organised the famous ‘Judgement of Paris’ tasting in 1976, in which some famous Bordeaux first growths were beaten into second place by a Stag’s Leap 1973 from the Napa Valley in California.
Large numbers of young Britons went through the Spurrier mill over the years, either below decks in the cellar or propping up the counter with the lovely Mauricette. Many of them later found their way into senior positions in the wine trade back home. Some of them have possibly already retired and are now to be found supporting a bottle at home.
One former Spurrier intern was Mark Williamson, who opened Willi’s Wine Bar in the rue des Petits Champs in 1980. I got to know the place that year when I met Charles Lea (founder of the small chain of Lea & Sandeman in London) by chance on the metro station at St Paul in the Marais. He was decorating the bar prior to its launch and invited me to look round. Willi’s was conveniently close to the old Bibliothèque nationale where I did the bulk of my research and before I headed home I’d have a glass of wine at the bar. Later that year Mark recruited Tim Johnston who was then living in Provence. Tim was already an acknowledged authority on the wines of the Rhone and he came up to Paris to run Willi’s. Later Mark and Tim expanded into the Cité Berryer too with the Blue Fox Bar and finally, in 1987, Tim created his own bolthole in Juveniles in the rue de Richelieu. Just like the much expanded Willi’s (Mark is also owner of the former brothel Macéo), Juveniles is still with us today. As for Steven Spurrier, he returned to blighty decades ago, but he has told his story in the autobiography that came out last year.
Juveniles is an ‘intimate’ space on the western side of the street, a stone’s throw from the Palais Royal with its soothing gardens. These days the bar is run by Tim’s daughter Margaux and her husband Romain Roudeau, but if the food has changed with Romain at the stove, Juveniles still adheres to its original principles: great wines (still chosen by Tim), great food, and a place where you can stock up your cellar with some of the things you have enjoyed with lunch or dinner. I ate there on Thursday 25 July, a day that will not forgotten for a very long time, as the barometer topped 42.6 C and we had spent most of the past ten hours dodging a furious sun.
Margaux’s dog (usually a welcome feature) had been put to bed at home and there was a fan mercifully set up close to the counter sending out blasts of cold air. To drink there were litre carafes of water (at first), frequently replenished before anyone had a thought for wine. When the wine arrived it was the Petit Salé 2018 from the Château de Roquefort in the Bouches du Rhone (€26): just what we needed, light, sappy and thirst-quenching without being heavy or overly alcoholic.
Cold starters were naturally preferred, of which the best was probably the watermelon gazpacho with croutons, broad beans, piquillo peppers and fresh coriander. Romain has an understandable fondness of the big, old-school tomatoes (marmandes, coeur de boeuf, noir de crimée etc). There was a refreshing tomato salad with ricotta and cider vinegar with a tomato jelly that seemed to contain a little gelatine. Romain makes a daring use of parmesan with strong-flavoured fish (there was a main course dish of tuna with parmesan shavings) adding a foam to a sardine tart with sweet onions and pesto. I had a proper, creamy burratina with preserved peaches and basil, thyme, lemon and roast hazelnuts – a lovely summery dish.
I tried several main courses. From the veal fillet with cherry tomatoes with oregano, a delicious piece of smoked aubergine and new potatoes to a supreme of corn-fed chicken with gnocchi cooked with thyme, coco beans, spring onions and chanterelles with a red pepper coulis. The star for me was on the cheap menu: crunchy pork loin from the happy farm at Clavisy with the same smoked aubergines, cherry tomatoes and new potatoes – joyful pigs, says Tim make for contented diners.
We drank a 2018 Arbois Poulsard vieilles vignes from Bénédicte and Stéphane Tissot (€43), suitably refreshed in an ice bucket. Poulsard is an appropriate grape variety for a hot night: it doesn’t produce too much alcohol or colour, and has a characteristic, slightly drains-like smell that some people don’t like, but above all it is not ponderous and slips down easily.
And then pudding: I didn’t get to sample the rice pudding with salty caramel, but I enjoyed the roast apricots with Greek pine honey and rosemary, whipped cream and almond crumble and above all the choux bun with verbena, strawberries and raspberries and its almond and pistachio crumble. It came with a glass of luscious, sweet 2018 Muscat de Beaumes de Venise from the Domaine Pigeade (€6.50).
I walked back to my billet. The sun had dropped, but it was still like swimming in warm soup. When I got back to the flat I drank a glass of water, and shed a litre of sweat in return.
Juveniles: menu €16.50 (lunch), €25 (dinner), Three courses à la carte before wine : €45 – wines range in price from €19 – €210 a bottle.
