French Restaurant Review: Poésie, Nîmes

From a jazz-tinged bistro in Nîmes to a two-star table in Narbonne, regional France is the place to eat, says Alexander Lobrano

POÉSIE, NÎMES

Just a few steps from Les Halles de Nîmes, the superb covered food market in the heart of this ancient Roman town, chef Nicolas Fontaine’s lyrical new restaurant has immediately become the talk of his ardently gastronomic southern French hometown.

It’s tucked away down a pedestrian lane, and the pleasure of a meal here begins as soon as you step inside. The welcome from sommelier Logan Thouillez is warm and immediate, and the wood-panelled space has the alluring moodiness of an old jazz bar hangout, right down to an LP record player and several stacks of vinyl in a niche on the wall. The mellow soundtrack varies and runs from Miles Davis to Amy Winehouse, a spot of Sade, some Teddy Pendergrass and then a house-music ballad or two, an aural tapestry that reflects the cool of the restaurant’s varied customers, many of whom are part of the city’s creative gratin.

For Fontaine, the new restaurant represents the pinnacle of an odyssey that began when he left Nîmes to study at a hotel school in Lozère. He eventually began his culinary career in the kitchens of Michelin two-star chef Michel Kayser in Garons, a small town on the edge of Nîmes. When he met Michelin three-star chef Pierre Gagnaire in 2005, he discovered his mentor, and worked for Gagnaire at several of his Paris restaurants before Gagnaire asked him to become executive chef of the two restaurants he would be running at the recently renovated Hôtel L’Imperator in Nîmes. Fontaine was thrilled to return to his hometown and worked at L’Imperator for seven years before leaving to hang out his own shingle in April.

I’ve known and liked Fontaine’s cooking for a long time, but I was astonished by how excellent it was when my Swedish friend, Astrid, and I went for dinner a week after it had opened. My velouté of green asparagus with a coddled egg, roasted asparagus tips and blazes of coppery-tasting sorrel coulis and a reduction of Sicilian orange juice was a vibrant celebration of spring, and Astrid loved her Roman-style homemade gnocchi in a Parmesan cream sauce. This really suave and thrillingly creative contemporary French bistro cooking bristled with the exactitude of Fontaine’s haute cuisine training, too, so that at once it was homey and elegant.

Main courses were similarly succulent and full of flavour, including Astrid’s fideuà, a Catalan dish of vermicelli cooked in fish broth with rabbit and mussels. Pork belly is always one of my favourite cuts of meat, because the meat is basted by the richness of melted pork fat as it cooks. Here, it was served with a crackling crust with fennel cooked with orange and a sauté of seasonal vegetables including cardoons, artichoke hearts, Swiss chard and carrots.

“PORK BELLY WAS SERVED WITH A CRACKLING CRUST WITH FENNEL COOKED WITH ORANGE AND A SAUTÉ OF SEASONAL VEGETABLES”

Generous portions meant that we shared a dessert, a bitter almond bavaroise with macaroon biscuit and a baked apple. It was so good we immediately regretted not ordering two. Service is friendly and attentive, and sommelier Logan Thouillez’s wine list is outstanding, with an intriguing selection of lesser-known French wines and a major offer of German Mosels. There are also offbeat bottles that team well with Fontaine’s vivacious cooking style, including the spectacular white Taganan Envínate from Tenerife in the Canary Islands that we drank with our meal.

Fontaine doubtless has a hit on his hands, so be sure to book online as far in advance as you possibly can.

4 rue Littré, Nîmes, Tel. +33 04 66 36 01 02, www.restaurant-poesie.com. Lunch menus €25, €35, €65 (Sunday lunch with single menu), à la carte €60.