Fripon, rue de Ménilmontant, Paris 20
There seems to be a certain mode for naming restaurants and cafés in Paris after the seedier side of life. I can think of many different iterations of canaille (scoundrel or rogue) in the name, and fripon is a synonym of canaille.
The restaurant is on the rue de Ménilmontant, about 100 meters downslope from the rue des Pyrénées. The restaurant dates to the beginning of 2022, when Pauline Séné, a Top Chef winner, was the cheffe, but she left in a matter of months. I gather that there may have been more than one successor. The carte the night we were there listed three people in the kitchen by first name only: Fabio, Martina, and Gianluca.
The wines are exclusively, or almost so, natural, the prevailing trend among Paris restaurants seeking a young and hip clientèle:
Of those few producers I did recognize, the markups are fairly steep, so understand that there is a sunk cost if you come here and intend to order wine.
A cheerful sommelier came out to discuss the wines. I asked him about the red Biquette, listed as Côte d’Azur from Domaine la Cavalière. He (correctly) told me that it was a light, fruity wine and (incorrectly), that it was from the Pineau d’Aunis grape, which is planted exclusively, or almost so, in the Loire Valley. At any rate, the description of the qualities of the wine turned out to be correct, and after a bit of chilling in an ice bucket, it turned out to be perfect for a hot evening outside on the terrace.
When I got home and looked up the wine, it turns out that it is a vin de France from Lourmarin in the Lubéron region, not Côte d’Azur, and that it retails for 12€ — making the 48€ charge at the restaurant excessive.
That aside, the rest of the experience at the restaurant was positive.
One of our trio started with the oysters in ponzu (a Japanese citrus-based sauce) with raspberries, which she found excellent and original.
Our friend continued and L also took the eggplants with date and chickpeas, which they very much liked.
I was more conventional, taking the red tuna with tomato water and celery, which was refreshing and pleasing, although not particularly memorable.
Our friend took the bar (sea bream) with haricots verts and black sesame, which she also very much enjoyed.
L took the risotto of celery root and toasted barley — which I sampled and it was cooked perfectly and showed excellent flavor.
I took the breast of pork with mustard shoots, carrots (and a touch of chilled avocado mousse). I worried that it might be too bland, but fortunately, that turned out not to be the case, and I was very happy with the dish.
The fig with almond cream dessert (after having been partially eaten because I forgot initially to take a photo). It was light, flavorful, and not overly sweet — an excellent choice to end the hot evening.
The bottom line.
Apart from the friponnerie with the wines, the restaurant is recommendable and worth your while, especially if you’ve not previously explored this part of the highly interesting (notwithstanding some awful 1960s-70s architecture) part of Paris.
Fripon
108, rue de Ménilmontant, Paris 75020
Tél: 09 81 89 27 40
Monday-Friday lunch and dinner
Métro: Ménilmontant, Pelleport, Jourdain