L'Altro Frenchie, 9 rue du Nil, Paris 2

The Italian Side of Frenchie's Greg Marchand

L’Altro Frenchie (the name in Italian means “the other Frenchie”) opened last month. According to chef Greg Marchand, originally from Nantes in Brittany, Italian food was his first love. He says that he intends to offer “a free, modern cuisine, without borders and influenced by my travels, particularly in London and New York.”

The restaurant is just up the street from Marchand’s Frenchie, across the way from Frenchie Wine Bar, and neighbors with a host of other food supplier-stores (coffee, cheese, wine, baked goods, etc.) and a few more restaurants.

The interior consists of two rooms: a more spacious front room that leads back to the kitchen and a side room that has twelve seats.

Three of us went on a sunny Saturday afternoon, but the 28/32€ lunch formule is available only Tuesday through Friday, so we took selections from the carte:

As with Frenchie and its various spin-offs, the wine list is mostly, if not exclusively, natural wines, although from those I recognized, well-chosen. The wine list shown on the internet shows mostly Italian wines with a few token French ones, but the list we received was closer to fifty-fifty. There are some serious errors in the names of producers that presumably will be corrected in time. We wound up with three glasses of Coteaux Varois en Provence rosé.

L and I each chose the vignarola romana to begin with, our friend took one of the contorni, the fennel braised with orange. Both were truly outstanding with great freshness of the produce and great finesse and layering of the flavors. But before the courses arrived, we were given some delicious focaccia with a fluffy texture and pimentos and cherry tomatoes incorporated, plus some of the most delicious olive oil I can remember.

The vignarola romana is heaven-on-earth for a veggie-lover such as me with fresh peas, fava beans, artichokes, asparagus, and pesto (it says prosciutto, too, but I didn’t find any).

The fennel was a generous serving with just the perfect amount of braising, neither too much nor too little.

For the next course, our friend took the braised lotte (monkfish), L took the maiale tonnato (vitello tonnato with pork substituted for the veal) and I took the Jewish-style artichoke.

The lotte was a generous serving of three pieces with good density yet lightness of texture and purity of expression in the flavoring ingredients (anchovy, rosemary, and accompanying radicchio).

L’s maiale tonnato was served cool and I gather was very good (unlike the other dishes, I did not sample it).

Finally, my Jewish-style artichoke was easily the best version of this dish I’ve ever had (and I had a couple of very good versions in Rome this past February). The dish was crisp, but not overly crisp and still tender, and each bite was a revelation of purity and layering of flavors.

Even though we took no pasta and only one secondo main course, we were all sufficiently full to not want dessert — as I said above, the portions are generous here.

The bottom line (including tax and tip, as always in France):

Looking at the carte, I thought this would be an expensive meal, but because of the generous size of the portions, we came away with a lunch at 48€ per person (including three glasses of wine, water, and two cups of espresso) that left us fully satisfied. As with Italian food in general, the dishes are not overly complicated, but the flavors and textures here are impeccable. Based on this visit, this is a destination restaurant, and I look forward to returning soon.

L’Altro Frenchie

9, rue du Nil, Paris 75002

Tuesday through Saturday, lunch and dinner

website: https://altro-frenchie.com/en/home/

Telephone: 01 42 21 96 92

Métro: Sentier, Strasbourg-Saint-Denis, Réaumur-Sébastapol