Nomiya @ Art Home
Iโm not much for trendy restaurants. And I donโt really care for chefs that are trying to show-off, especially when they donโt have les bourses to pull it off. I recall a particularly alarming mealโฆand the bill, at the end of itโฆat a very, very expensive restaurant where I was presented with half of a caramelized shallot which arrived in front of me with a blitz of fanfare, on a plate the size of a hula-hoop.
I took a bite and it was good, but for what it cost, I wanted at least the other half. And look, I worked at a restaurant where nothing was held in higher esteem than a perfect, unblemished peach, so I donโt think itโs wrong to present food or ingredients simply. I just have a hard time swallowing a โฌ55 bowl of tomato soup.
So when I read a bit of the buzz surrounding Nomiya, a temporary restaurant on top of the Palais de Tokyo, I wasnโt especially eager to sit in front of my computer at 9:59am hoping to get a reservation when they open bookings at 10am. Then schlepping across Paris thirty days later to dine at the temporary restaurant in the sky.
But I have to say, Iโm glad I did. Nomiya at Art Home (prononcer arรดme, as they say) is a โconceptโ restaurant, designed to look like a Japanese bar, and took over the space atop the Palais de Tokyo where a hotel room had previously existed as part of an art installation. When you enter the restaurant, itโs easy to see why the location is so incredibly in-demand.
Iโd read somewhere that you should only dine at Nomiya if youโre comfortable sitting at a table with a group of strangers. Reading the write-up, I couldnโt tell, peering through the prose, if the writer had less-than-exemplary table mates. But at our lunch, there were twelve people, three of us who werenโt French (thatโs counting Romain, even though I swear heโs actually Italianโฆ), and everyone talked and mingled well. Actually, it was such a good group that I almost wanted to ask everyone if theyโd like to book the place for a private dinner and come back again, en masse.
Two guests were French surgeons (one did kidney transplants, the other operated on hands), and another couple spoke the most amazingly perfect American English Iโd ever heard from non-natives. Slang? Check. Jokes? Check. Odd Americanisms? Check.
Completely adorable? Check that, too.
The waiter was funny/drรดll, with a dry sense of humor that gave the lunch the perfect lift of levity. And the cook in the kitchen adjacent to the dining table, who was plating up the food, didnโt seem to mind at all when I kept leaving the table and wandering over to ask him what he was up to. (He told me he worked at Gordon Ramseyโs restaurant before this, and this was a lot easier. Iโm sure he wasnโt kidding.)
Iโm the first to admit the amuses-bouches of caviar and fruit, one with kiwi and the other with finely-diced strawberries, were a bit silly. But somehow, high up there, accompanied with a cold flรปte of Champagne, the combinations were curious but appropriate. Sliding down a spoonful of each seemed oddly in-sync with the off-beat nature of where we were eating.
If youโre one of those people that likes to watch their food prepared, youโll be at home at Art Home. Youโre steps away from the cook and he didnโt mind at all folks coming over and taking a look. Granted I was the only one doing that (must be an American-thing), but still, I liked talking to him as he plated up our first course of Basil-Cucumber Gazpacho with smoked trout eggs, purple basil, and rouget (red mullet).
We were all engaged in various conversations around the table, getting to know each other, and everyone scraped their bowls clean.
Each course was accompanied by a โnaturalโ wine. The first, an Akmรฉninรฉ โ08 Sancerre wasnโt fabulous. Like many natural wines, it was cloudy and cider-like. I missed the thinness of a standard Sancerre, but I like trying natural wines because you never know what youโre going to end up with when you pop open a bottle.
The next course came with a Nuits dโIvresse โ07 Bourgueil, and organic wine that was quite nice. Of the two bottles set down, one was corked, and was quickly replaced. Pas de problรจme.
I liked this wine a lot and it went down just right with the Veal with polenta, capers, sun-dried tomatoes, arugula, and little bitty cubes of polenta.
Like all good meals, we eventually headed for dessert. The gazpacho theme was revived and the chef quickly scooped balls of Melon Sorbet and set each into a scoop of white chocolate mousse (delicious!) anchored in a bowl of Charentais melon puree, which was presented as Melon Gazpacho. (The chef asked me if we had melons like that in America. I said โOuiโ, but that they were harder to find than they are in France.) Clean and simple, once again, we were all clicking our spoons against the bottom of the bowl trying to get every last drop.
Since it was lunch, people started looking at their watches, a bit woozily, ready to head back to work. (Iโd hoped the surgeons had done most of their work in the morning.) The final note before the send-off was an espresso served with neat orange-colored chile-pepper marshmallow and the most perfect, shiniest piece of white chocolate Iโve ever seen.
Or should I say, touched. It looked like a simple square of white chocolate, but when I reached for it, my whole mind felt like Iโd been duped as I discovered it was a pristine square of white chocolate gelรฉe. It was a neat trick, and added just the right bit of whimsy to send us happily back into the street, and into real life.
Would I go back? You betcha. But I think Iโd go for dinner, which is harder to get into. The table only seats twelve people and you need to be pretty fast on the trigger; when I logged into the site at exactly 10am, all the dinners for the day I wanted were spoken for. The price of the 2 1/2 hour lunch was a not unreasonable โฌ60. For the experience, plus wine was included, as is tax and service, I was more than satisfied. The copious amount of wine probably didnโt hurt, either.
Dinner is โฌ80 and lasts three-plus hours, and I might just find myself in the next eleven monthsโthe restaurant is only open for a yearโsitting in front of my computer at 9:59am, to try my luck at getting an evening spot. For those not so lucky, or who just want to take a look, you can sign up for a free tour or a workshop, which they have for adults and kids, with one of the chefs.
Nomiya (Site in English and French)
Located atop the Palais de Tokyo
13, avenue du Prรฉsident Wilson (16th)
UPDATE: Because this is meant to be a temporary restaurant, itโs slated for closure April 30, 2011.
Reservations must be made online and each morning, the seats become available at 10am (Paris time.) Reservations go quickly, although lunch reservations are not as in-demand as those for dinner. Note that the restaurant serves a fixed menu, although they did make an alternative main course for a guest who didnโt eat beef.
Related Links
At Home (Twitter Stream)
Nomiya (Paris Update)
At Home (Flickr group)
Melon Soup with White Chocolate Mousse (Recipe, in French)
Art Home in Pictures (Meg Zimbeck)
