L'Entrecôte

" cut of sirloin and serve it in the typical French bistrot style of "steak-frites", or steak-and-chips:

* L'Entrecôte is the popular nickname of the restaurant Le Relais de Venise – L'Entrecôte, founded by Paul Gineste de Saurs in Paris's 17th "arrondissement" near Porte Maillot. Now run by one of his daughters, the restaurant is widely known as L'Entrecôte Porte-Maillot. It has two additional locations operating in Barcelona and London.

* L'Entrecôte is the official name of a group of restaurants established by a son of Paul Gineste de Saurs, with locations in Toulouse, Bordeaux, Nantes, Montpellier, and Lyon.

* L'Entrecôte is used as an informal name for the Le Relais de l'Entrecôte restaurants operated by another daughter of Paul Gineste de Saurs, with three locations in Paris and one in Geneva. The oldest of these, in Paris's 6th "arrondissement", is widely known as L'Entrecôte Saint-Germain. This group has four additional locations operating under licence, three in Beirut and one in Kuwait City.

History

In 1959 Paul Gineste de Saurs purchased an Italian restaurant called Le Relais de Venise (the Venice Inn) in the 17th "arrondissement" of Paris, near Porte Maillot. A descendant of the Gineste de Saurs family in southern France, he was seeking to establish an assured market for the wines produced by the family's Château de Saurs winery in Lisle-sur-Tarn, 50 kilometres northeast of Toulouse. [ [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20030513/ai_n12694712/ "A restaurant that's a cut above the rest" by John Lichfield, "The Independent" (London), 13 May 2003] ]

In place of the previous Italian menu, he decided that the restaurant would offer the traditional French bistrot meal of "steak-frites" as its only main dish, with no other option. Where most restaurants served "steak-frites" with herbed butter, Le Relais de Venise instead served the dish with a complex butter-based sauce. A simple salad of lettuce topped with walnuts and a mustard vinaigrette was offered as a starter, and not until the end of the meal did the menu offer some choice, from a dessert list of fruit pastries, "profiteroles", and other confections consisting mainly of ice cream, chocolate sauce, meringue, and whipped cream.

To highlight the dish that the restaurant was now serving, he added the words "Son Entrecôte" beneath the name Le Relais de Venise on the neon sign outside. In keeping with the original plan, the restaurant had a very limited wine list and nearly all the wines offered came from the family's Château de Saurs winery.

In serving "steak-frites" as the sole main dish, he was modelling his restaurant after the Café de Paris in Geneva, which had been serving "steak-frites" in this way since the early 1940s. The butter sauce itself is often referred to as Café de Paris sauce.

Despite serving only one main dish and offering a very limited selection of wines, the restaurant flourished. It became a Paris institution, whose patrons ignored the sign and typically referred to it as "L'Entrecôte Porte-Maillot", or just "L'Entrecôte". Eventually, the restaurant's name was formalized as Le Relais de Venise – L'Entrecôte.

uccessors

Three separate groups of restaurants, each operated by one of Paul Gineste de Saurs's children, carry on the formula he established. [ [http://www.lemonde.fr/web/recherche_breve/1,13-0,37-997638,0.html "Rectificatif et précision", "Le Monde" (Paris), 13 July 2007] ]

Le Relais de Venise – L'Entrecôte

Following the death of Paul Gineste de Saurs in 1966, his daughter Hélène Godillot took control of the original restaurant at Porte Maillot. Her branch of the family opened additional locations in Barcelona in 1999, and in London in 2005.

L'Entrecôte

In 1962, Henri Gineste de Saurs, a son of Paul Gineste de Saurs, opened a restaurant similar to his father's in Toulouse, 50 kilometres from the family vineyard at Lisle-sur-Tarn. He subsequently opened additional locations in Bordeaux, Nantes, Montpellier, and Lyon.

Le Relais de l'Entrecôte

Another daughter of Paul Gineste de Saurs – Marie-Paule Burrus – established her own group of restaurants under the name Le Relais de l'Entrecôte. Her branch of the family has four locations of its own, three in Paris and one in Geneva, as well as four others operating under licence, three in Beirut and one in Kuwait City.

The Geneva location occupies premises that once housed the Bavaria, a "brasserie" established in 1912 which became a favourite haunt of international officials during the early years of the League of Nations. [ [http://w3public.ville-ge.ch/candide/intracm2.nsf/084e03fd4f9c9defc125711d00410a08/63c38d0f4f21e5d4c12573a60041e2b0/$FILE/M-749.pdf City of Geneva heritage proposal, 28 November 2007] ] The Bavaria was used by Ian Fleming as the venue for a brief episode in his 1959 James Bond novel "Goldfinger". [ [http://www.atomicmartinis.com/007/goldf.htm What James Bond drinks in "Goldfinger"] ]

Since 1981, Marie-Paule Burrus has also headed the family's Château de Saurs winery with her husband, Yves Burrus, a scion of Switzerland's Burrus family of industrialists. [ [http://www.chateaulenclos.fr/images/article_06_6.pdf?id=06_5 "Chef d'entreprise" magazine, September 2006] ]

The third generation

The founder's grandchildren are taking an increasingly active role in the business, in particular Patrick-Alain Godillot [ [http://entrecotecafedeparis.blogspot.com/ Management of Le Relais de Venise, Barcelona] ] in the Relais de Venise – L'Entrecôte group, Valérie Lagarde and Corinne de Roaldès [ [http://www.lhotellerie.fr/lhotellerie/Articles/2623_22_Juillet_1999/L-Entrecote.html Arrival of L'Entrecôte in Lyon, published on-line by L'Hôtellerie Restauration] ] in the L'Entrecôte group, and Paul-Christian Burrus [ [http://www.societe.com/societe/relais-de-l-entrecote-saint-germain-300584604.html Management of Le Relais de l'Entrecôte, Paris] ] in the Relais de l'Entrecôte group.

The formula

Although the descendants of Paul Gineste de Saurs operate their groups of restaurants under slightly different names, they all adhere precisely to his formula: the same lettuce-and-walnut salad as a starter; the same "steak-frites" with the same butter sauce as the main course, presented in two services; the same assortment of desserts; and a wine list featuring wines from the family's own vineyards.

The key to the main dish is the butter sauce. The Paris newspaper "Le Monde" reports that it is made from chicken livers, fresh thyme and thyme flowers, full cream (19 percent butterfat), white Dijon mustard, butter, water, salt, and pepper. [ [http://archives.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3238,36-925998@51-877309,0.html "Le secret de l'Entrecôte enfin dévoilé - Rendez-vous" by Jean-Claude Ribaut, "Le Monde" (Paris), 21 June 2007] ] According to "Le Monde", the chicken livers are blanched in one pan with the thyme until they start to turn colour. In a second pan, the cream is reduced on low heat with the mustard and infused with the flavour of the thyme flowers. The chicken livers are then finely minced and pressed through a strainer into the reduced cream. As the sauce thickens, the butter is incorporated into it with a little water, it is beaten smooth, and fresh-ground salt and pepper are added. The London newspaper "The Independent", however, reports that Hélène Godillot has dismissed the "Le Monde" report as inaccurate. [ [http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-lichfield-our-man-in-paris-455515.html "Revealed at last: how to make the French queue" by John Lichfield, "The Independent" (London), 2 July 2007] ]

The restaurants' atmosphere is a key part of the formula, and is as important to their success as their cuisine. Each restaurant has the typical layout of a French "brasserie", with closely spaced tables and upholstered bench seating along the walls. All the servers are women, dressed in black uniforms with white or yellow aprons, and no male staff are visible. And the restaurants do not take advance bookings, thereby ensuring that all tables can be fully in use at all times. Typically, this means that patrons visiting the Paris, Geneva, Toulouse, or Bordeaux locations must queue on the pavement outside for half an hour or more before they can be seated.

External links

* [http://www.relaisdevenise.com/ Le Relais de Venise – L'Entrecôte: main website for the London location]

* [http://www.entrecote.fr/ L'Entrecôte: main website (in French)]

* [http://www.relaisentrecote.fr/ Le Relais de l'Entrecôte: main website (in French)]

* [http://www.chateau-de-saurs.com/ Château de Saurs winery: main website (in French)]

* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20030513/ai_n12694712/ Le Relais de Venise – L'Entrecôte: review of the Paris location in "The Independent"]

* [http://archives.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3238,36-925998@51-877309,0.html Le Relais de Venise – L'Entrecôte: review of the Paris location in "Le Monde"]

* [http://penglobe.over-blog.com/article-1143850.html Le Relais de Venise – L'Entrecôte: photos from the Paris location]

* [http://local.live.com/?v=2&cid=FF193CE7B0C41197!113 Map showing locations of the restaurants and winery]

References