again, checking out the latest hotspot - we are so trendy - BUT, really an old hotspot. What? Come on, you probably already know that an old Paris Restaurants and BEYOND favorite, Bones, is no longer -BUT, has been transformed by the same team into an all-day cafe in the morning, lunch specials in the afternoon, and amazing tapas in the evening kind of place. I miss dem Bones, dem Bones, but Jones represents a satisfying alternative, a LOT better than nothing.
Moose and I (if you prefer) hit Jones on a good night - the place wasn't packed and the vibe was mellow and laid back. Our servers tried their hardest to convince us that the tapas were to be shared, but I would have none of that because that's the kind of guy I am. Mine, mine, mine. But I'm not THAT horrible - I did offer Moose an ample sampling of my copious smoked mozzarella focaccia dish, but he politely declined. Other standouts during our visit included the chinchard dish - a mackerel-like fish prepared almost like a ceviche, the moules au gratin, and the rabbit dish. Moose still doesn't get the concept of "you're in France, dessert is not an option, it is a requirement,' so it was only yours truly who got to benefit from the exquisite (I love that word) chocolate ganache. Everything savory, flavorful, fresh, interesting.
We finished up with some after-dinner drinks to wash down the bottle of red, Moose opting for another Agent Provocateur and me following the server's advice to check out a cognac that had just come in and it was epic, and I'm usually not a big cognac drinker. Stupid me, I forgot the name. At any rate, I didn't forget to snap the carte, so this is what the reasonably-priced, nicely-sized tapas dishes included during the evening of our visit:
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| Click to enlarge |
Finally, there are two ways to look at the Jones carte de visite - as a witty, retro attempt at humor or as a 'we're too cheap to print up new cards until we use up all the old ones' ploy. You decide:
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| B becomes J, sort of. |
All told, 6 tapas dishes, a €28 bottle of wine, 2 beers, one cognac, and one espresso came to a total of €106, a pretty good deal if I say so myself.
JONES
43 rue Godefroy Cavaignac
Paris 11
tel.: 09 80 75 32 08
website: http://www.jonescaferestaurant.com/
UPDATE: May 2016
You've already noticed that my previous Jones post lacked incredibly tantalizing photos of the food, so here I am back, with photos in tow, after last Friday evening's dinner. You know how it is when I get together with the Moose - he distracts me from the business at hand with excessive alcohol consumption and stimulating conversation. Not that Co. doesn't offer those very same welcome distractions, but, well, I'm really getting off topic here - what do you care about that stuff? So assuming it's the food that has brought you to this post and not my conversation partners, here are some images from the return visit to Jones, as satisfying as the first, and perhaps more so.
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| The carte - click it and it becomes readable |
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| All of a sudden green asparagus is everywhere in Paris - this is the dish with the eel sauce and was pretty good. |
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| Keeping with the eel theme - with radishes and beets, another combo that is popping up in Paris, and why not? |
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| This canard dish was really the highlight of the meal - duck in two facons with cherries. |
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| Dessert 1 - fiadon et frais - just okay |
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| Dessert 2 - the financier, much more to my liking. Your eyes do not deceive - that is a chipped bowl, reflective of the rather informal personality of the restaurant. |
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| They take bread seriously at Jones, with the servers cutting from various loaves throughout the evening. |
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| The wine - a poor choice recommended by our Kirsten Dunst lookalike waitress. |
Co. and I shared these dishes, as the restaurant intends, bringing the total with one espresso at the end to an extremely reasonable 86 euros. We seriously debated another dish, but what you see above basically did the job for two diners, although another one - the bulots were tempting - wouldn't have broken the bank, or our stomachs.
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| A wall not too far from Jones. |
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