I have a few soapboxes gathering dust in my brain, one of which is that the classic category of the bistro/brasserie has fallen out of fashion, in France. Many of the bistros that remain in this city are mere museums to their former illustrious past (as I wrote for Life & Thyme): either relics serving up ho-hum iterations of the fare that made them famous to a mainly tourist population that, they hope, won’t notice the difference, or ritzy, too-expensive stalwarts with gorgeous dining rooms and prices to match their rarity.
Brasserie Dubillot is a bit different, an address owned by the same group to helm Brasserie Bellanger: the Nouvelle Garde, or new guard. As their name indicates, this group’s goal is to update the old stalwarts, joining other new-ish spots like Bouillon Pigalle (bouillon), Brasserie Rosie (brasserie), or Aux Bons Crus (routier) in revitalizing a once common restaurant form: the brasserie.
The vibe at all of these places has something of a Disney-ification about it. You get the sense that they’re catering to a newer, younger crowd, that some of the hints at a storied past are so kitschified as to have lost their meaning. At Dubillot, specifically, a colorful bar stands out in the center of the dining room, and loud, clubby music is piped in at slightly too high a decibel. (Am I getting old? Maybe I’m getting old.) The bilingual service is a bit less polished and practiced than it would be at a more classic bistro or brasserie; the kitschy touches like bright pink florals, neon signs on the way to the bathroom, and glug jugs in the form of a cat or a fish or a bull, only add to the scene.
Dubillot purports to be all about the terroir of France’s regions, with storytelling evoking founders who have journeyed throughout the country to suss out only the best in its products. True to form, the cocktail menu (which skews a bit sweet for my liking) features French-crafted spirits; the wines, meanwhile, range from natural-but-approachable to kombucha-funky and are far more expensive than the relatively minute prices on the food menu seem to warrant.
But let’s talk about the food.
The menu at Brasserie Dubillot features the ideal blend of old classics with modern, source-driven touches. The Trouvailles section of small plates puts just one product in the starring role: Smoked trout from the Pyrenees, an artisanal saucisson sec dubbed Jesus, slices of 24-month-old Comté. You also have the option of house-made charcuterie options like veal “nuggets” or pâté en croûte studded with pistachios.
The appetizer selection, meanwhile, includes a range of choices both copious and less so, with three little oysters from Utah Beach served with a briny horseradish cream, herb oil, and citrus, or a classic oeuf-mayo offering one perfectly cooked, halved egg dolloped with mayonnaise for a mere 2 euro.
The heartily more copious leek vinaigrette is a showstopper at just 6 euro, with a pile of coal-charred leeks topped with a house vinaigrette redolent with grainy mustard, toasted hazelnuts and butter-fried croutons, and a generous pile of greens.
Mains are divided into classics and coal-cooked specialties, and while an on-menu indication beneath the former promises not to reinvent anything, this promise is broken more than once – albeit delightfully so. Trout amandine is served with trout roe and cauliflower purée; a vegetarian bouchée à la reine is far more interesting than the veggie options at most similar places. When Dubillot keeps its promise, it does so fairly well, pairing Salers beef with house-made fries worth writing home about or a perfectly nice saucisse-purée that nevertheless doesn’t rival the one at Brasserie Rosie. The moral of the story is that Dubillot, like most spots, suffers from a case of appetizers outdoing the mains, but a ramekin of grainy mustard (available upon request) is the perfect balm for what ails ya.
A separate section of heftier, coal-cooked specialties include meaty mains designed to share: grilled Bourbonnais lamb, pork ribs, or a massive, three-week-aged faux-filet. Desserts continue in the same vein of classics with a twist: The tarte au citron is made with lime and almond cream; an opera-style cake is flavored, instead, with pistachio; a chocolate-peanut concoction hearkens to a Snickers. The most classic among them is a Paris-Brest.
Brasserie Dubillot promises not to reinvent the wheel, and it doesn’t, really… it just modernizes it. This is a brasserie that doesn’t just appeal to tourists hoping for a Paris stopped in time; instead, it takes what’s good about brasseries – inexpensive prices, convivial atmosphere – and updates it for a new generation of Parisians and visitors alike.
Brasserie Dubillot – 222, rue Saint-Denis, 75002