Regulars at the top of the rankings, awarded time and time again in various competitions for their Little Red Door cocktail bar, mixologists Alex Francis and Barney O'Kane have finally stopped making us languish and unveiled their new project combining mixology and gastronomy: De Vie.
"No, this is not yet another cocktail bar. Nor is it just another food-and-drink restaurant. De Vie is a philosophy, an art of entertaining and sharing with customers a real signature in the world of drinks, worked like a chef's plates." You've been warned.
And indeed, De Vie is more than just a cocktail bar. On one side, a bar where you can drink competition cocktails, of a level rarely seen elsewhere, dreamt up by the striking duo. On the flip side, a table d'hôtes run by chef Adam Purcell (ex-Frenchie) with a seasonal tasting menu that resonates in unison with the signature cocktails . A way of introducing Parisians to the still too little-known gustatory complexity of these drinks, with or without alcohol.
The space is divided into several areas. At Comptoir de Vie, already open from Wednesday to Sunday from 6.30pm to 1am, you can let yourself be carried away by the brio of the three accomplices as they navigate through a 5-course gastronomic menu (90€) with drinks (55€), which we'll talk about below; or, on the other hand, let yourself be guided by a desire for à la carte drinks (15€), to be accompanied by snacks (70€ for 5 liquid sequences).
Then, on the eve of summer, De Vie will open its Bar De Vie and an extension for private parties. In an area hidden from the general public, the research laboratory is the place for all kinds of experimentation - fermentations of all kinds (a technique the chef inherited from his time at the Amass restaurant in Copenhagen), infusions, recipe testing, with a focus onhyper-seasonality and the"farm to glass" ambition. It's enough to make you dream of being a little mouse to witness all this.
And there's plenty of work to be done, both on the plates and in the glasses. The recipes are complex, yet honor the French products used in their entirety - like the cod whose cheeks are devoured before attacking the flesh in the next dish, or the strawberries served from pulp to tops, or the stems of aromatic herbs which, once fermented, find their way to a cocktail.
During our visit, in detail but in no particular order of preference as everything was stunning: incredible shiitake chips dipped in a preserved cabbage ranch sauce; Irishsoda bread and fermented stem butter; chicken liver parfait and strawberry scone with ribot milk; tempura cod cheeks in a diabolical tartar sauce; a tart with green and white asparagus and old Comté cheese, as graphic as it is gourmet, with black garlic emulsion; a generous piece of cod confit, nettle butter sauce and mussel mousse; and to finish the savory part, a Challandais duck breast roasted with molasses, morels and yellow wine sauce.
The sweet part is even sweeter: demonic ice-cream sandwich with blackened beet and smoked caramel; poached pear, whipped fromage blanc, fermented pine honey for a little lightness; caramel with reduced whey protein, apple skin powder... One of our finest addresses of the year.
Theprecision of the ideas and dressings, the warm hospitality of the team with their lilting accents (Alex Francis and Adam Purcell are Irish, Barney O'Kane is English, and the vast majority of the team is Anglo-Saxon), the feeling of closeness and warmth during the counter dinners where liquid delights and solid pleasures arrive in turn...
In the glasses, madness - measured and well thought-out, but madness nonetheless - is the order of the day. Among the cocktails long remembered are the introduction to dinner, a poached apple sorbet soaked in a blend of caldavos and dry cider; a long-lasting fennel aperitif, with Chardonnay and cardamom; a frosted cocktail with strawberry tops, geranium and ice wine; and finally, our favorite, an incredible cocktail with fragrant flouve, herb spirit and lemon leaf vermouth.
De Vie has made a name for itself... and already ticks all the boxes to become one of our favorite Parisian addresses.
Alcohol abuse is dangerous for your health, please drink responsibly.
This test was conducted as part of a professional invitation. If your experience differs from ours, please mention it in the comments.
