Jesikka

Yes, wine bar opened on Thursday and the coffee shop opened today, but they're not announcing for a bit to give the neighborhood first dibs. I had a very very good crab dish (sort of a gratin but not sure what it was called) that is on the bar menu but not the restaurant. It was gifted fwiw.

Yes, this was downstairs. So many places that you guys are not eating in Paris that are excellent. It’s very annoying how much cheaper excellent meals here are, especially when you get outside the places Americans obsess over.

TBH, I'm not sure what ended up on the check but yes, there were some cocktails and a glass of something sparkling which they must have charged us for. The stupid bread cost money...but I guess there were also two museum tix now that I think about it

All of it is better than conjunctivitis

The "cheap" turkish wine was nice, though!

I was also inexplicably greeted in French at Veronika, as well as told sante at the bar when handed my drinks. No idea why.

I think that's absurdly untrue. I eat in a ton of restaurants like this in Paris. I expect a restaurant with a $400 bill for two people to deliver on a certain experience and quality level and this experience simply fell short. My experience at Ernestos did not fall short whatsoever - service was competent, attention level and hospitality was very high, the food was excellent and things happened on time. That obviously hasn't happened for everyone. They are incredibly different restaurants and one is owned by close friends so I certainly wouldn't seek to compare them, but I both frequently eat at and love Le Coucou which is much more comparable to Veronika in terms of looks, price point and of course ownership. If I waited an hour at Le Coucou for my table at a half empty restaurant, had incompetent and sarcastic service at the bar, and had middling food overall, I'd be seriously irritated.

It was not at all a mob scene last night at 830-930 pm. The six seats at the actual bar were full and there were 4 other people in the lounge area waiting for tables / drinking.

I honestly haven't, but I have only been to Ernesto's once outside of friends and family and we ordered pretty much the entire menu. Also, frankly, the excess of pours from Pierre kept me from noticing or caring if there were any, whereas the bartending slowness and snarkiness was kind of surprising in an environment like Veronika which I'd definitely consider several notches more formal than Ernestos.

Its the entire area as you walk into the actual restaurant place. It is also stunningly gorgeous, as with the rest of the restaurant. It's certainly a space I very much WANT to be in.

Frankly my experience last night at Veronika was a lot like Orik's at Ernesto's. After viewing the museum I was 30 minutes early for my reservation, so I asked if they could seat us early and we were told they'd try, only to be seated after an hour (30 minutes late). The bar was an absolute disaster. There were 6 of us seated there at most, maybe 10 total if you include the lounge area and the bartender was absolutely unable to keep up with the demand. Drinks were ok tasting (not great) but included absurd steps like glitter on a desiccated pineapple slice and hand smoking a whisky drink a-la-minute. All of this to be said that our first drinks took 15 minutes and the second took 30 with one drink coming after 20, the second coming after 30 and being seated just as the second came. Order wine at the bar. Nobody apologized for either seating us late or for the extreme delay in our cocktails and in fact our bartender was sarcastic with me when I asked if he could check on our table when we were 20 minutes post our reservation time (9 pm). Food was a mixed bag. There were lots of things I wanted to try on the menu and I thought the Orient Express theme worked better than expected. The food we ordered didn't quite hold up to expectations: The poppyseed bread was a bit overcooked and not served with an appropriate serrated knife, so it was hard to slice the loaf yourself (maybe you're meant to break it off and touch the whole thing?). The souffle with mornay sauce was a bit overcooked or likely overwhipped and suffers in comparison to the frenchette omelettes, which are light in the perfect way, though it would make a good drunk snack. The crudo was delicious and light and tasty, if not distinctive in any way. Lamb goulash was rich but very nice. The duck with the stuffed cabbage foie was decently cooked but somehow a both heavy and a bit bland. Overall, I felt like the menu borrowed a lot from an association with Le Coucou without an impression that the kitchen has nearly the cooking chops. Prices felt very high, especially for the service level. Wine list was interesting in some places, but skewed very pricey, as I believe has been mentioned here. We ended up with the single turkish red, a cab merlot blend that was very nice for the price, which was about 1/2 of the rest of the lower priced wines on the list. It was the first night for our server Luis and he is a doll, but also it was clearly a first night. He was trying so hard, but overall everything felt disjointed. They sent out two desserts at the end as a slight acknowledgment of the mess, but that's my least favorite way of being comped, especially as compensation rather than a kitchen gift. I forgot to check if they removed our second cocktails or not, though I meant to ask them to. I hope they did.

You'd think that they could spell Pierre's name correctly or perhaps associate him with Table in addition to Clown Bar (since he had been the somm at CB like 2 years ago), but hey, why make it accurate? At least they explain basics of basque cuisine to folks who have no idea. Those pequillos rellenos are really really delicious, btw. We figured tonight he first served us wine at Bones. Yeah, he has been pretty much everywhere in Paris...

I'm there on Weds

Feed the visitors to a photography museum?

You'd think that they could spell Pierre's name correctly or perhaps associate him with Table in addition to Clown Bar (since he had been the somm at CB like 2 years ago), but hey, why make it accurate? At least they explain basics of basque cuisine to folks who have no idea. Those pequillos rellenos are really really delicious, btw.