In this corner of the 19and arrondissement of Paris, the streets are brighter than elsewhere. Is it due to the lower buildings, to the topography, which places the rue de la Villette on a plateau at the top of the Buttes-Chaumont, or to the people of the neighborhood? Maybe a bit of all that, the walker thinks when he comes across Soces.
At the corner of rue Fessart and rue de la Villette, this former bar where a delicious blanquette of veal was tasted fifteen years ago has become the haunt of three accomplices, three “soces”, three “friends”, associated for better bring their talents together around an idea: to open a place as delightful as the old Parisian brasseries, as Lipp was in his time.
Of course, Kevin Deulio, Marius de Ponfilly and Adrien de Liedekerke have injected their contemporary know-how into it. The first was deputy director of the Ritz brasserie (at the reopening), the second, chef at Clamato, as for the third, he is an antique dealer at the Saint-Ouen flea market, specializing in lighting.
The latter has therefore warmed up the atmosphere of the room with simple and judicious aesthetic choices, thereby underlining the philosophy of Soces, which its two partners set to music all day long. Kevin Deulio, impressed by “the scaler who curdled the loaves” downstairs from his home when he was a child, wanted to pay homage to this profession by offering seasonal seafood (presented inside, next to the bar), open by the minute. Marius de Ponfilly, he works for the right atmosphere by sending dishes without fuss.
Seafood drizzled with homemade vinegar
So it will be a plate of cherrystone clams (the American clam) to start. This shellfish with amber and resistant flesh finds all its expression under a few drops of homemade vinegar, an elixir of lively sweetness. It is made from a wine vinegar from one of the winegrowers who supply Soces with good skittles. There macerate the peelings of the apples used for a tarte tatin (thunderous, it seems). Finally, it is lengthened with a juice of these same apples, coming from Provence.
Drizzled with such nectar, the seafood platters could be the sole centerpiece of the meal. But that would be to miss a frisée with bacon bits which reconciles with the frisée aux bacon bits (neither too bitter nor not enough; the runny egg yolk coats the grilled bacon bits to the point of being slightly caramelized…). Not to mention the sausage-mash whose execution does honor to the frankness of the appellation, the creamy butter in addition.
Finally, for dessert, the cabbage has a light dough (a little too much, perhaps) and the skillful cream is dressed in a subtly sweet praline, leaving gourmets unsatisfied. The ensuing frustration is delightful, if naughty. It makes those who are not subjected to it want to laugh, the observer of the desperate mimics of those who are looking for more sugar and who end up understanding that their happiness does not depend on “always more”, but rather on “always there”, hoping that Soces stays there for a long time.
The address Soces, 32, rue de la Villette, Paris 19and. Such. : 01-40-34-14-30. Open Thursday to Monday from 12:15 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.
The essential dish Cherrystone clams.
The detail that is not a Homemade vinegar.
The bill 22 euros for lunch, around 40 euros in the evening.