PARADOU
½
8 LITTLE W. 12TH ST.
AT Paradou, you’ll see things not normally encountered around the big city:Sliced radishes with butter and salt, in lieu of a breadbasket. Wine bottles plucked from a lofty perch with a pincer-topped pole. And a $15 panino.
Technically, that last one’s called a grilled sandwich. It’s as big as a personal-size pizza, and it’s filled with duck rillets. But still.
If I have one beef about this Meatpacking District newbie, it’s prices that seem a slightly plump fit for a petite wine bar and cafe with a name that’s Provencal for paradise.
But if your vision of heaven includes an ample selection of French wines, the 40-some varieties lining the sky-high back shelves will suit you nicely. And if rich morsels of foie gras piled atop crunchy tartine toasts figure in, this is your place. Lots of crepes and a few entrees, such as a sturdy cassoulet, also provide sustenance.
The wines are served in bottles or little carafes, to be poured into curvaceous glasses. Such touches add charm to a rustic room with whitewashed brick walls and a bar and tabletops made from wine crates. Francophiles manning the bentwood chairs range from chattering hot-spotters to scholarly types quietly playing backgammon.
Waiters somehow maneuver the shoehorn-tight space, ready to spout off recommendations.
“It’s the best sandwich in town,” ours says of the grille.
It is unique. The soft, gently spiced, fat-cooked duck plays off capers and roasted tomatoes in a rich and piquant dance. A good plan is to split this and each order a salad, such as cubed beets and field greens, though the blue cheese topping it one night was gooey ($10).
Blue cheese was a hit another night with a crisp-edged dessert crepe folded around it, roasted pear and a drizzle of lavender honey. Crepes come sweet, savory or in combos such as surprisingly good tapenade, green apple and roasted hazelnut. The cassoulet had creamy white beans, sausage and crackling-crisp duck leg ($20).
One last thing you won’t see anywhere else in New York is Durand’s chocolates. Paradou, which also has a summer garden for petanque (lawn bowling), is the exclusive supplier of these French confections spiked with exotic touches such as lavender blossoms, rosemary and black olives.
