New this year on the Alsace Wine Route, Caroline Furstoss and her team have reborn the former village hall in Mittelwihr as a manifesto: on the left, a boutique where bottles line up like promises; on the right, a luminous bistro room, whose layout combines simplicity with attentive attention to detail. Between Riquewihr and Kaysersberg, at the foot of the Mandelberg, the location is strategic, giving the address an almost natural geographical obviousness. The deliberately compact menu reflects a concern for freshness and a clear culinary style, where maritime inspiration coexists with homemade tradition, a reflection of chef Michaël Schirr's Breton origins. Scallops with vegetable charcoal, served warm, seduce with their firm, pink flesh, while a Thai basil mayonnaise, frank and well salted, gives them the necessary relief. The filet of saithe in a crust, topped with a fine puff pastry and delicately isolated by a grating of celery, illustrates a technique respectful of the product, supported by a beurre blanc with a touch of acidity. The beef and carrots, a brasserie dish par excellence, is convincing thanks to the tenderness of the meat and, above all, the aromatic juices, sufficiently concentrated to become the soul of the dish. The Bourdaloue tart, served warm, rests on a fresh frangipane. The vanilla-strawberry vacherin, on the other hand, suffers from too direct a passage from the freezer to the table: the excessively hard texture and congealed whipped cream, marked by the cold, detract from the expected pleasure. In the dining room, the presence of Caroline Furstoss is reassuring, but she doesn't fully assert herself in the role of sommelier that her career - from the Shangri-La to Jean-François Piège's Grand Restaurant - would have led us to expect, when it comes to choosing wines, which are entrusted to a waitress. The menu, on the other hand, asserts a strong identity by presenting Alsace as a Rhine vineyard, stretching from south to north as far as the Rheingau in an original cultural and cross-border interpretation, a singular and stimulating idea.
Michaël Schirr Chef
