Pastry chef Nicolas Multon has left the Villa René Lalique to open, with the help of Carine Clément, a tasting salon in an 18thᵉ century building near Place Gutenberg. The narrow house runs over several levels: patisserie on the first floor, salon on the first, in a sober, contemporary gray-toned decor by AEA Architectes. The "patisserie cuisine" - an original concept - is characterized by a pronounced taste for plant-based ingredients and an assertive locavorism. It is presented with elegance, sometimes "up and down", carried by inventive flavors that never forget the gourmet touch. Butternut squash plays a milky-acidic chord with mushrooms, burrata and pickles, in an audacious tray of compressed croissant dough, structured on top and then, underneath, in a bowl garnished with squash tagliatelle and a balanced vadouvan velouté. The next treat is a caramelized Roscoff onion: layered on ginger-lemon spinach, it's enhanced by fine lardons, a light foam and a crisp puff pastry toast. The three-toque desserts are prepared just like in a restaurant. The warm chocolate tart comes out of the oven, topped with a grué ice cream: the chef pours a sweet-acidulated cabosse mucilage in the room that propels the whole into haute pâtisserie. Chestnuts in a variety of textures are punctuated with mushroom slices in the spirit of a walk in the woods. The drinks menu assumes an enlightened brevity: a few French signatures and Alsatian wines chosen for their accuracy, a micro-selection of excellent teas with a remarkable Miyazaki shincha, three so-called "gourmet" coffees roasted by Reck and served in piston form, and an intense, well-balanced Valrhona hot chocolate, which stands out here as the Strasbourg benchmark in the field.