Restaurant Montcalm — Restaurant in Paris

Imagine your good fortune when you've rented a friend's apartment for the week in Montmarte. It's your first time in Paris, and you truly have no expectations, other than hearing for decades how wonderful the food can be in France. Your apartment is one floor above street level and is next to a cozy restaurant named Montcalm. The menu is posted on the wall along the sidewalk, and it is refreshingly brief. Three entrées (appetizers), three plats (main courses), and two desserts. So on your second evening in Paris you make reservations for 8:00 pm, when the restaurant opens for dinner. The restaurant is closer to your apartment than your barbecue is to your house back home. The owners of the apartment you have rented haven't eaten there, because they have not been in Paris since the restaurant opened three years ago. And you are hoping for the best. For her apertif, your wife orders a kir of white wine and blackberry liquor, and to accompany her meal, a glass of Cote du Rhône.

For your entrée, you choose tartare de veau in a bed of crème de thon, sprinkled with crumbled parmesan. Guillaume brings out the appetizers and your hopes are confirmed. It really is the best. Your wife chose for her entrée the haddock croquette. A few shared bites later and you realize that there are no bad choices here; both dishes are wonderful. A bowl of baguette slices arrive. You eat very slowly in an effort to keep the flavor on your taste buds as long as you possibly can. In the meantime, the restaurant has filled to capacity, with only a couple of empty seats at tables that have only three diners rather than four. The phone rings periodically and you hear Guillaume deliver bad news. The restaurant is fully booked. You imagine there is crying and gnashing of teeth on the other end of the line.

There are twenty-six diners at their tables. Guillaume works the front and the Will, the chef, tends to the preparation of the food. A third person assists in the kitchen, and that is all. The efficiency is incredible. We are left to the enjoyment of our food and there is no interruption by the waiter every five minutes to inquire whether everything is okay. This is a welcome relief from such nonsense in American restaurants, where serving this many tables would require at least three waiters, two cooks, a host and a dishwasher.

The main courses are delivered by the chef; your volaille with mirabelle and fenouil (poultry with cherry plums and fennel) and your wife's pork with red cabbage. After the obligatory exchange of bites, a cheerful disagreement over who has the better meal goes unresolved. The conversation among the diners is very quiet. The atmosphere is perfect. Nobody waits for a table; it becomes clear that there is but one seating per evening at Restaurant Montcalm. The dishes are perfect and we abandon our good manners to use the last of the baguette slices to collect the remaining sauce from the plates after the meal is complete.

Too satiated to even think about dessert, you order it anyway; your wife's pannacotta is exactly as it should be and your chocolate ganache with hazelnuts and pecans was the perfect end to a...

Je vous rassure, la cuisine du restaurant est excellente, et renouvelée toutes les semaines. Vous ne serez pas déçu par les saveurs et l'originalité de la carte.

Alors pourquoi ai-je décidé de ne plus aller au Montcalm ?

Après m'être attablé une vingtaine de fois en une année, avoir vendu ce lieu auprès de mes amis, ma famille...ce n'est pas de bonté de cœur que je m'interdis d'y aller dorénavant. Je me suis amusé à faire des calculs: de façon directe ou indirecte (via mes convives ou par le bouche à oreille), j'ai sans exagération aucune contribué au chiffre du restaurant à hauteur de 4000 euros en l'espace d'une année (dont au moins le tiers à moi tout seul). Sans parler de ce que je ne peux pas "mesurer", il suffit de voir mes commentaires Google des restos concurrents à proximité, je citais toujours le Montcalm en référence absolue !

Le serveur, rustre, nonchalant et taciturne ne lâche jamais son portable et a une carapace qu'il est compliqué de percer... à part pour parler des vins à la carte, vous n'échangerez pas plus de 3 mots avec lui. C'est bien dommage...mais ce n'est pas tout. Si on ne choisit pas un restaurant seulement pour la sympathie de son personnel, on n'y va pas non plus uniquement pour sa générosité bien entendu. C'est surtout vrai si vous êtes un client occasionnel ou ponctuel. Mais sur le long-terme c'est un critère qui compte nécessairement. Je n'ai jamais eu la chance d'avoir un digestif, un verre de vin offert ou un simple geste commercial...alors que je ne lésinais jamais sur les pourboires ! (à minima 5 euros pour un ticket individuel à 50 balles...).

Je précise que ce n'est pas uniquement mon histoire personnelle, de bons amis habitant le quartier ont également arrêté d'y aller pour les mêmes raisons. C'est d'ailleurs en discutant avec eux et en découvrant d'autres spots (et façons d’accueillir) que je me suis rendu compte que cela n'était pas normal. Après 3 passages aux Darons, le proprio se cale à ta table, boit des coups avec toi, t'offre des digestifs...des assiettes de charcuterie. Idem Maison Lacaille, Restau 975, le Bon La Butte...etc. Bref dans 99% des cas, les restaurants apprécient de fidéliser leurs bons clients et le font même naturellement.

Dommage la team Montcalm, continuez comme ça et à part vos potes ou des gens "de passage", personne ne viendra plus chez vous...être doué en cuisine ne vous dispensant pas de la courtoisie la plus élémentaire & le sens du service propres à votre métier. Il aurait suffit de pas grand chose mais être commerçant n'est visiblement pas donné à...

This restaurant is amazing! We had intended to go twice as the menu changes frequently, but were only able to go once. My first course was crab meat with a puree of eggplant, which was perfectly done, but not accorded to my particular taste. Even so, it was quite good and I cannot complain however as the execution was immaculate. The wine was excellent and perfectly fitted to the meal. For my entrée I had eggplant and tuna steak in squid ink. I was initially somewhat underwhelmed - neither was exceptional alone. - however after a few bites I realized that the eggplant and tuna were meant to be experienced together and the incredible marriage of the two flavors in my mouth completely changed...