Chez Nous quick-lunch
It’s been a while since these matchbooks have been seen at Chez Nous, but the pommes are still dauphine, and the wines are still French only, and so’s most of the music floating out through the speakers at low volume. This building is familiar since the days when it housed Mama’s Money, a Cajun-style eatery, and had no air-conditioning. It’s been a while, though, since a lunchtime visit. If there was a prix-fixe option, it went unnoticed. We tried two of the day’s three soup specials, the asparagus (very rich) and the carrot-ginger with a mirepoix base, which was savory and very complex in flavor and something I’d hope to find on the menu frequently. As so many do, I enjoyed the salade Lyonnaise without the poached egg, which makes it salade non-Lyonnaise, but thus it has ever been. The specific lure for the destination-selecting person was the plate of seafood crepes. Today they were of salmon and shrimp, in generous measure. My delight was the trout meuniere, which came piping hot to the table, perfect in every way. Dessert for all was the customary big bowl of chocolate mousse, enjoyed with the excellent house coffee in its various forms, mine being expresso. We heard someone ask for “prophet-rolls.” The profiteroles here used to be filled with whipped cream; these days, vanilla ice cream is inside the cream puffs topped with a chocolate sauce. Iced tea arrived with a lemon wedge in a giant Chimay goblet and refills came without the need to ask for them. Taken a la carte (the good-sized bowl of wonderful soup, for instance, was a six-dollar item), this lunch, though unhurried but expeditious, was not on the inexpensive side. It was, however, well worth the money. And I don’t think that the fruits de mer crepes are on the evening menu.