In Like With Cafe de Paris

Eyeing my audience at , I tried to surreptitiously scribble notes and snap photos without attracting undue attention. “Table for two?” the hostess/server had suggested when I entered, only to have me affirm my solo status. I now found myself seated smack dab in the middle of the French eatery’s dining room, a handful of couples seated side-by-side around the perimeter.

There’s just nothing quite like dining alone at a romantic French restaurant on the day after Valentine’s Day.

At this point in my food-writing career, I’m not especially self-conscious about being the lone patron at a table. Thus no pangs of loneliness hit as the waitress enthusiastically belted to the kitchen, “Bread for one!” Instead, I took time to take in my surroundings and pore over the menu of Café de Paris, a homey establishment located on Main Street just off the Edmonds waterfront. An instrumental version of Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” played, somewhat contradictory to the abundance of cheery Valentine’s Day decorations.

As Café de Paris is to my knowledge the only French restaurant in Edmonds, I decided I’d better go big or go home. And what better way to go big than with a plate of tiny escargot ($8.50)?

Here’s the thing about escargot, though … snails just inherently are not a pretty food. It helps when they’re dressed up in bleached white shells or baked in pots featuring an individual nest for each little critter. Bowties and tuxedos optional. Café de Paris takes a straightforward approach with its snails — six escargot unceremoniously plated in a piping hot green sauce. To the café’s credit, the tender snails didn’t suffer from overcooking.

If you aren’t well-versed in the snail genre, be advised that on their own, escargot are fairly bland and take on the flavor of the featured sauce. In this case Café de Paris’s sauce of butter, garlic and parsley could have a tangy kiss of lemon or white wine. As it was, it left me pining for something else in which to dip the complimentary hot, crusty baguette delivered to my table. Considering that butter is the sweetheart ingredient of French cuisine, I was a bit surprised that my bread was partnered with two pre-formed foil-wrapped pats.

Café de Paris offers a fairly extensive menu of French favorites such as savory crepes, Coquilles St. Jacques ($20.95), Boeuf Bourguignon ($18.95), several steak preparations and poultry dishes featuring chicken and duck. On this night, specials of pan-fried halibut and minced veal stew (both $22) were also available. For those with a dinner date, Chateaubriand for two ($60) plus a selection from Café de Paris’s eleven Champagnes by the bottle is a recipe for romance.

As “Tears in Heaven” ebbed into classic French café music of piano and strings, I chose the poulet sauté chasseur (chicken sautéed in hunter’s sauce, $16.95) as my entrée. In the spirit of embracing my inner Francophile, I upped the ante for $6.95 and added a bowl of French onion soup and a green salad.

I love a good French onion soup, complete with a golden crown of cheese-topped baguette. The spoon dips beneath the gooey blanket to reveal a steamy, comforting broth rich with beef flavor and caramelized onion.

Café de Paris’s French onion soup isn’t as romantic as all that. The surface was a mish-mash of cheese and baguette, with char evident on the bread. While the onion-beef soup was a pleasant spoonful when scooped up with the its toppings, the dish fell short of the sublimity I sought.

My green salad was fresh but forgettable. The kitchen could have Frenched things up a bit more by topping it with a Nicoise olive rather than the standard black variety. My amiable server advised me that the dressing was “light vinaigrette,” and it was pedestrian yet passable.

More impressive was my entrée plate. My poulet sauté chasseur revealed itself as moist, tender pieces of chicken breast dressed in a red wine sauce featuring mushrooms, tomato and bacon. Red wine runs the risk of overpowering chicken, and in fact chasseur sauce is more typically used to dress strongly flavored meats and game. In this case the combination worked, however, and Café de Paris wisely did not overdo it with the bacon.

Joining my chicken were sides of creamed spinach, potatoes, green beans and carrots. Creamed spinach is a dish that can certainly go wrong but is difficult to make exceptional, and Café de Paris’s version is somewhere in the middle. I was disappointed in the flavorless potato slices but appreciated the beans and carrots being cooked to the point of being tender yet still bright. Arguably the plate teetered on the brink of trying to accomplish too much with its bevy of sides.

Certainly worth complimenting was the congeniality and attentiveness of Café de Paris’s hostess/server on the evening of my visit. Despite having had a late Valentine’s Day crowd the night before, she singlehandedly kept all her tables in good supply of food and beverage and was accommodating to guests’ special dietary needs. No flour? No dairy? No problem! Perhaps not what you might expect to hear at a French café.

While I don’t believe I found true and everlasting love at Café de Paris, friends of French fare should certainly consider a date with this Edmonds establishment. Perhaps not a prince, the restaurant is far from being a frog. Friendly service is good for the heart any day.