Build up to GNR Nominations -- I like Le Titi de Paris

Okay -- GNR voting starts soon. This will be my first time nominating someone, and I've been advised that I need to talk up my nominee and build some steam to help it survive the weeding out process.

So once the nominations are officially open, I'll be nominating Le Titi de Paris in Arlington Heights. It's a high-end French restaurant that still manages to be accessible, user-friendly, and very much a neighborhood place. (You can stop in for coffee and dessert after the movies -- that's not going to happen at Everest.)

Michael and Susan Maddox, the chef/owners, are genuinely friendly, thoughtful people who take a great deal of pleasure in seeing diners take a great deal of pleasure in their food. The food is sensational (a foie gras and soufflees that compare favorably to those of Ambria -- back when Ambria could still serve foie gras), but everything is very accessible. You can blow through your inheritance if you wish (though not as quickly as at most other French spots of this caliber), but you don't have to -- from the $16 express lunch to the $78 six-course wine dinner, there are lots of dining options that get you plenty of bang for the buck.

The Maddoxes are enthusiastic instructors, as well, with fun classes on offer -- all including a full lunch with wine.

And it's French with flare -- not just French, but French international, with such delights as seared elk loin carpaccio or nut-crusted oysters.

The wine dinners are imaginative -- the end of the month is the Tour de France, with a different region's wine and cuisine featured each month (and not always the "usual" regions) and the International wine dinners the third Friday of the month, with wines from countries besides France (including the U.S.), often with some little educational perk, such as a lecture on the history of American Zinfandel.

I think that the combination of the delightful owners, the great food, the efforts to make everything as accessible as possible, the classes, and everything else that Le Titi offers, it's a natural for the Great Neighborhood Restaurant award.

So go, eat, enjoy -- and then vote for Le Titi de Paris once the whole GNR thing gets going.

Le Titi De Paris
1015 W Dundee Rd
Arlington Hts, IL 60004

Tel: (847) 506-0222

http://www.letitideparis.com/

Cynthia,

I've always been interested in this restaurant, though I have never been. Have you posted about any of the meals you have had there in the past?

There is a nice, very informative thread about it here:

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=5040

I’ll second the nomination.

We celebrated my nieces graduate school graduation in May here. We had eight people on a Saturday night. They ranged in age from my 11 year old son to my 88 year old father. They ranged from my sons level of about being happy with only six different meals to one of my brothers who is the Dining Director of a major destination resort and oversees six restaurants and banquet catering. My other brother is a well known regional wine judge.

All were impressed with Le Titi de Paris. The foie gras was declared the best she had ever had by my niece. I had the elk loin carpaccio and was very happy. Everyone was pleased with their dishes all around. The molten chocolate cake was a big hit with my son.

My brother was very pleased with their wine selection and picked a couple bottles of red and one white. Plus champagne to toast the graduate. Sorry I don’t remember what they were.

Service was just about perfect. They were attentive to any special requests even keeping my son happy with bottled orange flavored sparkling water from France. They were quick to pick up that it was a celebration and acknowledge my niece’s special day.

Overall everyone was very happy with the experience. The is a very good neighborhood restaurant even if it is relatively far from the city.

I'll third the nomination. I've been there numerous times over the years, mostly during Pierre Poulin's tenure, and it has always been excellent in every way.

wesuilmo wrote:The is a very good neighborhood restaurant even if it is relatively far from the city.

Actually, I think this is a strong point in favor of nominating it. GNR awards are heavily concentrated in the city, and a few in bordering towns, but there are some worthy places to eat in the more far-flung suburbs, which are too often overlooked by city residents. Le Titi has been serving wonderful food for many years, and it has become a real "neighborhood" institution in the northwest suburbs (which currently lack any GNR award winners). It deserves the recognition and is an excellent choice.

Just to clarify, this isn't actually the nomination process. In the past we've had nominations come out of the blue, and while there's nothing really wrong with that (hey, whatever gets people to post), it makes it less likely that such places will get the award if they haven't been talked about before the nomination process. So this is an attempt to encourage a little more pre-nomination discussion.

Not that that really affects this discussion, just pointing out that technically this isn't the nomination, it's what supports the nomination later. And remember, eventually we have to pull snappy quotes to go on the certificates, so this is an excellent time to be saying snappy things that really get at the heart of what you like about a place.

As far as geography goes, it is "Chicagoland," a slightly vague term but certainly one that takes in all suburbs and adjacent urban areas (including NW Indiana and who knows what else).

Please continue...

stevez wrote:Cynthia,

I've always been interested in this restaurant, though I have never been. Have you posted about any of the meals you have had there in the past?

I have been more generally effusive, rather than giving specifics, but I think a good example is a menu from a couple of years ago when I wanted to do something for my birthday. I sent Michael a list of ingredients -- had to see foie gras twice, had to see truffles twice, then listed my favorite meats and seafood, and asked him to simply create a menu for my birthday -- about $100 per person -- and I invited a few close friends. (As for dessert, I told him I favored the crispy napoleon with passion fruit cream -- a light, tart dessert -- but I said perhaps I should ask for something chocolate, in deference to the friends I had invited.)

When I arrived, the menu had been printed out and was at each place at our table. The Sommelier, James Crocker, had a table loaded with glasses nearby, and said he had come up with pairing for the dinner, if we wished to have wine with each course. We so wished, and that added considerably to the fun. (And as an additional nice touch, at the end of the meal, they handed out "updated" menus, with the wine selections added to the print out.)

Well, here's the menu: chilled garden gazpacho with chive foam (August birthday, hence the refreshing starter)' terrine of Canadian foie gras and perigord truffles with warm peach and ginger compote; seared sea scallops on shitake/cabbage slaw with saffron essence (this was made even more special by the fact that the Maddoxes brought in Michael's grandmother's china for serving this dish); petit napoleon of seared foie gras and Alaskan halibut; apricot lavender sorbet; Mediterranean scented lamb "T-bone," braised red cabbage and truffled lamb jus,; global cheese selection with homemade fruit nut bread; and grande finale desserts (they first brought mine out, with a birthday candle and Happy Birthday, Cynthia written in chocolate, but the slab of marble was decked with so many dessert choices that we thought it was for the whole table; as it turned out, each of us got a marble slab of desserts, with the napoleon with passion fruit cream that I love, plus a chocolate mousse, creme brulee, and a couple of other things I'm forgetting).

So a spectacular dinner. And the wine choices were great fun, too.


Then last year, I suggested to the president of the Napoleonic Alliance that this might be a good place to celebrate the birthday of l'Empereur, and so they asked that a menu be prepared ("surprise us" -- though at half the price of my dinner), and we had passed canapes, chilled rock shrimp and heirloom tomato gazpacho (Napoleon and I share August birthdays, so hot-weather soup was again appropriate); wild mushroom and sun-dried tomato ravioli with Perigord truffle infusion; green apple sorbet; seared New Zealand venison au poivre, wild rice galette, black currant essence; artisanal cheese plate; and (my favorite -- and appropriate for the day's namesake) Napoleon of passion fruit creme with fresh raspberries and blackberries.

So those are a couple of the custom menus I've enjoyed. I've also gone to dozens of their wine dinners, and they are always a delight.

But it's late, and I have to pack -- I'm moving tomorrow. So I'll have to save my witty blurb for the poster for another time (unless someone else can help me out here).

Hi,

I was there last week for lunch. The Express Lunch is a great value, and I really enjoyed the food. I had the 3-course lunch.

Velouté of Wild Mushroom & Thyme was a nice mushroom soup that I enjoyed. Very smooth, creamy and mushroom-y.

The Seared Balsamic Vinaigrette Beef Tenderloin was served with a salad and vegetables. Nice tenderloin with a hint of balsamic in the sauce.

The trio of desserts was delightful. The vanilla creme brulee was my favorite - nice vanilla flavor and great texture. The other two desserts, lavender ice cream and chocolate cake very also good.

That soup, salad, and balsamic beef combo is my favorite for a quick, lovely lunch. Glad you enjoyed it too, eggplant.

When did they take over the restaurant? I do not think I have been there for over 20 years (I believe I lived in Schaumburg at the time, so it is probably right around 23 years), in the old Rand Road location. It was not a bad meal, but not terribly inspiring so it fell off my radar and I guess I have more or less ignored anything I saw about it since then because I thought I knew it.

Silly me. Can anyone give me some sort of timeline as to when these changes occurred, just to confirm that everything I know is wrong as well as terribly outdated?

dicksond wrote:When did they take over the restaurant? I do not think I have been there for over 20 years (I believe I lived in Schaumburg at the time, so it is probably right around 23 years), in the old Rand Road location. It was not a bad meal, but not terribly inspiring so it fell off my radar and I guess I have more or less ignored anything I saw about it since then because I thought I knew it.

Silly me. Can anyone give me some sort of timeline as to when these changes occurred, just to confirm that everything I know is wrong as well as terribly outdated?

From their web site:

But legacies by definition are meant to be handed down. When the restaurant's founders, Chef Pierre and Judith Pollin, decided to retire, they had to look no farther than their own kitchen for an heir to their legacy. In July 2004, the torch passed from the hands of the Pollins to those of Pierre's long-time Executive Chef, Michael Maddox and Michael's wife, Susan.

=R=