A Noste
David, 2014-12-22
07:23
Although
I’m trying to make it less-so, it’s rare that I go out to lunch with
friends. People tend to think that everybody in Paris sits around all
day, eating dainty macarons and sipping a coffee at the corner café
watching the world go by, while you’re all working away. But most of us
are swamped like everybody else (including you), hurdling toward
deadlines, waiting on hold to resolve problems, filing paperwork, or, as
in my case, washing sinkloads of dishes. (Honestly, I don’t know where
they all come from…)
So
it’s nice every once in a while to just say, f**k it, ping a friend, and
head out to lunch.
 On
my list of places to go was A Noste,
the Basque restaurant and tapas bar of Julien Doboué. Upstairs is a
full-on restaurant, and downstairs is a lively tapas bar which has,
parked against one wall, a food truck. While my first inclination was to
think the concept of an indoor food truck silly, the truck is actually a
charming “grilling” station that turns out taloa
(sometimes called talo,
which at A Noste, is a pocket bread-style sandwich made with bread
crunchy with cornmeal. I’ve seen taloa
described as “skillet cakes,” which resemble Mexican-style tortillas, but
at A Noste,
they’re split and filled with everything from chorizo sausage to Nutella.
(Which is for dessert.)
Ever
since I heard about it, I’ve wanted taloa.
So it was nice to have a rendez-vous with one. But like the frequent fermertures exceptionelles
(closed for whatever reason), I was disappointed when the chalkboard
outside said “Seulement
à emporter” (to-go only). However when the server greeted us
as we walking in the door, I asked if we could have one at a table if we
ordered tapas, and he happily said “Sure!” One of the challenges in
France can be getting people to go from “Non” to “Oui.” And either I’m
getting better at it, or they are. Either way, it’s nice to find common
ground.
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