Gerard Mulot Tea Room : Dainty Delicacies
After my pastry splurge at Le Meurice, I was having a bout of craving for more cream! Now that I can magically eat dairy again, I have been going slightly overboard on occasion often. My friend Holly, from the expat group I am a member of, who has been in Paris for just a short year suggested a place to me that SHE discovered and was très enthusiastic to show to me (so I could share it with all of you!). And what a find it is. If you live in the 6th arrondissement in the Luxumbourg gardens/Odéan quarters, you surely have heard of the pastry shop Gerard Mulot. They are a family fun business, that has been helping Parisians indulge in pastries, macarons and other incredible delights for years… Since 1975to be exact.
Gerard Mulot is a dedicated and creative artisan pastry chef who excells in quality and high end flavor packed delights. In the 1980’s he added a chocolate line to his shelves, and even opened a smaller boutique in the Butte aux Cailles neighborhood. His newest endeavor is a tea room. Just steps away from the pastry shop on rue de Seine, is the Salon de thé L’Amaryllis where you can have lunch, or tea and pastries from 11am to 6:30pm.
I was very impressed with the décor which has a feminine feel to it, without the rococo-pompadour-marie-antoinette style. (There are plenty of other places for that in Paris!). This was done by an Italian designer, and offers an elegant space that is a light and airy as it is charming.
We had a light lunch to save room for pastries after. I had an absolutely perfect shrimp salad with avocados and grapefruit. Holly had a mushroom omelet that came with an equally mouth watering mini salad. I ate every bite. I will return there when I have a shrimp craving. And so should you! (This coming from someone who grew up on Cape Cod, so I can be critical of a dish with shrimp!)
I can’t remember what Holly’s dessert was called, but it was chocolate and praline and almond encrusted indulgence. Fluffy and light, and rich like Rockefeller. As for moi, I was coming down from my lemon tart high at Le Meurice and needed a fix, so I ordered the lemon tart. It wasn’t as incredible as the one from Le Meurice, but it comes in third (my grandmother’s lemon pie comes second). I was in awe of the dextrous handiwork it must have taken to get the sugar drippings to land exactly on the edge of the meringue. That’s talent.
Everything was a delight to taste, and look at. The Mulot family business understand aesthetics!
