For the last 20 years or so, my favorite 3 Star Michelin restaurant in France, hands down has always been Les Crayeres (located in Reims – The Champagne Country). It has never been cheap, but great food, the talent of a great chef, and great ingredients does cost! Since lunch took 3 hours (my kind of lunch) it was a destination for me just to eat. I would travel here from Paris, just to have lunch, whenever I visited France.
NOW….I am happy to announce that along with the incredible Le Parc gourmet restaurant, Les Crayeres has added Le Jardin Brasserie. Open 7 days a week, all year long with service until 10:30pm. Les Crayeres has created a unique place entirely designed around the champagne in order to make this divine wine accessible to all and one's budget (the restaurant offers a Euro 28 prix fixe meal - incredible!). That's a bargain, as the Le Parc restaurant meal can run you around 150 Euros per person.
The chef reinvents traditional recipes from Champagne and elsewhere. Of course when it comes to the ‘cave” La Jardin benefits from the unique experience of master sommelier, Philippe JAMESSE and a menu of 400 kinds of Champagne.
Les Crayeres is also a wonderful hotel (in the heart of Reims) and you might consider staying overnight.
Here is a review by Paris critic and author, Alexander Lobrano
Whether you live in Paris or are just visiting, Reims, the Champagne capital has always been a great day out. And now that this bubbly ville is only 45 minutes from Paris on the new TGV Est, it's more appealing than ever. They're the Champagne caves to visit, bien sur, but the locals museums are superb, too, as is the cathedral that so fascinated Monet. And with the opening of Le Jardin, the new brasserie at the famous Les Crayeres hotel-restaurant, the city also has a truly enchanting place for lunch. Le Jardin is also under the supervision of chef Didier Elena, the Monaco born chef who cooked chez Ducasse for several years, mostly notably in New York City. It's a great way to get at his cooking without spending an arm-and-a-leg, too, since the average bill at Le Jardin is about 45 Euros a head as opposed to 200 Euros a head at Les Crayeres. During a recent dejeuner a la campagne--it was such a pretty day that four of us jumped on the train and went to Reims just for lunch, we loved the superb charcuterie starter, which include some sublime jambon de Reims, red tuna and avocado tartare, and a terrific Caesar salad to start (Romaine with chicken, shrimp, a poached egg and a dressing with a perfect anchovy-Parmesan bite). Main courses were very good, too, including an excellent and very generously served gratin of crabmeat, rotisserie roasted pork belly, a textbook perfect sole meuniere, and boudin blanc with apple-onion compote. A tempting array of side dishes, a very American concept, included Parmesan-rosemary frites, haricots verts with toasted almonds, and a French take on onion rings, and in this arena, only the gnocci fell short of mark--texture all wrong and very bland. We finished up with one of the best lemon tarts any of us had eaten in a long time and also a wonderful nougat glace with caramel au beurre sale. Mark my words, someday scientists will discover that regular consumption of caramel au beurre sale (caramels made with salted butter) had been incontrovertibly proven to significantly improve the human life span. Weather permitting, Le Jardin also has a charming terrace overlooking the park-like setting of Les Crayeres, and if it's cool or rainy, a hip Soho inspired dining room by interior decorator Pierre Yves Rochon--think exposed brick walls, an open kitchen behind plate glass, factory lamps and big picture windows. The menu of 21st century comfort food has taken Reims by storm, too--many Champagne execs eat here every other day, so be sure to make a reservation. 7 Avenue du Général Giraud, Reims,
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Les Crayeres [or Boyer Les Crayeres as it was] was our favourite 1-2 night stay for birthdays and other anniversaries for many years.
Under the Boyers [Gerard and Elyane] and Gerard's outstanding Chef de Cuisine Thierry Voisin it was an outstanding hotel and restaurant [3 dining rooms].
However after Gerard retired early in 2002 a star was automatically deducted [so it hasn't been a 3* for over 5 years] although Thierry Voisin continued to produce the same delicious food and continued to meet his clientele in the dining rooms.
He finally left for the refurbished Hotel Imperial at the end of 2004 which signaled for us a decline in the ambience and the large corps of staff which had been a key part of the style and ambience of the place.
Despite the arrival of Didier Elena, a Ducasse protégé of real skill, Les Crayeres steadily became less and less attractive to us and our last visit was in 2007 and that after a break of 2 years - unprecedented for us since we used to go at least 2, sometimes 3 time a year.
We no longer go because the place has about half the staff of old and the ambience, enhanced by the present of locals at dinner, has been extinguished.
I now hear that Didier Elena has left to go to the South of France and sadly it has been impossible to find out, even from the hotel website, who the new Chef is although IIRC I did see that a young relative unknown had been appointed. No sign of him in any subsequent search though.
Very sad to lose such a favourite place and one wonders at how the management appears to have so completely lost the plot.
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