Open: Monday to Saturday, 8am to 4.30pm
Phone: (09) 524 8524
We spent: $51 for two
Set up & site: Hell is other people blocking the view of the cheese cabinet in L'Atelier du Fromage on a Saturday morning. I want this place all to myself. There are many kinds of cheese. There are many kinds of everything French — charcuterie, pastries, cakes. The first challenge at L'Atelier is getting past the cabinets fecund with heavenly treats and climb the stairs for brunch. Some nice waiter takes pity — or possibly just wants me to get out of the way — and asks if I need help. "I've made a brunch booking for two." And they announce, somewhat triumphantly, as though I am Jane Birken herself, "Madam, you are upstairs."
Sustenance & swill: Upstairs it is wall-to-wall wine. I have had four hours sleep, I have a hangover and I am not of a wine state-of-mind. It's like having a hair of the dog by osmosis, being surrounded by all this wine. There are bottles and bottles, ceiling-to-floor, from a modest $12 to stratospheric hundreds. My companion arrives, dressed beautifully and not hungover. We share the table with a family of four. But it's spacious and we don't feel too close or as though we have to edit our conversation.
The menu is extraordinary. Small but perfect. There is a dish of the day, a ragout, which is a bit heavy for 11am. I choose the saucisson de canard aux trompettes de la mort — duck and black trumpet mushroom sausage, poached organic eggs and agria potatoes ($19). In characteristically understated French style, the menu doesn't explain that this is, in fact, a gratin so beautifully crafted it's a divine foil to the rich sausage and perfectly cooked egg. Linda has the rillettes de dorade et kahawai fumé — snapper and smoked kahawai terrine, with lemon, fine herbs and crayfish mayonnaise ($18). Linda would like a rosé. "Madam, there is no rosé, there is no pinot gris, but may I recommend a riesling, which will go perfectly with what you are having." Sold. I have a guava juice. We order two coffees — a soy flat white and a regular latte. The coffee is a bit weak. I needed some heavy artillery this morning and it was like a milky drink for a toddler. Everything else was truly make-you-melt magnifique. Chef Gilles Papst is a master in presenting a brunch that is at once elegant and satisfying. I don't even feel the need to order a millefeuille — which is just as well, because they'd sold out.
