Café Zinette: bistro plenitude
Café Zinette Café Zinette. It’s as if time has no hold on this bistro perched high above Lancy. During lunch, a carefree attitude takes over from daily obligations. We’re almost lounging around, leaving our worries behind as soon as we step through the door. Without realizing it, the restaurant also serves as an outlet and intermediary in our lives. What roles we impose on it! Without asking for it, and without giving it back.
Looking around, you can see the joy of the guests feasting at Olivier Foux and Matthieu Mayor’s restaurant. Some tables are drinking wine, others not, but the happiness is palpable, even infectious. In contrast to a capricious summer, the terrace is a must on this almost-summery day, allowing you to enjoy those precious rays of sunshine that make life even more beautiful. A rare moment, let’s seize it. We stay in the water… when reason prevails over passion! With a broad smile, we welcome Francis Bernier back to the gourmet den that helped shape him (and vice versa).
“Steak frites
My visit dates back to the beginning of September, so I’m sure the food has changed, if you’ll excuse me. Rest assured, the story will not be marred. We proceed in sharing mode. It’s true that the titles appeal to us, and we choose the raw yellowtail in strips on a watermelon soup spiced with lime, which invigorates the palate. A marine sweetness combined with the freshness of a light fruit. The veal and anchovy carpaccio, in vitello tonnato mode, surprises with its incisiveness, either on a plate unearthed at a flea market or taken out for a Sunday family lunch.
We could have been tempted by the grilled octopus with black garlic vinaigrette and hummus, or by the secreto de cochon à la tigre qui pleure and Thai salad, but it was a fine piece of mature beef that seduced us. With its parsley butter and Andalusian sauce, the pleasure cursors are in overdrive in front of the meat and its “giant” fries. Carnivorous moments are few and far between, so we’re delighted by this feast. Mastery in the kitchen is the work of the tandem behind the stoves: Jérémie Jobard and Alban Mestre. It’s at the turn of a chocolate mousse that we become aware of the precious moment we’ve just experienced. A culinary moment, certainly, but above all a human moment. As gifts that life offers us, let’s cherish these interludes generously granted by the whole Café Zinette team.
