In and around Chablis, late April 2014: L'Hostellerie des Clos, Le Bistrot des Grands Crus, and Signé Chablis

After a rejuvenating lunch minutes from CDG (http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/976126), we made our way to the A6, and eventually Chablis, where we finally found the delightful chambre d’hote, La Maison du Moulin de Roches, http://www.chablis-maisondumoulindesr..., a 15-20 minute walk over small rivers and streams to the center of town and its restaurants. The helpful and engaging young proprietor, Thierry Grandet (we met his wife, Anne, only as we were departing), made all dining reservations for us after we consulted by email. Dinner at Le Bistrot des Grands Crus was good, but not great-- (it’s hard to forgive one of the two eggs in the meurette being hard boiled). The two standout dishes: Fish stewed in Chablis, and Andouillette de Chablis. There was a decent selection of local namesake wines in demis. http://www.bistrotdesgrandscrus.com/i...

Dinner at L'Hostellerie des Clos, http://www.hostellerie-des-clos.fr/re... , was about what we expected: Elegant, rather formal (but not too stuffy), and costy. We asked to be seated as far as possible from a loud and large group of fellow Californians who were enjoying an organized wine and dining tour. Standout: One of us got the “menu morilles,” featuring three dishes exploiting that favorite fungus. There’s a pretty good selection of demis; we had a Chablis grand cru and a nearby Irancy. Looking back at the 18 dinners and lunches we had on this trip (we still lost weight because we walked so much -- including all of Chablis’ seven grand crus), this evening, although pleasant and good, did not make the top five in terms of overall enjoyment. We suspect, like mangeur, that we are increasingly drawn to places with more “soul.” And we found a few of those later in the trip . . . .

Perhaps our highlight of food and wine in Chablis was our light lunch of bread, sausage and cheese, along with an organized wine tasting session of the four grades (petit Chablis, Chablis, 1er, and grand cru) at “Signé Chablis,” http://caviste-chablis.fr This is a new wine shop on the main street, where you can taste with simple foods and buy wines from many (about 100?) producers in the area. We were very well entertained and educated there by one of the proprietors, Guillaume Bardet. -- Jake