Down in Saint Domèthe…

The opening of a brasserie in Ayios Dometios has added to its French flavour
IF YOU wander down Gregori Axfentiou street in Ayios Dometios these days, past Zannetos’ bike shop and on towards the church, you may spot, on your left, a small center of gastronomic excellence. Or you may not. So little does it draw attention to itself that you could drive straight past without knowing it was there. But try not to do that. Stop at no. 103, go in and sample the délices. It is new, it is verrry verrry Frrrrrench, and it is the Brasserie Au Bon Plaisir.

Until recently Au Bon Plaisir was a small traiteur tucked away in old Nicosia where determined members of the French community and Cypriots nostalgic for their student bouffe in Toulouse went to buy rillettes and pate de foie gras. In Ayios Dometios, at the new establishment, there is still a little outlet for the purchase of products from their delicatessen including a never-ending supply of the ultimate French experience – Caramba toffee bars for children of all ages.

Au Bon Plaisir follows the good French principle that when in Rome… just do exactly as you would at home in France. I suppose they must have picked Ayios Dometios because the newly-laid cobbled thoroughfare reminded them of Monmartre. Or maybe not!. But the brasserie keeps traditional hours – closing on Mondays and opening every other day from 11:00am – in time for the first kir or cognac of the day - and closing late evening, after evicting the last drunken clochards out on to the rain-soaked Parisian streets to sleep off their onion soup. Well maybe I am dreaming but the experience is certainly so French that you could forget which city you were stepping back out into.

Although the majority of Au Bon Plaisir’s rapidly growing clientele are Francophile or Francophone Cypriots, the only Cypriot I have seen eating there myself is the one I took there for lunch last week. For me the sensation of being in real French France was reinforced by the place being full on that occasion of the usual suspects that I know from the French School gate, the French Choir and Vivre a Chypre functions. That is a good enough indication of the authenticity of the place I should think – tantamount to hanging up the traditional notice claiming “Le Patron Mange ici”.
So what could the Patron eat in his own establishment? The bill of fare is not only mouthwatering but also little short of hilarious, despite time my friend and I devoted to annotating one of the menus with some suggested new translations. Apparently they have now adopted these “improvements” to general outrage. After all, isn’t it so much more charming to be offered “ Foie Gras in Block to the Cut? Duck Foam? Quail pot in Glass casings? White Pudding with Truffle Juice?” And of course “our usual specialties which became legendary” the Jambon de Paris the Goose rillettes and the traditional andouillette to quote but three.”

If you are expecting snails and frogs legs and just about the smelliest cheese board in the southern Mediterranean you will not be disappointed. There are excellent quiches and “tartiflette” a sort of gratin of potatoes and cheese, steaks/frites with real haricots and other regulars on the usual brasserie menu. And also non-regulars “according to the chef’s mood…” I wonder what he produces when he is in a bad mood… Something flambé, I’ll wager.

The décor is simple and unfussy and entirely appropriate; as is the service. There are usually temporary exhibitions hanging on the walls such as the “Designs and Creations” of artist Darrin Wheeler which can be seen in there at the moment.

There is a good wine list with two more than drinkable house wines of which one – Nicholaides - is made by a Frenchman in Cyprus and can be purchased at the French wine merchant, Le Sommelier, just down the road. In fact while you are in the area you can call at the French style boulangerie, Noufaro, for the nearest thing to pain de campagne and croissants available in a large radius. And then fortified by all that you can drop into the French Cultural Center and spend the afternoon taking French lessons or reading Proust in the original… one way or another we residents of Nicosia’s now famous French Quarter are beginning to feel it is time to rename it Saint Domèthe…

l Au Bon Plaisir: for reservations and further information telephone: 22 755111