Dinner with Davé

Nine years ago we took a holiday in Europe, spending six days in Rome, six in Venice and six in Paris. It was a fabulous trip, the success of which was unquestionably attributed to the incredible amount of research her indoors undertakes before we head off on these expedition.

When we got to Paris we were in a hotel in Rue de Richelieu, just around the corner from the Palais Royale (and very near the fabulous model soldier shop “Les Drapeau de France”).  It was not the most impressive hotel in Paris, but it wasn’t expensive, it was clean, quiet and for people like us that like to walk when we visit foreign cities it was just a few hundred metres from the Louvre and gave easy access to other locations of interest, either on foot or by Metro. While the hotel had a breakfast bar it lacked a restaurant, but who needs to dine in hotel in a city of 1,000 restaurants, right? As a part of her research, her indoors had noted twenty or more dining options of interest within a relatively tight radius of our residence.

One of those places of interest that we decided to give a go was a Chinese restaurant just a few doors down from the hotel under the name ‘Davé’ (pronounced Dah-VAY). It’s street frontage was rather plain with a very 1960’s hippie/psychedelic looking sign above the door and oddly for a Parisian restaurant there was no menu or hours of trade displayed.

We had no idea if we needed to book a table so we just wandered in through the double doors, pushing past a heavy velvet curtain into the plush interior of red and gold. The walls were covered with hundreds of photographs of the the rich and famous. In my initial glance I caught sight of images of David Bowie and his wife Iman,  Leonardo DiCaprio, one of the Kardashians, one who I thought looked like Scarlet Johansen and some faces I recognised but couldn’t put names to.

The maître’d asked if we had a booking and when we said no seemed a little confused about what to do with walk-ins like us and consulted with a man we soon came to know as Dave, the owner. Dave said he was booked out, but could fit us in if we were early diners which we were, although at 7:30 we would consider that late-ish (but then again no self-respecting restaurant in Paris opens until after 7:00). We sat down and he said he would be with us shortly. There was no menu and no wine list on the table.

Dave soon came back and introduced himself as Dave Cheung, a native of HongKong whose family had emigrated  to France in the 1960’s. We chatted with him for a while about where we were from and what we had seen. He was a very amiable chap. He explained  that his restaurant had become the haunt of the Paris fashion set, in fact he really only opened for a few weeks a year around the Paris Fashion Week (and we were in the middle of Fashion Week) and that was why the walls were festooned with photos of the famous and fashion icons.

He then told us there is no menu. Instead he talks to us, gets to know what we like or don’t like then based on that and what is available in the kitchen he serves what he thinks would suit, along with a wine match. So we discussed that I can’t eat seafood and her indoors in gluten intolerant and he said OK and went away. Shortly after a very nice bottle of wine arrived, a Chablis if I recall correctly, followed by two entrées. Delicious and plentiful. Then the main courses came, then dessert, all equally delicious.

As the time ticked past 8:30 the restaurant was beginning to fill up and Dave seemed to be in his element - these were clearly his fashion customers and he flitted amongst them easily switching languages between French, English and Cantonese. We figured that we should honour our early diners pledge and readied to leave. I said to her indoors that this was not going to be a cheap dinner and I headed to to the counter to pay. Davé came across asked if everything was OK and we had a bit more of a chat. There was no bill, he just did some sort of quick mental calculation and came up with a figure. Expecting a huge bill I was pleasantly surprised to find that the price was no higher than any other Parisian bistro. Dave shook hands, wished us well and we went on our way. It was a lovely dinner and he had been a charming host.

We were back in Paris in August 2018 and were keen to visit again, but the place was closed. Apparently Dave had retired in February of that year and just shut up shop.

So what connection does all this have with a wargames blog? Absolutely nothing…aside from the fact that we were reminiscing about that evening as I was painting the last few figures of the Tirailleurs Algériens. I thought I might be able to forge some sort of vague link between the Tirailleurs and Chinese food, but nothing really…then again, two companies of the 2nd Tirailleurs, along with each two from the other Tirailleurs regiments, were formed into a composite battalion that participated in the Cochinchina Campaign from 1858-1862, an operation that marked the commencement of French colonisation in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, and Davé’s cuisine was listed as Chinese/Vietnamese…a tenuous link for sure, but it seemed a good enough excuse to write about that memory - you know, our brush with the rich and famous in Paris, not that we actually saw anyone rich or anyone famous, of course.

And so to the toys, here is the third and final battalion of the 2nd Regiment Tirailleurs Algériens.

And here are all three battalions of the regiment.