Tati Bistro Channels Paris’s Left Bank

June 10, 2009

Intimate Tati Bistro channels Paris's Left Bank with bare, dark-wood tables, hardwood floors and tiny dark-wood bar.

Tati is my new fave French bistro.

Tucked away on Harbord’s eclectic Restaurant Row, Tati is the brainchild of Laurent Brion (ex-Teatro and short-lived Eight Lounge) and proves that just about all French chefs secretly long to cook the homestyle food they ate growing up.

Exhibit A: Textbook escargots, tender ’n’ sweet, loaded with sliced mushrooms in a deeply garlicky veal-jus broth to make a French grandmother weep.

Soups excel. One night, there’s silky green-pea puree perfumed with mint leaves. Another time, there’s an equally smooth celery-root, sweetened with apple, that’s like warm velvet.

I can’t get away from the black cod, with its custardy flesh nuzzling parchment-crisp skin.

Puckery lemon tart, crowned with a thin crème-brulee crust, sends smiles around the table

On two recent visits, there’s a problem with timing, as two courses worth of apps arrive within minutes of each other, causing a tabletop traffic jam.

And with its bare, dark-wood tables, hardwood floors and tiny bar, the cozy, street-level room channels Paris’s Left Bank.

Upstairs, there’s a private, 35-seat bar that could easily double as a business-meeting space.

In summer, a leafy, 35-seat ‘treehouse’ patio provides an intimate outdoor setting for Brion’s deftly prepared bistro fare.

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