a taste of paris (café campagne, post alley)

New Chanel shoes should be broken in with a taste of Paris, and thus we set off to Café Campagne for dinner last night. The younger sibling of the former restaurant Campagne (closed as of January 2011 and recently replaced by Marché, a bistro and wine bar), this charming bistro has been pleasing Seattle diners for years.

Café Campagne: 1600 Post Alley

Café Campagne is located in Post Alley at Pine Street, just up from the main entrance of Pike Place Market. At 8 pm on a Friday night, all the tables were full and service was in full swing  -- reservations are definitely recommended! The dining room has two areas: one to the right that faces towards Pine Street with views of the Market and the glowing Post Alley sign, and one to the left with windows looking out into Post Alley. There is some bar seating towards the back of the room, and there is a small area for outdoor seating during the summer months.

View of the dining room facing out towards Pine Street.

The restaurant has a casual, French bistro vibe with mid-priced food to match. We began with a country style paté of pork and chicken liver that was served on a plate with a small salad, cornichons, two mustards (yellow and whole grain), olives, and marinated onions. The paté had a smooth, rich texture and was pretty tasty with the mustards, but alone it was pretty muted in flavor.

Paté de Campagne: Country-style pork and chicken liver paté.

Next, we split a beet and hazelnut salad, or salade aux betteraves et noisettes. The butter lettuce leaves were drizzled with a hazelnut vinaigrette and fanned into a circle around the plate with a scattering of marinated beets peeking out from underneath. Atop the leaves were onion slivers, Roquefort cheese, and toasted hazelnuts. The Roquefort cheese was the star component of this salad, giving each bite an intense sweet and salty flavor with slight tanginess that nicely complemented the tangy beets and sweet, buttery lettuce.

Salade aux betteraves et noisettes: Butter lettuce with hazelnut vinaigrette,
marinated beets, Roquefort cheese, onions, and toasted hazelnuts.

For our entrées, we selected the cassoulet and duck confit. The cassoulet was brought to the table in a personal-size Le Creuset stoneware pot, or cocotte, and the server lifted the lid to reveal the fragrant, steaming white bean stew of lamb, pork, duck confit, and garlic sausage covered with a golden brown bread crumb topping. He served a portion of the cassoulet was ladled onto my plate, and then placed the lid back on the pot to keep warm. With my mouth watering, I took my first bite of the cassoulet and was not disappointed. Every piece of meat was fork-tender and delicious, and the white beans added a delicate, creamy flavor. I kept lifting the lid of the pot to scoop out more of this hearty cassoulet, and there was more than enough to satisfy my appetite.

Cassoulet served table-side in an individual stoneware cocotte.

White bean cassoulet with lamb, pork, duck confit, and garlic sausage.

Our second entrée was the confit de cuisse de canard -- crispy duck leg confit served with thyme skillet potatoes. It was served in an individual cast iron skillet, the duck leg hanging partially over the edge and three large potato slices next to it. The potatoes were perfectly cooked to be crispy on the outside and moist and fluffy on the inside; however, the duck was just your average duck. The skin was nicely browned and crisped, but the meat lacked the tender, juiciness expected from a duck leg confit. That's not to say it was bad, as it was certainly edible and tasty, but the flavors were almost too simple and the duck leg seemed to be cooked for a few minutes too long.

Confit de cuisse de canard: Crispy duck leg confit with thyme
skillet potatoes.

As French desserts are my favorite, we took the risk and ordered not one, but two desserts to complete our meal. The first, a lavender ice cream, was smooth and creamy with a fragrant, floral flavor. You could almost smell the lavender blossoms in each bite. The cardamom fennel crème brûlée was served warm and had a lovely glass-like burnt sugar topping. Both desserts were served with a classic French butter cookie, a breton sablé, that was generously covered in confectioner's sugar. The cookie was so light and buttery -- I could have eaten a plateful of them! It was a wonderful end to a (mostly) scrumptious meal.

Dessert: Lavender ice cream.

Dessert: Cardamom fennel crème brûlée.

hhf says: In general, Café Campagne offers good French bistro fare. However, while some dishes were outstanding, others were rather disappointing. I enjoy the atmosphere and would return again, but I would be very selective about what to order! 

Chanel CC logo black leather pumps with patent leather toes
and heel accents. 

Patent leather toes with CC logo.

New(!) shoes: Chanel CC logo black leather pumps with patent leather toes and silver ring accents on the heels.