Restaurant Visit: Le Doyenné, a Potager-to-Table Restaurant and Guesthouse
To be filed under the perfect overnight adventure from Paris: Le Doyenné is a destination restaurant and farm—with guest rooms—on the grounds of Château de Saint-Vrain. It’s a culinary lab for Australian chefs Shaun Kelly and James Henry, both of whom have made a splash in their adopted country: Kelly served as head chef at the Australian Embassy in Paris; Henry created the “furiously sceney” Paris bistro Bones.
Located 25 miles south of Paris, Château de Saint-Vrain was the Comtesse du Barry’s country seat; the Borghese family next moved in, followed by the Montemarts who have been in residence for the last two centuries. The chef-owners, along with the Mortemarts, have restored and converted Le Doyenné, the old barn on the property, into a glass-walled dining room overlooking their potager, which is run by Kelly as a model of not only sustainable but regenerative agricultural practices. And they’re added 11 lovely guest rooms, enabling some lucky diners to amble from garden to table to bed.
New York’s wunderkind chef Flynn McGarry recently made a pilgrimage and we immediately wanted to follow.
The Farm and Restaurant
Above: The gardens date back to the time of Napoleon III but had lay dormant for 60 years. They now fully supply the restaurant with heirloom vegetables.
Above: Chef-owners Shaun Kelly and James Henry first teamed up in the kitchen of Paris’s Au Passage, which Henry founded.Here’s how Kelly explains their approach to gardening: “we chose to eschew the modern practice of tilling in favor of gentle decomposition through the use of compost and mulch, capturing carbon and preserving the microbial life that had been nurtured for centuries. To date, hundreds of fruit trees and shrubs have been planted as well as hundreds of varieties of heirloom vegetables and herbs.” Photograph by Evan Sung.
Above: The 40-seat dining room occupies what had been an unused horse barn, which artists Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely once used as their sculpture studio. Montreuil architecture firm Ciguë designed the structure’s new guise. Photograph by Evan Sung.
Above: The soaring space is furnished with classic wooden tables and bentwood chairs.
Above: The terrace is edged by herb beds.
Above: There’s a boutique stocked with a well-edited selection of comestibles, table- and picnic-ware, and gardening gear.
Above: Lr Doyenné also sells its fruit and vegetables, and supplies some top kitchens in Paris.The Guest Rooms (One Night Only)
Above: There are 11 guest rooms available for overnight stays. The largest, Room 108, has a sitting room with a view, two bedrooms, and two bathrooms. It’s €680, including breakfast.
Above: Each of the rooms is entirely different. The Doyenné team worked with Portuguese design studio Project 213A to furnish each with a mix of handmade contemporary and vintage pieces.
Above: The rooms also have dream bathrooms.
Above: A signature headboard by Project 213A.Le Doyenné is at 5 rue St Antoine in the village of Saint-Vrain, an hour’s drive from Paris. For restaurant and room reservations, go to Le Doyenné.
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