We’ve all had them: the meals that are so dreamily delicious that they stick with us forever. Amongst a small group of friends, we may recount them with fondness, perhaps even trying to recreate them with some minor degree of success. Such memories shape our culinary imaginations and serve as a means for drawing out our deepest sense of delight.
Nestled between the Rhône and the Saône in Lyon, France awaits an experience of gastronomy sure to please both the palate and the heart. Starting with a bright-eyed young chef and a single waiter, the legacy of restauranteur Thomas Ponson now spans four locations across a single block. Thomas’s signature location opened approximately ten years ago, and today serves up a variety of traditional French dishes, including the typical three-course lunch for a mere 18 euros. For lunch, showtime is 12 noon, with a single seating and a showcase of all kinds of sweet, savory and salty fare. For dinner, you might stroll by around seven for an apértif and then extend the conversation over dinner around eight or eight-thirty. Meanwhile, if you are hungry for wine and tapas, you can cruise around the corner to Cafe Thomas for a few quick bites and some great people watching. Here, there are cafe-style tables set inside a small building with large, open windows. Outside there is even more seating looking out onto a nearby museum and the surrounding area. And for a true culinary indulgence, Thomas’s most recent addition, La Reserve Thomas, is a must-visit.
La Reserve Thomas is a showpiece of Thomas’ work, with a large walk-in wine storage room enclosed in glass and a heavy wood table flanked by only enough chairs for an intimate party of about twelve. The walls showcase animal heads, the ceiling boasts a wine glass chandelier, and a large cabinet displays spices in neat canisters. This space has an old world ethos that feels gamey and hearty, just like the wild animals that are one of Thomas’s favorite preparations.
Thomas is the namesake of an ambitious, pepper-haired gent who trained under Michael Chabon. His focus is upon perfecting traditional French cuisine and serving up plate-after-plate of sheer deliciousness. When asked about his favorite things to prepare, Thomas cited a love for wild game, wood cock, rabbit, and the like. In fashioning the menus for each day’s offerings, he allows “the products” to shape the food. “Whatever is fresh,” informs the meal and comes delivered daily for an of-the-moment seasonal dining experience.
In terms of the food itself, Thomas’s offerings soar above and beyond any sort of experience his own modest affirmation might imply. In France, lunch is much more common for eating out. So, in traditional fashion, during a recent visit to Lyon, a few friends and I stopped by Thomas’s first location for the high noon meal. Our lunch began with a choice of shrimp and guacamole over greens or rockfish soup topped with a mint cream sauce. It continued with the main course, in our case braised pork atop a simple pile of buttered mashed potatoes. The meal closed with two dessert options. I selected the raspberry tart, while my companions picked the pain perdu, one of Thomas’s signature dishes.
I wonder where Thomas’ culinary ambitions will lead next. “Perhaps an Italian restaurant with a French twist?” he says casually. To be sure, Thomas has a knack for quality and craftsmanship. After we arrived early to peruse and photograph each of his sites, he kindly offered us each a cup of fresh coffee. I accepted and minutes later stood sipping a tiny cup of frothy goodness, which was accompanied by a small packaged chocolate stamped “Thomas.”
Café in hand, as we closed our pre-meal tour in La Reserve Thomas, I was hit by the weight of my experience and the charm of this man’s dedication to his craft. Quite like any other kind of artist, the chef builds an experience based not only in the seen experience but also the many unseen elements that make us hunger, search, and savor. While I cannot quite put my finger on what made Thomas’s particular brand of cuisine so extraordinary, what I can say is that it heightened and made palpable the remarkable relationship between creature and creation.
All photos by Maggie Stein.