These two new midcoast eating places provide completely different takes on French delicacies

As the summer season approaches, guests traveling to the mid-coast will have two new restaurants available to indulge their inner Francophile, each showcasing a different style of cuisine from the European country.

La Cave in Camden opened in May and focuses on French bistro fare like snail and duck fat fries with garlic aioli. Alsace in Union will open this summer and will have a stronger meat and potato approach from the North East region of France.

Both are new to the Mid Coast.

Jennifer Roux, co-owner of the new Alsace, said the restaurant’s menu will reflect Alsace’s unique cuisine, which has strong German influences. Dishes may include sauerkraut, red cabbage, potatoes, sausages, spaetzle, and more.

“I think people think of French food as very fancy, difficult to understand and inaccessible. It’s going to be very inviting,” said Roux.

Alsace will also serve tarte flambee, a regional specialty consisting of very thinly rolled bread dough covered with crème fraîche, thinly sliced ​​onions and bacon, Roux said. The restaurant has experimented with several possible toppings, including Maine blueberries and one with leeks, mushrooms, onions, and bacon. Traditionally, the dish was also used to test how quickly the dough crisped up and how the wood-fired oven heated up.

“They ate this tarte flambee as a treat with whatever they got from the garden,” Roux said. “It’s a really nice tradition from rural Alsace.”

At La Cave in Camden, bistro cuisine represents a different style of French cuisine. The menu features dishes like salmon tartare with avocado and citrus on crunchy green plantain chips, and a rocket salad with goat cheese, Morse’s beet relish, roasted pine nuts and avocado, and snails dressed with garlic, butter and parsley.

“I spoke to every customer and everyone said the food was amazing. And we’re now known around town for probably the best mussels in Camden, which is incredible,” said Ben Toussaint, who owns the restaurant with Will Statz and Devon Morris.

La Cave mussels are served with a creamy white wine sauce, aromatic herbs and spices.

Also of note is the French onion soup — the restaurant calls it Wood Fired Onion Soup Au Gratin. The beef broth cooks in their wood-fired oven for 48 hours, developing so much flavor, Toussaint said. The soup is topped with traditional Gruyere cheese.

“The flavors are just original and really, really bold and incredible,” said Toussaint.

The bistro serves what Toissaint calls “French portions,” which are smaller than typical American portions. The dishes are meant for sharing.

Alsace cuisine is overseen by Jennifer Roux’s husband, Fabrice Roux, a French Champagne chef who trained in Paris before working in Las Vegas and San Francisco. Together they owned three restaurants in California before moving to Maine. This will be their first restaurant in Maine.

Jennifer Roux said she sees similarities between Maine and the Alsace region, both located in the northeast of their respective countries.

“We like the food that isn’t fancy, even though he comes from a very ritzy professional background,” said Jennifer Roux. “The food we like is often classified as farm food, like the food your grandmother makes for you.”

Alsace will open sometime this summer once a staff is in place. The restaurant is currently hiring kitchen staff. They hope to offer an al fresco lunch service with daily specials in the meantime.

La Cave is open seven days a week and often features live jazz music, which the restaurant hopes to continue into the summer season. On Wednesdays they serve a limited menu – until the staff is fully trained. The other six days there is a full menu from 5pm to 10pm and a smaller bar menu from 10pm to 12:30pm.

Chef Elizabeth Toussaint, Ben Toussaint’s ex-wife, is at the helm of the kitchen.

“She attended one of the best cooking schools in Colombia, where she’s from, and has since worked at several restaurants in Colombia and New Jersey, including a few years at Primo in Rockland,” said Ben Toussaint.

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