* * *

Chozo Yoshii’s original gallery in Tokyo (founded in 1965) and its latest branch in New York City (1990) are known for modern and contemporary Asian art. However, his Parisian gallery (1972) regularly showcases French masters like Roualt, Cézanne and Matisse, often paying special attention to multi-cultural artists like Kyoto-born Ryuzaburo Umehara who studied with Renoir.

In 1980, Chozo Yoshii’s eponymous foundation opened the Kiyoharo Art Colony near Mount Fuji, taking its architectural and spiritual inspiration from La Ruche, a Parisian artist’s haven established in 1902 by sculptor Alfred Boucher. La Ruche welcomed Marc Chagall, Fernand Léger and Guillaume Apollinaire, among others. Kiyoharo almuni include César, Olivier Debré, and Antoni Clavé.

Through May 17, the Galerie Yoshii hosts the work of by Paris-based artist Kojiro Akagi. Akagi doesn’t concentrate on the obvious architectural suspects like Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower. He’s just as likely to set up his easel across from a peeling façade on the rue de Faubourg Saint Martin, a row of ancient warehouses at Bercy or the obscure 16th arrondissement apartment building where Maria Callas lived.

His delicate brushwork delivers gale force charm, all the more because the details that many artists would brush away are firmly anchored in Akagi’s vision of Paris, a vision that celebrates chipped sidewalk tessera and television antennas perched like storks upon slate rooftops. Red traffic lights resemble rubies, graffiti tags swirl into sinuous calligraphy, and green plastic trash-bags are transformed into diaphanous, wind-blown frocks that might have been styled by Dior.

Honorary Vice President of the French Salon national des Beaux Arts and winner of countless awards on two continents, including the Prix La Ruche of the Association Amicale Japonaise, Akaji presents his latest book of 100 water-colors with tri-lingual texts, Le Paris d’Akagi tome V (Editions Maria) in concert with this exhibition (100€ at the gallery, otherwise 160€ list price). His paintings also figure in the collections of the Musée Carnavalet.

© 2014, Corinne LaBalme

Galerie Yoshii. 8 rue Matignon, 75008. Tel: 01.43.59.73.46. Metro Miromesnil or Franklin Roosevelt.

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Le Petit Verdot is one of them. It’s delicious, confident, owner-served, subtly off-beat and in a world of its own yet completely at home in the 6th arrondissement, making for one of the most pleasant and curious dining experiences I’ve had in Paris in recent months.

Le Petit Verdot, named for a grape varietal, isn’t the kind of restaurant that gets stars and other fancy ratings; they don’t give them to restaurants that have only one waiter who’s also the sommelier who’s also the owner. He’s Hide Ishazuka, he’s from Japan, he bows to a compliment, and he stands out from the lot in offering excellent French cuisine and knowledgeable wine talk in the upper moderate price range.

Mr. Ishazuka’s chef  and others on the staff are from Japan as well. In a broader view, Le Petit Verdot is part of the incursion of Japanese chefs, pastry chefs and sommeliers into French gastronomy. But one can be part of history and still stand out on one’s own.

There’s a delicacy to the preparations here but without frou-frou. Fine savors are brought together, not in the form of kitchen acrobatics, gadgetry and concept food, but as a culinary union of distinctly French Graces in a most ordinary setting.

Dinner runs about 55-60€ for three courses à la carte – small portions, you’ll want and you’ll savor all three – plus wine. Mr. Ishazuka once worked as sommelier at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Pauillac in the Bordeaux region. His wine selection (from inexpensive to quite honorable) isn’t so much a list as a personal library. Mr. Ishazuka is not the type to intimidate or impress but simply guide, if you like. Don’t choose without asking the librarian his take before following whatever narrative that tempts you.

With the most low-key storefront on rue du Cherche-Midi and no menu posted outside, Le Petit Verdot might appear abandoned or between owners if you were to walk by during closing hours.

Inside, the décor is as plain as the service staircase in a manor house in Normandy, with seating split on two levels, neither more precious than the other. There is seating for 20-25 depending on Mr. Ishazuka’s sense of a full restaurant for that meal. Catering to the needs of diners on two levels, Mr. Ishazuka won’t be within sight every moment of your meal, yet he’s very attentive, personable when the situations requires, and never seems rushed.

Restaurant spaces for foodies are now designed in part to create buzz, even the white noise of full restaurant. But even when full that isn’t the case here, where seating is too limited and service is too solitary. Cross-table conversation and indiscreet glances at the dishes of others is possible—the atmosphere is far from formal—but come here prepared to enjoy the company at your table, your meal and your contact with Mr. Ishazuka or go elsewhere.

I can understand that the subdued nature of Le Petit Verdot and the lack of buzz-atmosphere would turn some people off and keep others away, but with the right company, someone whose presence you can enjoy without external stimulus (phones off), Hide Ishazuka’s delicious and understated Cherche-Midi hideaway is an attractive and refreshing treat.

Le Petit Verdot. 75 rue du Cherche Midi, 6th arrondissement. Tel. 01 42 22 38 27. Metro Saint-Placide or Rennes. Open Tues.-Sat. lunch and dinner. Seating is largely by reservation only, though no harm in trying a last-minute call.

(c) 2012, Gary Lee Kraut

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