Rapid Travel Chai

Bring a spouse on a business trip is a delicate proposition, especially when the only one. Sunday night in Grenoble, France produced an unexpected client dinner and I selected classic seafood and sauerkraut cafe Les Archers, one of the new restaurants open on Sunday not named Speed Rabbit Pizza or similar.

How much is that seafood in the window?

Closing down for the night

The food is superb and overwhelming, two guests each ordered sauerkraut plates with varied sausages, they arrived together on a platter wider than the table, perched above twin burners, resting on several pounds of sauerkraut on embankments of potatoes. Another ordered salmon that came from a fish of historic size. The desserts are epic. Too bad I could not play the gawking tourist with camera.

I returned to the hotel to a wife not tolerant of tales of my meal, though she had done quite well elsewhere, Bistro Romain, at my remote treat.

Polish owner and waitstaff

Voila!

Monday I had a follow-up client dinner, at a more modern restaurant in a converted monastery, Pignol Sainte Cécile, well-presented food and a developing pattern of large portions in Grenoble. During dinner the persistent text messages came in, someone was waiting for her dinner.

Not that it was a hardship on anything but my belt, at 11 pm I headed over to Les Archers just in time to assist with a steaming vat of mussels and frog in bubbling garlic and butter, restoring a bit of marital harmony.

Hearty food in a town ringed by alluring mountains towering overhead, with numerous ski resorts within a day trip. The France traveler can do pretty well in Grenoble.

Stuffed bird a la chandelier

Look at the size of those desserts