Le Rendez-Vous, Tucson's landmark French restaurant, can be so retro — the waiters are dressed in black, the menu is in French, the servings are hefty.
But slowly, deliciously, the 31-year-old restaurant in a cozy converted home at 3844 E. Fort Lowell Road is becoming au courant.
Earlier this year, Jean Claude Berger, the original owner/chef, passed the keys on to his son, Gordon.
Change has been barely perceptible, but there is change nonetheless.
The most notable change is in the addition of a small plates menu served alongside the traditional menu with French classics
But it is the small plates, $5.50 each, that made us go ooh-la-la.
There are about 10 items on it, and it would be easy to make a meal with just two or three of them.
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And that would be a happy meal, indeed.
On one visit, we concentrated on those small plates.
The two pan-seared sea scallops, which sat on a bed of creamy white bean fricassee dotted with tomatoes were cooked so that they were still slightly firm and bursting with sweetness. Scallops are very easy to overcook; it was sublime to bite into this baby and experience the full flavor of the mollusk.
We were nearly as giddy with the shrimp stuffed with crab — and not just because we couldn’t figure out how a shrimp can be stuffed. Two large, pink perfectly-cooked shrimp were curled around and hugging an abundance of sweet crab meat (real crab; none of that white fish stuff that so many try to pass off as crab). They demanded to be eaten slowly and savored.
For the full review and more restaurant news, see Thursday's Caliente.
