High brow. Low budget. Camdeborde.

Inelegant as they are, hangovers do happen. To my credit, these days it's more often Monsieur Lassaigne's fault than Señor Cuervo's.

In the absence of a greasy spoon remedy à la Denny's, the best cure I've found here in Paname is a crêpe. A crêpe complète to be precise. The recipe? At least two generous handfuls of emmenthal cheese, slap on some ham, hold together with a fried egg and stuff into a crispy-round-the-edges crêpe. The thing works wonders.

Now, there is a lot of hubbub over the criteria of what makes an excellent crêpe. Some people look for crêpes cooked evenly from the bullseye to the edges. Detail-oriented types will notice if the griddle is buttered or oiled (butter, of course, the preferred lubricant). Others will not go near halal, or porkless, crêpes.

I want my crêpe to look like a doily. I want it to be crispy around the edges and not drip out the end like an overstuffed burrito. I want fresh batter, ham that hasn't been sitting in Tupperware for a week, and freshly grated Swiss cheese if remotely possible.

The complète at L'Avant Comptoir is, to me, just short of an epiphany. The crêperie and wine-bar adjacent to the famous Le Comptoir restaurant in Saint Germain is a stroke of genius and act of compassion by Mr. Bistro - Yves Camdeborde. Genius for not compromising on quality ingredients or service at what appears to be an ordinary crêperie at first glance. Compassion for creating a Camdebordeian antechamber to Le Comptoir, where I hope to be reincarnated as a plate.

Back to the crêpe. No, the galette (crêpe = white flour, sweetened; galette = buckwheat flour, unsweetened).

Hallelujah. The batter is fresh. The ham? Count on Camdeborde ham to be a few steps above the rest. I can pretend that the emmenthal is freshly grated. The egg does not drip. Most importantly, the outer edges of the galette look like starched lace while the middle is just the right thickness to contain the whopper.

This thing is a meal. My pupils dilate as the crêpier hands it over and says, "you won't be needing dinner after this one".

Nope. Just a little pepper and an extra Tylenol.

Montant à payer
5 euro

L'Avant Comptoir
3, Carrefour de l'Odéon
75006
Métro: Odéon (4, 10)
Hours 7/7 12pm-11pm