Hero - Korean Fried Chicken in Paris

A big perk of being creatively involved with new restaurants is being able to go to fun things like test dinners.  Last night we tasted much of the new menu at Hero, the new cocktail restaurant from Josh, Adam, and Carina of Quixotic Projects (Candelaria, Glass, Le Mary Celeste).  Haan Palcu-Chang's food program is centered around Korean fried chicken.  Available by the whole or half bird, the chickens are quartered, fried to a thoroughly-crispy, dark brown and dressed in one of three sauces:  regular, sweet garlic, or spicy.  Luckily ours was a table of four which warranted getting a whole chicken moitié/moitié, half in spicy sauce, half sweet.  Thankfully, Haan is a stickler for certain cutural necessities of cooking, and does not hold back on the chiles in the spicy sauce.  There will be french people who cannot handle this, and that is fine.  The menu is full of great antidotes to a mouth on fire: two delicious tapioca pearl drinks, the zenned-out seawead rice, the fresh and bright noodle salad, tangy rich kimchi mac 'n' cheese, and of course the light Hite Korean beer.  Haan's cooking never disappointed at Le Mary Celeste, and Hero is no different.  The dynamic range from acids, saltiness, spice and sweet is perfect alongside cocktails that managed to further surprise us in how crazy, new, and fun a beverage can be.  The interior design by Jeanette Dalrot and Safari Sundays takes you from chic Bladerunner to 80's Santa Monica beach house and downstairs to a woody kitchen dining bar.  Downstairs, dubbed Superhero, will soon be home to a nightly six-person tasting menu service, for which our own Adrian Rubi-Dentzel designed and made the bar top.

The sweet half of a "moitié-moitié " pile of fried chicken. This stack is a whole chicken half in sweet sauce, half in spicy. "Bubble Trubble" cocktail made with tapioca pearls, absinthe, bekseju, young almond syrup, and almond milk. One of our favorites and a perfect antidote to the truly spicy chicken.

Two of Hero's cocktails: "Nice Legs", Litchi, pink pepper, soju, Aperol, prosecco, and "I Woke Up Like This", Tapioca pearls, young almond syrup, almond milk and blue.

"My personal favourite for the Hero menu: seared rice cakes, ragout of mushrooms, Chinese salted radish, and gochujang on purée of soft tofu."                      - Quote from Haan's instagram @haanpc

Kimchi mac-n-cheese, tastes like the old school mac-n-cheese you want but bright, tangy and a little spicy

 Two Hero cocktails, "Nice Legs" (left) and the pretty "Thug Life", soju, mescal, cognac blanc, gin, yuzu, lemon, ginger beer, cranberry, bitters, antesite

Steamed and fried bun with samjang glazed pork ribs, korean mayo, and pickled cabbage

Spring vegetable, cold noodles, pickled daikon, seaweed and egg

buns chilling on the chef's table in the basement level called Super Hero with a six seat tasting menu

Hero's chefs prepping for their first dinner service behind the wood and resin bar by Adrian Rubi-Dentzel

 Short round on the shirt (soon for sale) / Haan and Adrian in Super Hero

Detail of Super Hero chef's table, european chestnut wood and hand tinted resin pools

Upstairs dining room by swedish designer Jeanette Dalrot and NYC design firm, Safari Sundays

Central wash basin for those fried chicken sticky fingers

 Pink lit stair case lined with cinder block planters, the upstairs back counter dining area

Hero
289 Rue Saint Denis, Paris, 75002
+33 1 23 45 67 89

TofC at Jack's Jumble Sale at Candelaria in Paris

Our pain d'epices caramels just before getting dressed for the party...made with hand ground gingerbread spices and love

Last weekend we participated in the first 'Jack's Jumble Sale' event at Candelaria, put on by The House that Jack Built. It was full of charm and warmth. The goods varied from personal closet treasure's set up like a classy vide grenier, garage sale, to haircuts by Japanese hair stylist extraordinaire Kazuko (I totally got a new do!), hot autumn punch by Candelaria's Carina, second-hand designer menswear from Paris wine blogger Aaron and ...

Lauren of T.H.T.J.B. and Cheri Messerli stoking

 

Stylist Hannes Hetta trying on some shades                                                              Aaron Ayscough 

Madison with her lavender-honey cakes and other delights / Carina (rt) prepping some steamy lemony cocktails

Kazuko cutting Oliver's hair... the doorman of Candelaria

Insanely cute things made by Stella

...vintage blouses, boots and scarves from Alison and Lauren (the ladies behind the T.H.T.J.B.), sweet tunes by DJ Rager, jars of fragrant loose chai tea by Tifamade, rad vintage books and glasses from t-magazine writer, Sarah, and lots of other mega goodies and good vibes galore.

Chef and consultant Yvette Bordignon made chutneys, biscuits and lollipops!

We ran into Thomasine Barnekow at the event who was wearing one of her glove designs

Her work is very unique and intricate... and such soft leather

French vintage paperbacks on Sarah's Moroz's table

Tifamade's goodies in one of their vintage display suitcases (normally on a back of her signature pink delivery bicycle)

Tiffany of Tifamade with her magical Chai Tea

T.H.T.J.B.'s vintage children's kitchen set that appears at their Candelaria events

Alison keeps the tea bags stored in the lil oven

Adrian designed and crafted beautiful wooden pendant necklaces out of tropical hard wood and colored leather cords. I made organic oreo's with a white chocolate ganache, pain d'epices, gingerbread, caramels and organic vanilla-lemon sandwich cookies. Our oreo's were such a hit that I blinked my eye and they were gone. Seriously. The french do love their chocolate.

Our Oreo and l-v sandwich cookies     photo by Cyril Pennec

Adrian's wooden pendant necklaces ( write to us if you would like to purchase one!)

Adrian asking Aaron, our friendly event neighbor, about the black leather boots he eventually went home with... Merci A!

Our pain d'epices caramels ... no one said 'no' to a sample of these

Disclaimer: I normally like to feature photographs taken with our high quality equipment but due to the rush of wrapping every last caramel, we ended up taking informal photos using an available pocket camera ;) Fun times.