In Lyon, the Café des Fédérations blows out its 150 candles
If the Fédés are not the oldest stopper in Lyon, they are undoubtedly the most international. Lyon Capital you tell the small story in the big one.
“There are two dates to remember in August: August 4, 1792 with the abolition of privileges and August 24, 2015 with the release of the veal strawberry!”. Yves Rivoiron savors the effect of his formula on assistance. With his pig coffee tie, his cheeky cheeks and his “big mouth”, Rivoiron is the very type of cork boss. As soon as they enter the house, “founded here for a very long time”, Rivoiron harpoons the customers, gives them “you” and “you” like verbal ping-pong, seats them at a table, serves them without firing a shot. blows of Morgon (“home please”), imposes his dishes and recites the menu with a conviction pegged to the heart. It’s that Les Fédés as all of Lyon call them is a myth. More than a place, it’s a memory box, a conservatory of good food and Lyon-style decoration. Giant sausages hanging from the counter, an improbable collection of pigs (the restaurant’s emblems), lustrous wood, prehistoric tiling, mirrors to the glory of the Beaujolais wines (another standard of the restaurant), old objects found here and there, vaults, neon lights… Only in Lyon can you see this very particular style.
And that you can eat andouillette with veal strawberry (try a cerebral fulgurance on that of Troyes and it’s the guaranteed door). Banned since the mad cow crisis in the early 2000s, veal strawberries (the whole of the small intestine and the large intestine) were once again authorized by the European policeman in the summer of 2015. Suffice to say that the advertisement had a monster retention in all the good corks of the city, the andouillette being the direct competitor of the “qu’nelle” for the international influence of the city. At the Café des Fédérations, we have been making andouillette since the dawn of time. And guts. “We were ten fifteen kilos a week, remembers Roland Fulchiron, the former boss, now 85 years old. It was a masculine cuisine, there were few women. They were gentlemen, they would come forward their business meals at noon: they provided a snack and left around four or five o’clock, after little Marc.”
Herriot, Pradel… All to the Feds!
Roland Fulchiron held Les Fédés from 1972 to 1997, following “Father Chauvin” (from 1947). At the time, Herriot and Pradel sat down regularly on rue du Major-Martin. Was it only because the place was popular with the whole city or because the three were Freemasons (in this regard, we can speak of redundancy, given that all “good” Lyonnais are “housed”). A little story in the big story, it is even rumored that “Father Chauvin” was the illegitimate son of Marius Berliet…
In short. When Roland Fulchiron came down to Lyon from his native Loire, he started by running a restaurant with his mother and one of his brothers opposite Île Barbe, at the arrival of the “blue train” – a tramway dependent on Lyon in Neuville and allowing Lyonnais to go to the banks of the Saône, Île Barbe, Collonges, Rochetaillée, Caluire or Fontaines.
At that time, a certain Paul Bocuse stopped for a drink on his way back from the Saint-Antoine market. Since the restaurant only operated in the summer, Paul Bocuse offered him a position as bar manager in his concession at Bron airport. A few years later, an acquaintance told him that the Café des Fédérations, “a good deal”was for sale. “Father Chauvin was old and his daughter did not want to resume, I said why not. But it was difficult during the first six months because I do not hide from you that when you resume after such a personality, the people make fun of you.” And then the business resumes… as in forty. “It was going great. All I had to do was answer the phone to say we were full.”
“Just follow the flies!”
It must be said that Françoise, a little piece of woman who (almost) made the rain and the good weather at the Feds from 1989 to 1994, attracted the barge. Son style? When Michel Noir arrived with his deputy Henri Chabert, around 1:30 p.m., she shouted at him from the back of the room “Is it at this time that you arrive!?”. “Black loved it because everyone turned around and waved at him”.
Where this time when a man, “with his court of girls”snap your fingers to call him. “Hey! Your wine is corked!”. And her, tit for tat: “Damn, he’s been shot, how do you want him to be corked!”. Where when a lady, “well dressed” asks him where the amenities are. “You just have to follow the flies, I answer him. I didn’t pay attention, I was so used to packing up guys who were too obsequious that it became a habit…”. Inimitable Le Café des Fédérations.
If today, Rvoiron has somewhat softened manners, the fact remains that its waitresses have repartee and character. “This is what makes the soul of a cork” legitimizes a regular.
This famous breath, Yves Rivoiron experienced it one midday in June 1997. The cook at the Grain de Sel, in Vaulx-en-Velin, wanted to change “bouclard”. Much like Fulchiron at the time, his accountant assures him that The Café des Federations, “a very good deal” is for sale. “I hadn’t asked for anything, they served me a pot of Morgon, then the salad bowls of starters, the dishes, we drank great drinks, I liked it right away. When I see the bill, I say to myself “when- same” ! The guy was making a crazy turnover!”. Re-little story in the big story: Yves Rivoiron buys the cork with the nose and mustaches of Jean-Louis Gelin (future ex-boss of La Meunière, another legendary cork), with whom he will become friends like a pig.
Today, Les Fédés are known all over the world. The Café des Federations a recent fact “thirteen TVs in fifteen months”. Between two sapper aprons, it is not uncommon to hear Japanese, American, Dutch, English, Russian, etc. spoken. Proof of the international reputation of the rue Major Martin stopper, the menus are translated into six languages. Unheard of in Lyon. “Koushi Atama” launches to lose voice Yves Rivoiron. A cork boss who “speaks” Japanese, we’ve never seen that either.
“A cork is a soul, you can’t label it”. It’s certain.
The lord of Pramenoux in love with Lyonnaiseries
On November 2, 2017, Jean-Luc Plasse, a gone who likes chopinaison, friends, small and big stories, buys The Café des Federations.
Chenuses, fenottes and good gones, let it be said, the Feds will never turn a blind eye! Yves Rivoiron, his vigorous boss with his priceless pig coffee tie, has just bowed out after twenty years of good and loyal service. But as one does not abandon a Temple of Lyonnaise food1 without ensuring its transmission, it is with great fanfare, with cups of bounty and cenpotes of Beaujolais, that the Canezou sold its cork to a pleasant lord of Pramenoux, in love Beaujolais and Borjolais. Apron on the sapper, clapoton on the fat double, the handover took place on November 2 last… day of the deceased. But not enough to make them go to Loyasse! Both gones are well moving and demented. And like two bessons: the same banter and the same love of Lyonnaiseries (and dirty analog tie).
Upmarket
So what will change? Nothing exactly. Or so little and so subtly. Change without revolution in a way. Since the takeover by Jean-Luc Plasse (also owner of the Café de la Soie, place Bertone in Croix-Rousse), we have had three bouligantes chicaisons: it was mouth-wateringly good. The new chef, Clément Taviot, who comes directly from Les Adrets, a typical and timeless stopper from Vieux-Lyon, has obviously not touched the specialties that have made the reputation of the Fédés. He skillfully added – with his second Giacomo (ex-Bouchon des Filles) – a little touch of contemporaneity. For the caviar (the lentils), he puts more shallots and it must be said that it tastes better. For the liver cake, he incorporates a little bread for the lamb’s lettuce (less sparkling) and adds a dab of garlic and parsley: we remain on the characteristic taste of the cake but in a much finer way. The Lyonnaise salad is remarkably seasoned: the frisee loses its bitterness with a very mustard sauce (strong and old-fashioned). In the cervelle de canuts, he adds shallots and parsley to the garlic and chives to adapt the cottage cheese. There will also be some fine changes to the desserts. The praline tart dough will thus be more buttery. “I go there with tweezers, explains the chef of twenty-six springs. I don’t want to rush. I don’t take anything away from what Yves Rivoiron does. bit more modern.”
Nice room to maneuver
To Federationsit is good form to make a profession of culinary faith. Voracious guardian of the temple, the Café des Fédés has as its red thread the survival of recipes from Lyon. “But I think there is a lot of room for manoeuvre, adds Jean-Luc Plasse, the new boss. The idea is to go upmarket, in a version perhaps a little more ‘gastronomic’.”. Thus, in the long term, the traditional calf’s head with ravigote sauce could be paired with a more modern proposal with gingerbread. And the menu to be embellished with an oxtail terrine with black pudding. But there is always the terrific quenelle (from Pascal Bonhomme) with American sauce, the sweetbreads (sweetbreads, no throat!) with morels sauce, the andouillette (Bobosse) with veal strawberries, the chicken in vinegar, the sausage in wine, stewed pork cheek, tripe mode and other Lyon joys.
Chenuses, fenottes, good gones, let’s stay very vigorous and very buoyant to fill up the embuni and rinse the corgnolon at the Federations!
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framed
The federations?
Why is the cork called Le Café des Fédérations? Quite simply, because opposite is the Municipal Major Martin Hotel, property of the City of Lyon which includes seventeen rooms, shared or not, which are made available to associations. At the time, on the parliament of federations.