Before entering this restaurant, each customer must show their credentials.
No, this is not yet another concept for Parisian bohemians looking for thrills. In a restaurant in the South of France, you have to show your credentials before you can have lunch. No question of joking: the criminal record of each client is carefully examined. The only exception? Lawyers, police officers, gendarmes and customs officers are exempt from the procedure upon presentation of their badge. And yet, everyone loves going to this address, renowned for its warm atmosphere and its careful menu! Rated 4.9/5 on Google and on TripAdvisor, an excellent reputation precedes this unique restaurant…
In autumn, you can enjoy, for example, curds with celery and quince compote, or trout gravlax with beetroot cream. For dishes, you will have the choice between a low-temperature mackerel fillet, mushroom ravioli or lacquered lamb sweetbreads. As for desserts, the chai and clementine rice pudding, the soft chestnut cream, or even the stracciatella-style labneh will delight those with a sweet tooth. A seasonal menu, with excellent value for money. Count 28 euros for a two-part formula, and 35 euros for a complete formula, starter-main course-dessert. You won’t find a wine list, as alcohol is not allowed there.
“For me, it is an excellent address, for the experience and for the menu, which is at the level of a very good bistronomic restaurant”explains a customer passing through Marseille. “A bistronomic meal with sophisticated tastes, blends of flavors that tickle our taste buds and original mocktails.” “A unique experience. The presentation of the dishes is very well done, the service well mastered.” But then, why this procedure? Are ingredients so valuable that restaurateurs fear being stolen?
Absolutely not! In fact, the restaurant The Fine Foods is located within… the Baumettes prison! Located a stone’s throw from the Calanque de Morgiou, in Marseille, it is an Exit Support Structure (SAS). The restaurant supports the transition of inmates to the outside world. The brigade, led by chef Valentin Majan, is made up of culinary professionals (a chef, a second and a maître d’hôtel). The kitchen and dining room attendants are detained persons. Before allowing anyone to enter, the strictest precautions are therefore taken. As explained the site, “access to the restaurant is conditional on an authorization of access to the prison establishment carried out in conjunction with our partner the prison administration. This authorization is issued after checking the criminal record of each guest”. A long procedure, which requires booking 4 days in advance.
However, non-EU nationals are not allowed to enter the prison grounds to have lunch. A customer says: “After a search and a passage through the portico, we arrive in a really very pretty and very well decorated room, which makes us completely forget about the prison”. As you will have understood, this unique address is not intended to be spectacular, but neat.
