At the crossing of Christburger Straße and Winsstraße lives Sauvage, the world’s first paleo restaurant. I arrived 15 minutes early for my 6 pm reservation and studied the menu posted outside. I wanted it all. Wild duck rillettes, bone marrow, braised pork belly, grass-fed steak tartare, lakto-fermented veggies, raw quail egg. Yes. With bounty like this, who would ever miss bread?
Only they had bread, also. Paleo bread, made so cleverly that, if you squinted, it tasted like the real thing. “With beef fat,” said the German server, waving to the yellow pool of fat. Darn; I wanted butter. Butter is plenty paleo.
I ended up ordering several appetizers, and my favorite was the succulent quail breast (seasonal only), fine and delicious and also comical, in that it reminded me of the story of a girl I know, who, when she was five, tried quail for the first time. She thought the dead birds were adorable, so she was crying while gobbling them up. “I’m so sad!” she said. “They’re so cute! And so delicious!”
Indeed, these were also cute and delicious, as was the beef tartar. The quality of food, the spices, the exotic — altogether it was the best meal I’ve had in a long time. And I felt so good afterwards, nothing like when I stuff myself with brie or pasta.
Botkin Creative 