Philippe’s Maxi Burger and Lunch with Bernadette and Delphine

Our friend, Philippe, at Viténature across the street, makes an amazing hamburger.  It’s different from an American hamburger although it has many of the same ingredients, but it is delicious and very popular with his clientele.   We had been watching for it to appear on his schedule, but, since we hadn’t seen it, we decided to ask when he was planning to serve it again.  After some calendar

Philippe's Maxi Burger

consultation and head scratching, the date was set for Tuesday, May 27^th.  We made our reservations (definitely necessary when his hamburger is advertised!) and were happily contemplating diving into a “MaxiBurger.”

In the meantime, we had been hoping to bump into Bernadette, a friend who lives just down the street from us.  Although we all go to Viténature  often, our paths had not crossed.  We especially wanted to connect with her since we had heard that her husband had recently died and we wanted to spend some time with her.  (See blog posting “Guests of a Chef” July 4, 2012 http://aubrysinfrance.blogspot.fr/2012/07/guests-of-chef.html  )  Then, coming home from the local MonoPrix grocery store the other day, Anna just happened to meet Bernadette in the street outside her apartment building.  After hugs, bises, and a nice long chat, they agreed to meet for coffee (with David, of course, and Delphine, Bernadette’s daughter) the next morning at Viténature .  That meeting for coffee lead to a plan to meet for Philippe’s burgers.  Now you have all the pieces – WHEW!

So, at our reservation time, we arrived at Viténature to find our favorite table waiting for us with a “reserved” sign on it.  We chose our drinks (Anna had a beer, the rest had wine) and settled back for

David, Delphine, Bernadette, and
 Anna getting ready to dig in.

some fun conversation in anticipation of a delicious lunch.  We always have a good time with Bernadette, and it was great to see her laughing and enjoying herself again.  Then the burgers came - Philippe calls them “Maxi” for good reason.  They were every bit as good as we remembered.  From what Angeline said, lots of other customers thought so, too, and the burgers had been selling very well.  We took our time working our way through the burgers, frites, and salad and then moved on to dessert.  (This IS France remember.)  Anna had a slice of their delicious tarte au pomme (apple tart), one of her favorites, and the others had eclairs.  And, then on to coffee..…    

Delphine had somehow pre-arranged to pick up the tab for everyone for lunch – not at all sure how that happened!  But, that just means we’ll have to set up another lunch date with OUR turn to pay.