Text: Morgan Couturier. Built on the foundations of the old family hotel, the Allardon restaurant enjoys a history as rich as its dishes. A past that the renovation of the premises, today shared between a brasserie and a semi-gourmet restaurant, has not been able to alter.
There would be so much to tell, so much to taste that we would sit on site for hours. Then finally, without anticipating it too much, the only flavor of the chef’s dishes Christophe Allardon, interlaced with a note of collective sympathy is enough to be trapped by time. To forget it even, for the simple and good reason that the restaurant sanpriot tirelessly encourages to take leave, so as to grant oneself a light parenthesis of delights.
It must be said that the latter are numerous, ready to be tasted, subtly associated with some good memories of this former “Hôtel du Commerce”, bought one day in 1950, by Solange Allardon. Three generations later, only the decor and the dishes have changed, without the soul of the place having been turned upside down, Christophe Allardon having fun mentioning that the spirit of his grandmother watches over the grain. Indeed, there is no doubt that the place has retained its natural family inclination, as evidenced by the official engraving of ” Mr Rene “, immutable resident of the brewery.
Because there is the subtlety of this site, camped on the village square, where two rooms and two atmospheres intertwine.
The brasserie, theater for midday business lunches and the semi-gourmet restaurant upstairs, immersed in a more refined atmosphere. “Historically, downstairs, it was very working-class, you ate your steak and fries, when upstairs, you ate a good rib steak.
Today, on the brasserie part, we are more on great classics, loss leaders, very Lyonnais, while we are working on more noble products and more worked on the floor, “says the resident of the Toques white Lyonnaises, supported by his faithful second, Emmanuel Sarra, weight support in this adventure started in January 2000. By obligation a little. For pleasure, too, Christophe Allardon having been mandated by his mother, Andree, to “help her out for a few months”.
Prawn risotto and mint chocolate coulant for the winter?
“Then it turned into years!” “, he laughs today, despite a slight regret of having escaped a starry destiny. Au Champd’Or, in Champagne-au-Mont-d’Or, ceded in 1993, despite some notable passages in the Michelin guide. “When I started, I wanted stars, then you realize, over time, that you have to stay on something simpler, but of quality,” he says.
So, as often with the 50-year-old, the words were followed by effects, the chef taking charge of shining through other artifices. By its always very colorful plates, its mixture of flavors, its iconic fresh frogs and its essential homemade waffles. “It was his grandmother’s dessert, which Christophe discovered in boxes. He brought it up to date and it has become a bit of the emblem of the restaurant, ”we say, between two improvised discussions.
A word here, a word there, before the pleasure of the puck takes the lead, without you being able to get tired of it. Or prevent yourself from coming back, even if here, the hardest thing is to decide to leave!
Restaurant Allardon
16 Grande rue – 69800 Saint-Priest – Tel 04 78 20 18 33
The brasserie is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11:45 a.m. to 2:15 p.m.
The restaurant from Tuesday to Saturday from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. and from 7.15 p.m. to 9.30 p.m.
> More info on www.allardon.fr
