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I wanted to share my friend Keith Newton’s first-ever restaurant review in this month’s Wine Spectator.  It is about one of my very favorite restaurants on earth, Spring in Paris.  Enjoy!

Issue: Wine Spectator April 30, 2011
Spring in Paris

One of the most exciting restaurants in Paris is helmed by a young chef named Daniel Rose–from Chicago, of all places.

This is Spring’s second incarnation. The first, lasting from 2006 to 2009, was a hit despite its location on a scruffy street near Pigalle. Rose, who studied and trained in France for eight years prior to opening his own restaurant, unveiled the new space in early 2010.

Though centrally located in the 1st arrondisement, the intimate dining room still offers a sense of discovery. The open kitchen, sleek decor, exposed wood and warm lighting signal the balance of elements in the food to come: refinement and stylization mixed with the hearty, earthy and rustic.

The prix fixe menu changes daily, with a focus on fresh and seasonal. On the fall evening I was there, each of the courses adhered to Rose’s basic aesthetic: playful and surprising, delicate yet satisfying. Atender fillet of red mullet came in a rich duckling broth, with long white turnips and dark green chard; a soft-boiled egg in a thick red wine reduction was encircled by meaty cèpes and topped with pomegranate seeds and a crispy slice of bacon; and pigeon was served in its own pan juices, with foie gras, braised scallions and a halved fresh fig. Midway through the final course, Rose appeared out of the kitchen with a small pan and made the rounds of the room, serving sautéed calves’ livers onto our plates.

Starting with a beautifully presented lemon chantilly, the multiple desserts, like the rest of the meal, were innovative and delicious.

The focused wine list is reasonably priced and well-chosen to match the richness and subtlety of Rose’s cooking. The 100-plus selections cover the main regions of France, with the best bottles coming from the Loire, the Rhône and Burgundy, though Bordeaux offers the heaviest hitters, including a 1970 Pétrus for 2,530 euros. We settled on the Bruno Clair Marsannay Les Grasses Têtes 2007 (50 euros), medium-bodied but complex, with a deep well of fruit.

The basement serves as a wine bar called Spring Buvette, and around the corner is Spring Boutique, a wineshop and grocery, where on the next day I had an expertly rendered version of a Parisian classic–ham, cheese, tomato and mustard on a baguette.

Eating my sandwich on a bright afternoon, I couldn’t help but think that our notion of the American in Paris should allow not just for the city’s effect on him, but also his effect on the city.

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Last night I had the good fortune to see Margin Call, written and directed by my dear friend J.C. Chandor, the opening movie of this year’s New Directors/New Films series at the Museum of Modern Art.   Shot in just seventeen days last summer, on a shoestring budget of  three million dollars, Margin Call employs modest means and an all-star cast to great cinematic effect. Depicting a hectic twenty-four hours at a prominent Wall Street investment firm during the 2008 financial melt-down, the film was shot mostly in one location, to minimize location and moving expenses.  During the Q&A following the screening, J.C. explained that he embraced the time, space and budgetary constraints to heighten the emotional drama and panic portrayed in the characters on-screen.  For example, he explained,  due to work visa issues, Jeremy Irons had only three days to deliver all of his scenes as opposed to the originally scheduled five days and the tension and anxiety this produced played perfectly with what was unfolding in the script.  A very big congratulations to J.C. who joins a stellar list of 40 years worth of featured new directors, many of whom have gone on to shape modern cinema, including Wim Wenders, Steven Spielberg, Pedro Almodovar, Lasse Hallstrom, Richard Linklater, Kevin Smith, Darren Aronofsky and Spike Lee.  All that AND a glowing New York Times review by A.O. Scott.  Margin Call is screening again tonight at Lincoln Center.   Get tickets!