Star light, star bright,
The first star I see tonight;
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.

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It was when I saw the chairs that I thought my wish may have finally come true. They were French cafe chairs. And no one is going to put French cafe chairs in a restaurant that doesn’t serve French food. Are they?

It was my greatest of all wishes for San Miguel de Allende. Even greater than having a team in the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol. It had been years since the town had a restaurant serving French cuisine. Was this really it?

The name of the restaurant is El Vergel which I think means the orchard in English. That didn’t suggest French. But we were now seated and here came a young woman with the menus.

My friend Ben got the first copy. “Nice”, he said, “a menu I can actually read.”

But what was it he could read, I thought, as the server made her way her way around the table. Finally I had my copy. And there they were, in black and white.

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Soupe aux oignons. Salade Nicoise. Vichysoisse. A veal and pork terrine. Moules mariniere (with frites of course). Trout amandine. Croque monsieur. Creme brulee. Tarte tatin.

Not only were they French. They were the classics. The same dishes I had on my very first visit to France 50 years ago.

In my admittedly old fashioned opinion, French dishes don’t have variations, elaborations, alterations, diversifications, modifications, transformations or elevations.

I don’t want contemporary French cuisine. I want classic French cuisine. I don’t want nouvelle cuisine. I want cuisine ancienne.

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And I was a little nervous at first. For I knew that Donnie Masterton, El Vergel’s executive chef and a partner in the new restaurant, is an innovator and I remember when he used to meld Asian and French flavors in his San Francisco restaurant Azie. I was afraid that he might be tempted to try a little fusion with El Vergel’s menu. He hasn’t.

There were five of us at lunch. There were five highlights in the dishes we shared.

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In a town where a good pate or terrine is almost as rare as a good hair day for Donald Trump, El Vergel’s terrine was particularly welcome. It had a nice chunky texture, lots of flavor, wasn’t too “livery” for anyone at our table, and was served with, not the usual pickles, but green beans, peppers and cherry tomatoes.

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The trout amandine was “spectacular” according to Andy. There was lots of butter, lots of almonds and the accompanying green beans were the classic vegetable that should always be served with this dish (though asparagus can be tolerated).

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The macaroni Lyonnaise was creamy and generous with the Gruyere. Chunks of oxtail, one of my favorite meats that is almost non existent in San Miguel restaurants (chefs hate cleaning the cut) were plentiful. The only negative I heard was that “it could use a little salt”.

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My favorite of all desserts is creme brulee. I have spent an evening wandering from restaurant to restaurant eating nothing but creme brulee. And I prefer my creme brulee unadulterated. No hazelnuts, no lavender, no pistachios, no citrus zest. Just the basics…cream, egg yolks, vanilla and sugar. El Vergel’s creme brulee was as good as I’ve ever eaten.

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And speaking of “the best ever”, Cheryl thought the tarta de frutas de la estacion was “the best lemon tart I’ve ever tasted.”

Donnie Masterton has gone back to his roots with El Vergel. At a very early age, he apprenticed under chef David Bouley at New York’s Montrachet, once a palace of traditional French cuisine.

El Vergel’s chef Magda Pablos also had some early experience with fine French cuisine spending a summer at Moulin de Mougins near Cannes under celebrated chef Roger Verge.

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Mexican-born chef Magda has spent most of her recent years as the chef/owner of the restaurant Lilah in Cuernavaca. I asked her how she felt following the strict regimen that’s necessary to reproduce the classic dishes of France that have changed very little for decades or, in some cases, for centuries.

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“I’m a member and great believer in the Slow Food organization”, Magda told me. “I want to do everything I can to preserve traditional cuisine.

“We want to recreate the classics. Our opening menu is just the start. We want to make cassoulet, coq au vin, confit de canard, maigret. But we won’t do it until we’re sure we can source the best ingredients.”

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We talked about El Vergel’s mussels recipe, one that adds butter to the sauce, and Magda told me, “So far, we’ve only found a guaranteed supply of good mussels on Thursdays, so we’re only going to put them on the menu on weekends.

Weekends seems like an appropriate time to eat at El Vergel for El Vergel is located in the country, about 15 minutes from San Miguel Centro, just off the road to Dolores Hidalgo.

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Upon first sight, the building looks very institutional, just a bland and colorless block. Passing through the gate reveals a U-shaped structure surrounding a parking lot. To the left is the restaurant. Straight ahead are a number of rooms being used to retail high-end furniture and decorative arts. To the right is the future site of a market which will retail food and related products.

“Some of the things we’ll be selling in the market we’ll be buying. Some will come from our kitchen,” Magda Pablos told me and, yes, she expects there’ll be a terrine and, possibly, a terrine de foie gras.

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The outdoor area of the restaurant sits in a sunken courtyard shaded by some majestic old trees. Unfortunately, on one side is the parking lot with the headlight eyes of SUVs looking down at you. A hedge has been planted but I might be dead before it’s grown enough to hide auto row. The indoor area is a bit bleak and cafeteria-like but I expect that’s just an opening days’ appearance that will be softened and warmed by art.

There are three partners in the El Vergel project, Houston Harte, Daniel Hernández and Donnie Masterton. Houston Harte is the former co-owner of La Burger and his red meat reputation gets a little nod on El Vergel’s menu. The steak frites doesn’t use the usual bavette but a 10 oz. ribeye. Plus there’s a burger that wears a French crown of Brie and “will be rough ground as it should be” Houston promised.

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French cuisine has been my favorite cuisine for what seems like forever and, for years, my Saturday mornings were spent with Julia Child and Jacques Pepin. Julia used to say that you couldn’t really cook French food until you had a passion for French food. And the way to fuel that passion was by going to a good French restaurant and eating good French food.

In 1963, I went to eat at a French restaurant for the very first time. The next week I went to eat there again. In 2016, I went to eat at a French restaurant called El Vergel. One guess where I’m going next week.

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El Vergel is located off Salida a Dolores. The road leading to it is almost directly across the highway from Candelaria. The restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch, from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, every day except Monday.