The House
We eat facing the beacon
The name came from the regulars, before there was ever a sign.
The shack
Mireille came from the Anse Coulinet beds, Anselme from the sardine boats. In 1987 they opened a shucking shack on the quai des Mareyeurs: oysters, rye bread, lightly salted butter, and whatever the morning had left. Nothing else, and nothing more, for eleven years.
The shack faced the green beacon at the end of the jetty. People said they were eating facing the beacon; the name was found, and the house eventually painted it on the front.
The quay
The quai des Mareyeurs works before daylight: the auction at five, the pots hauled up, the ice delivered. The house opens at noon and writes its menu in between. Seven minutes on foot from the Port-Séverin halt, the dining room faces the channel — and the terrace, in season, faces the boats coming in.
Taking it on
Élise Caradec cooked ashore for fifteen years before taking the house on in 2012. She kept the rule and changed the rest: a real dining room, a zinc counter, an oyster bank at the door, and a cellar chosen for salt rather than for the label.
The rule
The menu is written after the morning auction. A dish can run out: that is a good sign, and it is the only promise the house knows how to keep.
Four chapters
- 1987
The shack
Mireille and Anselme open a shucking bank on the quay. Oysters, bread, butter.
- 1998
The room
The shack becomes a twenty-cover dining room. The rule does not move.
- 2012
The handover
Élise returns from ashore and takes the house on. The zinc counter, the bank at the door.
- Today
The tide
The menu is still written after the auction. The rest is a matter of wind.
Book
Your table, facing the beacon
Book online, or call the house during service. Platters to take away are ordered the day before.