Carmagnole Modern French cuisine at the Schanze

For 10 years, Carmagnole has been one of Hamburg's fixed gastronomic stars. Those who come here can look forward to French bistro cuisine of the highest standard. The food and drinks on offer are fresh, creative, extremely tasty and prepared to perfection. The service is young, charming, quick and relaxed. The premises are furnished and equipped with great attention to detail and design. A place that exudes warm and uncomplicated hospitality.

The Carmagnole scores with its gracefulness at first sight. On the terrace, you can sit at pretty blue metal tables on warm days. Inside, the food is served at small bistro tables draped closely together with wooden platters. The floor is adorned with beautiful tiles, on top of which is a counter made of zinc and wood. In front of it, patinated bar stools in metallic blue and with leather, turquoise-green covers, naturally from France. On the smoothly plastered grey-beige walls hang mirrors and framed newspaper articles from French journals from a bygone era. These premises could also be somewhere in a small side street of Paris. The interior and design are a successful mix of classics and modernity.

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The design extends to the heavy silver cutlery and the drinks and food menus bound in bright colours, on the covers of which the more ephemeral delights are advertised to us with the words "Pour la Canaille" (in English: For the villain), the more substantial ones with the words "Pour Le Cochon Bourgoise" (in English: For the bourgeois pig).

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The card design thus invites scoundrels and bourgeoisie alike to the table, thus winking and recalling, among other things, the egalitarian idea of the French Revolution.

A revolution that represents a turning point in history that made culinary enjoyment accessible to all, at least in theory.

With the disempowerment of the nobility and clergy, many cooks lost their jobs. They now had little choice but to offer their skills in the urban centres, to settle there and to cook for the new, self-confident citizens.

At this point, we would like to take a brief detour into the life of Alvaro Rodrigo Piña Otey. A historian who studied history, art history and literature. After completing his studies, Alvaro Rodrigo Piña Otey was, among other things, tour manager of Deichkind, founder of Weltbühne and co-founder of Übel und Gefährlich. He was also the leading designer and managing director of the Golem, a meeting place for Hamburg's bohemians at the time. Readings were held here, after-show parties were celebrated, or fashion shows were shown. Hip DJs from the city and beyond played in the basement. Along the way, he wrote and published the book: "The End of Abstinence: On Bars, Cocktails, Self-Empowerment and the Beauty of Decline."

In 2014, he finally opened Carmagnole in Juliusstraße together with Maria Endrich.

Since then, he has been offering his guests flavour-intensive starters, exemplary prepared classics, and vegan or vegetarian versions of classic French dishes. This is accompanied by well-selected wines and self-created cocktails. Among the vegan delights on offer at Carmagnole is a vegan tartare of mushrooms, aubergine, carrot, beetroot and smoked tofu.

We start our culinary journey through the evening with this. This is accompanied by a sweet and tart cocktail, which has been christened Flor del Desierto / Desert Flower.

Another exemplary classic is the Soupe de Poisson with mussels, prawns, fish fillet and vegetables. Served, of course, with fresh baguette and spicy rouille sauce.

The next stage is a watermelon gazpacho with burrata, cherry tomatoes, black cumin, fresh basil and piment d'espelette. The melon is fresh and sweet, the burrata delicately melting. The black cumin, fresh basil and piment d'espelette add contrasting, stimulating and elegant flavour.

The trip continues. A Breton artichoke shines on our plates, accompanied by tarragon vinaigrette and balsamic mayonnaise. Delicious, simple-sophisticated food. Incidentally, the artichoke not only serves as a nourishing delicacy at Carmagnole but also as a namesake and logo.

A short excursion into history Part III: The artichoke / La Carmagnole' is not only the name of a most essential Jewish resistance group from Lyon, in which many women fought against the German occupiers but also the name of one of the most famous songs of the French Revolution.

Back to the present and to the table. The next course, crème brûlée au fromage bleu, with marinated beetroot, radishes and fresh herbs, is, to put it bluntly, awesome. Hearty meets sweet and spicy. Crispy, crunchy, fresh textures delight the palate and guests.

To finish our excursion, we enjoy a cooling, tart-sweet elderberry granité infused with sparkling champagne. The wines served with the courses are partly elegant and complex, partly clear and straightforward. We stick mainly to white wines on this warm summer evening.

Wines like les pieds dans le sable blanc from the sandy soils of the Atlantic coast, whose salty breeze enriches this wine with its exotic fruit aromas. Or a 2020 Bordeaux Château peyrat graves that refreshes with mineral quince and citrus notes. With the elderberry granité, a sweet dessert wine from Languedoc Roussillon, reminiscent of port, makes us melt into our chairs. The beatific food and drink work reliably.

One last piece of good news: at the Carmagnole, the keen connoisseur can now make an appointment for petit dérangé / late breakfast on Saturdays and Sundays between 10:00 and 14:00. In the style of the house, it's called a merry bastard of petit déjeuner and déjeuner. In this country, it would be called brunch. A special feature here: the entire menu of the Petit Dérangé is vegetarian or even vegan. So that the carnivores don't miss out, there are various side-order options in animal form.

Be it with two roasted lamb merguez, organic fried eggs or beef tartare made from beefsteak and a quail egg. Rarely has such an unqualified recommendation been so easy for us. At Carmagnole, you can feel the love of pleasure and hospitality in every detail. Everything without excessive fuss, with joy and humour.