Ultimo is the restaurant to try in Lyon , in a great place with good food. They offer our Côtes-de-Bergerac and, with the team, we are a fan of the concept. We'll tell you more about it right here, a few days before the reopening of the terraces!
From left to right: Paul, Cyril and Vincent, the founders of the Ultimo restaurant
We cooked with the team some pasta cacio e pepe with delicious pepper and pecorino. Cyril the cook's trick is to cook the pasta for 4 minutes in boiling water then finish cooking in a pan with all the pasta cooking water (which you will not have added too much salt) and Italian cheese.
Can you tell us about Ultimo?
“It's the story of 3 boys Cyril, Vincent - my two associates - and myself, Paul. I had an Italian restaurant rue Pleney in Lyon, the Mamma Osteria which still exists. For the record, it was Chalard and Gerra who took it over. Cyril was my first chef, we met at Christian Têtedoie fifteen years ago. We met at the Bar du Passage (still in Lyon), he was in the kitchen. When the idea of setting up my first Mamma Osteria restaurant was born, I took Cyril on board. We opened together, he stayed for a year and a half, then he opened the Shack BBQ with his best friend. Meanwhile, Vincent arrived. He has a very different path from ours, he studied law and set up a music label. Very quickly, we realized that we were very complementary, he worked the last 3 years at La Mamma.
We ended up selling our two businesses with Cyril. I then traveled quite a bit because after 6 years in the restaurant business I needed a break, and the three of us set up our project, as partners. Ultimo was born in July 2019 after 3 months of work that we did ourselves !
We wanted to create a place that looks like the places we would have liked to find in all the cities of the world. I am the son of an air hostess and I had the chance to travel a lot since I was little. Istanbul, Rio, New York… I would like to find this kind of place while traveling there. A place where you drink artisanal, local organic beer, made by a hardrocker who likes to tell you the essence and the story of his beer. Where you can eat things to share, where you don't have to have a real meal, with good coffee roasted in Lyon, organic and from Mokkxa , drawn with love in a well-regulated machine, where the espresso is good like in Italy - Ultimo, does that speak to you? (laughs). It's a trip . You eat a cuisine, a fusion between different culinary cultures : there is Japanese, Spanish, Italian, French .”
Editor's note: Christian Têtedoie was crowned Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF) in 1996 and has been decorated with a star in the Michelin guide since 2000.
What do we eat at Ultimo?
“We had a precise idea of what we wanted to offer our customers: fresh, seasonal, local, and organic (or equivalent) products . We have a trademark: we make our homemade, fresh and organic pasta . The only thing that doesn't come from France is the flour that we bring in from Sicily, because they have a know-how that is hard to find in France. It's our little kiff to Vincent and me, as we are of Italian origin.
We follow the process of commitment even in the kitchen . We do not communicate on it because for us it is normal, there is no debate. In 20 years, the trend will be reversed: the normal will be organic, and people will no longer consume what is not. We may be a bit of a pioneer on the subject, but in any case we really believe in it!
What is your favorite dish on the menu?
“It's been seven months since I tasted the Ultimo cuisine with the covid, and the menu changes a lot according to the seasons. But I will say, our signature dish: the Katsu Sando . It's a Japanese sandwich with toasted sandwich bread, part of the breaded chicken wing or thigh, Chinese cabbage, light lemon mayonnaise, cucumber pickles and a small vegetable-based sauce. A delight.”
Which Oé wine is on the menu?
“We chose the Côtes-de-Bergerac , to offer a sweet organic wine to our customers.”
What are you most proud of?
“To always be there despite the crisis. For the moment we are holding on, even if it is not easy. And we leave with the banana ! ”
What's next for Ultimo?
“ It's the reopening of the terrace on May 19 . We have around sixty places if we have the same protocols as last year. We have the experience of last year. We opened almost two years ago and this is the 4th opening that we will make of our restaurant between a problem we had with the building which forced us to close a month after the start of the adventure and sanitary measures. So we opened in July 2019, in August 2019, in June 2020 and there, in May 2021. We are “lucky” this year to have been notified early so we have time to turn around to recruit and put everything in place. square. We got a little armored (laughs)!”
If you have any questions for the Ultimo team, feel free to write to them on social media or ask us all your questions at hello@oeforgood.com .
Also discover the adventures of the Lyonnais restaurant Tomé , at the start of the slopes of the Croix-Rousse in Lyon!
