Maison Lameloise

Maison Lameloise has been a serious Burgundy restaurant since 1921. Three generations of the Lameloise family ran it through the century; Jacques Lameloise carried it to three Michelin stars in 1979 and held all three until he retired in 2009. Chef Éric Pras — Meilleur Ouvrier de France 2004, former Troisgros lieutenant — took the kitchen, has held all three stars continuously ever since, and is today regarded as one of the four or five most accomplished living French chefs.

The building is a 15th-century coaching inn on the square of Chagny, fifteen minutes south of Beaune, with fifteen guest rooms upstairs and a dining room of 45 covers across two salons. The cooking is classical-French with Burgundian weight: a Bresse chicken poached in a vin jaune cream with seasonal vegetables; a Charolais beef tartare cut à la minute; a slow-roasted pigeon with Pommard jus; a Burgundian escargot dish that has been on the menu, in some form, since 1953; and a cheese trolley — the trolley is the ceremony — carrying 40 aged farmhouse cheeses from the Franche-Comté and the Haute-Savoie.

The wine list runs to 1,600 references, almost entirely Burgundy, with a depth the Michelin guide has called 'unmatched outside the négociants themselves'. The head sommelier has been at the house for twenty-two years. Lunch at €90 is the single best-value three-star meal in France; dinner tasting menus run €240 to €360 with pairings. Dress is jacket, no tie required. Rooms upstairs are available for guests who want the traditional Burgundy ritual of a great dinner and a stayover.

For a Proposal: Maison Lameloise is the most ceremonial experience in Burgundy and one of the most ceremonial in France. The 15th-century coaching-inn rooms, the cheese trolley, the 1,600-label Burgundy cellar, the two-Michelin-star service standard raised to three by a quietly brilliant brigade. Book a table in the smaller rear salon, a room upstairs, and the 7-course tasting with pairings. Nothing else in the region matches it.