VIVE, Maison Mer – the Le Quellecs' tribute to the French coast

Vive, Maison Mer occupies 62 avenue des Ternes, a corner of the 17th arrondissement that spent nearly a century under one name: Rech, the seafood institution founded by Alsace-born restaurateur Adrien Rech in 1925. Alain Ducasse took over the address in 2007 and ran it for over a decade before relocating Rech to the gardens of the Maison de l'Amérique Latine on boulevard Saint-Germain. In October 2022, the site passed to Stéphanie Le Quellec, the two-Michelin-starred chef behind La Scène on avenue Matignon, and her husband David, a Breton cook who had just left the kitchens of the Moulin Rouge. Together they built Vive as a shared-plates tribute to the French coastline, from Normandy to the Mediterranean. The restaurant is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, its seafood cooking built on produce bought directly from small-boat crews and foot fishermen along both shores.

01The room and the setting

On the ground floor a long comptoir in Patagonian granite anchors the room, a fish-maturation cabinet standing just beside it, with coral-toned banquettes and a cocktail-and-saké list setting a looser, more festive tone for the hour of the apéro.

Upstairs, two dining rooms were designed by the Costa agency, overseen by Steeve Jomaa and Stéphane Aslanian. The space holds around fifty covers, one of the two rooms able to be privatised for events of up to twenty guests. Oak panelling and long banquettes in saffron-turmeric velvet wrap the tables, and the artist Victoire Fontaine turned oyster baskets into bread baskets and shells into wall frescoes, a quiet nod to the catch itself.

02The chefs

Stéphanie Le Quellec trained under the Meilleur Ouvrier de France Philippe Legendre at Le Cinq, the Four Seasons George V's flagship dining room, before building her own name. She opened La Scène on avenue Matignon in October 2019 and won two Michelin stars there by January 2020.

Insider tip

Open Tuesday–Saturday for lunch and dinner; booking recommended; nearest métro is Ternes.

Her husband David, whose Breton surname already carries a whiff of salt air, left the kitchens of the Moulin Rouge to join the family's restaurant group shortly before Vive opened. The couple, who now live in Normandy after ten years in Provence, run Vive together: David at the stoves, Stéphanie steering the concept.

03The cooking

David Le Quellec matures much of his fish on site, three to ten days in a dedicated cabinet, a process that concentrates flavour and reworks texture before the fish ever reaches the plate.

The couple built relationships with foot fishermen, small-boat crews and oyster growers along the French coast, buying only what the sea gives up that week, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.

04What to order

Among the mains, a quarter of grilled octopus in a mild harissa broth has become a fixture, alongside langoustine ravioli in a coconut emulsion.

For sharing, a whole line-caught sea bass arrives in sauce vierge, flambéed with pastis. To finish, there's an XXL casserole cookie with vanilla ice cream, cooked to order in around twenty minutes, or a rice pudding with salted butter caramel and puffed rice.

05Wine and drinks

The cellar runs to roughly 300 references, with a particular focus on sakes and cocktails, assembled by sommelier Matthias Meynard, previously of La Scène.

Downstairs, the comptoir turns into its own scene after dark, cocktails and shared plates taking over once the upstairs dining room is in full service.

06When to go and the neighbourhood

Vive sits two minutes from Métro Ternes, in a residential stretch of the 17th arrondissement between Porte Maillot and the Arc de Triomphe.

The restaurant is open Tuesday to Saturday, for lunch from noon to 1.30pm and dinner from 7pm to 9.30pm.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.