Maison Carne, the flat-rate txuletón

There may be nothing more primitive than a piece of meat roasting over a fire, but carnivorous marketing insists on relentlessly bombarding us with increasingly unsettling concepts: extreme aging that harks back to ancient Egyptian mummification techniques, tomahawks of Jurassic size, and restaurants turned into theme parks, where a man in dark glasses sprinkles generous salt over large, gold-covered steaks. Is there room for conceptual minimalism amidst such excess?

Baudoin de Fournas, founder of Maison Carne, believes so. Three years ago, this young French entrepreneur decided to put into practice an idea that had been on his mind: A single-dish restaurant, with a 1 kg ribeye steak as the star and at a democratic price.

The project began in early 2019, when Baudoin De Fournas opened the first Maison Carne in Béziers, his hometown. A few months later, with hardly any experience, he decided to make the leap to Barcelona to open another establishment, identical to the original. He himself recalls that he let himself be guided by his instinct, "I sensed that if the concept worked in two such different cities, I could successfully replicate it anywhere."

Three years later, we can say that the intuition was good. After a period of expansion focused on the neighboring country, where the restaurant chain already has six locations, Maison Carne recently opened in Girona, becoming the brand's eighth location and the second in Catalan territory.

The Barcelona location, at number 204 Mallorca Street, is usually full. Next to the restaurant door, hanging from hooks in a display case, a string of ribeye steaks welcomes us. They age there for five days, enough time for the pieces to lose excess blood and gain consistency.

Inside the restaurant, the slaughterhouse aesthetic (white tiled walls, marble tables, bovine portraits, and industrial scales) predisposes one to activate the carnivorous gene. At each table, stuck in strategically placed grooves, await Pallarès Solsona knives, recognizable by their boxwood handles. Upon sitting down, we discover that a discreet drawer integrated into the table contains the fork, a kitchen towel, and in two test tubes, salt and pepper.

The txuletón of 1kg, served on the bone, can be shared between two or devoured solo. This cut of meat comes from the sirloin of Italian Frisian cows fed exclusively on grass and, at most, 12 months old. By dealing directly with ranchers and slaughterhouses, the chain bypasses intermediaries, achieving a very competitive price. In the restaurant, the customer pays €32.90 for a kilo of meat, with the option of taking the raw piece home to grill, at a price of €24.

At Maison Carne, the 1kg piece is cooked in a Josper charcoal oven and arrives at the table uncut, accompanied by a small grill that gives us the possibility to lightly sear the meat as we cut it. The sharp blade of the Pallarès knife sinks without friction into a tender and juicy fiber, but we should not expect from a piece of these characteristics (sirloin of Frisian cow) the same depth of flavor or degree of fat infiltration that a ribeye of Rubia Gallega, Asturiana or Simmental might have, to give some examples.

What is offered here is the characteristic charcoal aroma of the Josper oven and a meat with a mild flavor, tender texture, and precise cooking.

Beyond the chop, the flat rate of €32.90 includes a Cabanes pâté, a green salad, and a generous portion of French fries. Bleu, Blanc, Rouge.

At Maison Carne, the wine format also has its charm. Served in a magnum bottle, "the customer pays for what they drink, specifically one euro per centimeter", as explained by Manu Sarrias, the director of Maison Carne Barcelona. He also tells us that the red wine that fills the bottle comes from the Cooperativa d'Embres et Castelmaure, and after the first glass, we confirm that it fulfills its mission of accompanying the meat without competing with it. If the house wine is not enough, Maison Carne offers a wine list with multiple local and French references.

Before dessert, and following the conceptual logic of meat and wine, the restaurant offers a selection of cheeses sold by weight (at a price of €7/100 g). Another good idea that, incidentally, contributes to the French aura of the whole. The five available options, very decent, are: Mimolette, Pérail, Saint-Marcellin, Fourme d'Ambert and a goat "bûche", covered in ash.

To finish, the homemade desserts section includes classics such as chocolate mousse or the famous rum-soaked cake that gives its name to one of the Roman camps surrounding the Gallic village of Asterix and Obelix.

In the era of hyper-specialization, Maison Carne has found its hallmark in the nakedness of the txuletón, polishing and simplifying the concept until finding a formula that works without deceiving anyone.

Because there are still hungers that can only be satisfied with meat.