Archived Restaurant Review By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published December 6, 2005 Click here for the current edition Acme Oyster House Post-K Ratings: C, 1$ Metairie: 3000 Veterans Blvd. 309-4056. Covington: 519 E. Boston, 898-0667. Not yet open: 724 Iberville, 522-5973, and 1202 US 190 (Causeway Blvd.), Covington. 985-246-6155. Lunch and dinner seven days continuously. AE, DC, DS, MC, V. http://www.acmeoysterhouse.com/ It's been a long time since the Acme was, in fact, the acme of New Orleans oyster bars. It certainly was that when I first started eating raw bivalves in the early 1970s. It was 60 years old even then, and looked it: a well-worn joint full of old guys shucking oysters and drawing beers, and old girls waiting tables with poor boys and platters in hand. That was the old Acme Oyster House. The current outfit is very different and much more ambitious, even though it doesn't look it. Even in its newest location--a big new place on one of the busiest stretches of Veterans Boulevard in Metairie--they seem intentionally to create that same shabby look the French Quarter original always had. That's even more true of the Covington Acme. But those trappings hide a slick operation that uses all the current tricks of the chain restaurants. A large part of their menu is cooked elsewhere, and just warmed up for service. In some cases--the red beans, certainly--this resulted in an improvement in the product. The centerpiece of the Acme remains, however. The oyster bar is a good one, even in these times when shuckers are scarce and bits of shell get in the opened oyster. They buy excellent oysters, mostly from P&J, and render them not only raw but grilled in the style of Drago's (not as well, but certainly good enough) and fried (almost always to order, crisp with a well-seasoned cornmeal crust). A platter of fried oysters is good, but an oyster loaf (almost twice the size of the menu's oyster poor boy, for just a few dollars more) is even better. If only they'd toast the bread, it would be one of the best in town. The Acme's other seafood platters are good and ample but not brilliant. The catfish is too big to fry well. A recent soft shell crab platter featured a foreigner. Nevertheless, the Acme is a fun place with a good wait staff and a classic assortment of New Orleans neighborhood food. The red beans (especially with hot sausage, if they ever get that back on the menu) and the seafood gumbo are exemplary. It's no mystery why a line of tourists almost always stood in front of the Iberville Street original, which is in the throes of repair right now and should open shortly. A new Acme is abuilding in Covington, in the former location of Boule Prime House. That one was, I hear, originally planned as a replacement for the Boston Street restaurant, whose business dropped when the parish courthouse moved from across the street. Now they say they'll keep both open. © 2005 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com