From The New Orleans Menu Daily By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published September 28, 2006 Austin's 4$ Metairie: 5101 West Esplanade Ave. (at Chastant Street) Reservations 888-5533. Dinner only, Mon.-Sat. AE, DC, DS, MC, V. Ed Mcintyre, like most New Orleans restaurateurs, has some hair-raising tales to tell about conducting his business during the past year. He also says he's lucky. He owns Mr. Ed's in Bucktown, a neighborhood-style place he opened some fifteen years ago, then expanded substantially. Mr. Ed's survived the storm with minimal damage, and was one of the earliest restaurants to open in Metairie. Yet he was less than a mile away from the total destruction in West End Park and Old Bucktown. What a difference a good levee makes! Mr. Ed's was one of the only eateries open anywhere around there and packing them in. Then a fire in November burned the restaurant down. Drat! But meanwhile Ed's other restaurant, Austin's, was getting much of his attention. Near the intersection of West Esplanade and Transcontinental, Austin's suffered the same fate as everything else around there: two feet of water washed through. What a difference an unmanned pumping station makes! By November Ed had cleared Austin's out, rebuilt the essential parts of it, and was ready to open. It became one of the busiest restaurants in town, which was saying something at that time. People waited for hours to get in as the minimal staff and Ed himself did the best they could. All is settled down now. Mr. Ed's is back open, as busy as ever. And Austin's has a new, more impressive look to go with the more ambitious menu it's had since the beginning. It's a lot bigger. Austin's (the place is named for Ed's son, in case you wondered) started out as a space in a strip mall. Its next-door neighbor closed, and Ed expanded into that space. The same thing happened with the next neighbor. When the post-storm fix-up was finished, Austin's had annexed four units in the mall, with a more unified interior than before. A long time ago, I created a culinary category called Suburban Creole. Austin's defines the style. It has many classic dishes from the great New Orleans restaurants, altered here and there to appeal to the tastes of those who have the money to dine well, but no particular interest in expanding their horizons of taste beyond the familiar. There's nothing wrong with that, unless your criterion for restaurant excellence is being surprised by innovation on each outing. That will never happen to you here, unless this is the first time you've ventured west of the Industrial Canal. Nor is there any rigorous pursuit of rare or expensive ingredients or techniques. (What, for example, is crawfish doing anywhere on the menu at this time of year?) It's good New Orleans food, brought up a step or two, in the niche between the neighborhood cafes and the upscale places. Which addresses the desires of a very big market in Metairie. So you start with oysters or shrimp or crabmeat. Panned oysters with white remoulade sauce; Italian-style oysters with bread crumbs and garlic and olive oil, baked until crusty and bubbly. Lump crabmeat served cold with that remoulade again, and asparagus. Shrimp remoulade. (I see there's one more remoulade dish here, not counting the salad dressing version. Maybe another sauce is needed.) All this is delicious. Good salads. Everybody, including me, seems to be hooked these days on the wedge of iceberg with a creamy blue cheese dressing and bacon, and that's good here (and big enough tio split). Caesar. Tomatoes and mozzarella. Spinach with pecans and bacon. Nothing new; all good. Ed McIntyre understands soups. His restaurants have always made excellent versions of gumbo, turtle soup, and artichoke and oyster soup, as well as other potages du jour. On my most recent visit it was turtle, with a distinctive light texture and color. The entree list includes almost anything you might feel like eating. Lots of seafood, from the venerable (trout amandine) to the more current (seared scallops wrapped with applewood-smoked bacon), and from the very rich (crabmeat au gratin with lots of both cheese and cream) to the very light (grilled salmon). As was true among the appetizers, one might want for more variety among the garnishes and sauces (lemon-caper butter and meuniere sauce flow freely), but one might not. They had soft-shell crabs last time I was there, and they were beautiful. This is the last really good month for soft-shelles for this year, and this has been an exceptional year for those beasts. I've never seen bigger or meatier specimens. If I'm even a little in the mood for a soft-shell, here it comes. All the platters are substantial, but you can enhance that further. The double-cut pork chop is said to be a twelve-ouncer, but it looks bigger than that to me. It's certainly very good, and the sweet potatoes that come with it are a perfect match. Yams also come with the orange-glazed duck with wild rice. That's really old hat, but it's good old hat. Austin's has the complete lineup of thick steaks of unspecified pedigree, served simply. I don't know if I'd come here if I were in a steak mood, but a friend I trust says he thinks this is a menu sleeper here. Finally, they have all the standard veal dishes, with crabmeat here and lemon caper butter (again) there and red sauce with melted cheese over the top on that table. Good desserts, made in house. The bread pudding is especially delicious, light in texture but served in such portions that I, a bread pudding fanatic, can't finish it. The wine list and the bar are right up to snuff. The service staff is young but apparently well trained; they knew the answers to everything, and made good recommendations for the food. Eating here is a bargain. Few entrees other than the likes of steak or lobster top the $20 mark, which is becoming an uncommon state of affairs in white-tablecloth restaurants these days. That contributes to what seems to be a happier crowd than one finds in most restaurants. Austin's is the perfect restaurant for its time and place. Click here to return to today's edition. Click here for an index of all restaurant reviews. © 2006 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com.