From The New Orleans Menu Daily By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published April 10, 2008 Bistro at Maison de Ville 5$ French Quarter: 733 Toulouse Reservations: 528-9206 Lunch and dinner Tues.-Sat. AE DC DS MC V http://www.maisondeville.com/dining Ranked by ratio of culinary importance to square footage, the Bistro at the Maison de Ville is the number one restaurant in New Orleans. But it had a close brush with extinction after the hurricane. The little restaurant that launched the celebrity of chefs Susan Spicer, John Neal, and Dominique Macquet had minor damage. Chef Greg Picolo and manager Patrick von Hoorebeck--both as colorful as they were proficient--reopened briefly a few months after the blow. But new owners closed the Bistro, and Greg and Patrick were on the street. Patrick went first to Peristyle, and is now assistant maitre d' at the Rib Room. That career move seemed to signal the end of the Bistro as we knew it. But Greg found a business partner and bought the restaurant from the hotel. It reopened almost a year ago, and the chef quickly picked up where he left off. Even after almost two years absence, the Bistro was welcomed back gleefully. Its diehard aficionados were there as soon as the door was unlocked, eager to resume their clubby lunches and dinners in their favorite place. One of the things they like here is what the uninitiated perceive as a handicap. The Bistro's European-style smallness. Just a few tables, and those are too small for people of above average size. The only way to get a good table is to show up with six or eight or more people and have the tables along the banquette shoved together. Right there, that creates a party. Such a gathering of locals is routine at the Bistro. And the ones that occur at Friday lunchtime is legendary. Chef Greg has run the Bistro's equally minuscule kitchen (it's amazing that one person can work in there, let along three or four) longer than all the previous chefs combined. He's at least as good as any of them. Few chefs think through their food so deeply and interestingly. His classical culinary knowledge is thorough, and on top of that he’s a New Orleans native. So you might hear him describe a dessert by its resemblance to a Hubig’s pie. A lot of the Bistro's food is sufficiently complex that, in less knowing hands, it might come out as contrived. What tells us that this isn't so is that every dish on the menu sounds like a must-try. Give you an example. On my most recent dinner here, the appetizer that caught my eye went by the curious name "frog leg grillades and grits." The idea of working frog into the old Creole breakfast dish was pretty far out, but. . . the legs were the tender, little kind, panneed. Firm, cheese-enriched grits were piled at the bottom of the bowl, washed over by an intense, dark-brown sauce. I asked what it was, and learned that it was a classic Creole sauce (the trinity plus tomatoes) with some demi-glace and Worcestershire. And it worked, both as a frog-leg dish and as grillades. Same night, next course. Sauteed black drum, just perfect, draped over a pile of risotto with peas and crabmeat. The rice grains had just enough cream to enrich, not so much to turn into goo. Grilled asparagus filled out the margin. Beurre blanc with a whiff of tarragon drizzled all over. Nothing revolutionary about any of this. Fish, crabmeat, rice, butter. But. Had I ever encountered this, exactly, before? No. The whole menu goes that way. With himself as the boss, Greg has stepped up the pace of its evolution. "I like being able to make decisions, change the menu, or anything else without having to discuss it," Greg says. Chef Greg has some steady specialties. Sweetbreads, for example, are a Bistro specialty since the days (late 1980s) of its first chef, Susan Spicer. They’re an appetizer now--a good thing. The current version is sandwiched between portobello mushrooms--nice pairing of flavors. You can also count on finding foie gras, which these days comes out on a savory lost bread with what they call a ragout of cherries and a poached egg. The smoked trout (smoked in house) comes with scallops, crabmeat, crawfish, and remoulade for a very appealing plate of cold things. Among the main courses, a decidedly French bistro (small "b") flavor takes hold. The roast chicken grand mere style with roasted potatoes is a classic taste, done perfectly here. So is the bouillabaisse, which has more different seafoods in it than any other I know off--including the decidedly non-traditional crawfish, oysters, and Italian sausage. Somehow, with all that, the point of that grand dish comes across, and although the portion is almost overwhelming, you can't help but get it all down. There's always a filet mignon, it's always wrapped with bacon (why?), and it's always a little offbeat. I hate to order it (too many other uncommon dishes here), but I always think about it. Especially because it comes with fresh-cut French fries, a major specialty of the house here. Those fries became famous years ago, when Patrick von Hoorebeck--a native of Brussels, Belgium, the pommes frites and mussels capital of the world--persuaded Greg to add that combo as a lunch special. They're exceedingly popular as such, accounting for a large percentage of lunch entree orders here. They're as good as mussels get, served generously and simply. With a large pile of fresh-cut French fries with homemade mayonnaise for dipping. Another great lunch item sounds prosaic, but isn't. Omelets are served everywhere, most of them very badly. But when a serious chef makes an omelet, you really have something. They do here, with differing fillings every day. The weak spot in the Bistro's menu has always been dessert. It's okay--as the apple bread pudding I had recently--but never spectacular. On the other hand, wine is a big deal. That is not the jolly game it was when Patrick stuffed the cellar with amazing bottles, and had an enormous collection of large-format bottles around the dining room. But it's better than in any other restaurant this size, and the many oenophiles who dine here regularly give a reason to keep the list up. Click here for an index of all restaurant reviews. © 2008 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com.