From The New Orleans Menu Daily By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published December 19, 2006 Bozo’s 2$ Metairie: 3117 21st Street 831-8666 Lunch and dinner Tues.-Sat. AE, MC, V Chris Vodonovich may be the least replaceable person in the local restaurant business. He's not just the boss and the tastemaker at Bozo's. He's the chef. In fact, he's the line cook. And the prep cook. He runs the restaurant his father founded in 1928 out of his back pocket, and always has. The advantage to this is that Bozo's is the most consistent restaurant in New Orleans. Everything tastes the same as it did the time before, or the first time you went there two or three decades ago. The only variations come from unavoidable  seasonal fluctuations in seafood. Notably oysters, which loom large on the menu, from the oyster bar to the fryer. How could it be otherwise? What part of the seafood frying he doesn't do himself, Chris observes from a few feet away. It's so instinctual that he usually carries on a conversation with friends (who are constantly entering the open kitchen) while frying seafood in three different fryers (each seafood is fried separately at Bozo's). He cooks everything one order at a time, and sends it out as soon as it's finished. That simple but rare procedure makes Bozo's the finest fried seafood restaurant in these parts. The menu is short. Most regulars start with the gumbo. It's unique: a light, roux-less, subtle version that starts off deceptively mild in flavor but gets better with each spoonful, till you reach frenzy at the end. The two great entrees are fried oysters and fried catfish. Both are coated with the same rather coarse seasoned cornmeal. The oysters are big and meaty, fried the oysters a bit longer than is currently the vogue, but the extra crunch makes up for any loss of moisture in the middle. The pedigree of the catfish is matched by none other in the area. Bozo's uses wild fish exclusively, and small fish at that. Compared with the blander, larger, tougher farm-raised catfish, the difference is amazing. A plate of Bozo's cornmeal-encrusted cat is a fish-eating experience as fine as even the best work of the upmarket bistros. Complaints about Bozo's frying usually involve shrimp. I'm no lover of fried shrimp to begin with, but the bread-crumb-coated, shrimp that Bozo's serves leave me even less interested than usual. Much better are the broiled shrimp: butterflied, dusted with a good bit of pepper, and doused with butter before run under the heat. They head off in the direction of barbecue shrimp, but are much lighter. They boil seafood here, too. They always have nice boiled shrimp, and in season (which should be starting very soon) they have fine, well-selected boiled crawfish. Crabs, on the other hand, appear only in the old-fashioned stuffed crab. If you order it, think of it as a side dish, because it's not enough to make a meal out of. It makes a good appetizer. The menu has a few interesting odds and ends. The spectacular hot sausage poor boy--homemade, strictly for fans of very peppery eating--is memorable. The disadvantage to Chris's heavy involvement in his kitchen is that he can't last forever. He's deep in his seventies, and seems healthy and active, but. . . without kids who want to take over the restaurant, one wonders what the future hold. If Chris sells the place, it may well usher in a fine new restaurant, but it won't be like Bozo's. 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.