From The New Orleans Menu Daily By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published May 30, 2008 Cafe Lynn 4$ Mandeville: 3051 East Causeway Approach 985-624-9007 Lunch Tues.-Fri. Dinner Tues.-Sat. AE, DC, DS, MC, V. One of these days I'll compile a list of the ten best upwardly-mobile restaurant conversions around town. The best of all time was the transformation of the Shoney's in Mid-City to Chef Gerard Crozier's magnificent Chateaubriand. But that's gone now. So the new list-topper is probably Café Lynn in Mandeville. It occupies a former Burger King. Although all the signs are gone and the interior clearly denies the possibility that fast food is the stock in trade, people still walk in, stop dead, and have to re-compute the visual stimuli before realizing that they're mistaken in coming here for a Whaler. Café Lynn came to be in the aftermath of the death last year of Chef Chris Kerageorgiou, the founder of La Provence. Joey Najolia was the latest in a long line of young chefs de cuisine there. (The chef de cuisine is the guy who actually does the kitchen work, following the direction of the executive chef.) Najolia's most famous predecessor was Chef John Besh, who not only made good after his years working with Chris, but who wound up buying La Provence from the old chef. When that happened, Joey thought it might be the perfect time to go out on his own. He and everybody in his family who was interested in being a part of the adventure moved into the Burger King. The place had closed a year or so before, along with almost everything else in a formerly busy strip mall. But the entire complicated intersection was scheduled for major reconstruction, and that left many empty shops. No major capital investment went into turning the BK into Café Lynn. The tables and chairs are those of the bistro that this is, and the order counter has been converted into service bar. So there's nothing obvious. On the other hand, toning down the old fluorescent panels instead of replacing them with something gentler is an atmospheric minus. But so what. We come for food, and that's solid. The menu is a blend of contemporary Creole restaurant recipes and a few dishes obviously influenced by Chef Chris's Greek-French style. A board of specials is good and various enough that ordering exclusively from those selections wouldn't be a bad idea. Maybe it's coincidence, but every time I've been here the soup of the day was corn and crab bisque. I've had it twice, and liked it both times. Lots of lumps, fresh corn, and cream kept under control. (Bisques that can be eaten with a fork are not where it's at.) On the other hand, they have the richest version of escargots in my experience. It's really a soup, although not promoted as such. The sauce/broth is a pale green creamy affair, with eight or ten snails poking their charcoal grays out of it. It's a delicious, herbal richness, and despite the heavy cream you will be in there with a spoon to get it all. Bread will not do the job. Especially since the bread here collapses back into dough inside the crust at the slightest pressure. Other appetizers range from the simple to the complex. The fried eggplant with marinara sauce is that thing you get in every Italian restaurant in town. The chef gets the essential quality down exactly: they're big sticks, crusty on the outside and greaseless, served very hot. A plate of sauteed sweetbreads in a butter sauce with capers didn't have the classic flavor of that, but I couldn't complain. On my most recent visit, Joey was making a duck liver pate along the same buttery lines that his former mentor made famous. This was made even better by the addition of what I think was Cognac (I tasted something vaguely smoky) and a good bit of black pepper. In fact, it was hard to stop eating it, even with a squashy bread. And you can really stuff yourself with it. Moving past the onion tart (if it's still there, don't get it, unless you want a quiche, which this resembles) we find salads arriving. The one I liked was a pile of baby greens topped with little balls of goat cheese that had been covered in bread crumbs and fried. That's good--the warm-cool contrast in a salad is usually pleasant. A salad-like serving of duck confit wasn't as good; the duck leg came out pulled apart into big shreds, naked of the crispy skin that detonates this. The entrees that sound great are. Steak au poivre: accurately grilled filet mignon, with a peppery, creamy sauce. Grilled chicken in what French chefs call "grand-mere's style," nicely tender and herbal. Soft-shell crabs are good now, and good here, with minimal gilding. Grilled fish grenobloise, that butter sauce heavily flavored with capers: great if you're in the mood for something assertive. Better fish specials still come up on the specials board. The best fo these was a pair of crisp-skinned fillets of striped bass, minimally sauced with a variation of pesto. They sent it out with with mashed potatoes underneath. I don't understand mashed anything with fish, but everybody's doing that these days, and I suppose we have to put up with it another few years. Desserts include a very good hot bread pudding (a good use for that bread), and a well-executed creme brulee--among other things. The wine list follows a sensible plan. It's not long, but what's on it is reasonably interesting and fairly priced. I'd say this should be the next area of improvement after replacing those lights. As is the case everywhere on the North Shore, service is not what it would be if the people were available for hire. There's one very good waitress who has been at it for a long time and understands the dynamics. And the chef's wife and his mother, too, at times. And some younger servers who don't quite get it yet. But this is a young restaurant, one that has already grabbed enough fans to make it essential that you get a reservation, especially on weekends. One more thing: the construction of the roads around there is very daunting, but it's not as hard to get to the restaurant as it might seem. With that empty mall, there's surely enough parking. Click here for an index of all restaurant reviews. © 2008 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com.