From The New Orleans Menu Daily By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published July 20, 2007 Calas Bistro 4$ Kenner: 910 West Esplanade Avenue Reservations: 471-2200 Dinner Tues.-Sat. AE DC DS MC V. http://www.calasbistro.com/ It was only a matter of time before some chef decided to revive calas. There they were, with sterling credentials in the annals of Creole cookery, hanging around unemployed, waiting for a renaissance. This little restaurant and littler wine shop in Kenner is so enthusiastic about that mission that it named itself after them--even though calas appear in subsidiary roles on the menu. Calas (cah-LAHZ) are golf-ball-size fried spheres of rice and batter. In their heyday a century ago, they were sweet treats, sold by the dozens from carts in the French Market and elsewhere around town, served up hot with sugar and syrup. But, as happened with Creole cream cheese twenty years ago, the taste of calas failed to make the jump to the next generation of New Orleanians, and they all but disappeared. Which is hard to figure, because the things are delicious. For the past several decades, the only restaurant that consistently served them was the Coffee Pot on St. Peter Street. I'm glad Vickie and Bryan Krantz decided to make calas the leitmotif for their restaurant. Not only did they expand the currency of the old dish, but they invented new ways to serve it. Calas are found here both in its traditional sweet form, and as a savory appetizer in three innovative ways. The savory versions are flavored with shrimp, jambalaya, or crawfish, each with its own sauce. All are good; you can have an assortment of all three if you like. They make good cocktail companions. On to a more interesting matter. The chef here, Jeffrey Wagner, spent seven years working in the kitchen at Brigtsen's. The Krantzes asked Frank Brigtsen to help them assemble a menu and a kitchen; Brigtsen thought that Wagner was ready to run his own place, and recommended him for the chef's job. So the menu here will seem a little familiar to those who dine at Brigtsen's. The dishes themselves are not the same, but the general contemporary Creole style is--along with the high standards of food buying that contributes so much to Brigtsen's excellence. That explains the Calas Bistro seafood platter. It's not the usual fried-everything overkill that usually goes by that name, but a sort of one-plate tasting menu of seafood specialties. The current edition includes grilled with crawfish bordelaise, baked oysters in a sort of Italian style, barbecue shrimp wrapped in a fried spring roll, and crawfish ravigote. None of this really jumps off the plate (although the oyster is close to doing so), but it's a very good entree that's pretty much a meal in itself. It also illustrates an important point: this place may be inspired by Brigtsen's, but it's not nearly as good. (If it were, getting a table here would be much more difficult.) On the other hand, the creature comforts--never a big deal at Brigtsen's--will comfort your creature very much indeed. Calas Bistro is in an ordinary-looking strip mall in a part of West Esplanade that has so many other strip malls that the place is hard to locate the first time around. The interior, however, will grab you immediately. Sleek and cool, the space is highly inviting, with beautiful tables and chairs spaced well apart, a low ambient sound level even with the open kitchen, and a sense that one can dine seriously. In one corner are a pair of wine racks filled with good bottles at retail prices. You will pay more to have those wines at the table, but not much more. (Wine prices here are much less expensive than the going rates.) If you don't start with the calas, then think soup. The shrimp bisque is a funny color (brown), and has a swirl of pesto at the top, but it tastes good. The chicken andouille gumbo ought to taste much better, coming from a former Brigtsen's chef; it's on the light side, both in color and flavor. The best appetizer here is the outstanding sea scallop, which is panneed (an offbeat touch), wrapped with prosciutto, and set in a vegetable puree, drizzled with white truffle oil. Also good is the crunchy, cornmeal-coated fried catfish, little fingers of the stuff with spicy tartar sauce. The entree that caught my attention right away was chicken Pontalba, a great old-style thing that goes back to the early days of Brennan's, and isn't served nearly often enough. It's a roast chicken covered with a chunky pile of ham, fried potato cubes, mushrooms, and green onions, all held in a suspension of bearnaise. The management expressed dismay that I ordered this, but I don't know why; the version here is quite good. Another old standard with an updated face here is fish meuniere. Redfish will probably be the species (you just can't get Louisiana trout right now), and the sauce includes shrimp and pecans in one of those thick, light-brown, lemony, buttery sauces that seem like they must have a little roux but don't. They run good specials with fish along the same lines. One night we liked the grilled fish with crawfish hollandaise and a crawfish and cornbread dressing. Crawfish have about come to the end of their season, so don't expect to get that, but the dish points in the direction of the kitchen's taste: a little retro, a little robust by the standards of the current vogues. The meat department has a nice pork tenderloin with pan gravy and a filet mignon with fried oysters and Rockefeller butter. Plus an attempt to offer beef brisket as roast beef, which I don't think really works very well. I'm willing to admit this may have something to do to my love for Tujague's style of boiled brisket, and for barbecue brisket. All the desserts are made in the building. I said I wouldn't, but I must mention the sweet calas with orange sauce as the leading dessert here. They also make nice shortcakes (the real kind, with sweetened biscuits) and berries. And a very good version of creme brulee strongly flavored with lemon. Calas Bistro is one of the most charming restaurants in Kenner. As the kitchen becomes ever more adept, it will draw people from other parts of the city. By then, let's hope they get a bigger sign. For now, look across the parking lot from the Burger King, and be glad that the restaurant has windows that automatically cloud at night to block out that view. This was a restaurant in the 2007 Top Sixty Ethnic Restaurant Countdown. To view the entire list, click here. Click here for an index of all restaurant reviews. © 2007 Tom Fitzmorris. 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