Previews Of Just-Opened Eateries
Fresh Arrivals Every Week!
If what you're after is a terrific restaurant meal, a restaurant that opened in the past few months is not likely to be your best bet. The chefs and dining room staff may have a lot of experience, but not in the new situation. It takes awhile for a groove to form, let along getting into it. The customers are always a surprise, too. The creations predicted by the management to become the signature may not catch on, while a random special becomes the most talked-about dish in the place. That's why I rarely go to restaurants in their early months, let alone review it. Too many things will change, and the information I gather is less useful as a result.
On the other hand, there is no question that a new opening is exciting, particularly if well-known restaurateurs or spiffy surroundings are in play. Many diners get a thrill out of being the first ones to try a new place, and enjoy telling their friends of the find. The interest in fresh restaurant meat is so high that at least a third of the calls and mail I get concern recent premieres.
Here, then, is a collection of previews of the most important new places, reviving a column that appeared in the very first edition of The New Orleans Menu in 1977 and for a long time thereafter. The difference between a preview and a review is the absence of ratings in the preview. I may not have dined in the restaurant being previewed, or not enough times to base a solid review. The information in the previews is what I can get from the restaurants, as well as from people I speak with on my radio show and emailed reports. As always, we gather all our information from primary sources, never gleaning anything from other media.--Tom Fitzmorris.
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Adolfo's
Marigny: 611 Frenchmen. 504-948-3800. Map.
Casual.
Cash only.
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Assemble a menu of familiar dishes, serve them in large portions, and charge a noticeably below-average price. . . and you may have a restaurant phenom on your hands. At the very least, your establishment will be busy all the time. Topic A at Adolfo's: how hard it is to get a table without a long wait. Topic B: why don't they take credit cards? (Answer: they don't have to. When you serve very filling platters at low prices, you can do anything you want.)
WHAT'S GOOD
Here is a slight departure from the New Orleans-style Italian menu. All the dishes are familiar, even if the names aren't. The typical dish here has the main ingredients flooded in one or two of a dozen or so sauces. These range from pretty good to a bit much. Eye appeal is not part of most of the recipes, but who cares when they feed you so much, right?
BACKSTORY
When the Marigny music and dining corridor was just getting started on Frenchmen Street (1990s), Chef Alberto Rodriguez opened a funny but excellent little Italian cafe named for himself right in the middle of it. After a few years he moved Uptown and later retired. Adolfo's took over his old place in 2000, cooking food in the same spirit. It caught on among the young Marigny habitues, who spread the word. Instant phenom!
DINING ROOM
A peculiar, ramshackle, one-flight-up dining room is furnished with tables made out of old treadle sewing machines and other highly miscellaneous fixtures. No two lines are either parallel or meet at a right angle. It's overcrowded and uncomfortable, a feeling exacerbated by that of being rushed. None of this seems to bother the faithful.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Starters
Mussels marinara
»Oysters with Pernod and spinach
Escargots
»Fried eggplant, crabmeat, capers
Eggplant Parmigiana
Eggplant and Italian sausage, marinara
Cannelloni with crabmeat and corn
Cannelloni with spinach and cheese
»Cannelloni with spinach and Italian sausage
Soup of the day
Chicken salad
Shrimp salad
Side salad
Pasta entrees
Mussels marinara, pasta
Pasta with shrimp, oysters, spinach, lemon butter
Pasta with Italian sausage
Shrimp or crawfish or both, pasta Alfredo or marinara
Clams with pasta Alfredo or marinara
»Pasta primavera (vegetables, olive oil, garlic)
Pasta and eggplant Parmigiana
Entrees
Fish Michelle (shrimp, crawfish)
»Fish Cruz (crabmeat, capers)
Fish Renee (oysters, spinach, sherry)
Fish Sean (clams and shrimp, marinara)
Fish Nick (lemon butter)
FishTony (spinach, lemon, herbs, olive oil)
»Fish Missy (crabmeat, capers, spinach, lemon)
Veal Ocean(shrimp, crawfish, crabmeat, capers)
Veal Frances (shrimp, artichoke hearts)
»Veal Scotty (piccata, artichokes, capers)
Veal Scacie (spinach, lemon)
Veal Parmigiana
Veal pannee, marinara
Chicken Vincent (cream sauce with tasso)
Chicken Brenda (spinach and butter)
»Chicken Maxine (Creole mustard cream sauce)
Chicken Parmigiana
»Chicken pannee
Chicken Tyler (piccata, lemon butter, artichokes)
»Steak Manny (peppercorn cream sauce with rum)
Steak Madrina, with shrimp scampi
Steak Labarca (mushroom butter sauce)
Desserts vary
FOR BEST RESULTS
One can construct a good meal from the appetizer section alone. Be sure to find out what the fish of the day is before you order it. Some species are better than others.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
Almost any dish would be improved here by having the amount of sauce cut back by about a third, but that would start a riot among the regulars. The cash-only policy, even with the ATM in house, is offensive.
FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.
- Dining Environment -1
- Consistency
- Service -1
- Value +1
- Attitude -1
- Wine and Bar
- Hipness +1
- Local Color +1
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Open Sunday dinner
- Open Monday dinner
- Unusually large servings
- No reservations
Hurricane BBQ And Seafood Co.
Metairie: 4001 Airline Dr. 504-416-9958. Map.
Breakfast
Lunch MO TU WE TH FR SA SU
Dinner MO TU WE TH FR SA
AE DS MC V
Website
PREVIEW
The two guys who own and do all the cooking for Hurricane BBQ started their venture in 1999 as an adjunct to the kitchen at the Rivershack in Old Jefferson. That evolved into a catering operation focusing on barbecue, one with enough skill that it won a major contest against serious competition at Hogs For The Cause this year. When Hi-Ho--a short-lived import from Hammond whose barbecue was nothing of the kind-- closed its miserable Airline Highway restaurant in early 2012, Hurricane BBQ moved in. Almost immediately I began getting consistent reports (including one from my wife, a barbecue fanatic) that the 'cue here was first-rate.
DINING ROOM
A small, spartan space is all you need for on-site eating, and that's what they have, in a new building erected by Hi-Ho but not much worn out by its customers. There's also a drive-through. The site is across the highway from Sam's Club--an excellent landmark.
INTERESTING MENU ITEMS
Starters
House garden salad
Grilled chicken salad
Chicken tender basket
Corn dog
Fried shrimp basket
Cheese quesadilla
Sandwiches
Pulled pork
Hamburger
Grilled cheese
Fried shrimp
Barbecue beef poor boy
Pulled pork poor boy
Shrimp poor boy
Entrees
Barbecue pork ribs
Barbecue plates (brisket, pulled pork, chopped beef, or smoked sausage)
Light or dark chicken plate
Sides
French fries
Sweet fries
Tater tots
Onion rings
Jambalaya
Green beans
Roasted corn
Mac and cheese
Baked beans
Cole slaw
Twice baked potato
Potato salad
Dinner roll
This is an unrated preview. A full review will appear when the restaurant has been open long enough to get into its groove.
Last Updated on Tuesday, 10 July 2012 09:33
Maurepas Foods
Bywater/Downtown: 3200 Burgundy St. 504-267-0072. Map.
Lunch MO TU TH FR SA SU
Dinner MO TU TH FR SA SU
Very Casual.
AE DS MC V
Website
PREVIEW
Bywater is so hip that almost any eatery opening there gets enhanced attention, even if it's just a pizza or sandwich joint. Maurepas is more ambitious in its cookery than most of its neighbors, and that has brought it more acclaim--notably in an article in the New York Times.
"Purveyors Of Robust Cuisine," declares the front window. The main selling point at Maurepas is a familiar one these days. They're making the local farmer's markets to forage for locally-grown vegetables, meats, dairy, and seafood. What came in today is listed on the specials board. This doesn't keep exotics entirely off the menu, as the presence of mussels reveals.
BACKSTORY
As 2012 opened, Chef Michael Doyle emerged from the Uptown gourmet bistro milieu (notably Gautreau's and Dante's Kitchen) to open Maurepas. He picked the right spot: Bywater, which is so hip that almost any eatery that opens there gets enhanced attention, even if it's just a pizza or sandwich joint.
DINING ROOM
The entrance is beveled into the corner of a former grocery store on the corner of Louisa and Burgundy--two blocks river side of the holy site of the extinct Restaurant Mandich. The ceilings are high, the spaces wide, the lines free of filigree or any interior signs of the building's age (well over a century). The chairs look like office furniture. The style is aggressively casual, t-shirts and shorts dominating the couture of both servers and customers.
INTERESTING MENU ITEMS
Starters
Soba noodles, fried tofu, soybeans, black vinegar, andouille broth
Fettuccine, market vegetables, wild mushrooms
Citrus salad, roasted beets, sheep cheese, greens
Wedge of bibb lettuce, giardinera, salami
Sweet potato croquettes, peanuts, shiitake mushrooms
Cauliflower caponata, aged balsamic vinegar
Crowder pea and bacon stew
Root vegetable gratin
Market greens with fresh ham hock
Oysters on the half shell, mustard greens vinaigrette
Housemade pickles
Daily cheese assortment
Entrees
Chicken leg, greens, poached egg, grits
Pork and bacon terrine, pickled pears
Pimenton sausage sandwich, sauteed squid, romesco, mustard greens
Terranova's gree onion sausage, arancini
Goat tacos, pickled green tomatoes, harissa
Fish and chips, lyonnaise potatoes
Grilled shrim, Israeli couscous, sorrel
Mussels, brown ale and Stilton broth
Grilled fish of the day, grits
Duck sliders
This is an unrated preview. A full review will appear when the restaurant has been open long enough to get into its groove.
Serendipity
| Serendipity | |
Eclectic.
Mid-City: 3700 Orleans Ave. 504-236-7476. Map.
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner MO TU WE TH FR SA SU
Casual
AE DS MC V
Website
PREVIEW
Some chefs never settle down. Among these are some brilliantly talented tastemakers who attract a devoted following. Their fans always know where their hero is working, even if it's in some little dive. Watching them from the vantage point of an avid diner, it's puzzling that these guys (I can't think of any women who fit this description) hamstring their careers by their peripatetic habits. Maybe moving on to the next thing is what makes them happy.
Chris DeBarr is a prime example of the unsettling chef. I mean that in both senses of the word. He's moved around a lot, often to unlikely venues. And his culinary paradigms are ever in motion, too. The combinations of ingredients and techniques are so far off the main beam that when it proves to be intensely pleasurable, it raises your consciousness of the experience. Example: over half the menu is vegetarian, but a meat-eater will still like it.
Chris was doing that every night at the exquisitely uncomfortable Green Goddess on Exchange Alley. Before that, it was in the barely-a-restaurant called Delachaise. Before and in between, he turned up at Commander's Palace, Broussard's, Arnaud's, Christian's, Vincent's and too many little places to keep track of.
In August, Chris and some partners opened a restaurant called Serendipity--a perfect word to sum up not only Chris's abilities but his lighthearted approach to his craft. We can call it Chris's first real restaurant, the one we have been waiting for. (I'm a fan, too.) It's in the American Can Company apartment building on Orleans Avenue at Bayou St. John, in the big, airy space formerly occupied by the mediocre, chain-like Olive Branch Cafe. That's also next door to the chic Cork & Bottle wine store, whose customers should plug right in at Serendipity. All this is very promising as we enter the stretch for the 2012 dining year.
DINING ROOM
The American Can location is very cool, with the big spaces for which old warehouses are celebrated.
MOST OF THE MENU
Starters
Cheese plate
Fried olives stuffed with alligator sausage
Fried pickled okra rellenos
Grilled peach, blue cheese, bacon
Bulgarian chilled cucumber soup, Pimm's snow
Farmers market salad, duck sausage, fried baby artichokes
Summer noodle and seaweed salad
Golden corn casserole with squash, carrots, cheeses
Shrimp 'wearing a grass (kataifi) skirt
Malaysian red curry goat empanada
Tuna and watermelon skewers, Persian spice, fennel pollen
Tasting menu
Chilled watermelon and ginger soup
White anchovy bruschetta
Grilled wild mushrooms
Tomato Oscar, crabmeat, asparagus)
Golden beet ravioli, truffled goat cheese
Entrees
Tabouli, olives, herbs, squash 15
Lafcadio's creole curried lamb baklava
Cochon de lait-lei (barbecue pork,adobo collars, sweet potatoes)
Greek fish tacos (potato latkes)
Quinoa-stuffed roasted tomato
Desserts
Baked Hawaii (sherbets, cake, meringue, flambeed)
Sultan's nest (pistachio gelato and absinthe ice cream on phyllo)
Homage to Hubig's pie
This is an unrated preview. A full review will appear when the restaurant has been open long enough to get into its groove.
Last Updated on Thursday, 27 December 2012 21:33
| SoBou |               |
French Quarter: 310 Chartres St.. 504-552-4095. Map.
Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website
PREVIEW
After being unhip for two decades, cocktails have come back, with a livelier and more imaginative beat than they had last time around, in the 1940s-1950s. It was only a matter of time before a restaurant opened in which the cocktails are made out to be as important as the food. SoBou (south of Bourbon [Street]) is the brainchild of Ti Martin, who with her cousin Lally Brennan tried out the idea with good results at their Cafe Adelaide. The Swizzle Stick Lounge there was the first restaurant to employ a full-time cocktail chef.
SoBou takes this idea a few steps farther. The whole restaurant looks like a bar. The walls are covered with faux cabinets of bottles and glassware, emitting a soft glow that makes you at least think about having a second drink. The manufacturing part of the bar is exquisitely well stocked, not only with spirits but also one of those machines that allows the serving of many wines by the glass. The logo is an overdressed pink elephant carrying a tray with a drink on it.
Both at lunch and dinner, the menu begins with smaller dishes than a standard restaurant would, and finishes with few items that could be called entrees. In between, everything is designed to go with cocktails, from bar snacks to hamburgers. Most dishes sell for single digits. But these are the Brennans, and the food is far from being a second thought. Indeed, the chef and wine guy from Commander's Palace (Ti's day job) are deeply involved in SoBou.
It's not the first Brennan restaurant in this spot. In early 2011, Ralph Brennan (Ti's cousin, Lally's brother) closed his long-running Italian restaurant Bacco in this location. After it sat empty for a year, the W Hotel (which actually owns the restaurant) made a management deal with Ti and company. SoBou opened in June of this year, just in time for the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience and Tales of the Cocktail.
Unfortunately, the lunchtime martinis have gone up in price from Bacco's dime to SoBou's quarter.
Full Menu
Snacks
Pork crackling
Cracked olives marinated in cayenne and charred chilies
Creole beer nuts (sweet and spicy roasted pecans)
Cajun queso with crackling
Blue crab mousse in a jar
Ghost pepper caviar and herb painted crackers
Pineapple and coconut tuna tartare, basil and avocado ice cream
Cochon de lait gumbo
Melon gazpacho with Creole marinated shrimp
Muffuletta chop salad (with crab, shrimp or chicken optional)
Louisiana fig salad
Baby arugula, sweet and spicy pecans, Gorgonzola dolce, shaved watermelon radishes, pickle vinaigrette
Crispy oyster taco
Compressed pineapple ceviche, mirliton, ghost pepper caviar
Steen’s molasses-lacquered pork belly, dirty rice calas, red bean purée
Shrimp and tasso pinchos (skewers)
Grilled pineapple and pickled ghost pepper jelly
Duck debris and butternut beignets
Foie gras fondue and chicory coffee ganache
Andouille and tasso boulettes
Cajun meatballs, spicy sofrito sauce
Sandwiches
Hamburger, bruléed onions, pepper jack cheese, pickled okra mayo, cayenne ketchup
Foie gras burger, fried yard egg, duck bacon, and foie gras mayo, onion bun, pork cracklings, root beer and foie gras ice cream float
Sofrito-crusted yellowfin tuna, sugar cane pickled mirlitons, summer squash, charred jalapeños, burnt orange glaze
Suckling pig and tasso Cuban sandwich
Entrees
Crispy chicken confit, hot sauce sweet soy glaze
Grilled veal flank steak, tomato ragout, fennel, fingerling potatoes, truffled chimidhurri
Grilled black angus strip with truffled herb butter
Texas redfish a la plancha, garlic lemon butter
Sides
Fries, cayenne ketchup, pimento cheese fondue, pickled okra mayo
Crispy boudin balls
Mac n’ cheese SoBou style, applewood smoked bacon
Artisanal cheese plate, fruit preserves, smoked salted honey, red onion jam, spiced pecans, herb crackers
Desserts
Chocolate coma bar (dark chocolate torte, white chocolate mousse, candied pecans, sea salt caramel, milk chocolate, chicory coffee shake
Dark and stormy banana rum cake
Cherries jubilee bread pudding
Sweet caprese (navel oranges, citrus vanilla bean panna cotta, mint, cane syrup, and balsamic reduction)
This is an unrated preview. A full review will appear when the restaurant has been open long enough to get into its groove.