Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris
Originally published December 4, 2006
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The Reveillon Returns
After a year's hiatus, the holiday theme
dinners are better than ever
The modern Reveillon has restaurants serving special menus of four or five courses, and including dishes that fit with the season. Not only do you find such Christmasy items like roast goose and Yule logs, but also food that lends itself to cool-weather eating.
To make it even more appealing, these Reveillon dinners are served at prices below--often well below--what such dinners would ordinarily cost.
Unfortunately, restaurateurs report that the Reveillon promotion is only mildly successful in bringing visitors in. It has, however, been enough of a hit with local diners that restaurants all around town--including many who are not part of the official Reveillon promotion--are now offering Reveillon-style dinners.
This is a wonderful development, and it needs to grow even more, into something in which every white-tablecloth restaurant in town participates. If that were to happen, December could conceivably turn into a legendary time to visit New Orleans. Among avid restaurant-goers, the Reveillon is already a tradition, both among locals and people who visit town often. And the rest of the population is getting interested.
After a complete bust last year (of course), the Reveillon resumes this year with at least as many restaurants participating as ever before. Those officially in the program are scattered all over the city, although the main concentration is still in the Quarter. Quite a few major restaurants are involved for the first time: Emeril's, Nola, Peristyle, Café Adelaide, and the Marigny Brasserie among them.
Looking over the menus, I note two evolutions. First, the menus are more ambitious and more appetizing than at any tim,e in the past. Second, the prices have risen considerably at sme restaurants. A couple of years ago, only one restaurant went over $50; this year, several have. Even at that, it's a good deal.
As I write this, it's still a couple of days before the Reveillon begins on December 1. (It runs nightly until Christmas Eve at most restaurants; a few keep it till the end of the month.) So the recommendations that follow are based on past Reveillons, plus current experience with the restaurants involved.
For years, the most appetizing and varied Reveillon menu is at the Pelican Club (615 Bienville, 523-1504). It starts with a choice of turtle-alligator soup or a cream soup with oysters, shrimp and mirliton with herbsaint. Then comes one of these: crab and shrimp cake, baked oysters, a goat cheese salad, romaine and watercress salad, quail with cornbread and foie gras, seafood martini, or terrine of foie gras, pork, and duck.
The entrees are these: braised short ribs with three-cheese polenta, duck three ways, Louisiana cioppino, the most elegant jambalaya you will ever eat, seafood fricassee, walnut-and-honey mustard-crusted rack of lamb, or pannee fish with crabmeat and jalapeno hollandaise. The dinner ends with a choice of five desserts. The whole thing ranges between $39 and $48, depending on the entree. The Pelican Club is a five-star in my ratings, and there's no backing away from that standard during this dinner.
Another consistently good Reveillon comes from across the street, at the Monteleone Hotel's little-known restaurant, the Hunt Room Grill (214 Royal, 523-3341). While it's a little inconsistent--I wouldn't come on a Monday or Tuesday--the food has a high Yuletide quotient and is usually excellent.
Starters are a smoked quail with a salad of celeriac, apple and walnut salad and a mousse of salmon and scallops with shrimp and artichokes and sorrel sauce. Then you get a soup or a salad. The entrees are great: a mixed grill of veal with chanterelles, duck with red currants, and lamb with mint sauce. Salmon en croute, with creamed spinach, chanterelles, and white truffle sauce. Roast goose with braised red cabbage and apples and caraway sauce. Or a petit filet mignon with foie gras, caramelized cipollini onions, and perigourdine sauce. Three desserts, including a Yule log made with tiramisu. The four-course dinner ranges from $47 to $53.
This is the first Reveillon for Café Adelaide, the sister restaurant (literally) to Commander's Palace (which is also holding its first Reveillon). But they seem to have the spirit of the thing. They start with a truffled butternut and foie gras soup or the classic turtle soup with sherry. Then comes shrimp and crispy sweetbreads with foraged mushrooms and five-onion salad, or a satsuma salad with winter greens, toasted pecan bread, Atchafalaya basin honeycomb, and and fleur de lis vinaigrette (whatever that is).
Café Adelaide's entrees are citrus-glazed duck with dirty rice, corn fried oysters, baby mustard greens and "old fashioned" duck sauce, or paneed flounder and crab and cauliflower cream--all made with local produce. They slip you a hit of the homemade cherry bounce from their vaunted bar, amd follow it with either of two desserts. The price is $55. 300 Poydras, 595-3305.
And once again, as in year's past, the best Reveillon bargain of them all is the $24, five-course, casual feast at the Gumbo Shop (630 St. Peter, 525-1486). It starts with a choice of oyster and artichoke soup, chicken andouille gumbo, or turtle soup. Then the signature salad with toasted pecan vinaigrette. Entrees include roasted chicken with oyster-andouille stuffing (my favorite), crawfish etouffée, crab cakes with green peppercorn and crawfish sauce, penne pasta with wild mushroom cream, and a roasted half duck with rum and citrus sauce. They have three desserts to choose among, and they end the meal with café brulot--the perfect seasonal touch.
Enjoy the holidays with the distinctive New Orleans style of holiday feasting! All the Reveillon menus can be seen
© 2006 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com