Andrea's
Italian.
Metairie: 3100 19th Street. 504-834-8583. Map.
Lunch and dinner continuously, seven days. Sunday brunch.
Dressy
AE DC DS MC V
Website
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
The most useful aspect of Andrea's is that it's a white-tablecloth restaurant capable of serving a first-class repast made with excellent fresh ingredients, with excellent service and a seriously good wine list in pleasant surroundings--in Metairie. Where there are surprisingly few such restaurants. Another advantage: Andrea's is open all the time.
WHY IT'S GOOD
Chef Andrea Apuzzo is a classically trained chef who can rise to the heights of Italian cookery. He also handles other traditional Continental cuisines well. He buys superb ingredients, the best of which are the many species of fresh, whole fish (he fillets them all in house) and the vegetables. The tilt of the oversized and complex menu is decidedly toward Northern Italy, where red sauces are uncommon and much of the cooking has what seems like a French quality. Over its twenty-plus years, however, the chef's desire to serve every perceived need in the marketplace has caused the cooking to drift southward, in both the directions of Sicily and New Orleans. (And in the other meaning of "going south.")
When Andrea's is on--and this is an unpredictable matter, even when the chef makes a big personal fuss over your table--it cannot be beat in its specialties.
BACKSTORY
Capri native Andrea Apuzzo spent most of his fifty-year career as a hotel executive chef, winding up in New Orleans in that job at the Royal Orleans. After eight years making friends there, in 1985 he and two of his cousins opened Andrea's in the former Etienne's in Metairie. In its early years, it became unquestionably the finest Italian restaurant ever to open in the area. Chef Andrea bought out his cousins, and the restaurant began to change. His willingness to cook almost anything his customers want--whether those things make sense for a Northern Italian restaurant or not--diluted the consistency and goodness of the restaurant. Andrea's became a very large operation for one man to run out of his pocket, open for lunch and dinner 364 days a year (closed Labor Day, because nobody dines out then), and doing major inside and outside catering.
DINING ROOM
The restaurant feels distinctly suburban, but after importing Italian art and furnishings for twenty years the place has gained some personality. The main dining room is bright and glittery, in a somewhat old-fashioned way. Private dining rooms, some capable of serving a hundred people, line up one after another. The new Capri Blu Bar is striking and comfortable, serving a menu of pizza and appetizers. It has live entertainment most nights. The service staff is low-key and widely varying in its competence. Chef Andrea himself spends a lot of time in the dining room, schmoozing the regulars.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Antipasto.
Angel hair pasta Andrea.
Gnocchi with sage brown butter.
Mussels marinara.
Straciatella di Medici (spinach and chicken soup).
Fish basilico (snapper, trout, drum).
Fish with crabmeat and lemon beurre blanc (trout, redfish, drum).
Fish with cream pesto sauce (pompano, salmon).
Cioppino.
Veal chop Valdostana.
Duck with green peppercorns.
Steak with three-pepper sauce.
Panneed veal Tanet.
Special seasonal menus.
Tiramisu.
Strawberry cake.
FOR BEST RESULTS
First matter: find out whether Chef Andrea is present. He usually is, but when he's not, things can slip badly. The restaurant is overambitious, and often fills the facility with more people than can be served at the restaurant's best level. Overbooking occurs on holidays. The dining room staff is always on the brink. All this results in inconsistency. If something isn't right, make a fuss and they'll start paying attention.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The menu--and all the special and sub-menus--should be pruned by at least fifty percent. They try to do too much, resulting in inconsistency. They should ditch all Creole dishes, which are done badly. I've said for years that the best thing that could happen here is for Chef Andrea to hire a brilliant chef de cuisine and let him do his thing, while Chef Andrea tours around in his chef's whites, visiting with customers. Few restaurateurs are better at that than he is.
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 +2
- Consistency -2
- Service +1
- Value +1
- Attitude +1
- Wine and Bar +2
- Hipness -1
- Local Color
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Live music some nights
- Romantic
- Good for business meetings
- Many private rooms
- Open Sunday lunch and dinner
- Open Monday lunch and dinner
- Open all afternoon
- Oyster bar
- Unusually large servings
- Good for children
- Free valet parking
- Reservations accepted
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
Capri native Andrea Apuzzo and his restaurant are a formidable presence on the New Orleans Italian dining scene. It's certainly the most ambitious Italian place--the chef barely stops short of offering to do all things for all people. The quality of the ingredients (especially vegetables and fish) is unimpeachable. But pleasing his customers has caused the chef to compromise his classical Italian recipes, and Andrea's tastes more like a New Orleans restaurant every day. What comes out of the kitchen is always beautiful and usually ample in portion, but might not be exactly right. Fortunately, the attitude that they'll bend over backwards for you can solve a lot of that. At its best, Andrea’s can still put out a great, romantic dinner, and the chef’s engaging style charms many. Don’t come here on a big holiday: they always overbook.
This review was updated with new information on 10/8/2009.
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