As Appetizing As Shrimp Remoulade

Shrimp remoulade.

Subscribe To The
Five-Star Edition!

This review originally appeared in the New Orleans Menu Daily, which brings out a full, up-to-date restaurant review every weekday. Along with local restaurant news, top-ten lists, recipes, and Tom Fitzmorris's Dining Diary. All of it is original and current, illustrated with lots of photos of New Orleans restaurants, chefs, and their food.

The price of a subscription is whatever number of dollars seems right to you. For that amount, you get full access to the daily newsletter online, an e-mail bulletin version every day, and archives of everything published since Hurricane Katrina.

If you're still not convinced, do two things: 1. Know that I'll refund all your money if you're not happy. 2. Take a look at this sample edition. Then. . .

Thank you!

Tastefully yours,
Tom Fitzmorris

My Best Recipes

Tom Fitzmorris's New Orleans Food

Now in its eighth printing, here are the best dishes we're eating today in New Orleans, with clear, well-tested recipes you and your friends will love.

A Great Gift!
I would be pleased to personalize and autograph a copy of New Orleans Food for you or a friend.

Click here to order.

Restaurant Ratings

The ratings are based mostly on the degree to which the food excites us, and a little on environment, service, and other considerations. I rate restaurants relative to all other restaurants in the New Orleans area. Here's what the stars mean to me:

Among the best locally.
starstarstarstarstar

Excellent and ambitious.
starstarstarstar

Worth crossing town for.
starstarstar

Recommended.
starstar

Acceptable.
star

Unacceptable.
No Stars

Cost Ratings
Each dollar sign indicates a ten-dollar range, including a normal meal for the restaurant (dinner, if they serve other meals), not including drinks, or tips. So, for example. . .

1$--$5-15
2$--$15-25
3$--$25-35

. . . and so on, with no upper limit. While this scheme may suggest mathematical precision, know that perception of price varies from diner to diner as much as the star ratings do. So consider this an estimate.

I write all reviews myself based entirely on meals I have taken at the restaurant and paid for from my own pocket. I don't take free review meals, nor am I reimbursed by anybody for my restaurant expenditures.

starstarstar
pricebar

Bear’s Grill & Spirits

Poor Boys.
Mandeville: 1809 N Causeway Blvd., 985-674-9090. Map.
Slidell: 550 Gause Blvd , 985-201-8905. Map.
Lunch and early dinner (till 8 p.m.) Monday-Saturday.
Very Casual.
AE DS MC V
Website

WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
If there's a poor boy sandwich worth crossing the lake for, these places will make it. With locations in both Mandeville and Slidell (and the distinct but related original Bear's in Covington), it serves well those of us who believe in a minimum monthly poor boy sandwich requirement.

WHY IT'S GOOD
Bear's cooks everything from scratch in house, fries all the seafood to order, uses ideally fresh bread and dressings, and serves its sandwiches well-stacked. In fact, their sandwiches are too big. The small version challenges a big appetite. I have no idea who can eat two of these. In addition to the standards, they make a few offbeat poor boys that deserve to be classics. In recent times the number of platters has grown, but these are not the equal of the sandwiches.

BACKSTORY
There has been a Bear's on the North Shore for at least thirty years. This one is owned by the brother of the owner of the original Bear's in Covington. It's bigger and keeps more convenient hours, with a more extensive menu. A second location of this Bear's is in Mandeville.

DINING ROOM
Both locations are a big, utilitarian spaces in a nondescript strip malls. Both are also that's hard to see unless you're looking for them. And just comfortable enough for the enjoyable eating of a poor boy sandwich, convincing one that the cost of atmosphere is coming out of the ingredients budget.

ESSENTIAL DISHES
Roast beef poor boy.
Grilled ham and cheese poor boy.
Barbecue ham poor boy.
Hamburger Orleans (served as a poor boy with roast beef debris gravy).
Fried oysters and shrimp poor boys.

FOR BEST RESULTS
If you wonder whether you've ordered enough food, the answer is that you've ordered too much. The place can get very busy in the noon hour and early evenings.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
They sell mixed drinks, but don't expect anything fancy.

FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.

SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES

This review was updated with new information on 2/8/2010.