Contemporary Creole.
Uptown: 5831 Magazine. 504-899-6987. Map.
Dinner Tuesday-Saturday.
Nice Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Bistro Daisy is a textbook example of the fine little bistros that opened in the years immediately after the hurricane. It's modest in terms of size and amenities, but serves food on a par with what we're getting from the best of the grander restaurants. Its kitchen is just hip enough, and uses familiar local fresh foodstuffs in interesting but unpuzzling innovations.
WHY IT'S GOOD
Chef Anton Schulte is running the kitchen these days, and his style is hard not to love. He has a good sense of what tastes good together, plus enough experience in some very serious kitchens to have picked up more than a few good ideas. Bistro Daisy has reached into the New Orleans culinary past for many of its inspirations. A good move, at a time when many avant-garde chefs are cooking as if they didn't live here.
BACKSTORY
Anton and Diane Schulte are a young couple with the added complication of a little kid (whose name is Daisy, like her grandmother's). They first turned up at Peristyle during the great Anne Kearney years. They were the initial operating team when La Petite Grocery opened. A disagreement with the owners there over style motivated the Schultes to move their act 18 blocks up Magazine Street. They moved into the former Ristorante Civello, a handsomely renovated old cottage, and it was magic from there on.
DINING ROOM
Diane Schulte orchestrates service, the bar, and the wine collection. The trio of small dining rooms have high ceilings, wood-plank floors, a real fireplace with a fake fire (they can't afford to give up the table in front of it), and big windows. The ceilings are painted unusually in a trompe l'oeill manner. This is the finest example I know of a cottage-to-restaurant conversion.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Jumbo lump crab and gulf shrimp in aioli with artichokes
Daisy salad (fresh mozzarella, roasted peppers, arugula, pumpkin seeds)
Grilled sweetbreads, lemon, fried capers, pine nuts, brown butter
Belgian endive, apple, walnuty, and blue cheese salad
Oysters poached with horseradish, bacon, and garlic cream
Gulf shrimp with herbsaint, garlic and tomato buerre blanc
Ravioli of crawfish, mascarpone, mushrooms, leeks
Pan roasted, porcini dusted chicken
Duck breast with lentils, chard, and poached garlic ragout
Tomato and mint braised lamb shank, gnocchi and spinach
Filet mignon, blue cheese, red wine demi-glace, foie gras butter
Warm chocolate fondue
Strawberry baked Alaska
Homemade ice cream or sorbet
FOR BEST RESULTS
Parking requires at least a half-block's walk, if you're lucky. The best place to look for curbside spots is on Nashville Avenue, on the river side of Magazine. Reservations are a must; this is a small restaurant with many fans.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
When the restaurant is full of joyous spirits, the sound level can get pretty loud.
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 +2
- Value +1
- Attitude +2
- Wine and Bar +2
- Hipness +2
- Local Color +3
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Romantic
- Good view
- Small private room
- Reservations honored promptly
This review was updated with new information on 6/11/2010.
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