The Restaurants We Can't Live Without By Tom Fitzmorris. . . Revised July 2009 Herbsaint French. CBD: 701 St. Charles Ave.. 504-524-4114. Map. Lunch and dinner continuously Monday-Friday. Dinner only Saturday. Nice Casual AE DC DS MC V www.herbsaint.com   WHY IT'S ESSENTIAL   Few other restaurants run in Herbsaint's groove. Its menu is a unique pairing of gourmet Creole-French bistro main items with decidedly country-style garnishes. So you get duck confit with dirty rice. Grilled chicken with blackeye peas. But that's not all. Pasta appears more than you'd expect, along with Italian tinges. The cooking defies category. It is, however, always full of interesting options, and is so intriguing that the place is a great success in a location where few restaurants have found anything other than a struggle.   WHY IT'S GOOD   Chef Donald Link's understanding of the essence of country cooking--Southern, Cajun, French, or whatever--is so thorough that nothing here comes out with the blue-plate-special quality that can easily infect such cooking. The excellent quality of the building blocks--locally-raised and organic ingredients and meats cured by the chef himself, to name two--goes a long way to ensuring that. The small size of the restaurant allows another degree of polish.   BACKSTORY   The first major new restaurant of the 2000s, Herbsaint opened in 2000 as a partnership between Bayona's proprietor/chef Susan Spicer and her former sous chef Donald Link. It's named for the anise-flavored liqueur created in New Orleans, famous as much for its use in cooking (notably oysters Rockefeller) as in drinking. At the beginning, the food here had a distinctly French-bistro tinge. As Link's interest in Southern country cooking grew, the flavor palette at Herbsaint became ever more rustic, and the French accent became Cajun. At the same time, the food, service, and wine improved steadily. Herbsaint was one of the first gourmet restaurants to reopen following Hurricane Katrina, firing up its ovens less than six weeks after.   DINING ROOM   The L-shaped dining room, inherited from past restaurants, has been renovated into a sleek, angular space. The big windows remain uncovered, looking onto the increasingly green St. Charles Avenue streetscape. A modest bar lines the wall of the shorter wing; the open kitchen takes its place on the Girod Street side. A second dining room, a bit isolated from the main action, extends that way, too. In recent times tables have been set on the sidewalks; unless the weather is unbearable, these are usually full.   ESSENTIAL DISHES   Except for a few items, the menu changes often. French fries with aioli. Tomato and shrimp bisque. Antipasto plate (half of it is house-made charcuterie). Shrimp and grits with tasso and okra. Gnocchi. Beef short ribs on rosti potatoes. Fried frogs’ legs with herb butter. Spaghetti with guanciale and deep-fried farm egg. Duck confit with dirty rice. Veal stuffed with ham and fontina cheese. Kurobuta pork belly (preparation varies). Olive-oil seared shrimp with stuffed eggplant. Blueberry upside-down cake. Banana brown butter tart with caramel. Coconut cream pie with macadamia crust. Homemade ice creams and sorbets. Cheese plate.   FOR BEST RESULTS   Reserve days in advance. Recent publicity for the restaurant and Donald Link make Herbsaint very busy. Place an order for the fresh-cut fries with your cocktails. Although Herbsaint has made a major specialty of fatty chunks of pork belly, know that it's not exactly to everybody's taste.   OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT   The menu always seems two dishes short in each section, although the constant flow of new dishes keeps it fresh. The front door--perhaps the ugliest of any first-class New Orleans restaurant--needs to be replaced, preferably with one that won't allow icy blasts to shoot inside during the winter.   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 Consistency +2 Service +1 Value +1 Attitude Wine and Bar +2 Hipness +2 Local Color +3   SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES    Outdoor dining Romantic Windows with a view Good for business meetings Private dining room (fewer than 25) Private dining room (more than 25) Open Monday Open all afternoon (special bistro menu between lunch and dinner). Well-known chef Vegetarian dishes Valet parking free Reservations accepted Reservations honored promptly   ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS   Chef Donald Link is on a roll. His Cochon restaurant was a big post-Katrina hit. A few months ago he opened a delightful casual and retail version of it called Butcher that a national magazine called the best new restaurant of 2009 (but they don't get down here enough). Last month, he published a major cookbook: Real Cajun. Good stuff. And now, Nation's Restaurant News--the major industry publication--named Herbsaint, Link's first restaurant, to its prestigious Fine Dining Hall of Fame. (Others included the likes of Bouley in New York, so this is no small honor.) It's a good choice. Of all the many white-tablecloth restaurants to open in the 2000s, it's added more to the dining scene than most. Click here for an index to all 200 Essential Restaurant reviews. © 2009 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com