The Restaurants We Can't Live Without By Tom Fitzmorris. . . Revised July 2009 Patois French Bistro. Uptown: 6078 Laurel. 504-895-9441. Map. Lunch Friday. Dinner Wednesday-Saturday. Sunday brunch. Nice Casual. AE DC DS MC V www.patoisnola.com   WHY IT'S ESSENTIAL   A good restaurant close enough to Clancy's to catch that ultra-popular bistro's overflow could be expected to do well. But that's not enough to explain why having dinner at Patois requires advance planning. More to the point is the French-inspired food of Chef Aaron Burgau is brilliantly flavorful, and different enough from other restaurants in the category to stand out. The premises have just the right tough of neighborhood-cafe raffishness to make locals comfortable.   WHY IT'S GOOD   While we've seen most of the dishes here before (even the unusual garbure soup was a specialty at the old Maylie's decades ago), the chef seeds the with enough unusual ingredients with big flavors that the eating is more exciting than we remember from past encounters. The choice of dishes also veers bravely away from the standards. (A restaurant without a filet mignon? Wow!) It adds up to a unique dinner, one worth thinking and talking about afterwards.   BACKSTORY   On the corner of two back streets, the building has been a neighborhood business for almost a century. The oldest restaurant anyone remembers was Norby's, a long-running neighborhood poor-boy joint. Following the strategy used successfully by its block-away neighbor Clancy's, the place was renovated into a gourmet Creole-Italian bistro called Nardo's shortly before Hurricane Katrina. It reopened after the storm but never quite caught on. Chef Aaron Burgau, who was in the kitchen of the excellent Bank Cafe in Marigny until it closed in 2007, opened Patois later that year with partners Leon and Pierre Touzet.   DINING ROOM   The configuration hasn't changed much since the Norby's days, although the interior decoration added a lot to the environment. The front room, with its long antique bar, seems to be the prime place to dine until you go up the few steps to the back room. That's quieter, darker, cooler, and more private. Nice contrast.   ESSENTIAL DISHES   Terrine of rabbit, pheasant and figs. Charcuterie plate. Gnocchi with guanciale (cured hog's jowls) and brown butter. Mussels with smoked tomato broth. Sauteed sweetbreads with lentils. Shrimp and chorizo with spoonbread. Grilled baby octopus with olives. Duck and andouille gumbo. Garbure (French vegetable soup with pork belly). Almond-crusted fish with citrus meuniere sauce. Grilled halibut with grilled beets and edamame. Roasted pheasant breast with confit of pheasant leg and foie gras emulsion. Rabbit with Italian sausage, fennel, and artichoke. Chocolate mousse cake. Orange blossom tiramisu. Strawberry beignets with lavender Creole cream cheese. Cheese plate.   FOR BEST RESULTS   Reservations are essential; this is a hot restaurant. The Sunday brunch is quite different from the dinner menu, but one of the best Uptown.   OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT   I wish they were open for Tuesday dinner. The booth tables in the bar are less than ideally comfortable for four people of larger than fashion model size. It's noisy in there, too.   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 +1 Consistency +2 Service +2 Value +1 Attitude +1 Wine and Bar +1 Hipness +3 Local Color +2   SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES    Open Sunday Reservations accepted Reservations honored promptly Click here for an index to all 200 Essential Restaurant reviews. © 2009 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com