Friday, June 4, 2010
1086 Restaurants Open Around Town
A New Oyster Festival, Saturday And Sunday
It's the New Orleans Oyster Festival weekend. If that doesn't ring a bell, it's because this is the first one-although it has roots in a few past events involving the same features, restaurants, and people. There's an oyster-eating contest, for example, and that woman who ate fifty-six dozen oysters a few years ago at the Acme's contest will be here. This is, by the way, the Acme's 100th anniversary year, and they're making a fuss over it.
The festival takes place in the Berger parking lot on the riverfront, between St. Louis and Toulouse. It will put you in the mid of the French Quarter Festival, with food booths manned by local restaurants. Here's the list:
- Acme Oyster House
- Andrea's
- Antoine's
- Bourbon House
- Broussard's
- Court of Two Sisters
- Desire Oyster Bar
- Galatoire's
- Grand Isle
- Hard Rock Cafe
- Luke
- Oceana Grill
- Pat O'Brien's
- Pier 424
- Redfish Grill
- Remoulade
- Stanley!
Live music is part of the program, of course, as are beverages of all kinds. Admission is free; you pay for what you eat and drink. It kicks off at 11 a.m. both days and goes until 7 p.m. Saturday, 6 p.m. Sunday. Shucks! I'll see you there!
WYES International Beer Tasting, Tonight And Tomorrow Night, Lakefront Arena
The WYES-TV International Beer Tasting taps into the barrels for the twenty-seventh time this weekend. It has become a two-day event, beginning tonight with the Beer Connoisseur's Tasting. Something like fifty unusual beers, including some rarely-seen bottlings, private home brews, and limited-edition beers, will be put up for tasting. Many home brewers and artisan micro-brewery people will be there to talk with. All that with food from the Crescent Pie and Sausage Company. The price is $50; it's tonight (Friday, June 4), 7-10 p.m. at the new NOLA Brewing Company, 3001 Tchoupitoulas.
The main tasting is tomorrow night (Saturday, June 5, 6-9 p.m.) at the Lakefront Arena (Franklin Avenue at Leon C. Simon). Over 200 beers of every imaginable style and source will be there for you. Most of the local breweries will have their brews there, too. There's a bit of food, too, and live music from Rocky’s Hot Fox Trot Orchestra, the New Orleans Ragtime & Dixieland Band and the Kilts of Many Colours Bagpipe Band. You have to be twenty-one to so much as get in the door. I'd recommend a designated driver or a cab for getting home. The beer is so interesting that it's hard to stop sampling. Tickets are $35 in advance, $45 at the door.
Thursday, May 27. End Of School. (Really.) A Trim. Carousel Bar. Royal Street Stroll. Holidays and computer disasters aside, I publish an edition of the New Orleans Menu Daily every weekday without fail. I did not write one today. That's how busy this day, and how important were the items on the agenda.
The first and biggest was the final assembly for the school year at Louise S. McGehee School. A call two days ago let us know that we ought to be present, because Mary Leigh would be receiving a major award. And she did: the top prize, duly named for a generous alumna, for excellence in art. (That was wonderful, but Mary Ann thought she should have received another one.)
This was the last, really, no kidding, the final whole-school event of the year. And the last time the graduating seniors, who sat on the stage being honored again, would wear their uniforms. After two and a half hours, all that remained was the commencement tomorrow night, as Mary Leigh's Graduation Festival keeps on playing.
My original plan was to go to the radio station, put out at least a cursory edition, then get a desperately-needed haircut. But the Marys were importuning me to go to lunch with them. Mary Ann thought Mr. B's would be the place. I expected that the restaurant would be full. By some miracle, we were able not only to get an immediate table, but the best table in the house, at the corner of Iberville and Royal.
Any lingering doubts I had about whether Mr. B's were back up to its pre-hurricane excitement were washed away by this lunch. I started with a cocktail special: a blueberry mojito, of all things, for three bucks. It was jammed with fresh blueberries and mint, and was better than it had any right to be.
Then gumbo ya-ya, which I have been calling the best gumbo in town for thirty years. It still is. Intense broth, dark roux, great andouille and chicken: perfection.
Mary Ann had a buffalo chicken salad (top, above). Fried chicken chunks, tossed with pepper butter, straddling a pile of greens, with blue cheese crumbles all over. Too big to finish. Mary Leigh had a hamburger, of course: with bacon, cheese, and fresh-cut fries of middling goodness.
My entree dates back to Mr. B's earliest days. They had the first wood-burning grill in modern New Orleans, and from it came the second local example (Café Sbisa had it a year before) of char-grilled fish. The one I had today was trout, liberally sprinkled with Creole seasoning, mellowed with beurre blanc. Delicious and fresh.
I think Mr. B's makes the city's best bread pudding--my favorite dessert. They do it by baking it at a very low temperature--about 275 degrees--for a couple of hours. It comes out wonderfully light. The only way I would improve it would be with more cinnamon--but that's my taste in the matter.
The Marys do not usually get desserts, but the waiter said the magic words to Mary Leigh: chocolate molten cake, with ice cream and strawberries. Bing!
After that, they moved on to the rest of their plans (finishing ML's graduation dress is surely one of them). I adjourned to Harold Klein's tonsorial parlor in the basement of the Royal Orleans Hotel. I was early. Harold took a half-hour to make me look presentable for the Grand Graduation, while ragging on politicians past and present.
When he was finished, I had another chunk of time too short to do anything with but sit around waiting for the show to begin. I walked up Royal Street, through the maze of lines set up for the Royal Street Stroll event of the New Orleans Wine Experience. As usual, my part in that was broadcasting from somewhere along the wine-sipping route. This year I was stationed inside the Monteleone Hotel's Carousel Bar. (Not at the bar, of course; that would have tangled everyone in wires.)
Until the Stroll began at 5:30, I were visited by a number of winemakers, hailing from California to Australia. By the time I finish these interviews (always accompanied by samples of the winemaker's works), I'm about done with wine-tasting for the day. Even if I went to the Stroll, I wouldn't get any food or wine, because people stop me every five feet to chat. (And am I glad they do!) I would go straight home after signing off.
During the final hour of the show, our space was shared with a party celebrating the opening of Sex And The City II, which will premiere in New Orleans tonight at Canal Place. A bunch of women in loud getups--pink feather boas, tiaras with flashing lights, and illuminated martini glasses filled with Cosmopolitan cocktails--partied, ate, and drank. They were business customers of the hotel, who hosted the event. They seemed to be having a lot of fun pretending that they were on the prowl for men. We men know that this is only a pose.
Mr. B’s Bistro. French Quarter: 201 Royal. 504-523-2078. Contemporary Creole.
Friday, May 28. Graduation. It's one of the really big days for the Fitzmorrises. Jude left his movie to fend for itself and flew in from Los Angeles. I cut the radio show short and rolled uptown. And the Marys have been busy all morning making adjustments to the billowing pink dress they've worked on for weeks.
Mary Leigh's high school graduation was as different from Jude's as girls are different from boys. His took place in a gym--an impressive new one, but unmistakably athletic and technological. The ceremony featured plenty of backslapping (both physical and verbal) and self-congratulation.
This graduation was decidedly pastoral. It took place on the lawn of the beautiful Victorian mansion that is the heart of the school, beneath spreading oak trees, hedges, and flowers. Small, intimate, emotional. The leading feeling among the girls was a beaming face fueled by a heart bubbling over with joy and pride. In distant second place were tears--most of them in the eyes of parents.
Favorite teachers, alumnae, administrators, and students spoke, with humorous love and only a few of the predictable themes. It made the most of this amazing moment. No matter what happens in the future, it will remain a pivot point. This is the last major accomplishment these girls will mark as anything like children. Graduating from college will be nowhere near as good, because they'll be adults then.
Frankly, the ceremonies were anticlimactic. So many rivers of energy already have emptied into the ocean in the past few weeks that there was almost nothing left to do. A small brass ensemble played "Pomp and Circumstance." The seniors billowed down the steps of the mansion, one at a time. The diplomas were handed out. The brass played again, and the graduates paraded out. And that was that. It was perfect. Full, satisfying closure.
A dinner party followed at Metairie Country Club. Another anticlimax. The girls visited and danced with one another. With parents all around, there couldn't have been fewer boys on the dance floor if a "No Boys Allowed" sign were posted.
The parents were otherwise occupied. We waited in a long line to buy tickets for drinks, waited in another long line to actually get the drinks, then waited in a third line to make up plates of food from the buffet. It was just the kind of food you'd expect. (Although I did see Gregg Collier, formerly of the Red Fish Grill and Bayona before that, managing things. He's the chef here, but not long enough that I'd expect his stamp to be on the food yet.)
After about an hour and a half, the graduates were ready to get on with their lives, and the parents began looking at their watches. It was after ten. A big party up the street awaited the ladies, where they would most definitely allow gentlemen. They changed out of their magnificent pink dresses into their regular short skirts and T-shirts. The princesses resumed being girls.
Contemporary Creole.
Lee Circle Area: 1300 St. Charles Ave.. 504-525-4937. Map.
Dinner seven nights.
Dressy.
AE DC DS MC V
Website
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
If you are intrigued by the hip cooking style and ingredients of Chef Emeril Lagasse but your taste runs more to traditional Creole, Delmonico is the place for you. Its food is not as classical as, say, Galatoire's, but it does have a certain retro quality. That fits right into the restaurant, which was a century old when Emeril took over in 1998. It has an unambiguous antique charm. While Delmonico has not seemed as sure of itself as it was before the hurricane, more than a few people say that it's their favorite among Emeril's three New Orleans restaurants.
WHY IT'S GOOD
It's never been stated, but it's always seemed to me that Delmonico is Emeril's version of Commander's Palace, the restaurant the first brought him to town and fame. The menu rarely strays far from famous old Creole flavors. The Emeril touch is in using ingredients and techniques that appeal to current tastes. Those ingredients are of superb quality, a fact most notable in the beef department. Here is Prime beef, dry-aged in house. That's a rarity, and it results in a strong contender for the honor of best steak in town (the New York strip). The wine list keeps up with the one at Emeril's flagship restaurant in its distinction.
BACKSTORY
One of our four remaining restaurants from the 19th century, Delmonico had just completed its first century when Emeril Lagasse bought it in 1998. It was opened by Emile Commander, who came to New Orleans after working in Delmonico in New York City. That Delmonico is regarded as the first grand restaurant in America, and was so influential that its name became synonymous with "restaurant." That's how this Delmonico got its name.
For most of its pre-Emeril history, Delmonico it was managed by the La Franca family. Most people who remember dining there then knew it as an old-fashioned, excellent Creole restaurant run by the hospitable Angie Brown and Rose Dietrich, whose father made the restaurant what it was. When Emeril bought it, he performed a deep and expensive renovation, much of which had to be done all over again after Katrina, for as much money.
DINING ROOM
The front dining room's lofty ceilings create rich spaces, and its windows allow diners to keep track of the streetcars. (The view may be better from the streetcar.) On the other side of a large open door are more tables, the bar, and a piano--sometimes with a pianist. You can walk through the kitchen to the Cornstalk Room, usually employed for private dining and only occasionally for a la carte service, is the most atmospheric room in the house, one section of it skylit. Two private rooms upstairs best reveal the centenarian age of the restaurant. The service staff is a bit less formal and skillful than before the storm, but that's true all over these days.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Grand charcuterie tasting (photo above)
Seafood gumbo
She-crab soup
Barbecued shrimp with grits cake
Shrimp remoulade with fried green tomato
Crispy pork cheeks with dirty rice
Marinated golden beets with yogurt and date molasses
Crab cake
French bread crusted oysters
Orecchiette pasta pomodoro
Rabbit crepes with pancetta and corn
Pan-fried redfish
Lamb meatballs
Confit duck leg with lentils
Slow roasted pork shoulder with onion-sweet pepper hash
Grilled fish of the day with asparagus and garlic fried potatoes
Moroccan spiced lamb sirloin with merguez sausage
Roasted chicken bonne femme
Filet mignon
Dry-aged New York strip steak
Dry-aged bone-in ribeye
Cinnamon beignets
Strawberry tasting: turnover, semifreddo, doberge
Spiced chocolate crème brûlée
Bananas Foster
FOR BEST RESULTS
Avoid busy times in the city (holidays, big conventions, etc.). Emeril's sends its overflow here, and that sometimes overwhelms the place. Arrive early to have a great cocktail in the very appealing bar. A very solid menu plan is to build your own tasting menu out of the lists of small plates and medium plates, without an entree.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
Delmonico never quite recovered from the storm, before which it was one of the two or three best restaurants in town. The menu could be improved by backpedalling a bit into the restaurant's past, I'd say, and toning down the experimental part of the menu.
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 +3
- Consistency +1
- Service +1
- Value
- Attitude +3
- Wine and Bar +3
- Hipness +1
- Local Color +3
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Live music some nights
- Romantic
- Good view
- Good for business meetings
- Many private rooms
- Open Sunday dinner
- Open Monday dinner
- Open some holidays
- Historic
- Good for children
- Free valet parking
- Reservations honored promptly
Blue Cheese Dressings
For a long time, a blue cheese salad dressing meant that thick, gluey stuff made with mayonnaise and so heavy it's a wonder any salad survived it. Lately many of us are going back to the original blue cheese salad, which was essentially a green salad dressed with vinaigrette and sprinkled with blue cheese. This recipe puts the cheese in the dressing, but it's still pretty light. It also works very well with feta cheese.
- 1 Tbs. Dijon mustard
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 2 Tbs. water
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1/2 tsp. dill
- 1/4 tsp. Tabasco
- 4 oz. blue cheese (Roquefort, Stilton, Gorgonzola, Maytag, or domestic), or feta
1. In a bowl, whisk the mustard, vinegar, and water together. Add the olive oil in a slow, thin stream, whisking constantly, until the dressing takes on a smooth, almost opaque quality.
2. Add the dill and Tabasco, and crumble the cheese into the dressing. Stir in well with a fork. Use within a week.
Serves eight.
Thick Blue Cheese Dressing
All that said, there's still a taste among many people for blue cheese dressing so thick that it could be called a dip. This is the kind you get in the more old-fashioned restaurants. It's about the only kind you saw until the 1980s.
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 3 oz. buttermilk
- 4 oz. sour cream
- 6 oz. crumbled Roquefort cheese
- 1/4 tsp. white pepper
- 2 dashes Tabasco
- 1 clove garlic, very finely chopped
- 2 Tbs. red wine vinegar
- 1/2 tsp. sugar
Blend all the ingredients and refrigerate.
Makes about 2 cups of dressing.
