Friday, August 6, 2010
1107 Restaurants Open Around Town
Coolinary And Other Special Summer Menus Now In Play
Great American Seafood Cookoff
The Great American Seafood Cookoff has it sixth running this weekend. Chefs from Alaska, Florida, Illinois, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia each cook a dish in a demo kitchen. You can watch all of it with a five-dollar ticket, beginning at noon Saturday and going until 4:30 p.m. Representing Louisiana this year, after winning the state competition, is Chef Chris Lusk from Cafe Adelaide.
It all takes place in Hall J of the Morial Convention Center, where the Louisiana Foodservice Expo will be going on. The Expo is an industry event not open to the public, but you can wander around the Seafood Pavilion, where the Cookoff takes place. It's possible that attendees may score some nibbles out of all this, but they make no promises. It's an interesting event, in any case.
I'm a little disappointed that the national aspect of the event has bogged down, with only fifteen states sending representatives to compete--same as last year. I think the reason for this is that most states don't have enough seafood to work with. Or it could be that the event is sponsored by the Louisiana Seafood Marketing Board, whose very purpose is to cheer for the home team.
A ten-dollar ticket gets you in for all three days of the bigger event, which includes things like a shrimp-peeling competition.
Mr. B's Minimal Coolinary Lunch, $20
French Quarter: 201 Royal, 504-523-2078.
Lunch: Three courses, $20
Mr. B's Bistro has a limited involvement with the Coolinary program. I guess they're doing enough business already. Here is the entirety of their summer special menu offering, lunch Monday through Saturday:
Mr. B’s Luncheon Salad
Baby greens, spiced pecans, grated Grana Padano and grape tomatoes tossed with an herb vinaigrette
Rosemary Chicken
Chicken breast roasted with a rosemary compound butter, with baby carrots, orzo and a natural reduction sauce with fresh rosemary
Sorbet Du Jour
That's all, folks!
All The Summer Menus So Far
NOMenu has a page listing not only all the summer specials we know about, but all the menus, too. I'm adding new ones daily. That list is now online here.
Monday, July 26. The Trip Is Off. New Orleans Food And Spirits. Acme. I moved and Mary Ann seconded that we blow off the planned trip to Texas. It's been such a non-starter that all we would wind up doing is drive around the parts of Texas I can't stand (the eastern part), with no time to visit the part we love (the western part). Our only firm appointment is with WFAA-TV in Dallas.
Our daughter made it clear that she wanted no part of this trip. She hates long-distance land travel. There was some question as to whether Mary Ann would come along. On my own, I could make this a relaxing journey, taking back roads and stopping when it was time to do the radio show wherever I happened to be.
But Mary Ann--whose tastes in hotels I learned were much more advanced than mine the first time we went anywhere together--has moved much farther upscale. No longer are the likes of the Marriott Courtyard good enough. When she says that we must go only to places like the Four Seasons and the Ritz-Carlton, that removes many towns from the map. And I find nothing relaxing about a straight-through New Orleans-to-Dallas drive.
It was this impasse that canceled the trip. Oh, well. At least I didn't have a lot of guest hosts lined up for the radio show. (I was planning on doing the program from the road.)
Lunch at New Orleans Food and Spirits in Covington. It was warm in there; either an air conditioning unit was out, or was overwhelmed by the humidity. Not an uncommon problem these days. The Marys ordered predictably. Mary Ann's was a half-muffuletta (heated until the cheese was melted, of course; Mary Ann never takes culinary advice from me) with a cup of gumbo. Mary Leigh burgered. I had the pecan catfish (below), made with an enormous fillet. Big catfish is inferior to small catfish, but I found nothing to complain about, and the sauce was good. Eleven bucks for that: good value.
It is unusual that the three of us would also go out to dinner, and even more so that the two restaurants involved would show so little contrast. We went to the Acme for supper. The oysters were smallish but good, coming from Texas. Mary Leigh liked the smaller oysters, because they left more room in the shell for the garlic butter. (She doesn't actually eat the oysters.) The usual menu filled the table: stuffed oyster soup, wedge salad with blue cheese, fried oysters with remoulade, a cup of red beans. That makes two orders of red beans in one day from my family, which can't be said to be neglecting the classics.
The Acme showed no sign of problems getting seafood. They even had speckled trout tonight, which I don't remember seeing there in decades.
New Orleans Food & Spirits. Covington: 208 Lee Lane. 985-875-0432. Seafood.
Acme Oyster House. Covington: 1202 US 190 (Causeway Blvd.). 985-246-6155. Seafood.
Tuesday, July 27. Texas: Another Look. The Old Pueblo. Mary Ann called the producer at WFAA-TV in Dallas to cancel our planned appearance on its daytime newsmagazine show Thursday. She was taken aback--but not surprised--that the producer seemed angry about it. Mary Ann was herself a television producer in her twenties, and understood the pique. She said that the trip to Texas was definitely off now, because we'd burned our bridges with at least that television station.
But she's still trying to save the trip somehow. This, I learned, was because she'd cut a deal with the Mansion on Turtle Creek--one of the swankiest hotels in Big D--for us to stay there one night for an unrefundable $235. Mary Ann collects hotel experiences the way I investigate restaurants. I told her to forget about it, because unless we left immediately there was no way we would do anything but drive hundred of miles, be on television (which requires two hours of waiting before one's five minutes of air time), sleep, and maybe have dinner. This is more like work than work, and the whole point of the entire trip was to take a little vacation.
I thought she agreed to just let it go, and I resumed my normal routines. But it came up again at dinner. Mary Leigh said she wouldn't be joining us, and Mary Ann said she didn't want to eat, really. So I could pick the place. I was pretty hungry, and because I've written a lot about pizza lately, it was on my mind. I suggested the Mellow Mushroom, a chain we sampled much too soon after it opened but not since. Sure, she said.
The host was already leading us to the table at the Mellow Mushroom when MA stopped dead in her tracks, wheeled around, and said that she suddenly had another idea for dinner, after all. She thought we should go across the highway to La Pueblo Vieja. I threw up my hands and just went along.
La Pueblo Vieja opened about eight months ago in what had been an old, worn-out restaurant on Causeway Boulevard. Its last tenant was the ill-fated North Shore edition of R&O's; before that, and more famously, it was Gallagher's. I had it figured for a teardown, but these Pueblo Vieja folks came in and spent a lot of time and money renovating the place. For months afterward, it was packed all the time. The Marys went after a couple of weeks and came back with a very bad report. So we left it alone.
It's not so busy anymore, which I interpret as time for me to take a look. The premises looked terrific, the menu sounded very interesting (there was mole poblano on the menu!), and the waitress let us know that the owners and staff were not actually Mexican but Honduran. More and more interesting.
It went downhill from there. The salsa was so mild that even after adding the muy caliente green chile sauce I requested from the kitchen, it still wasn't what I'd call spicy. The waitress came by and made guacamole right there at the table. Like the salsa, it was amazingly low on flavor. I rarely leave guacamole behind, but we weren't interested in finishing it.
The entrees were a bit better. I take any opportunity to have a dish made with mole poblano, and here it was, slathered over cubes of chicken bread. It was okay, but it gets no prizes for looks. Mary Ann had pollo pibil--a classic dish from Yucatan, not much seen around New Orleans. I had it in Cozumel on our last trip there. This was not up to that level. And not bad. But nothing special.
When a restaurant disappoints me, sometimes I get mad. Other times I write it off as a bad night. And then there are the restaurants I feel sorry for. We both felt that way about this one. I hope it keeps going long enough to come around. I'd love to have this kind of grass-roots Latin food on the North Shore.
La Pueblo Vieja. Covington: 1630 N. US 190. 985-892-5606 .
Click here for the Dining Diary entry before the one above.
Click here for an index to the last five years of entries.
Contemporary Creole.
Uptown: 6100 Annunciation. 504-895-1111. Map.
Lunch Thursday-Friday. Dinner Monday-Saturday.
Nice Casual
AE DC DS MC V
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Clancy's is the Uptown answer to Galatoire's, with a passionate local following and a menu of simple but very good New Orleans style cooking. Its kitchen leans largely on traditional Creole restaurant dishes of the kind that the newer, more vogue-conscious bistros hesitate to serve. The wait staff is chummy and efficient. And the wine cellar is surprisingly fine for a restaurant of this size. A table here has been a tough score, particularly since Katrina.
WHY IT'S GOOD
It's fun to eat here. The kitchen mixes original dishes with traditional ones, and buys fine enough ingredients that even the least complicated dishes make you stop and appreciate their goodness. (Case in point: the soups of the day.) Clancy's was the first local non-barbecue restaurant with an in-house capability for smoking food; those dishes add interest to the menu. It's never been the best restaurant in town, not even for any single dish. But it's reliably delicious, more so than most bistros.
BACKSTORY
Clancy's was one of the original crop of bistros that redefined Creole cooking in the early 1980s. It opened on St. Patrick's Day, 1983, after its owners--none of whom were restaurateurs previously--gentrified an old neighborhood bar without changing it too much. Current owner Brad Hollingsworth, who earlier in his career was a waiter at Galatoire's and LeRuth's, has a good sense of what local people like. And a passion for wine that fills a terrific cellar.
DINING ROOM
Clancy's premises still has the feeling of the neighborhood cafe. There's nothing fancy about it. The long downstairs dining room is convivial and bright, with large windows lining one wall. The bar is always packed with people waiting for tables, as well as singles dining. The little room just past the bar is a pleasant place for a dozen or so diners, if you can stand the traffic heading upstairs, where a maze of small dining rooms completes the ensemble.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Fried eggplant with aioli
Marinated crab claws
Crabmeat Remick
Crabmeat salad
Seared sea scallops with foie gras and port reduction
Shrimp remoulade
Fried oysters with Brie
Sweetbreads chef's way (changes daily)
Rabbit sausage en croute
Boston salad with walnuts, hearts of palm, and blue cheese
Smoked soft shell crab (or any other way)
Grilled fish with smoked salmon
Seared tuna au poivre
Angel hair pasta with crabmeat and grilled tomato
Risotto with lobster and mushrooms
Pan roasted chicken
Roast duck
Veal with crabmeat and bearnaise
Veal liver lyonnaise
Veal chop with herb demi-glace
Grilled lamb chops
Smoked pork loin
Filet mignon with bearnaise or Stilton and red wine demi
Creme caramel
Lemon ice box pie
FOR BEST RESULTS
Reservations well in advance are essential. Going with a local regular is a good idea. The entree section always includes a pasta dish and a risotto that works well as an appetizer.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
Easier parking, easier reservations, being able to push into the bar, and other matters brought on by Clancy's popularity are the wishes of all its customers.
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 +3
- Service +2
- Value +1
- Attitude +1
- Wine and Bar +3
- Hipness +1
- Local Color +3
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Romantic
- Good for business meetings
- Many private rooms
- Open Monday dinner
- Historic
- Reservations recommended
This review was updated with new information on 8/6/2010.
Crabmeat Remick
This was one of the best dishes at the Pontchartrain Hotel's Caribbean Room, and it still turns up now and then on menus here and there. (Clancy's and the Red Maple, at the moment.) With crabmeat running so nice right now, it's the perfect time to cook it.
- 8 slices smoky, thick bacon
- 1 lb. jumbo lump crabmeat
- 1 Tbs. lemon juice
Sauce:
- 1/2 tsp. salt-free Creole seasoning
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. Tabasco
- 1/4 cup bottled chili sauce
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 Tbs. Creole mustard
- 1 Tbs. tarragon vinegar
1. Slice the bacon into squares and fry till crisp. Drain very well and set aside.
2. Divide crabmeat into six small, shallow au gratin dishes. Sprinkle with lemon juice, and heat in 350-degree oven for five minutes.
3. While waiting for crabmeat to warm, blend all the sauce ingredients.
4. When the crabmeat is hot, top each baking dish with an equal portion of crumbled bacon. Pour the sauce right on top, just enough to cover.
5. Turn the oven on broil and place the au gratin dishes three inches from the heat for about a minute--until the sauce begins to bubble. Serve immediately with a warning that the dish is mouth-searingly hot!
Serves eight appetizers or four entrees.
