Wednesday, August 18, 2010
1110 Restaurants Open Around Town
Coolinary And Other Special Summer Menus Now In Play
Save Our Shore: Beer,
Free Appetizers
This Afternoon 5-7
At Red Fish Grill.
Abita Brewing Company just rolled out another in its series of special beers designed to generate funds for a good cause. The dire predicament of our coastline and the people who live and work there is the beneficiary this time. Abita is donating seventy-five cents from each SOS Pilsner it sells. This afternoon from five until seven, the Red Fish Grill will sell those for two buc ks a bottle. (They'll also have four more Abita beers on tap.) And to make them taste that much better, Chef Brian Katz has an assortment of complimentary snacks for us:
Mini Crab Cakes
With fig compote
Shrimp and Corn Beignets
With pepper jelly
Crispy Jambalaya (!)
With Steen's molasses and Creole mustard
Escolar And Tuna "Petits Fours"
With blackened avocado relish (!!)
Shrimp And Andouille Corn Dogs
On top of that, the Red Fish Grill will match the six-bit donation from Abita. So every SOS beer you consume sends a buck and a half down to the shore, where the pelicans and charter fishermen need our help.
Red Fish Grill. French Quarter: 115 Bourbon. 504-598-1200. Seafood.
All 29 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.
Three Muses Opens; Mande's Reopens
Three Hundred More Restaurants
Now Than Before Katrina
Last weekend, as I updated our list of every open restaurant in New Orleans, a happy statistic emerged from two other bits of good news. We now have 1110 restaurants open in the New Orleans area.
That's 301 more than before Hurricane Katrina, and the largest number of restaurants here in history.
There was a lot of flux in the number that weekend. I'd just cleaned out a lot of closed places from the list as a result of a mailed survey sent out a few weeks ago. But that was more than balanced by an unexpected efflorescence of new openings.
Two of the new openings were particularly interesting. The Three Muses, a new bistro with Chef Daniel Esses as one of the trio of partners, had a soft opening last week at 536 Frenchmen in the Marigny. That's a good location, between Decatur and Chartres, and a half-block away from the big French market parking lot on Elysian Fields.
Chef Daniel is the major draw, however. His resume includes cooking in distinguished restaurants all over the world, as well as stints here at Peristyle, August, Bank Cafe, and Marigny Brasserie. The latter two were at their peaks when Esses was there. It should be delicious when I get there in December or so. The novelty-seekers are already filling the place.
Meanwhile, on the North Shore, Frank and Joan Bua have reopened Mande's. For decades it was the leading breakfast hangout in Mandeville. But the Bua's lives--to say nothing of the restaurant's structure--were messed up by the hurricane, and it's only now that they've put them back together. Bua has kept busy playing music with the Radiators, his better-known gig. Judging by the number of calls I've had about Mande's since the K, it was much missed.
The list of 1110s restaurant began three weeks after Hurricane Katrina with a list twenty-two open restaurants. It lists every restaurant where cooking and serving are done on the premises, with the exception of most fast food, delivery, and take-out establishments.
The Three Muses. Marigny: 536 Frenchmen St. 504-298-8746. Contemporary Creole.
Mande's. Mandeville: 340 N Causeway Blvd . 985-626-9047. Neighborhood Cafe. Breakfast.
Saturday, August 7. On Vacation. Revealing Dinner At N'Tini's. I am officially on vacation from the radio show. I won't be back on the air until the sixteenth. This appears to be a real vacation. No cruise to coordinate, no television cooking demos to do. The full Fitz family will goof off for a whole week. (Although Mary Ann will think of enough "leisure" activities to make me need a drink at the end of each day.)
The Menu Daily newsletter is a vacation monkey wrench. I almost never take off even a few days of publication. Two weeks ago--when I missed three days' worth of issues while we were in Texas--my subscribers very much noticed my absence, and said so. I will try going into reruns this week. After writing the online daily Menu for twelve years, I have lots of archived articles that few current readers have seen. I'll update and publish them, and see if anyone notices.
It's a sad state of affairs when I find it relaxing to spend two hours cutting grass. But it gets me away from my desk. And must be done before we leave. We've had so much rain in the past few weeks that it's looking as if the place is abandoned.
Dinner with Mary Leigh at N'Tini's. We like the food there, although I don't think either of us would say it's in the top ranks. And we always have a fun evening. Tonight, the conversation took an unexpected turn. Something reminded me of a scatological joke, one of a trilogy I've told for many years. I have never told jokes like that to my kids--although I've heard them tell a few. Mary Leigh wanted to hear this one. Food goodness sake, she's eighteen. When I was fifteen I'd heard much worse than this.
I told the joke. She went into uncontrollable laughter, then wanted to know more about the joke's protagonist: Lord Smedley, a crusty old British nonagenarian. So then came another in the Lord Smedley Trilogy, and finally the third. She laughed more than I've ever seen her do for my jokes. I was very pleased. The Trilogy is absolutely my funniest material, performed with dialects and a variety of voices. But I need the right audience at the right time in the right mood.
We started with a half-dozen of N'Tini's char-broiled oysters, which are much more like a cross between oysters Mosca and oysters Bienville than like Drago's. Three of these would have done it for me; they brought six. ML had her usual wedge salad with blue cheese, followed by her usual filet mignon. Last time we were here, the chef cut some fries from fresh potatoes, and tossed them with some garlic butter and parmesan cheese. He will live to regret doing that, because now ML must have them every time we eat here from now on. (I like them too.)
The restaurant had a special of scallops in a rich cream sauce with crawfish and fried eggplant underneath. Very good, but twice as much as I could finish. I couldn't think about dessert.
As we drove home, we talked about how we have moved into a new phase. Our father-daughter relationship has been a joy for us, save perhaps for the past few years, when by the Law Of The Spheres she must reject everything I say or do while constructing her own world. Now, two weeks from the day when she will move into the dormitory at Tulane, she's starting to openly like me again.
I wish I knew what it was that Mary Ann and I did to wind up with such marvelous offspring. I'd write a book about it. But our success has been as great a mystery to us as how apparently fine kids from good parents suddenly go off the rails.
N'Tini's. Mandeville: 2891 US 190. 985-626-5566. Contemporary Creole.
Sunday, August 8. No Vacation For Me After All. The Cousins Part. This is the hottest summer since 1998, when Jude and I withstood daily temperatures in the hundreds during two weeks at Boy Scout camps. It was a hundred three, according to my car's thermometer.
I have been corresponding with the producers of the Today Show for the past several days. They want me on the show from New Orleans just before the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. If I understood them correctly, they want to send a crew down this week to shoot some advance stuff.
I have also been going back and forth with Christoph von-Marschall. He's a reporter from Der Tagesspiegel, the major newspaper in Berlin. He is also working on a Katrina-Plus-Five story, and was so intrigued by my book Hungry Town (he found it in a bookstore in Berlin!) that he wants to do a full piece with me about the recovery of the New Orleans culinary scene.
I conferred with Mary Ann about this. If I do these interviews, I will be out of the family vacation this week. We agreed that I couldn't pass up these opportunities, even though the meetings on Wednesday and Thursday would make it ridiculous for me to fly out to L.A. either before or after. Here we go with the airline change fees again!
I ferried Mary Leigh over to the home of Mary Ann's brother Tim and his wife Desiree. Mary Leigh wanted to spend some time with their daughter Hillary, who is about to head off to college in Memphis. These same-age cousins have been the best of friends since they were babies. Their parting of the ways is fraught with the knowledge that they're also embarking on adulthood. They will spend today shopping for furnishings for Hillary's dorm. (Mary Leigh has long since overdone that preparation.)
Desiree, Tim and I sat around drinking coffee and scratching their dog's ears for an hour or so. Desiree goes back to school tomorrow--she teaches second grade--and she was relaxing with the exact same music I'd be listening to if I were at home. Same satellite station, even: Siriusly Sinatra, hosted at midday by Jonathan Schwartz, the great old disk jockey and knowledge bank of the standards.
That music played for me alone at home later. I still had a dozen or so commercials to record before I go on vacation. Even though I won't be going anywhere now, all the guest hosts are set up, and I can use the time off.
I took a break for supper. The great house salad with anchovies, and a Board pizza at Pizza Man of Covington. This was one of our favorite spots to go when the kids were little. Paul "Pizza Man" Schrem and his wife were out celebrating something across the lake. His son was running the show tonight. The pizza was as great as always.
Pizza Man Of Covington. Covington: 1248 Collins Blvd. (US 190). 985-892-9874. Pizza.
Click here for the Dining Diary entry before the ones above.
Click here for an index to the last five years of entries.
Creole. Italian. Sandwiches.
Metairie: 741 Bonnabel. 504-835-8593. Map.
Lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday. Sunday brunch.
Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
After establishing itself as a maker of excellent poor boys for decades, Giorlando's has grown into a full-service neighborhood restaurant, comparable to the great neighborhood eateries like Mandina's. The menu focuses on seafood and Italian dishes, but it heads off in other directions, particularly in the daily specials. And the poor boys remain as good as ever.
WHY IT'S GOOD
As much as this restaurant has moved upscale, it has no pretensions about its food: it's good, basic New Orleans style eats, prepared simply but from scratch, cooked to order when frying is involved, served more generously than you or I really need but stopping short of grossness. The Italian cooking would suit the palate of a child--but most of us never got over our taste for smooth, slightly sweet red sauces.
BACKSTORY
Giorlando's opened in 1973 as a self-service poor boy shop, and kept busy at that until the hurricane. Then John Giorlando--who took over the restaurant from his father earlier that year--embarked upon a slow but steady program of expansion, both of the facility and the menu. The place has become a full-fledged neighborhood restaurant with table service, wine, and dinner every night.
DINING ROOM
It looks much nicer inside than the utilitarian exterior suggests. It's decidedly casual, but comfortable enough that it feels like you've gone out to eat, not just grabbed a bite. A surplus of windows adds to the spaciousness. Service may strike some as a little slow, but it's in line with the cook-to-order food.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Roast beef poor boy.
Hot sausage poor boy.
Meatball poor boy with red sauce and mozzarella.
Fried seafood poor boys.
Muffuletta.
Fried seafood platters.
Pasta with red sauce, in any variation.
Lasagna.
Chicken Parmesan.
Daily specials.
Red beans and rice with hot sausage.
Bread pudding.
FOR BEST RESULTS
Sometimes a crush of business at the peak of lunchtime slows things down. They automatically heat the excellent muffuletta, but it's better not heated.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
They don't toss the pasta with the sauce, a step that would improve all the pasta dishes.
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 +1
- Service
- Value +2
- Attitude +1
- Wine and Bar
- Hipness -2
- Local Color +1
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Good for business meetings
- Open Monday lunch and dinner
- Open all afternoon
- Unusually large servings
- Quick, good meal
- Good for children
- Easy, nearby parking
Veal Marcelle
This rich, old-style dish was created by the chefs at Commander's Palace in honor of Marcelle Bienvenu. She worked at Commander's for a few years, opened her own restaurant outside Lafayette, wrote most of Emeril's cookbooks, and is the author of the best food column in the New Orleans newspaper. She, Dick Brennan and I had dinner together at Commander's monthly for almost ten years. This is a really rich dish--a Creole variation of veal Oscar. The recipe is adapted from one in the Commander's Palace Cookbook, by Ella and Dick Brennan.
- 8 slices veal , about 3 oz, each
- Creole seasoning
- All-purpose flour
- 3 Tbs. butter
- 1/2 cups green onions, thinly sliced
- 2 medium shallots, chopped
- 1 cup jumbo lump crabmeat
- 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 1 cup hollandaise
1. Pound the veal between two sheets of plastic wrap. Season with meat seasoning and coat very lightly with flour.
2. Heat the butter in a skillet until it bubbles. Add the veal and cook until golden brown on both sides, turning once. This happens quickly; don't overcook.
3. Remove the veal and keep it warm. Add the green onions, shallots, crabmeat, and Worcestershire to the pan. Stir while cooking for about a minutes.
4. Place two slices of veal on each plate and divide the pan contents among them. Top with hollandaise and serve immediately.
Serves four.
