LMNO
Anecdotes & Analysis
Zoe is one of several restaurants I rediscovered during the Reveillon season this past December. Its five-course holiday offering was one of the more expensive ones in the field, but it was also one of the two or three best--a real surprise. Chef Robert Bustillo, who has made a splash at the last several New Orleans Wine and Food Experience Grand Tastings with extraordinary dishes, continues to roll out those creations and other good eats. He does this, however, almost entirely out of the loop occasioned by most New Orleans diners. Practically since the W Hotel and Zoe opened, the place has failed to attract much of a local clientele, except for a bit at lunch. T But not this one. The dinner menu is limited by the sparse attendance of even the hotel guests (who would eat in a hotel restaurant when so many great restaurants are within four blocks?). But everything on it is strikingly original and delicious.
Backstory
The hotel converted from a Crowne Plaza to the W sometime around 2002, and added ultra-hip themes throughout the property. The original Zoë Bistrot (they later dropped the second word) attempted to establish itself as a gourmet room worthy of local attention. But its original menu was so wacky that few knew exactly what to make of it. Even after they toned it down, you had the feeling that you were dining according to rules from a parallel universe. The lobster shepherd's pie from those days may have been the worst culinary innovation I've tasted in the last ten or twenty years. The current concept appeared about two years ago and has flown mostly under the radar.
Dining Room
Zoë's sleek, modern room has hard edges softened by flowing curtains that create pleasant, intimate spaces. Two outstanding aspects of the dining room are hard to ignore, but you must. First, never more than ten customers were dining during any of the four recent evenings I've been there. Second, the restaurant's bar attracts people who sit around watching sports on the many televisions. The service staff is very casual, but efficient and friendly.
Why It's Essential
Of the adjectives describing New Orleans restaurants, "edgy" is not one that gets much use. Like the W Hotel it serves, Zoë is self-consciously out there. From the out-of-place movies projected on unexpected surfaces to the hard-to-define menu, this place feels like something out of a 1972 movie about The Future. That affectation is so unrelenting and consistent that you grow to like it. And the food is certainly good. This may be the best restaurant in town to have dinner without being seen.
Why It's Good
The menu claims that it serves tapas, but don't pay any attention to that. There are appetizers, and some are Spanish, but this is really an inventive New Orleans restaurant with the usual number of small courses and big courses. The food here is adventuresome and delicious, with big flavors coming from unusual and very fine ingredients. (And sometimes from very quotidian ones, as in the fried egg with chorizo.) The presentations of the food are stunning. All of what I've had makes me wonder what it's doing in this largely ignored eatery.
Most Interesting Dishes
Green olives stuffed with piquillo pepers and anchovies.<br /> Mini Reuben sandwich.<br /> *Fried egg with Spanish chorizo and potatoes.<br /> Chicken and andouille gumbo.<br /> Tuscan-style antipasto platter (enough for two, great with cocktails.)<br /> Soft-shell crab with choron sauce.<br /> Seared sea scallops with creamy grits and ragout of mushrooms.<br /> Blackened redfish with barbecue shrimp and oysters en brochette bordelaise.<br /> Orange-poppyseed cheesecake.
Deficiencies
They need to turn off the televisions that can be seen from the dining room tables. And figure out a way to get more people in here.
For Best Results
Do not remain for dinner if you get the feeling that the place is staffed down and using a keep-it-open menu. (I encountered this the night before New Year's Eve, when the waiter told me bluntly that they'd run almost completely out of food.)
Bonus Ratings
2
Attitude
2
Environment
3
Hipness
1
Local Color
1
Service
1
Wine