[title type="h5"]Wednesday, October 8, 2014.
Arnaud's New Menu.[/title]
A few weeks ago we encountered Katie Casbarian on the sidewalk in front of her father's restaurant Arnaud's. With her dad gone a few years, she and her brother and mother now run the classic establishment. She told me that they were about to change the menu a bit, and that maybe we were due to come in for dinner anyway.
Arnaud's has a tradition of not changing its menu very much or often. The heart of the outmoded, 200-dish menu inherited from Count Arnaud's era remained, even when seemingly everything else changed after the Casbarians took over in 1979.
[caption id="attachment_44634" align="alignleft" width="319"]
A corner of Arnaud's main dining room.[/caption]
Arnaud's is one of those restaurants where I'd have dinner once a month or more often if I didn't have so many other restaurants to try. When I do get there, I feel as if I have to make up for lost time. Like with a gin drink from the imagination of Chris Hannah, Arnaud's celebrated bartender. Then some soufflee potatoes with bearnaise sauce. And finally the smiling faces of Jane, Katie, and Archie Jr., who may constitute the best-looking, best-dressed family of restaurant owners in New Orleans. (Just ahead of John Besh, who recently began growing a beard that came in sparse and white.)
[caption id="attachment_44631" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Fish with potato crust and fennel.[/caption]
I really had to look hard and test my memory to figure out exactly what had changed on the menu. Really, the only major swapout was a potato-encrusted Gulf fish to replace the pompano en croute. The old dish was on the menu since the Casbarians took over, and I long recommended it as one of the best dishes there. But either tastes have changed or the chefs lost a liking for it. Come to think of it, the last time I sampled pompano en croute I couldn't figure out why I had ever liked it. Frankly, I'm glad it's gone. And that this new fish--covered with fine shreds of potato, pan-broiled, then placed atop a pile of limp fennel--is a much more interesting dish.
[caption id="attachment_44629" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Quail Elzey, reformulated with seafood boudin.[/caption]
Another oldie I wasn't nuts about was the quail, formerly stuffed with something that didn't help. Now you get a brace of quail, period--roasted and napped with a slightly sweet sauce. The stuffing has transformed into seafood boudin, a toasted puck of which is in the center of the plate. Gets my prize for biggest improvement.
[caption id="attachment_44628" align="alignright" width="331"]
Fish with bouillabaisse reduction.[/caption]I don't know whose spot it took over, but a third new entree is the Gulf fish species of the day with a sauce made by reducing the broth of bouillabaisse. I've run into this idea a couple of times elsewhere, and it's a great idea, well executed by longtime executive chef Tommy DiGiovanni.
[caption id="attachment_44626" align="alignleft" width="480"]
Chocolate bombe.[/caption]
I am very happy to note that Bread Pudding Fitzmorris has once again made the cut. But they have a few new desserts, too, all of them elegant. The chocolate bombe made an impression, although you'd have to be locked in on chocolate to finish the whole thing. I also liked the frozen praline soufflee. We haven't often seen such things lately.
[caption id="attachment_44625" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Praline frozen soufflee.[/caption]
I didn't make a big fuss over it, but it could be that tonight's gustatory high point was not one of the new dishes, excellent though they are. But it's hard not to thrill over the wine Archie chose to go with dinner. Joseph Drouhin's 2011 Clos des Mouches Blanc is a marvelous white Burgundy I haven't had in a long time. But I know it well. Back in the 1980s, when Marcelle Bienvenu, Dick Brennan Sr. and I had dinner once a month for ten years at Commander's Palace, we had this wine more than a few times. (Mr. Dick was a big fan of it.)
Arnaud's now leans toward its centennial, just four years from now. It will join the 100-Plus Club with Antoine's, Tujague's, Commander's Palace, the Bon Ton, Delmonico, Galatoire's, the Acme, Pascal's Manale, and (next year) Casamento's. Maybe they'll create a special killer dish for the occasion.
[title type="h5"]Arnaud's. French Quarter: 813 Bienville. 504-523-5433. [/title]
