Wednesday, September 23, 2015.
Eat Club At Richard Fiske's. City Water Embargo, Again!
[caption id="attachment_48997" align="alignright" width="250"]
Charcuterie at Richard Fiske's[/caption]For a few years following Katrina the parking garages in the French Quarter were largely manned by Russians. And I do mean actual emigrants from the former Soviet Union. I know a little bit of Russian, and I talked with them. I liked seeing them at the garage on the corner of Iberville and Dauphine, the most convenient parking in the French Quarter for the places I am headed. I knew my car with its stick shift would be driven without problems, because in Russia almost all cars have manual transmissions.
But in the last few parkings, I encountered car jockeys who clearly do not know how to use a clutch. Today, the lady who took my car stalled out the engine twice before laying rubber on the third attempt. I may have to give up this lot if this continues.
I was on my way to Richard Fiske's Martini Bar and Restaurant, the longest restaurant name currently active in New Orleans. We will have an Eat Club there tonight, one I am feeling a little uneasy about. I think the place is one of the better dining opportunities of the past year or so. Yet our reservation list is about half what we usually attract. This was a mystery until Andrew Gross, the owner, said that today is Yom Kippur. I remember noticing that most solemn date in the Jewish calendar a few weeks ago, but I didn't make the connection with our dinner.
[caption id="attachment_48996" align="alignleft" width="270"]
Richard Fiske's dining room.[/caption]The twenty-four of us who do come for dinner have a good one. Most people showed up early to get a cocktail from the well-practiced hand of bartender Brianna. She made for me a slightly sweet gin cocktail with ginger beer as the supporting actor. Good!
The dining room was set up with two long tables just far enough away from the band that we had no trouble keeping conversations going. It's unusual for politics to get a toehold at our repasts, but tonight I somehow wind up in a spot that Mary Ann would have found exhilarating and agreeable, but which was uncomfortable for me. Also here are a few regulars we haven't seen in awhile, notably Becke Collins, one of the Eat Club's most familiar and welcome faces on our cruises.
The food begins with a small buffet of charcuterie, cheeses, fruits, and house-made condiments to go with the above. That is a more delicious assortment than I expect, with the duck pastrami being the best of it.
[caption id="attachment_48995" align="alignnone" width="480"]
A cocktail from Richard Fiske's bar. Gin and ginger beer.[/caption]
Champagne cocktails are poured and the first course at the table arrives. It's a crawfish bisque, served with fried wontons stuffed with the mudbug tail meat. But crawfish are totally out of season right now! Chef Nick Gile has a good answer: he freezes all his crawfish shells during the season, and thereby has the ingredients for making crawfish stock out of season. Frozen shells are immune to freezing. I'd call this a loose etouffee, but whatever name we stuck on it, it made for excellent eating. Especially the wonton.
[caption id="attachment_48993" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Pansotti with duck and walnuts.[/caption]
Then the best dish of the night. Maybe the best of the Eat Club's year. Pansotti are triangular ravioli--another example of the eagerness of Italian chefs to rename minor variations on standards. The pansotti are stuffed with duck confit, wild mushrooms and walnuts. The sauce is a rich, thick, copper-colored affair made creamy and edgy with Stilton cheese. The sound of it is unlikely, but the flavor could not be denied. Couldn't have been better.
[caption id="attachment_48992" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Scallops with a three-potato, brussels sprout, and bacon hash,[/caption]The second of two red Burgundies come with this. The next wine would be from the Meursault region. All three are interesting examples of how, during these times of a weak euro, some affordable Burgundies are coming out. (I'd tell the identities of the wines, but the man from Martin Wine Cellar hasn't sent them over yet.
Next is a pile of diver scallops of medium size, just in from Maine and tossed around in a hash of three kinds of potatoes, brussels sprouts and bacon. A few diners (myself included) find this a touch on the salty side. I fish out the scallops and leave the hash mostly alone. Damn these health issues!
[caption id="attachment_48991" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Lamb chops.[/caption]
I've been thinking lately that most restaurant dishes these days have flavors that develop in the eating, after not making much of an impact on the palate in the first bite. The lamb chops starring in our next course are definitely not in that category. The first nibble stops me in my tracks, and made me say a few things to whomever might still be listening to me at that point. Nothing far out about the preparation--standard New Zealand three-bite jobs. But Chef Nick has rubbed them with an Indian-inspired bunch of flavors: mint, lemon, garlic, and a few other things. Following a current I like, Nick turned cauliflower into mashed potatoes--or what looked like them, anyway.
[caption id="attachment_48990" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Unusual cannoli.[/caption]
The dinner ends with a cannoli made with white chocolate--a new one on me. This makes three cannoli for me during the past week, and I have no idea why. It was years since the one before those.
We are approaching ten o-clock, and not many of our diners are in any hurry to leave. The live music that plays here every night is still going strong. Then a minor crisis comes up: Andrew Gross gets a text message telling us that the Sewerage and Water Board has once again told everyone on the East Bank of Orleans Parish that the water system may have been defouled, and that we can't drink water. We have a lot of wine, so we're good. But most of us have been drinking water, too, all night long.
This is the what--third, fourth, fifth? time this has happened lately? Outrageous! I will write an essay tomorrow decrying the damage this does to our tourism-based local economy. How can we attract avid eaters to our vaunted restaurants if there's this regular threat? Or could it be that this is what all those new hospitals are for?
Richard Fiske's Martini Bar & Restaurant. French Quarter: 301 Dauphine St (Chateau LeMoyne Hotel). 504-586-0972.
Charcuterie at Richard Fiske's[/caption]For a few years following Katrina the parking garages in the French Quarter were largely manned by Russians. And I do mean actual emigrants from the former Soviet Union. I know a little bit of Russian, and I talked with them. I liked seeing them at the garage on the corner of Iberville and Dauphine, the most convenient parking in the French Quarter for the places I am headed. I knew my car with its stick shift would be driven without problems, because in Russia almost all cars have manual transmissions.
But in the last few parkings, I encountered car jockeys who clearly do not know how to use a clutch. Today, the lady who took my car stalled out the engine twice before laying rubber on the third attempt. I may have to give up this lot if this continues.
I was on my way to Richard Fiske's Martini Bar and Restaurant, the longest restaurant name currently active in New Orleans. We will have an Eat Club there tonight, one I am feeling a little uneasy about. I think the place is one of the better dining opportunities of the past year or so. Yet our reservation list is about half what we usually attract. This was a mystery until Andrew Gross, the owner, said that today is Yom Kippur. I remember noticing that most solemn date in the Jewish calendar a few weeks ago, but I didn't make the connection with our dinner.
[caption id="attachment_48996" align="alignleft" width="270"]
Richard Fiske's dining room.[/caption]The twenty-four of us who do come for dinner have a good one. Most people showed up early to get a cocktail from the well-practiced hand of bartender Brianna. She made for me a slightly sweet gin cocktail with ginger beer as the supporting actor. Good!
The dining room was set up with two long tables just far enough away from the band that we had no trouble keeping conversations going. It's unusual for politics to get a toehold at our repasts, but tonight I somehow wind up in a spot that Mary Ann would have found exhilarating and agreeable, but which was uncomfortable for me. Also here are a few regulars we haven't seen in awhile, notably Becke Collins, one of the Eat Club's most familiar and welcome faces on our cruises.
The food begins with a small buffet of charcuterie, cheeses, fruits, and house-made condiments to go with the above. That is a more delicious assortment than I expect, with the duck pastrami being the best of it.
[caption id="attachment_48995" align="alignnone" width="480"]
A cocktail from Richard Fiske's bar. Gin and ginger beer.[/caption]
Champagne cocktails are poured and the first course at the table arrives. It's a crawfish bisque, served with fried wontons stuffed with the mudbug tail meat. But crawfish are totally out of season right now! Chef Nick Gile has a good answer: he freezes all his crawfish shells during the season, and thereby has the ingredients for making crawfish stock out of season. Frozen shells are immune to freezing. I'd call this a loose etouffee, but whatever name we stuck on it, it made for excellent eating. Especially the wonton.
[caption id="attachment_48993" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Pansotti with duck and walnuts.[/caption]
Then the best dish of the night. Maybe the best of the Eat Club's year. Pansotti are triangular ravioli--another example of the eagerness of Italian chefs to rename minor variations on standards. The pansotti are stuffed with duck confit, wild mushrooms and walnuts. The sauce is a rich, thick, copper-colored affair made creamy and edgy with Stilton cheese. The sound of it is unlikely, but the flavor could not be denied. Couldn't have been better.
[caption id="attachment_48992" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Scallops with a three-potato, brussels sprout, and bacon hash,[/caption]The second of two red Burgundies come with this. The next wine would be from the Meursault region. All three are interesting examples of how, during these times of a weak euro, some affordable Burgundies are coming out. (I'd tell the identities of the wines, but the man from Martin Wine Cellar hasn't sent them over yet.
Next is a pile of diver scallops of medium size, just in from Maine and tossed around in a hash of three kinds of potatoes, brussels sprouts and bacon. A few diners (myself included) find this a touch on the salty side. I fish out the scallops and leave the hash mostly alone. Damn these health issues!
[caption id="attachment_48991" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Lamb chops.[/caption]
I've been thinking lately that most restaurant dishes these days have flavors that develop in the eating, after not making much of an impact on the palate in the first bite. The lamb chops starring in our next course are definitely not in that category. The first nibble stops me in my tracks, and made me say a few things to whomever might still be listening to me at that point. Nothing far out about the preparation--standard New Zealand three-bite jobs. But Chef Nick has rubbed them with an Indian-inspired bunch of flavors: mint, lemon, garlic, and a few other things. Following a current I like, Nick turned cauliflower into mashed potatoes--or what looked like them, anyway.
[caption id="attachment_48990" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Unusual cannoli.[/caption]
The dinner ends with a cannoli made with white chocolate--a new one on me. This makes three cannoli for me during the past week, and I have no idea why. It was years since the one before those.
We are approaching ten o-clock, and not many of our diners are in any hurry to leave. The live music that plays here every night is still going strong. Then a minor crisis comes up: Andrew Gross gets a text message telling us that the Sewerage and Water Board has once again told everyone on the East Bank of Orleans Parish that the water system may have been defouled, and that we can't drink water. We have a lot of wine, so we're good. But most of us have been drinking water, too, all night long.
This is the what--third, fourth, fifth? time this has happened lately? Outrageous! I will write an essay tomorrow decrying the damage this does to our tourism-based local economy. How can we attract avid eaters to our vaunted restaurants if there's this regular threat? Or could it be that this is what all those new hospitals are for?
