Tuesday, May 24, 2016.
The Best New Restaurant Kitchen Of 2016?
Mary Ann calls me in the middle of the show to offer her companionship for dinner tonight. The usual rigamarole follows. She asks me where I'd like to go. I name a half-dozen or so possibilities, knowing in advance that all of them will be rejected, even if I keep reeling off more ideas.
An hour or two later, she tells me that she has a reservation at Rebirth. Perfect! I am hearing good things about the place, which is apparently doing well. My first attempt to dine there a couple of weeks ago was brushed off by the greeter, who said the restaurant was full and would remain so for the rest of the evening. Far from ticking me off, this tells me that we may have something very interesting here.
The location has a short but wayward history. It occupies a slot in an old brick warehouse on Fulton Street, across the street from the the former 7 On Fulton and its hotel. The first restaurant to move in was Tacqueria Corona. After a few years that closed, to be followed by the original location of La Boca, which after a few years moved to the corner of St. Joseph and Tchoupitoulas.
The space then became a branch of Chateau du Lac, the great French bistro from Metairie Road. Jacques and Paige Seleun thought that they would get some serious convention business from the neighborhood. Maybe they would have, but a great deal of construction adjacent made the Chateau hard to find, in at spot that was a little spooky at night. Chef Jacques and company returned to Metairie before a year had passed.
Rebirth--the name is a reference to the owners' earlier attempt at opening a new restaurant--opened at the end of 2015, with Manny Pineda at the dining room helm, and Chef Ricky Cheramie in the open kitchen. I know Ricky from his work at the Bombay Club, but before that he worked at Commander's, K-Paul's, and a few other eateries in that circuit. For his part, Manny had time at Emeril's and Mr. John's Steak House. This rebirth is staffed solidly.
[caption id="attachment_51579" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Chicken Rochambeau at Rebirth.[/caption]
The premises are only slightly larger than it was in the Tacqueria years. Just about a dozen tables, barely adding up to a hundred seats. No wonder I couldn't get in until today. We were early enough to get the best table in the house, in the corner next to the glass-windowed front door. Tables snake around the open kitchen and bar, and a few tables are out on the sidewalk. The latter spot will need some further renovation to be comfortable. MA, with her love of Al Fresco, wanted to be indoors.
My entree sums up the tastes of Rebirth. It was chicken Rochambeau, a half chicken in which the breast and leg quarters are cooked differently. The front end is a basic roasting job, but they make a chicken-fat confit with the leg. Beneath all this chicken (indeed, there is a lot of it) are some slices of prosciutto and a brown sauce with some leafy savory vegetables. On top of the chicken is bearnaise sauce. All this adds up to a modernized version of one of my favorite dishes at Antoine's, with the same Rochambeau name. As good as it is, Antoine's original has been only rarely copied by other restaurants.
Rebirth follows the implicit suggestion of its name to improve the dish significantly. The prosciutto instead of plain ham, for example. The chicken skin is crisp. With the bearnaise it makes for a superlative flavor ensemble. The dish will shoot right onto our list of the 500 best dishes in New Orleans restaurants.
[caption id="attachment_51580" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Grilled drumfish @ Rebirth.[/caption]
Mary Ann had before her an equally alluring, very large fillet of young black drum. Crusty, well seasoned, enriched with a controllable butter component, and watercress.
[caption id="attachment_51581" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Steak tartare and carpaccio.[/caption]
The appetizers were a combination of tenderloin of beef tartare and carpaccio. (Raw beef, so MA wouldn't touch it, of course.) Elegant, right cool temperature, and generously served. On MA's starter plate was a Caesar salad with crusty fried oysters scattered between the leaves. Dessert is a creme brulee, flavored with and the color of café au lait, with a hybrid of calas and beignets on top. The separate ideas I've seen before, but never in this combination.
[caption id="attachment_51582" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Cafe au lait creme brulee, with beignet-calas.[/caption]
As we dine, the idea looms that the components of this dinner could qualify as a history lesson in the evolution of Creole-French restaurant cookery. He're are the chapters:
[title type="h5"]Beignets-Calas in dessert, 1840
Chicken Rochambeauu, 1899
Caesar salad, 1970
Grilled drum, 1976
Carpaccio and beef tartare, 1980
Amuse bouche, 1984
Café au lait creme brulee, 1998
[/title]
Rebirth is my favorite new restaurant of the year so far.
Restaurant Rebirth. Warehouse District: 857 Fulton St. 504-522-6863.
An hour or two later, she tells me that she has a reservation at Rebirth. Perfect! I am hearing good things about the place, which is apparently doing well. My first attempt to dine there a couple of weeks ago was brushed off by the greeter, who said the restaurant was full and would remain so for the rest of the evening. Far from ticking me off, this tells me that we may have something very interesting here.
The location has a short but wayward history. It occupies a slot in an old brick warehouse on Fulton Street, across the street from the the former 7 On Fulton and its hotel. The first restaurant to move in was Tacqueria Corona. After a few years that closed, to be followed by the original location of La Boca, which after a few years moved to the corner of St. Joseph and Tchoupitoulas.
The space then became a branch of Chateau du Lac, the great French bistro from Metairie Road. Jacques and Paige Seleun thought that they would get some serious convention business from the neighborhood. Maybe they would have, but a great deal of construction adjacent made the Chateau hard to find, in at spot that was a little spooky at night. Chef Jacques and company returned to Metairie before a year had passed.
Rebirth--the name is a reference to the owners' earlier attempt at opening a new restaurant--opened at the end of 2015, with Manny Pineda at the dining room helm, and Chef Ricky Cheramie in the open kitchen. I know Ricky from his work at the Bombay Club, but before that he worked at Commander's, K-Paul's, and a few other eateries in that circuit. For his part, Manny had time at Emeril's and Mr. John's Steak House. This rebirth is staffed solidly.
[caption id="attachment_51579" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Chicken Rochambeau at Rebirth.[/caption]
The premises are only slightly larger than it was in the Tacqueria years. Just about a dozen tables, barely adding up to a hundred seats. No wonder I couldn't get in until today. We were early enough to get the best table in the house, in the corner next to the glass-windowed front door. Tables snake around the open kitchen and bar, and a few tables are out on the sidewalk. The latter spot will need some further renovation to be comfortable. MA, with her love of Al Fresco, wanted to be indoors.
My entree sums up the tastes of Rebirth. It was chicken Rochambeau, a half chicken in which the breast and leg quarters are cooked differently. The front end is a basic roasting job, but they make a chicken-fat confit with the leg. Beneath all this chicken (indeed, there is a lot of it) are some slices of prosciutto and a brown sauce with some leafy savory vegetables. On top of the chicken is bearnaise sauce. All this adds up to a modernized version of one of my favorite dishes at Antoine's, with the same Rochambeau name. As good as it is, Antoine's original has been only rarely copied by other restaurants.
Rebirth follows the implicit suggestion of its name to improve the dish significantly. The prosciutto instead of plain ham, for example. The chicken skin is crisp. With the bearnaise it makes for a superlative flavor ensemble. The dish will shoot right onto our list of the 500 best dishes in New Orleans restaurants.
[caption id="attachment_51580" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Grilled drumfish @ Rebirth.[/caption]
Mary Ann had before her an equally alluring, very large fillet of young black drum. Crusty, well seasoned, enriched with a controllable butter component, and watercress.
[caption id="attachment_51581" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Steak tartare and carpaccio.[/caption]
The appetizers were a combination of tenderloin of beef tartare and carpaccio. (Raw beef, so MA wouldn't touch it, of course.) Elegant, right cool temperature, and generously served. On MA's starter plate was a Caesar salad with crusty fried oysters scattered between the leaves. Dessert is a creme brulee, flavored with and the color of café au lait, with a hybrid of calas and beignets on top. The separate ideas I've seen before, but never in this combination.
[caption id="attachment_51582" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Cafe au lait creme brulee, with beignet-calas.[/caption]
As we dine, the idea looms that the components of this dinner could qualify as a history lesson in the evolution of Creole-French restaurant cookery. He're are the chapters:
[title type="h5"]Beignets-Calas in dessert, 1840
Chicken Rochambeauu, 1899
Caesar salad, 1970
Grilled drum, 1976
Carpaccio and beef tartare, 1980
Amuse bouche, 1984
Café au lait creme brulee, 1998
[/title]
Rebirth is my favorite new restaurant of the year so far.
