The following was mistakenly published yesterday in incomplete form. It was about dinner that day, September 3. Here's the whole story in one piece:
Mary Ann suggests that we have supper at Due North in Mandeville--the former N'Tini's. Our appetizer has become a no-brainer: grilled oysters, in the style of Drago's. Mary Ann says that she thinks these are the best of their kind. Of course, that's the current method of saying "they were excellent." If you don't say they're as good as Drago's, you mustn't have liked them. Further example: "[Steakhouse name] is as good as Ruth's Chris." With all that verbal competition, you'd think Ruth's Chris would be gone by now. But it isn't.
Anyway, Due North's grilled oysters are almost as good as Drago's. Turn it around and you have this equally-true statement: "The grilled oysters at Drago's are as good as Due North's."
The soup of the day is tomato basil. This is a very popular dish in chain restaurants. It's also something I like a great deal. For a few years, I went to Zea for Sunday suppers because the soup du jour on Sundays was tomato-basil. And here it is again--even on the same day of the week as Zea's.
My entree is redfish St. Charles, the most reliable seafood dish on the menu at the Legacy Kitchen (the alternate name for Due North). It's grilled redfish with asparagus, exotic mushrooms, and garlic and herb butter. My luck in ordering this has been very good, with the fish never yet overcooked. Mary Ann gets an assortment of tacos, the best of which are filled with big shrimp.
A funny aspect about specialty-local chain restaurants is that they run the air conditioning too low. That was also true when this was N'Tini's. At this time of year, the women customers are always underdressed (in fine style but largely exposed), and the men aren't wearing jackets to pass off to the women. I didn't bring a thermometer to check this exactly, but my guess is that Due North today was in the 65-degree vicinity. Is it the waiters or the cooks who set the thermostats?
"My main job as restaurant owner is to adjust the thermostat in the dining room about once every five minutes, as people ask me to do."--Frank Bailey, former restaurateur.
Monday, Labor Day, September 4, 2017. Restaurants don't like to open on Labor Day, and it's easy to understand why. Hardly any restaurants are open because nobody goes out to eat. Except, perhaps, for hamburgers or fried chicken--and even the chicken is iffy. Most people invite friends with whom they can share a grill-load of smoky meats.
One other category of restaurant does seem to do well on Labor Day: Mexican places. As was confirmed by a call from MA while I was working on emergency measures in case Hurricane Harvey came our way.
So far, it's been hard to tell where or when it will show up. It might have been easier to keep track of places where Harvey's flooding rainstorms will not show up. One of those proved to be the Cool Water Ranch in Abita Springs. We got quite a lot of rain, but the network of ditches, rivers, and streams kept up with it. I had my water jugs ready, as well as a tub of water for maintenance of the home front.
The Marys are out and about as if nothing were going on. I was doing all the fretting. They think I am nuts. They call to say that I should meet them for lunch at La Carreta. The sun comes out. ML's dog Bauer happily eats leftover tortillas. I feel better about things, now that the ordeal is over for most of us in the New Orleans area. That doesn't count, however, the three other hurricanes headed in our general direction.
Another business that's closed on Labor Day is a live radio station. The music stations and the recorded shows and yammering political programs are on the air. But all the live talkers (except Tommy Tucker and Dave Cohen on WWL) get the day off. I'm off, because we learned long ago that on federal holidays (Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, for example) absolutely nobody listens to me, and even fewer call me on the air.
