Friday, January 12, 2018. My dinner idea had me dining at Delmonico, where I would have one of their dry-aged sirloin strip steaks, perhaps after an appetizer of oysters Bienville. But when I rolled up to the corner of St. Charles and Erato, it was clear that the restaurant had a full house coming. I headed toward Uptown with the Magazine Street nexus in mind. But St. Charles was cut in half with one of those halves out of service. This reminded me that things were even worse on Magazine Street, where the Everlasting Uptown Federal Drainage Project was the worst possible scenario of the space between here and there.
I U-turned, caught yet another terrible traffic jam, and decided to just head to Metairie. There I found completely filled facilities at Austin's and Vincent's, both. That's how things usually are here, but I had a feeling that maybe today was my day. But no, unh-unh. I drove around the aforementioned restaurant in search of a spot that might be open. Things didn't improve.
The fail-safe in this neighborhood (Transcontinental @ West Esplanade) is Cypress. It's always been a good sleeper, with food that's always better than one expects. And I always expect it to be quite good.
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Cypress and its demi-glace filet mignon. [/caption]
Last time I was here, it was frigid and rainy. Today, I just had the chill to work around. I made sure I was far away from the front door and its likely freezing drafts. But here is a rate restaurant that has its dining rooms well separated from the outdoors. Good for them.
With the exception of one minor, odd quirk on the part of a waiter (every stanza in his recital of the specials begins with "and today we do have the mirliton and shrimp bisque" and "and tonight we do have the Black Angust filet mignon with demi-glace") that it gets mildly irritating. A tiny complaint, and this guy is so good at everything else that I should just forget about it. So I will.
The two dishes above were in fact both parts of my order. The mirliton soup is perfect on this cold night, and loaded with a lot of big shrimp. I had a salad, too, and that was about enough. And the record of consistent good eats at Cypress does go on tonight.
Cypress. Metairie: 4426 Transcontinental. 504-885-6885.
Friday, January 12, 2018.
