Thursday, February 7, 2018. The Happy Side Of A Deluxe Steakhouse. My birthday and new singing gigs caused some of my endless restaurant investigations to slip past this diary. The first was our second taste of Fleming's, the new and handsome chain steakhouse opened a few months ago. I can't recall whether it was my idea or MA's to sample Fleming's happy hour. We would try a few dishes without running up the steak numbers too far into three figures.
I got there first, had the pleasant tete-a-tete with the staff. If there's anything that chain restaurants do exceptionally well, it's setting a welcome feeling with customers. Fleming's has a hundred wines by the glass (that is not merely an exaggeration), but I ordered a Manhattan. Cocktails seem essential when in a restaurant's restaurant lounge. Then the server and I established the house rules in happy hour. You are allowed to grab a table anywhere in the dining room, not restricted to the actual bar. However, you do have to be sitting at some kind of table by Happy Hour's end.
Before MA arrived, I ordered an assortment of appetizers that I know she likes. To wit: tenderloin carpaccio (the best and prettiest dish of the night), a flatbread pizza with thin grilled filet on top, crab cakes, house-made burrata (the least interesting dish of the night), mushroom ravioli). With the addition of a salad and a soup, that about did our appetites in.
It was a very pleasant way to spend an hour. We encountered a few friends, and received a visit from the dining room manager, who was on the radio with me on the grand opening day. And all of that with no real steaks, no au gratin anything, no monster-size shrimp, no other favorites in the chain steakhouse culture.
MA was delighted by the visit. She has the palate of a Millennial. The idea of eating a little of this followed by a little of that. And that and that and that. In a very handsome dining room with a pleasant staff.
It still isn't what you'd call cheap. We did indeed go past the three-digit mark on the check. That seems to be a number that is unavoidable (at least by me) in this and other high-end steakhouses.
Fleming's Steak House. Metairie: 3064 N. Causeway Blvd.. 504-799-0335.
