Number Five
Borgne
Creole. Spanish. Seafood.
CBD: 601 Loyola Ave (Hyatt Regency Hotel). 504-613-3860. Map.
Lunch and dinner all day, seven days.
Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website
Borgne is a chic, casual, and engaging restaurant whose cuisine reaches into a realm not much explored by other New Orleans restaurants. A good deal of its menu takes its inspiration from the Spanish Islenos cuisine. That cross-pollinated with the French New Orleans cooking style as both evolved. So none of it seems foreign to local palates. The rest of the menu refers to back pages of New Orleans restaurant cookery, reviving dishes we haven't seen in a long time except in the really old eateries. (Fish en papillote, to name the best example.) All this is pulled together by Chef Brian Landry, whose major resume item is as executive chef at Galatoire's for a few years.
Like John Besh's other restaurants, Borgne places heavy emphasis on obtaining vividly fresh, locally-produced foodstuffs. This is particularly important in a seafood house, and all the good signs are here. No fish dish requires a certain species, preferring the best-looking catch of the day to the most famous or popular fish. Oysters--the royalty of Lake Borgne seafood--are here in many guises, starting with the raw bar. They're not afraid of putting out a homely stew or other rustic eats if the flavor excites.
Borgne (pronounced "born") is named for the large, shallow, brackish, seafood-rich lake (a bay, really) that brings the waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the side door of St. Bernard Parish. It's also the home of the Isleños--Spanish colonists from the Canary Islands. At the time of the American Revolution, Louisiana was a Spanish colony, but with insufficient Spaniards to defend it. The Isleños liked the fishing in what is now St. Bernard Parish, and their culture still lingers there. Borgne borrows heavily from the Islenos culinary traditions, as well as that of New Orleans.
Like Besh's other expansions, Borgne was expensively built and furnished, but in a casual, clean, cool style. The atmosphere maven I live with loves the place. You know it's about Louisiana. That much comes through loud and clear from square columns built of oyster shells, T-shirts worn by the servers, and hand-drawn signs demanding freedom for Free Sean Peyton. The message is refined to further suggest that you are in a big seafood joint in West End, Delacroix Island, or some other End Of The World. The long bar--which looks as if it had come from another, much more formal restaurant--is backed by a wall of material suggesting endless peaceful waves rolling in from infinity.
BEST SEAFOOD DISHES
»Crabmeat croquetas
»Broiled Louisiana oysters, spicy garlic butter
Louisiana oysters on the half shell
»Seafood stuffed artichoke
Marinated crab fingers
Spicy shrimp fritters, sambal dressing
»Shrimp and sausage gumbo
»Blue crab bisque
Seared tuna and Italian artichoke salad
»Louisiana jumbo shrimp remoulade, iceberg salad
»Shrimp with 10 cloves of garlic, potatoes, peppers, fennel
Oyster spaghetti, creamy oyster broth, garlic
»Grilled Gulf pompano, garlic, tomatoes, hazelnuts, olive oil
»Three deviled, stuffed crabs
Fried softshell crabs, lemon grits, arugula pistou, opal basil butter
»Grilled black drum, brown butter, pecans, jumbo lump crab
Seafood-stuffed flounder, Meyer lemon butter
»Fried oysters amandine, wilted spinach salad
»Louisiana shrimp marinara, chorizo, tomatoes, squid ink pasta
»Gulf fish baked in a bag, caramelized onions, fennel, crab fat
»Fried des allemands catfish poor boy
Fried Louisiana oyster and pork belly sandwich on country toast
»Barbecue shrimp poor boy
For a more detailed review of this restaurant, click here. To see the entire seafood Restaurant countdown so far, click here.
