Friday, March 16, 2018. La Petite Grocery. Nobody is available for dinner with me tonight, and attending a St. Patrick's parade somehow fails to attract me. So I found myself rolling down Magazine Street, with twilight still bright enough that I can get a view of the ever-overloaded Magazine parking problem. And there I see La Petite Grocery.
The Grocery is descended from the old Von De Haar grocery, which in its day (the 1940s through the 1970s) was the place where gourmet cooks would visit for its excellent comestibles. In th 1990s, a group of restaurateurs bought it and turned it into one of the best gourmet bistros, with some heritage from the by-then-extinct Peristyle restaurant. The modern end of this story has Chef Justin Devillier--who had come more or less with the Peristyle group. He took over the kitchen in 2007, when he bought the restaurant, insuring a bright future.
I have long considered a five-fleur rating for the grocery, but it's never quite that. My main problem with the place is the loudness of the dinng room. This makes it a good restaurant for dining solo, but trying to keep a conversation going without raising your voice--which makes things worse--is difficult.
The food however, has been consistently good. The French character of the menu has me starting with an absinthe cocktail (the Grocery was one of the first New Orleans restaurants to return absynthe to its bar). From there I dine like a Millennial person, starting and sometimes ending with finishing that way too. The steak tartare is one such dish; it is also very welcome these days, in which the dish is really, really rare in both senses of the word.
I didn't have the tartare today, but I was interested in a dish involving the wedge-like flatiron steak. It was another encounter with the too-chewy steaks so many restaurant have put before me, although the flavor--which reminds me a little of liver--was enjoyable. On the otherhamd, I was disappointed by the once-superb fresh-cut fries.
The restaurant was busy (it almost always is), and to accommodate myself I too a seat in the bar. The two women operating that zone were very knowledgeable about the restaurants wine stock. I asked for something offbeat (a big Italian wine by the glass, and she offered many good options.
These staffers were very busy all night long, and it was a long wait before the second of my two courses emerged from the kitchen. Frankly, I've had better meals at Chef Justin's other restaurant, Balise the CBD. I'll get MA to come with me next time and we'll see whether all of the above is a fluke.
La Petite Grocery. Uptown: 4238 Magazine. 504-891-3377.
Written by Tom Fitzmorris March 20, 2018 12:01 in
