On The Food Show over the years I have voiced my conflicting opinions about these special menus around town, be it Restaurant Week, Réveillon, or the original…COOLinary. These conflicting opinions can be explained as: a deal or not? And I guess that depends on the place and circumstances. But the draw of these special meals remains the same: they are enticements to bring diners into places they may be unfamiliar with or places they love and need a nudge to visit again. Both approaches work for me every time.
I have always loved Mr. B’s. I have been to Mr. B’s many times, but it is never enough. It took little to convince me to go to Mr. B’s at an even slightly reduced rate. No rate reduction needed for a treat like this. But it was a nice reminder. For $28 I got two courses of food I have had before, but because of that I knew I would love this food all over again.
The last time I was at Mr.B’s the Gumbo YaYa was a little over-the-top smoky. It is always that, but on this day it was illustrative of what a visitor called “a campfire.” I ordered the Gumbo YaYa this time with the excuse I needed to have it again to make sure that was an aberration. It was. The Gumbo YaYa was as outstanding as ever, a deeply dark roux filled with wonderful andouille and ample pieces of smoky chicken. Delicious as ever. With a generous portion of white rice this was enough to make a meal.
While I waited for my entree I aimlessly munched on the classic warm French bread with a toasted exterior and fluffy interior and soft butter that is delivered to each table when it is seated. A classic New Orleans treat at all the traditional great New Orleans restaurants. And I had some crispy fried oysters, smallish though they were, with the jalapeño tartar sauce. Irresistible. I prefer smallish oysters, and it's a crapshoot when ordering depending on what's out there. Personally, and I think this might be a girl thing, smaller oysters are better to my taste. Guys like macho big oysters.
My entree was something I never see on menus anymore. When Tom and I first started dating, it was the end of the 1980s and I was seeing Buster Crabs on menus all over town. The preparation for these little softshell crabs was also classic: Amandine with a light brown butter sauce and loaded with almond slivers. As usual, I had that image in my mind when I read the menu, so I was surprised to see a bowl of creamy maque choux topped with deep fried little crabs. They looked like chicken wings but were indeed little softshells that made a great mouthful combined with the spicy-but-not-too corn.
It was a delightful meal in an old favorite place. I was pleased to just sit watching the generations of locals who knew each other chat together and enjoy the food of our delicious culinary culture. And I was grateful to have the incentive to return and revisit great memories of my early days with Tom enjoying these little crabs in a place we both loved.
My next foray into the COOLinary realm was quite different. As usual I went to a place that wasn’t serving it. The website did not reflect that Miss River was under renovation, so I was surprised to have to think about where to go in the moment.
San Lorenzo had an intriguing menu for their $28 COOLinary. I sat outside on the patio in this most interesting place. The service here was the opposite of Mr. B’s, which was efficient and attentive. This young lady was not too invested in my experience. Another place I was definitely not-type.
For the first course I chose the Caesar salad. I remembered it here as a very good salad with really fresh and crispy baby Romaine and a very generous amount of Parmigiano Reggiano. What I didn't remember was the two anchovies that came on top. Also a maybe too generous dousing of chili oil in the housemade breadcrumbs. I remember these as very large chunks of housemade croutons, which I preferred. This was an enormous salad that would have been enough as a meal. Generous.
The entree was interesting, and frankly chosen by process of elimination. On the menu it was described as gulf fish Piccata, which intrigued me. I usually see chicken as the protein for Piccata. Since I am not a redfish fan, I called to inquire about what fish it was and was told flounder.
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I love flounder as a crispy fried fish, so I was unsure about this Piccata in the unusual veal reduction preparation. The light flour dusting and capers aplenty were there, but a veal reduction? Interesting. It was odd but pretty great.
The veal reduction sauce was so good I wanted every bit of it, so I asked for some bread. I remember San Lorenzo having a very nice bread selection with several different types of bread in a basket, including large lavash pieces. On this day the lavash was there, but there was a square of uninteresting focaccia and a nice oblong roll of French bread coated with sesame seeds.
None of this was warm, which is like wasting a bread basket. I used it for the veal reduction. As with a normal Piccata, there were plenty of capers. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this well-made dish.
The lunch was over when crazy wild lightning, even by NOLA standards, arrived as part of a scary thunderstorm that stayed directly overhead long enough to terrify guests and flood the porch. It was still at least half an hour before I felt comfortable to set foot outside. I amused myself by hanging around the public areas of this busy and hip hotel. Loved this bar.
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COOLinary worked again to get me in the door at N7, a place I have been eyeing for a while. I liked the menu well enough, but I was mostly interested in going to this place. It looks from all pics to be whimsical and romantic, with most seating the kind I prefer… alfresco.
I was so intrigued by this inverse ratio of indoor/outdoor seating I had to inquire about it. The employees I spoke to didn't know the really far back history, but it was a carriage house. That’s like saying it was a garage. A garage to what? I’m still dying to know.
I was also curious about the Tarte Flambeé, a dish I have loved ever since I had one last year. I don’t remember where it was but I will never forget its flakiness and overall taste. Divine. With that memory in mind, I ordered the Duck and Fig Tarte Flambeé, preceded by an heirloom tomato salad. The dessert course was a chocolate terrine.
The tomato salad was peculiar. It was enormous, and contained various small and large heirloom tomato pieces. There was a smaller section of cherry tomatoes that were smoked. And a beet puree with miso was a schmear on one side of the bowl.
First, I don’t understand miso and its presence everywhere. It’s not really everywhere, it’s just at restaurants that want to be seen as hip. Miso has no taste as far as I can tell. It’s like a hip stamp. Here it was again in the beet puree of this tomato salad. The big chunks of heirloom tomatoes had a light vinaigrette and some microgreens on top, and the beet puree was fine. But the smoked tomatoes threw me off. Smoked brisket, andouille, chicken, sausage, and anything with a barbecue label is fine, but I don’t get this flavor in unexpected places.
The Tarte Flambeé was a flatbread, which is definitely not a bad thing. A real Tarte Flambeé is a rarity, and a flatbread works great. This one had roasted figs, duck and goat cheese as toppings, with arugula sprinkled on top. I was crazy about this flatbread. It was a flat crust but it was covered end-to-end with this wonderful combination of contrasting flavors. There wasn’t a lot of duck on it, but there didn’t need to be. It was sensational. I enjoyed the figs, which is something I don’t often eat but something I want to eat more.
The chocolate terrine was a slab of congealed and soft custardy chocolate with a great dark chocolate flavor. An occasional taste of salt diminished my enthusiasm for this. Never a fan of salt, pepper, or spice with my chocolate. This was a pretty presentation with an edible flower and few sliced grapes, half an orange slice, a strawberry and a bit of mint. The chocolate was too much for one sitting, so I brought it home for the next day. It held together better cold anyway.
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I left N7 craving a return visit to have other things on this eclectic French menu.
For the last COOLinary I went to Pascal Manale’s, a place Tom loved, as so many others do…or did. Reports of the corporatization of the place are disturbing. I didn’t notice anything amiss, except the food. For example, I don’t think anyone would ever expect a berry gelato for dessert there. It was a very nice berry gelato, but I would expect bread pudding from this 100-plus-year-old New Orleans restaurant. Since I’m not a bread pudding person, the berry gelato was fine, and it was a very good berry gelato, but it just seemed an odd choice.
That was the only choice of dessert for the Pascal Manale’s COOLinary. And there was only one choice for the entree. It was …clams fettuccine. I’m sorry…what? This is crab, crawfish and shrimp land. Even though our lake is teeming with clams, we don’t eat them here.
I was also intrigued by the description of the preparation of the rest of the dish. The sauce seemed an incongruous mishmash. And I was there for the COOLinary, so I ordered it anyway. I did ask if I could pay an upcharge to sub shrimp for the clams, a request they obliged.
The dish was pretty, with the pasta in the center and about a dozen shrimp arrayed around the edges. The sauce was herbal and creamy, but mostly lemony. I like lemon butter sauces, but a lemon pesto? Odd. It wasn’t bad but I just didn’t need to eat it, deferring instead to the wonderful toasted French bread that comes in its own logoed bag with soft butter to spread.
I was specifically there for the COOLinary, but I have to return to Pascal Manale’s again soon for the regular fare, just to see what else is different now in the Dickie Brennan era.
It was COOLinary that brought me there, as it did to the others. I discovered a brand new place in N7, got to see a sort-of new place in the revival of Pascal’s Manale, dropped in on that “other world” of dining at San Lorenzo, and delighted in another meal at an old favorite, Mr. Bs.
It’s not a tremendous savings. It’s not the regular amount of choices, but it works. I’m happy.
