In the many years I was with Tom I only went to Brigtsen’s a handful of times. I understood his A-list rank, and I loved his food, but I was not a fan of the cottage-turned-restaurant and I didn’t like the food delivery-when-ready concept, which often had one person eating while others watched. So I can’t say I was even all that familiar with his food. Tom was an ardent fan, though, and probably would have gone there way more than he did had I been onboard. I will always regret cancelling what would have been Tom’s last visit there in the fall of last year. We even had reservations.
But I was intrigued to see something called Baby Brigtsen’s on IG last night. I contacted Frank and he explained that when they are on vacay the chef does a pop-up of some favorite menu items. Hmmm. I went to Carrollton Station, which is where they were "popping up" to see what this was about.
Carrollton Station is a dive bar that couldn’t be more different than classy Brigtsen’s. I ordered it to go. The menu was small but there was enough. I had gumbo, dirty rice, a fried drum poor boy, and BBQ shrimp with calas. If I didn’t know this food was from Brigtsen’s I could just taste that it was definitely a cut above.
I was surprised at the light roux of the chicken andouille gumbo. There wasn’t a lot of chicken but the pieces were braised to tender. The sausage was very nice, good quality, and plentiful.
The dirty rice was whiter than I expected, but I loved its taste. There is always a lot of stuff I prefer not to think about in a good dirty rice, and I could see that was the case here. Fortunately the flavor was not overwhelming as is sometimes the case. I liked this very much.
The fried drum poor boy was pretty great. There were several pieces of the thinner thickness to the fish, and I liked the breading. It was not cornflour but straight flour it seemed to me, and it was ideal. The French bread was quite toasted and inside was a slaw that was pickled coleslaw. The pickled vegetables are a nice touch. The slaw was not creamy, but there was a creamy condiment underneath the plain pickled vegetables. This was a good mix. Really delicious.
I was intrigued by the BBQ shrimp and calas combo. Here was a dense BBQ shrimp sauce in the current vogue of Worcestershire based slightly thicker sauce. But it was the calas that got my attention. I am used to a calas as a round fried ball of rice. This may have deflated, but it was definitely more like a patty of sort of a rice dressing, a very good rice dressing. This made me want more. I would love to have seen this on a plate in the restaurant. Brigtsen’s, not Carrollton Station.
This was all delicious fare that would be even more outstanding if consumed at Brigtsen’s. I probably can’t go back to the restaurant without Tom, but I was glad to have savored this wonderful food even the way I did.
