Always A Treat

Much time on the radio show and space in this publication has been spent gushing about Tchefuncte's, one of our favorite restaurants in the entire metro area.

Tchefuncte's is part of our little "orbit" closer to our home. Our situation keeps us on the north shore more than I wish it would. The storms every evening have kept us close. Recently after the show we got dressed nicely to go to the Pelican Club to have their special menu which sounds terrific, but on the way south the black clouds appeared. Tom is hard enough to drag around when it’s not raining. I immediately aborted the plan and decided to switch to Tchefuncte’s, a place we love but rarely visit. It’s unusual to have a big dinner these days, and we have been spending more time across the lake in general. The heavy rains of late have offered the opportunity to visit again.

We went this week. The same faces were there, with a few new ones. It was nice to be greeted by the staff with  the sentence, “Great to see you again!” It was great to see them again too.

The place was as gorgeous as ever. We sat in the bar because I like their wraparound booths. We didn’t go too far into the restaurant so we were far from the floor-to-ceiling windows with the fabulous view of the Tchefuncte River, made more dramatic this evening by forbidding clouds.

I am always happy to be at Tchefuncte’s. It is beautiful, delicious, and welcoming. And all three traits were present the other evening, with only one up to par. Nothing had changed about the look of the place, but the service wasn’t as I remembered it. And the food was not up to par.

It was nothing serious. Just more of that same thing I hear from a lot of people these days. “It wasn’t the same.” Not being as good as it was at a place like Tchefuncte’s means it is still excellent. It just didn’t blow my mind like it used to, and that's just not something I expected there.

Our first mistake was choosing to sit in the bar at Happy Hour. We were not there for Happy Hour, and I realized that if one is at Tchefuncte’s when Happy Hour is on, one had better be sitting on a bar stool. The bartenders are busy making spectacular drinks with smoke and other complications. These drinks are highly desired by the patrons on the stools and they go from one couple to another refilling these drinks. I felt guilty expecting our guy to come and go to the bar to serve us. He was great but one can’t be in two places at one time.

We placed half our order which I suspected was a mistake. That was proven as soon as I had a chance to observe the activity at the bar. I had to ask the bartender for some of the wonderful seeded boules that is a trademark of the restaurant. This may be my favorite bread anywhere. I would come here for the bread alone, but there are plenty of other reasons. I hated to make the waiter make a separate trip, but Tom needed something to keep him occupied.

The bread was as extraordinary as always, but the butter surprised me. It was a sweet butter, which isn’t terrible, but it messes up the mojo of this bread that has a noticeable salt component to it that I find irresistible.

The apps arrived and I was disappointed on sight. The fried oyster appetizer was I thought pricey at $15 for four small fried oysters served in shells, with a Bleu Cheese fondue underneath and a Creole tomato glaze on top. Tom exclaimed with glee when he tasted this. Since it didn’t look appealing to me and there were only four of these, I let him have them all.

The crawfish beignets looked familiar when they arrived. I have had them before, but they didn't make enough of an impression on me then to have remembered them. They didn’t here either. These seemed to be a crawfish stuffing enveloped in a tempura batter and deep-fried. They came drizzled with remoulade. Tom ate this with relish too, and I was underwhelmed. To me, they were fine but nothing more.

The meatball tartine was the biggest disappointment of all. Last fall Chef Michael Gottlieb did an Italian series on Tuesdays that was the best Italian food in town, in my view. It was outstanding. The success of these Italian nights suggested these meatballs would be exemplary. They were served atop the Tchefuncte housemade grilled ciabatta bread which is also terrific. There were two large meatballs with barely any marinara, heavily dusted with grated Parmesan cheese. I hated to bother our harried bartender for more marinara, so I waited until someone else's needs  caused him to leave the confines of the bar. He brought me a little cast iron pitcher of marinara, which helped. The grilled bread was as good as always, though a little soggy from the sauce. But it was the flavor of the meatballs themselves that I didn’t care for, nor the grind. Too fine.

As I finished these meatballs I realized that we hadn’t ordered entrees. It would be a long time between courses. About this time I noticed amuse bouches going by, which reminded me that we didn't get this either. I asked them to bring just one for a pic. It was a Chilean sea bass crostata. Tom liked this. The little crostata was so crunchy I could hear Tom bite down on it.

When the entrees arrived we had already eaten enough for a meal, but we were so enjoying the scene I didn’t want to leave. Tom got grilled tuna, accompanied by boudin fried rice and bok choy. It was refreshing to see these creative sides. Most chefs think asparagus is really busting out, of the crowd, but this was different. I would expect nothing less from Michael Gottlieb. I don’t like bok choy, but I do eat it to add to my vegetable nutrient medley. It’s a penance.

Tom dug into his boudin fried rice with such vigor it was hard to steal a bite. I found it interesting and weird. Really spicy with Asian flavors, and not much boudin taste. Tom was wild about this.

The tuna was seared perfectly, meaning a crust on the outside and “raw” inside. This is why tuna is off my radar in restaurants, and I have to remind myself to order it for Tom, who is crazy about this entree. Tonight was no exception.

My filet was also done exactly to my request and was served with a small portion of creamed spinach, bone marrow potato purée, and forest mushrooms. Each of the sides were fine but not spectacular, and I don’t care for large meaty mushrooms. I ate them, again, for their health benefits.

The steak was tender but not outstanding in any way. The demi sauce that came with it added a lot of nice extra flavor. I order steaks pink inside, and yes, I understand that this constitutes “ruining a steak” to chefs and others who eat beef red inside. But I have had very tender steaks done this way. This was not one of them.

It was so pleasant watching the entertainment the bartenders provide, and just sitting in the loveliness that is Tchefuncte’s, we were motivated to get dessert. We packed up the half-entree we didn’t need and got dessert. 

There were a few things I wanted, like the cheesecake rolled in chocolate cookie crumbs. This is a sensational signature dessert. There was a blueberry biscuit with whipped cream that we should have had and a chocolate souffle that we didn’t have time to wait for. I might have ordered it if they had advised us in the beginning as they do at Commander’s. 

So we settled on the trio of ice creams crafted using liquid nitrogen. We have had this before and loved it, but I was expecting these to change. There was chocolate though not a very dark one, vanilla, and butter pecan. This was served with cute little pitchers: one of caramel sauce and another of chocolate. They were as good as I remembered.

Finally, we had to leave because the skies were getting darker, and we couldn’t eat any more food. I left with the thought that surprisingly, I can add Tchefuncte’s to the list of places that “just arent’ what they used to be.” It was just a little off, but still off. Tom loved it enough to exclaim in delight a few times, the ultimate confirmation that he recognized that he was in his kind of place.