The restaurant Succotash is the current occupant of a storied space. For many years it was neighborhood favorite Marti’s, then gourmet royalty when Anne Kearney presided over Peristyle at the height of the gourmet revolution in New Orleans. The Peristyle years were the halcyon period for this eclectic and beautiful space. Tom Wolfe moved in briefly and stayed a short time, which is unfortunately his MO. I always liked his food and I found that frustrating. After Tom Wolfe left the place remained vacant for a long time. And now Succotash has moved in, renovating it into a sophisticated space for this era.
The bar is completely separate from the front dining room, and it has its own spirit. Both rooms, which are linked by a hallway, scream New Orleans, and yes, the murals have remain in place through all these eras. I have never been to Marti’s though I have seen it, but Peristyle was a regular stop for Tom and I joined him once or twice. We also went a time or two to Wolfe’s. And I always thought the place interesting. Unmistakably French Quarter. This iteration of the space keeps elements of the old Marti’s with some of the Marti’s style. The famous focal mural remains.
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It puts one nowhere else but here, depicting French Quarter life in the early days. But this dining room is unmistakable 21st century. The bar not so much. While I liked both rooms, I chose the bar, which had a moody, sexy vibe. Besides, it was considerably warmer in all kinds of ways.
The menu at Succotash has been cut down even from the one I saw online, which was already smallish. Unfortunately, the silly names survived the changes. Menu items like Romaine is Burning (a charred salad. Get it?) School Lunch (thankfully gumbo and grilled cheese instead of terrible Shepherd's Pie), and my favorite, IYKYK. C’mon. What the heck is that? Turns out it was an okra dish, and the one dish that jumped out at me. So maybe I do know…
I also ordered the duck dirty rice, which was a large side. And I was interested in the Ménage entrees. There was a Crab Ménage à Trois and a Salmon Ménage à Trois. I wish I had looked closer at the salmon. I also considered the School Lunch, simply out of desperation. I was heavily into Process of Elimination mode, and I refused to eat gumbo and a croissant grilled cheese as a dinner entree. Had I been interested in salad I would have to have gotten the Romaine is Burning. But despite the name, I don’t want grilled lettuce. Because of the paucity of menu items, I still wound up getting something unlikely as a dinner item. It was called Pork & Beans, and it was their version of red beans & rice.
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The okra app was as good as it sounded on the menu, once you got past the silliness of the IYKYK. It was a plate of crispy whole fried okra stacked like a campfire over a bed of creamy corn, with a housemade bell pepper ketchup and blistered tomato. Pork belly was mentioned as part of this but I didn’t notice it. For the price of this dish I didn’t really expect a slab of pork belly. The dish was perfect as it was. The fried okra was crispy, golden brown and greaseless. I haven’t had creamed corn since I was a kid, and it was nothing like this. I loved the contrasting textures in this dish: the creamy corn nuggets offset by the crunch of the fried okra. I have always liked fried okra but this whole fried okra is much more sophisticated and a better way of eating it. The bell pepper ketchup and blistered tomatoes were a nice pop as part of this mix.
I got the duck dirty rice through my usual process of elimination at places like this. It is my least favorite way of ordering. It was a large side, but I was happy about that. Dirty rice and jambalaya are two favorite things to eat, so if they are on a menu anywhere, it is an automatic order. In this case it was critical to the meal because I didn’t see much else I wanted.
This would not rank among the best of the classic local rice dishes I've had, but there is little to object to if we are talking dirty rice. It did not have much of the “real” dirty rice flavor, which I love. Since I know what makes that flavor, I try not to think much about it as I savor the dirty rice. This was more of a rice dish that was a little darker than normal. I liked the rice, it was perfectly cooked, but that special flavor of innards was missing. Sometimes that flavor can be too strong, and I can’t push from my mind the reality of what I’m eating. That was definitely not the case here, but I still liked it.
It was a rice-centric meal though, because the entree was also heavy on the rice. By the same process of elimination I ordered what they called Pork and Beans, which was their version of red beans and rice with sausage. Very basic, and very expensive (at $29) for what it was. But I guess in a fancy place if you are serving red beans and rice at dinner it should be priced accordingly. These were technically not our red beans.
I do believe this might have been the very best beans and rice I have had. It’s too bad I ate so much of the two previous courses that I couldn’t finish this. It was really intensely flavored, but subtly flavored, so spice didn’t grab you. It was just delicious.
The service was quick, but bogged down between the apps and the entree. When the beans dish was delivered, Mel, my server, explained that the kitchen took a little time to send out the chicharrones. I wasn’t sure what these would be because I have seen chicharrones at Mexican restaurants and they are cracklins. These were pork rinds and I don’t eat those, so I would have told them to skip it. The sausage wasn’t especially spicy, in fact, it seemed like a basic smoked sausage. But together this was a great version of beans and rice.
Overall the staff could not have been more welcoming or helpful. It was very pleasant. I usually don’t want to go back to places that I only went to because I should. But I did like Succotash, so much I and would even go just to drink.
Succotash is by no means nearing the bar set by Peristyle, or up to the Marti’s mystique, but taken on its own terms it is definitely good enough to occupy this vaunted space. And that is saying something.
