When Tujague’s was in the old place near the French Market we rarely went. I never went until they renovated. I liked the food but not the place. When they had to move I wondered how it would affect the business, but that worry evaporated as soon as I saw the new place. I’ve said from the beginning I have never seen a relocation so well done. They managed somehow to transport not only the look and the menu but the spirit. Much harder to do.
When Mark Latter took over the business from his father, he and his wife brought a younger sensibility to the operation. Sometimes I have thought that would not serve them well, but I think it was very much the right call.
New Orleanians can be provincial by nature and resistant to change, but it is hard to quibble with the instincts here.
Whenever I am at Tujague’s I am struck by how handsome the place is, and how well it is kept. We are usually there for some fun promotion, which always turns out to be as fun as it is promoted to be.
They are doing a brunch menu now to celebrate their age. It is $18.56 to commemorate the year of their birth. I’m not sure you can get a meal at Five Guys anymore for that. But here is a handsome first-class restaurant offering you a choice of three items in two separate courses.
Considering the surroundings, it barely matters to me if the food is even good, but the food is good. I go to places that are expensive and sometimes the food isn’t even great. But if it isn’t with a deal like this you’ve only paid $18.56 for it.
We started with Pain Perdu for Tom and chicken andouille gumbo for me. I ate from the special menu and Tom got the hamburger in addition to the Pain Perdu. I wanted to check out the burger because the last time we were here another table had it and it looked really good.
Tom’s Pan Perdu was Bananas Foster French Toast and the bread was sliced in elongated thick slices of their wonderful small Leidenheimer loaf, stacked artfully on a plate with the banana slices resting in the sticky sauce beneath them. It goes without saying that Tom was delighted with this.
I was not as delighted with the gumbo, not for any real reason but there was an errant flavor in it from the last time I got it. I like the gumbo here and this time there was a stronger-than-usual flavor that came off as mildly citrus. It was thankfully faint and this bowl of gumbo was finished without further complaint.
The entree I ordered was from a choice of three. I could get a Croque Madame, Shrimp and Grits, or what they called Eggs Madison, which in my usual blitz reading of menus seemed like a scramble to me. I imagined crumbled chorizo and vegetables in an unappetizing pile of scrambled eggs.
I eliminated the Croque Madame immediately because I am sort of Croqued-out, since I’ve had a few Croque Monsieurs lately. No Madames though, but the difference between these two is essentially just a fried egg.
The Shrimp and Grits is something I have had here before, only because I needed a picture of it. Shrimp and Grits is not a favorite of mine. That dish here is very good.
When the Eggs Madison arrived I was happily surprised, because my blitz reading of menus (which always comes back to bite me) was wrong again. Here was a beautiful plate of brunch food with two eggs fried exactly as I love perched on top of a hash of chunky soft chorizo, potatoes, onions, and cheddar cheese. This all sat over a base of Chimichurri sauce.
I am always wary of chorizo that is not crumbled, expecting it to be the hard jerky-like sausage popular in Spain. I was pleasantly surprised to see a soft sausage that had a mild spice to it. The predominant flavor here was the Chimichurri, which is never a bad thing. I love potato hash anywhere, and am a fan of cheddar cheese in any application. The eggs were fried with that crispy brown edge while keeping the yolks intact for rupturing. This was a dish as tasty as it was beautiful.
To think that a dish this beautiful and polished can be had in a first-class restaurant with an additional course for just a little more than the price of a fast food meal simply thrills me.
Because I was having breakfast I got a biscuit too, which came with honey. I forgot I had done this before and didn't need to do it again. It is an ordinary soft-cut biscuit.
Tom’s burger was different than the one I remembered seeing the last time we were here. I think that one (and I could be wrong) was a regular-sized patty with the same fresh dressing sticking out on all sides of a very basic bun. Basic is the word I’d ascribe to the entire thing. I love a classic burger, and this was it. I don’t remember it being a smashburger but it was crispy on the edges and flat all the way through. A slice of melted American cheese was also there, along with a slice of tomato, one of purple onion, and a few large unruly pieces of iceberg lettuce.
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When I assembled the pieces of this at the table, mayonnaise squished out from the edge. I love mayo maybe more than the next person, but excessive mayo seems gross to me. I wiped it off and commenced eating it. My only objection to this was that there were no dill pickle slices on the burger. I had to coordinate bites of the dill pickle wedge with the burger. The fries that came with it were better-than-ordinary frozen fries.
My curiosity about the burger has now been satisfied. I liked it fine but it was not special enough to finish, and I have no need to get it again. There are plenty of better things to eat here.
Our server was one of those old-time professional guys I love to run into. It is the exception rather than the rules these days. At the end of the meal, he brought us two small glasses of the signature Grasshopper drink as a complimentary send-off. Nice touch.
Mark Latter is a wonderful steward of the restaurant's legacy. He is a young guy who with his wife comes up with fun promotions. The last time we were here was nearly a year ago for their Rosé, (or was it Frosé?) brunch in August to celebrate the conclusion of a hot summer.
Older more conventional restaurants no longer have a buzz, with social media focused on the new kids in town. These next-gen Latters are smart to generate enticing ways to remind people that here is a beautiful place with great food that can also be fun. Have a wonderful New Orleans meal in a beautiful place, then get a selfie on the way out at the IG spot. A classic…in 2024.
