Fancy Bar Food

There’s a bar in downtown Covington that we may have gone to once, but its close next-door neighbor (and counterpart) is The Seiler Bar. It’s a small, intimate place with only high-top tables. It is dark like a bar but much classier. It’s a restaurant, and a very good one with a friendly, accommodating staff.

Its intimate environment makes it seem romantic to me, so I didn’t sit alone there. I picked up a few things. The menu was interesting, with a few things I wanted. I saw Des Allemands catfish there, and I always order that when it’s on a menu. There was something they called Gambas that was a special, but we call them shrimp. These were like barbecue shrimp without the Worcestershire sauce. The sauce consisted of just light butter and olive oil, and the shrimp were quite spicy, featuring garlic, crushed red pepper, and a few other herbs. This was served with a nice chunk of toasted ciabatta. I like this dish. There were at least half a dozen perfectly-sized shrimp here, meaning not too large or small. 

I also got a Blue cheese salad that ML said was a very good one with a great Roquefort flavor, nice fresh mixed greens, and a lot of Bleu cheese, with tomatoes, thinly-sliced carrots, bacon, and some candied pecans. She's somewhat of a connoisseur of Bleu cheese salads, and she considered this one of the best she's had recently.

Crabmeat Ravigote with a generous amount of crabmeat was part of this meal. It was served on top of a red tomato slice and a leaf of Bibb lettuce at the very bottom.

We also had a little appetizer of Des Allemandes catfish strips. These were deep-fried, greaseless, and golden brown, and were served with a dipping sauce that was too thin for my taste. It almost reminded me of a honey mustard sauce. The fish itself was dense and firm, which is not my preferred texture.

My favorite thing on the table was the one that most interested me. I ordered the duck confit with dirty rice and collard greens. The duck confit was not the best version I’ve had. What I love about duck confit is how tender the meat is under crispy, crispy skin. This was a bit different than what I usually see, but it was still good. How far wrong can you go with tender braised duck meat?

This was served with collard greens and dirty rice. The collard greens were also braised beautifully, though the most distinctive flavor here was the dirty rice, which was unusually spicy. It was also a bit on the mushy side.

I still thought this was good enough to be pleasing. I might not get it again, but that’s only because the Seiler Bar has enough interesting and very good things on this menu to try.