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Delachaise
Uptown: 3442 St Charles Ave. 504-895-0858. Map.
Nice Casual
DC MC V
Website
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
A curious narrow, well-windowed, wedge-shaped building with Art Nouveau accents has been a restaurant off and on for decades. In recent years, it has become a haven for hipsters who work in the nearby hospitals. Or who have houses undergoing restoration in the neighborhood. A blackboard shows the menu. It is puzzling as to what kind of meal you will have here, but you figure out after a few minutes that this is bar food intermingled with some surprisingly interesting entrees and daily specials.
[caption id="attachment_48563" align="alignnone" width="480"]
The bar (and food-ordering station) at Delachaise.[/caption]
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY The neighborhood of Louisiana at St. Charles Avenues is a center for young professionals and the establishments that draw them. Those who are still single are in particular evidence. You show up when you get there, you go home when you're ready. Or you are at the Columns Hotel up the avenue.
WHAT'S GOOD The menu is ambitious, but it resists being organized into a meal. You can take the all-appetizer route, or split an entree, or let long gaps transpire between food orders. The management doesn't seem to be in a hurry to move you along. The bar is well stocked, with enough wines by the glass to make an evening of tasting with friends entertaining.
BACKSTORY "That narrow building with the funny green roof that used to be a dress shop" is all the description needed to nail down which bar and restaurant you're talking about--among Uptowners, anyway. Too many restaurants for me to recall (which is saying something) have located here, always unconventional. One of the earliest failed places had a menu that fit entirely into the Atkins Diet.
DINING ROOM
Most of the action is at the bar, where one places a food order. The tables on the point of the wedge face St. Charles Avenue. Few of the tables or chairs match, completing an environment that is probably responsible for the popularity of the place. For all practical purposes the Delachaise is an all-night hangout on weekends. The kitchen is open until midnight.
REVIEWER'S NOTEPAD
More ruminations appear in our Dining Diary. Click on any of the dates below for those reports, each written a few days after a meal at Delachaise.
8/5/2015 ~
Starters »Cheese plate Mediterranean olives and caperberries Pâté plate »Pommes frites, fried in goose fat, with aioli and malt vinegar Frog legs, remoulade Grilled eggplant cannoli (stuffed with chevre and ricotta cheese and muhammara (Middle-Eastern-style pepper dip) Smoked salmon on johnny cakes, vodka crème fraiche, caviar »Flank steak bruschetta, Peruvian garlic sauce, manchego, ciabatta crostini Soup du jour Delachaise salad (mixed greens, pecans, red onion, fiore sardo, quince vinaigrette) Entrees »Grilled cheese Anabella (Asiago, fiore sardo, apple butter The Boz (sandwich of Tuscan ham, brie, arugula, ciabatta) »Fresh mussels steamed in broth, lime leaves Thai chili, goose-fat fries Mofongo relleno (fried plantain, stewed chicken, roasted poblano sauce »Shrimp clemenceau Bangkok style (golden Thai curry, crimini mushrooms, peas, brabant potatoes »Cuban twice-cooked pork stew in broth, crisped in duck fat, with orange mojo & fried yucca »Steak frites (grilled ribeye, Shropshire blue butter, goose-fat fries Desserts Chocolate molten soufflé »Creme brulee du jour FOR BEST RESULTS
If when you get there no place to sit down, you must assay the situation as to how soon you can land, or you may have a long evening before. Which might work.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The tables and chairs are uncomfortable for dining, a fact that works two ways. If the layout were to change, however, the place would lose its atmospheric magic.
FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.
- Dining Environment +1
- Consistency
- Service
- Value +1
- Attitude +1
- Wine & Bar +1
- Hipness +2
- Local Color +1
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Romantic
- Good view
- Open Sunday dinner
- Open Monday lunch
- Kitchen open until midnight.
- Open all afternoon
- No reservations
