Diary 06|18|2014: Eat Club At Bombay Club.

[title type="h5"]Wednesday, June 18, 2014. Eat Club Parties At The Bombay Club. [/title] Quite a few of the restaurants that host the Eat Club's wine dinners like to do so at particular times of year. Today is our fifth dinner at the Bombay Club, all of them in summertime. Although it's impossible to plan, the previous four all took place on evenings accompanied by ferocious thunderstorms with frog-strangling rainfall. That streak is now broken. It's decidedly hot outside, but no rain. This is the first Bombay/Eat Club event since the death last year of Richard Fiske, who owned the place with a certain classy style for most of its history. Richard's wife now manages, with some skillful people both in the front and back of the house. The latter department is back in the capable hands of Nick Gile, who set the culinary standards of the Bombay Club for over a decade. He left for a couple of years, but he's back, and that's thoroughly good news. Tonight's menu begins and ends with martinis. The Bombay Club emphasized martinis back in the 1980s, when nobody but hard-core proponents of the drink even talked about it. Then martinis became hot again, with Bombay Club well-positioned to make them credibly. The warm-up martini gets the party bubbling, as does slight overbooking. Two tables in the bar are commandeered, but the people who draw them seem to have parties of their own. (They are closer to the martini station.) We have the usual number of regulars, but more newcomers than usual. Among these are a dozen and a half eaters who registered unambiguously in the Young Adult demographic. Four of those sitting together look like a family. They aren't, having met one another for the first time tonight. They allow me--no, encourage me--to tell dining stories of yore, which I am usually too quick to start in on. The food is great. Here is our menu, annotated pour moi: [caption id="attachment_42775" align="alignnone" width="480"] Bombay Club crawfish Rangoon.[/caption] Louisiana Crawfish and Tasso Rangoons Pickled vegetables, Asian sweet chili sauce The best dish of the night, this looks like festival food. It isn't. The fried Chinese-style ravioli bear a load of flavor, and the chili sauce gave the irresistible sweet-heat excitement. Creole Shepherd's Pie Slow roasted pork shoulder, collard greens and Smoked Gouda cheese grits Another homely-looking dish with a lot of pleasure under the surface. The pork is pulled and tender, the greens giving a robust flavor above the rich grits foundation. [caption id="attachment_42776" align="alignnone" width="480"] A seared scallop and a crabmeat beignet get it on.[/caption] Cajun-Seared Maine Diver Scallop Louisiana crab beignet, grilled corn salad and fresh herb aioli Second-best dish tonight. How far wrong can you go with big, fresh scallops? They're the filet mignons of the seafood world. The crabmeat biegnet I recognized from the Eat Club dinner we had at the Flaming Torch a couple of years ago. (Chef Nick Gile was passing through there during his absence from the Bombay.) Great little tidbit, that. Duck Confit Leg Pan-fried apple, Brie and potato cake, arugula, shaved fennel, sherry vinaigrette Recalling this, I think I want to change my mind about the runner-up dish in this meal. The duck leg meat is rich and falling off the bone, with a sauce more like a very intense gravy. All that other stuff makes for a variety of contrasting flavors. English Sticky Date Pudding Toffee and chocolate sauces and chantilly cream; dessert martini I have no idea how good this was, because I am paged to join the tables I haven't visited yet. The highly-listenable, dark singing of pianist Lucas Davenport is cycling through the talent in the room. Two members of the service staff are excellent jazz and blues singers. But a few weeks ago I persuaded Lucas to let me take a shot at "My Funny Valentine." I am told later that only during my vocals did people get up to dance. I think that may have been mistaken for diners getting up to leave. Which we all did shortly. But the Bombay Club is a late-night place, and we were still working it at eleven. [title type="h5"]Bombay Club. French Quarter: 830 Conti. 504-586-0972. [/title]