[title type="h5"]Thursday, January 22, 2015, After Dark.
Dinner At Ox Lot 9.[/title]
I struck out for home in late afternoon, through a roaring, cold thunderstorm. Also on their way across the lake are Richard and Jeanne Hughes. Richard is the owner and chef of The Pelican Club. Mary Ann enjoys talking with them at their great restaurant, largely because their family situation is roughly the same as ours, with children approximately the same age. We have talked about having dinner together for literally years. This dinner tonight itself has been rescheduled four times.
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Ox Lot 9 at the Southern Hotel.[/caption]
But here we are tonight, at Ox Lot 9, the restaurant of the newly-restored Southern Hotel in the middle of old downtown Covington. Mary Ann and I get a little drenched just crossing the street. It's coming down even harder when the Hugheses arrive. Instead of going directly to the restaurant, they check in at the hotel desk. They hadn't planned on spending the night, but the weather being what it is, they thought better of it. They are in luck: they get the last available room in the hotel. Mary Ann, who has had high hopes for the Southern Hotel since its reconstruction began, is happy to hear that it's doing well.
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Charcuterie board.[/caption]
We get the table ready for the Hugheses' arrival with a board of charcuterie for the table. Some of the selections are better than others. The duck pastrami, the pates, the sausages and the pickled vegetables stand out. The liquid refreshment is a bottle of Domaine Newman Monthelie Cote de Beaune from Ox Lot 9's offbeat wine list. Domaine Newman is the only American-owned proprietor of vineyard land in all of Burgundy. Chris Newman--who I haven't seen in years--lives here in New Orleans. His wine is more that a little good, too.
Speaking of names. . .Ox Lot 9 is a reference to the long ago of Covington. In the old days, open areas in the middle of downtown city blocks were set aside for cattle brought to market. Many of those lots are still used for parking. The spot where the restaurant is now was Ox Lot 9.
That mystery solved, our minds are free to be intrigued by the menu. It is much more interesting than the one I saw shortly after it opened some eight months ago. We were expecting avant-garde dishes with long stories about the origins of the ingredients. What we get instead is a modern Creole-French menu, with liberties taken wherever they might create a pleasant sensation.
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Oyster patty.[/caption]
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Lobster bisque.[/caption]
Our second courses are all outstanding. Mary Ann is still jumping for joy on account of the oyster patty, made with puff pastry cut into a sort of tic-tac-toe shape, with big poached oysters and a nice tarragon-flavored tinge. Richard goes for a row of tuna crudo that looks like something from a sushi bar. Before me is a bowl of lobster bisque from a classic recipe. Half a lobster tail sat there, which was about all I could do with it--the meat could not be dislodged. But I am here for the soup, and that is perfection.
I have my eye on the pompano, but Richard orders it first. I will come back for another shot. It looks beautiful, with the skin still on and a crisp edge on a large fillet. The sauce resembles an old-style meuniere sauce, but isn't.
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Pompano at Ox Lot 9.[/caption]
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Bouillabaisse.[/caption]
I go along with the server's suggestion of the bouillabaisse, the least expensive entree on the menu. The parts of the dish are beyond reproach--gigantic shrimp, fish fillets, a dozen nicely-steamed mussels. But they don't come together, and the broth is almost in the range of gumbo. (There are even a few okra.)
To balance all this seafood--what with the Newman drained by now--I find a very curious item on the wine list. It's a 2003 Chalone Pinot Blanc. That's getting up there in years for a white, but Chalone's wines have a track record with me for longevity. In 1999, I found a case of Pinot Noir 1981 in my closet at home. The sommelier hesitated when I asked for this Pinot Blanc, but I guess he figured I knew what I was doing. The wines were unambiguously oxidized. But that doesn't necessarily ruin a wine. That's done to sherry and tawny port on purpose, for example. The appreciation fell along gender lines. Richard and I both liked it, while the ladies--MA in particular--didn't. The restaurant has two more bottles of the wine left for the adventuresome.
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Duck two ways at Ox Lot 9.[/caption]
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Choucroute garni, with cracklings.[/caption]Jeanne has the most sensible entree on the table--a very handsome duck cooked two ways, and just about perfectly at that. Mary Ann, on the other hand, gets the prize for strangest dish tonight. It's billed as choucroute garni--classically, a bed of Alsatian-French-style sauerkraut with sausages and smoked pork, all things she loves. This is that except from a chef's hat of pork cracklings on top. Which borders on the absurd both visually and culinarily. She likes the sausages, though.
My dessert comes in a close second for the Uniqueness Award. They call it "Campfire," because it's a ball of meringue with marshmallow atop graham crackers with chocolate in the middle. A smoky flavor comes from somewhere. Former Girl Scouts will immediately recognize the reference to the famous campfire treat called S'Mores. A stunning presentation, but way, way too sweet. And the smoky aspect was no bonus.
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"Campfire," a dessert.[/caption]
This is a thoroughly enjoyable evening with people we decide we'll try to see more often. I very rarely go out to dine with restaurateurs, mainly because not many restaurant people like going out to restaurants on their days off. But I may try to talk some others into it. The Hugheses again, that's for sure.
[title type="h5"]Ox Lot 9. Covington: 428 E Boston St . 985-400-5663.[/title]
