Thursday, October 13, 2016.
Staying Dry At Vessel.
More and more often, I find myself moving to the March Of Time, but find it difficult to keep up the pace. Most disturbing are my discoveries that there are entire categories of restaurants that engender no desires or even interests within me. This is one of the reasons I like having Mary Ann along on my dining adventures. She is much more attuned to trends and styles in everything, even though she's only five years my junior.
So I know we have a problem when we go to a restaurant that even she doesn't quite understand. In the case of the new Vessel in Mid-City, her puzzle falls back to about the position of mine, mainly because Vessel is about as much a bar as it is a restaurant, and she's not a drinker. This is nothing new, as quite a few substantial bar-rests have been open for some time, and continue to open.
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Corn with truffled butter at Vessel.[/caption]I probably wouldn't have been in a hurry to try Vessel if it didn't incorporate a sacred icon. Here is where Christian's operated for over three decades, in a century-old, steepled church a block off Canal Street. Even if the building's heritage were not so obvious, people my age would remember it for the memorable lunches and dinners we had there, to the tune of unique dishes like the smoked soft-shell crab, the oyster-stuffed filet mignons, or the sweetbreads or veal with the demi-glace cream sauce. I can't pass in front of the place and not recall those delicious times.
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Flatbread with speck and shrimp @ Vessel.[/caption]
Nothing about Vessel recalls any of that, nor should it. This is a restaurant for Millennials and Generation Xers. That demographic has renounced most of its interest in anything like formal dining. There is no obvious dress code, so tattered jeans and exposed and/or tattooed skin are common. This represents the comfort levels of people of my son and daughter's generation.
Even though this isn't my style, the restaurant does its best to welcome my type. The dining room staff is smiling and and eager to help. And I need some help. The menu is hard for me to comprehend. It doesn't include the building blocks with which I construct a dinner. In the two visits MA and I made to Vessel, we have about exhausted all the dishes that interest us.
Tonight, we have a pile of the very good, fresh-cut fries to go with my glass of Sardinian white wine. The cocktail list looks good, but I'm not up for any serious alcohol. (I'm working off the after-effects of the two-week cruise.) MA gets corn on the cob with undetectable truffle butter. And we get to work on the rest of the dinner.
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A lamb stew on lavach @ Vessel.[/caption]The way the menu is divided tells us something. First are the Snacks, followed By Small Plates, Flatbreads, Plates, Vegetables, and Desserts. We found that except for a few pasta dishes in Small Plates, and the main Plates, one doesn't have the sensation of, you know, like, eating. Things suddenly get more complicated among the four Plates, in which we find a whole fish, a half chicken, a big pork porterhouse, and a flier at bouillabaisse. (Which is the only notable dish Vessel shares with the memory of Christian's, although the two can't really be compared.)
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Calas for dessert @ Vessel.[/caption]
Then, trying to have something like an entree, we get two studies in lavach. That's a thin flatbread that stands at the corner of Pizza and Cracker. One is topped with a thick stew of lamb with tomatoes and peppers. The other is speck (smoked prosciutto) with shrimp and creamed corn. Both of these are quite good--the best food we've had here. But they are the equivalents of a medium slice of thin-crust pizza in terms of substance. But this is perfect for MA, who is trying hard to not eat while at the same time hanging out with me in restaurants.
I consider having something else. While going through the menu for the fifth or sixth time, I find that there's a red snapper crudo among the small plates. But wait! Didn't I have this at Josephine Estelle just two days ago? How could something so offbeat as snapper crudo possibly appear in two New Orleans menus in one week? Or is this a piscine version of my theory that results in there being only 500 people living in all of New Orleans?
I have calas for dessert. These fried rice cakes are a history lesson in New Orleans food, having been a popular item sold on the streets in the first half of the 1900s. It always warms my heart to find them anywhere. I get the order of five of them, which is four more than I thought I was getting.
The conversation about how Vessel might fit into our lives is Topic A during the rest of our meal. (Mary Ann would love to talk politics, but that's a taboo topic when the two of us are together.)
Vessel. Mid-City: 3835 Iberville St. 504-603-2775.