Diary 11|2|2017: Despite His Many Venues, Ralph B. Keeps Coming.

Wednesday, November 2, 2017. Café B Continues The Pleasure. Café B has been on my mind lately. Its menu of semi-gourmet Creole bistro food has long appealed to me above all other common styles of cooking in these parts. I am clearly not the only person who feels this way. The last two or three times, I was unable to secure a table, even after waiting a while. Ralph Brennan and his people (Michael Uddo in this case) have a good grip on whay appeals to the Old Metairie palate. I began with some fried eggplant sticks with a reddish aioli. The sticks are usually a bit thicker than these, and that's how I like them. On the other hand, any more of these would have been too much for an appetizer. Especially the soup of the day, which is artichoke-and-mushroom, with a light creaminess. The entree is swordfish, sent forth with the house specialty of reduced balsamic vinegar figuring into a sauce that otherwise inclused some nice spaghetti squash (non-carb pasta, because it's not carb to begin with). Wild mushrooms and charred vidalia onion. Sword fish has been gaining in appeal to me, and this is an explanation why. I get some ice cream that incorporates pecans and bourbon whiskey. Interesting that the bourbon didn't prevent the melting, as it usually does when blended with anything frozen. Great dinner. Mike Uddo is, absent as he always a seems to be when I show up. Café B. Old Metairie: 2700 Metairie Road. 504-934-4700.