[title type="h5"]Saturday, November 29, 2014.
Del Porto Grows.[/title]
On the radio, I begin touting the Reveillon dinners that begin this Monday. This is a harder sell than it should be. Either that, or it tells just how few people are really serious about fine dining. There's no reason why we all should have the same hobbies, no matter how tightly tied to one's hometown an activity may be. But I've long puzzled as to why so many people aren't enticed by a great dinner.
Mary Ann seems not only to be interested in holding up her side of the issue above, but ready to go somewhere a little better than usual. I place Del Porto into consideration. She asks me why, as I know she will, and when she does I tell her that the downtown Covington restaurant has been closed for a couple of weeks. They have some renovation, expansions in the kitchen, and a new space that the owners recently leased next door.
We have no reservations. "Do you have a loose deuce?" I ask the hostess. She did: right in the middle of the dining room, with perhaps some drafts when the door opens. But it's not really cold outside. In fact, two parties colonize sidewalk tables. We do have to fix the rocking of the table. That and many other services are provided with a great attitude by a waiter who is new to the place.
Those who believe that I routinely get special service in restaurants should note the above conditions.
The restaurant is busy not only with the parade of diners who come in while we're there, but also a dozen or so people having cocktails at the bar. That is a regular feature of Del Porto, which has quite an upscale, young drinking clientele. Lucky them.
I start with a wine I have not sampled in a long time. Lambrusco is a fizzy, sweet, light red wine from Italy, made from a grape very different from the standard wine grape species. Its most famous brand name is Riunite. Remember that? At one time, it was the biggest-selling wine in the world. This was of better quality than Reunite, and I'm glad I tried it just for the experience. But this may well be the last glass of Lambrusco for the rest of my life.
[caption id="attachment_45728" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Garganelli pasta with duck ragu, a spectacularly delicious dish.[/caption]
No time is wasted before I get a dish that reaffirms my feeling that this is the best Italian restaurant in the New Orleans area. It's garganelli pasta--flat squares rolled up along the bias into little tubes--served with a duck ragu rich with tomatoes and duck fat. This is as fine a pasta dish as I could think of, both then and as I write this. It's a specialty of Bologna, where duck is almost always the meat in the sauce. I have this as a starter, but I could easily have eaten a whole entree of it.
Mary Ann gets the zuppa del giorno--made with pumpkin and spices. I think this is the same soup I had last winter, and it hit the spot just as well.
[caption id="attachment_45727" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Sirloin strip at Del Porto. The ketchup is homemade.[/caption]
Del Porto makes no apologies for always having a steak on the menu, as almost all restaurants in Italy do. They have the good taste to keep a hefty sirloin strip on the card, even though that cut is so expensive that even high-end restaurants avoid it. It comes from Painted Hills, which raises grass-fed cattle exclusively, with no added hormones or antibiotics. Those conditions make for a lower fat content (as measured by my palate, anyway). But the kitchen handles it so well that it's hard not to like this, unless you don't like steak.
[caption id="attachment_45726" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Cannelloni with vegetables. [/caption]
Mary Ann has a cannelloni of grilled vegetables and herbs with spinach, tomato and cheese. She is eating as lightly as I am heavily.
[caption id="attachment_45725" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Almond and polenta cake.[/caption]
The server is very enthusiastic about a cake made with polenta and almonds. We get a slice, and can corroborate the report. It looks very rustic--most of the food here does--and it's agreeably not really, really sweet.
We talk with Torre Salazzo, who with her husband David chef-owns Del Porto. She shows us where the new dining room will be. There's already a cut through the wall, but it doesn't look like one. She says that the best development lately is the opening of a competing restaurant--Ox Lot 9--across the street. "The corner is now bright at night, with people walking around the neighborhood. It's a great improvement!"
Well, we like it.
[title type="h5"]Ristorante Del Porto. Covington: 501 E Boston St. 985-875-1006. [/title]
Written by Tom Fitzmorris December 08, 2014 13:01 in
