Thursday, November 3, 2016.
Friend From The String Section.
Daniel Lelchuk--the second-chair cellist for the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra--wrote me a week ago with the idea of having dinner. The plan for him to guest-host the radio show when I go on retreat later this month triggers the meeting, although we will hardly discuss that at all. The star of the evening is my violin, whose bows (I don't know why I have two of them) have both lost their hair, probably to moths. Daniel knows a guy who can make this repair. Like other musicians who have seen my violin, Daniel finds the instrument funny. Made in the People's Republic of China, it has a brand name: Skylark. That alone struck Daniel as hilarious. It cost me $100 in the late 1970s. I haven't attempted to play it in decades, but it's on my mind lately.
[caption id="attachment_51787" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Daniel Lelchuk (second from right) at a dinner with music at Commander's a few months ago.[/caption]
Our dinner was supposed to occur at Tomas Bistro, where I have some other business. I need to arrange a dinner for some folks who bought my hosting skills at a charity auction. But when I get to Tomas Bistro, I find that it's closed for a private party. Owner Tommy Andrade does a big business in big parties over there. But there is an alternative for us tonight. We cross the street to Tommy's Cuisine. Daniel has never been here before, but he's intrigued by the French-bistro qualities of the dining room.
[caption id="attachment_26423" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Tommy Andrade at Tommy's Cuisine..[/caption]As he always does, Tommy asks if he may choose the menu for us. He is from the era when that sort of thing was widespread. We go along and are shortly thereafter served a different approach to presenting escargots. The base of the dush is a portobello mushroom about three inches in diameter. The snails and their garlic butter are inside the upturned mushroom, and come bread crumbs with herbs and garlic for a light topping. We each get three mushrooms; in each mushroom are three escargots, for a grand total of nine.
Next we have turtle soup. Tommy has in his possession a well aged, sweet sherry. He gives us an extensive seminar on how important a good sherry is to a turtle soup.
The entrees are very large fillets of grilled pompano, blackened around the edges and crusty with brown butter. This was a very bold statement, and perhaps a bit much for a pompano this night, but certainly enjoyable.
I tried to take photos of all this, but Tommy's is a singularly dark restaurant, particularly in the corner where we were parked.
Tommy has a half-bottle of Warre's super-ruby port. This is just below vintage port and, I believe, one of the great bargains in the entire wine world. Ports have for most of their history been underpriced, only because they're sweet and alcoholic--two attributes that are way out of style for all but dedicated oenophile.
Daniel recently moved to one of those many renovated buildings in the CBD. He came over to the restaurant tonight on a bicycle. Which made it impossible for him to take my violin bow home with him to pass along to the hair-repair man.
Tommy's Cuisine. Warehouse District & Center City: 746 Tchoupitoulas. 504-581-1103.
