[title type="h5"]Tuesday, December 2, 2014.
Martin Wine Cellar Redux.[/title]
The Round Table Radio program is attenuated today, but it delivered two pieces of big news. The first comes from Cedric Martin, the owner of Martin Wine Cellar. He gives an answer to the most-asked question in the local wine market: When will Martin's original Uptown store reopen? It was badly hit by Katrina, but was such a successful operation that it seemed unlikely to most customers that it would be more than nine years before it would come back. In the meantime, Martin's opened a new shop in Mandeville and a small store on Magazine Street. The large Metairie store became the flagship.
"Next Wednesday!" Cedric says today on the record. But then he backs off from that prediction and adds, "Let's say next week." He goes on to say that the store will be much bigger than before, with many more parking places (always a problem at the pre-K store), and a major deli.
Martin Wine Cellar on Baronne Street is the last restoration of a major food-wine entity lost in Katrina. I wonder how the public will receive it. I hope it will recreate the superb wine-lovers' community it had in its glory days.
Luis Arocha is our other guest today. He's the managing director of Café Hope, the striking Spanish-styled restaurant and school in Marrero. It's in the same league as Café Reconcile, performing the same service. Young people whose lives have been derailed by derelict or absent parents, drugs, and other issues can learn the skills of the hospitality industry, thereby qualifying for better jobs and permanence. Three-fourths of the young people who get into the program remain in the industry long-term.
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Cafe Hope.[/caption]
Beyond that, the place serves delicious lunches on weekdays and a surprisingly ambitious dinner on Fridays. I've eaten stridently professional food there. Luis had nothing revolutionary to share other than that Café Hope is thriving, but can always use a financial boost. I wonder if they'd be interested in doing an Eat Club dinner to raise a few bucks.
I try again to have dinner at the newly relocated Orleans Bistro. A few weeks ago it vacated the hard-to-find Houma Boulevard space where it started, and moved into the former Crozier's on West Esplanade. That's a charming restaurant facility, and owner Archie Saurage makes the most of it. His best idea is an X-shaped piece of furniture tall enough that the four tables in its center feel as if they're in private rooms.
The old place had oysters once a week, shucked and grilled out on the parking lot. The new Orleans Bistro has a full-fledged, full-time raw oyster bar. I avail myself of that, as well as a half-dozen of the grilled kind. The latter have a sauce made with pureed red peppers, and come out crusty with parmesan, bread crumbs and deliciousness.
I get a salad that could have been fresher. Then a pillow of angel hair pasta bordelaise with fried oysters surrounding it. A dunk in boiling water, a quick draining, and a pass through a skillet with the garlic-herb sauce would have resulted in better pasta. This is a very inexpensive restaurant, but those are two little touches cost nothing but the chef's time. That, and the slightly gappy service reminds me that this is really a new restaurant, with the usual time needed before all the fine points are polished.
But three parties in the restaurant pass by my table and tell me how much they like this new addition to the Metairie restaurant scene. One of these people is in the wedding business and reads this journal all the time. He is interested in Mary Leigh's wedding-cake business. Sounds like a good prospect.
[title type="h5"]Bistro Orleans. Metairie: 3216 West Esplanade Ave. 504-304-1469. [/title]
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[title type="h5"]Wednesday, December 3, 2014.
Reveillon At The Brewhouse.
[/title]
One of the most vexing conundrums in business is figuring out what your customers really want from you. I know that they will never tell you this. Not because they don't want to, but because they don't know themselves. In the twenty-something years of Eat Club dinners, I've been asked dozens of times why we don't have beer dinners as well as wine dinners. But when we have a beer dinner, the attendance is slight, regardless of the goodness of the food and beer or the attractiveness of the price.
What I learn from this is that most people don't associate beer with special-occasion dining. Not even very good beers--unless the customers are major beer fanatics, and not always even then.
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Oysters three ways and Pilsner beer at Crescent City Brewhouse.[/caption]
The Eat Club kicks off the 2014 Reveillon season with a beer dinner at the Crescent City Brewhouse. The five beers--all made on the premises--are eminently drinkable and generously poured. The menu sounds good and tastes even better. We begin with freshly-shucked, grilled oysters with three sauces. I scarf them down with enough eagerness that the woman sitting next to me remarked about it.
Then shrimp and grits, which got better with every bite. Followed by a choice of a crisp-skinned duck or redfish with crabmeat. I had the latter, and although it was tasty enough, the consensus around the room was that the duck was the better dish.
We wind up with an exquisite little cheesecake, made with Creole cream cheese. This was delightful.
The price for the dinner was $55, inclusive of everything. So where was everybody? All those people who ask me to have beer Eat Club dinners? We draw fewer than thirty people tonight.
It is, however, a good time for those who are there. A lot of laughter as the pints kept being poured. The live jazz band adds to the celebration, and I hide my embarrassment.
The earlier time for the radio show during the past year is partly to blame too, of course.
[title type="h5"]Crescent City Brewhouse. French Quarter: 527 Decatur. 504-522-0571.[/title]
Written by Tom Fitzmorris December 10, 2014 13:01 in
