Thursday, March 23, 2017.
Mutt's Returns.
All this week, I haven't had any problems with my Beetle, which gave me a yellow oil light on Sunday. I topped it off, and and the dipstick remained the same all week. But just to be on the safe side, I brought the car in for a regular service call. The advisor said he didn't see anything wrong, and I shouldn't worry about it. I won't, but I will have a quart of oil in the trunk from now on.
While they worked on my car, I walked around looking for a possible lunch spot. I recall that Mutt's recently opened in the mall at the southwest corner of Causeway Boulevard and LA 22. I walk over there and find them open and busy.
Mutt's has a long history as a St. Bernard Parish neighborhood café. I have a vague recollection of having been taken there for a roast beef poor boy by my Uncle Billy back in the 1960s, en route to Delacroix Island. But Uncle Billy went to a lot of joints like that.
More recently, Mutt's came to a flooded end in St. Bernard Parish, made possible by Katrina. It opened at least once over there. But now it has done what a lot of other St. Bernard's businesses have done: picked up stakes and moved to St. Tammany.
I order a roast beef poor boy. It's pretty good, but it won't make it to my top five St. Tammany just yet. I'll give it more time. What I do know is that they don't automatically serve their roast beefs with hot French bread. That's a full star ratings hit for any restaurant who doesn't employ that easy extra touch. But while I ate, I overheard two people at the counter asking for toasted French bread. Now, why have I never thought of doing that? The kitchen served it that way, and judging from the damage the customer did to the sandwich, it must have been good.
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Dining room at MayPop.[/caption]
A radio show later, Mary Ann has an idea for dinner: Maypop. This is the new restaurant from Michael Gulotta, who in recent memory was the chef at MoPho and Restaurant August, to name a couple of postings. Here the cuisine is Far Asian, with distinct flavors and styles of Vietnam as well as other cuisine. But this is not another pho house, or, really, anything we've had before. We start with a few goodies from the happy hour list. With only one bite to judge by, these are hard to register anything in particular, except that it's very good.
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Fried oysters at MayPop with intense sauces.[/caption]
We move to the two oyster dishes, both of which have a hard belt of high heat. Sounds like Drago's? Well, it doesn't remind one of that. Everything here is as handsome as it is tasty. One of these two oyster ideas has a highly reduced, thick sauce that came from Tabasco and whiskey barrels.
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The brisket, with an edible painting.[/caption]
The entrees include a wok-fired, dry-curried brisket. Good as the eating is, the price--$32--is a surprise. Could it be the presence of cauliflower? No. Or maybe the kumquats? How about cashews? No, that doesn't explain this dollar figure.
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Bucatini with oystes almost ready to pop.[/caption]
Meanwhile, I have a $20 bowl of bucatini pasta. That's the fattest of the spaghetti variations, with a small hole passing through it which, if you suck on a strand, will whistle. In contrast with the brisket, this is a very ample portion, and the flavors are here. For example, smoked trout caviar? I didn't see it or taste it, really, but the total dish is magnificent and simple at the same time.
My criticisms aside, I will check back at this place rather soon. It's only been open a few months, but the eating is convincing.
On the way out, I saw a glassed-in cabinet full of meats in the curing, aging, and tightening-up stages. I don't see many of these items on the menu. But nobody considers you much of a chef these days if you don't make your own charcuterie. The support of that endeavor may be responsible for the $32 brisket.
The restaurant itself, in the center of the CBD's many new apartment and condominium buildings and residential-style stores, is quite handsome. It's in the current style wherein nobody tries to hide the utilitarian quality of the space. Big windows make that even clearer. Along the wall where we sat was a big hand-drawn map of what looks like the delta area of the Mekong River. Interesting place.
Maypop. CBD: 611 O’Keefe Ave. 504-518-6345.
