Tuesday, April 5, 2016.
Mr. Ed's Oyster Bar And Fish House.
On days when I haven't given a lot of thought as to where I will go for dinner, the most convenient places en route from the radio station to the Cool Water Ranch have an unfair advantage in getting my patronage--particularly when I haven't made up my mind by the time I cross the Orleans-Jefferson Parish line. Fortunately, I take many different routes. I pass in front of all eighty-six of the restaurants on Magazine Street. All seventy restaurants within a dozen blocks of the intersection of Canal and Carrollton. Even the twenty-something eateries in Lakeview.
So why do I so seldom stop in at Mr. Ed's Oyster Bar and Fish House? I have a decades-old record of dining there when it was Bozo's (which, to some extent, ME'sOB&FH still is). The food is right up my alley, with the greatest assortment of oyster treatments of any restaurant. And I inevitably pass right in front of the place on my way home.
It's months since my last time, so there I do. Busy, with both the main dining room and the smaller room past the bar more or less filled. Three people I wasn't expecting to see wave me down on the way to the table.
The young waitress was so cheerful and helpful that I almost felt sorry for her having to listen to my patter. She seemed to be a prime target for my request for soft-shell oysters, but I wound up apologizing. She laughed it off and said she knew there was no such thing. But she checked into the matter anyway.
Sitting one table over with friends and family is Henry Alterman, from whom I have purchased a lot of stereo equipment over the decades. He recently moved his store about a block away. And drifting over from some other part of the restaurant was Frank Wong, one of the brothers who own Trey Yuen. Frank updates me on his movements. He will be leaving for China--not for the first time this year--in three weeks. He's looking to buy wooden sculptures on this trip.
[caption id="attachment_51208" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Mr. Ed's raw oysters are great today. They are splashed with a generous ablution of Crystal Hot Sauce. [/caption]
Down to business. I have a half-dozen raw oysters. Like most of the oysters I've had lately, these were quite large and meaty. Unlike most of the others, the brininess and flavor of the bivalves was unform across the half-dozen. All the recent rain has made most oysters taste like not much. But Bozo's always had great sources of oysters, and that seems to live on.
[caption id="attachment_51207" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Crabmeat ravioli, a special at Mr. Ed's Oyster Bar.[/caption]
The waitress tells me about two specials, both of which took my attention away from the wild caught fried catfish and baked oysters I had in mind. The first of these was crabmeat-stuffed ravioli. I ask for an appetizer of this, which the cheerful server arranges with the kitchen. But could this possibly be a small portion? It is plenty enough for a main, the pasta pillows lying one deep, tossed with an Alfredo sauce, and sprinkled with an assortment of cheeses. I eat every one of them.
[caption id="attachment_51206" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Blackened black drum is no not redundant.[/caption]
Then comes a substantial fillet of blackened black drum. I realize that I never before have considered whether a black fish could or should be blackened any more. This too came with a substantial amount of crabmeat, and was too much to finish. The plate was further fleshed out with baked, small white potatoes and an assortment of vegetables. Not bad at around $20.
Ed McIntyre has added a good many new dishes to ME'sOB&FH's menu. At the same time, he expanded the concept to other parts of town. The location on Bienville Street in the Quarter has lately had a line outside. Just opened is a third ME'sOB&FH, this one on St. Charles Avenue more or less across the avenue from Delmonico.
How many more local multi-unit restaurants will open before the year is out? This new development has taken me by surprise. The restaurant industry seems to have figured out how to spread itself widely, but at the same time not thinly.
Mr. Ed's Oyster Bar & Fish House.
Mr. Ed's raw oysters are great today. They are splashed with a generous ablution of Crystal Hot Sauce. [/caption]
Down to business. I have a half-dozen raw oysters. Like most of the oysters I've had lately, these were quite large and meaty. Unlike most of the others, the brininess and flavor of the bivalves was unform across the half-dozen. All the recent rain has made most oysters taste like not much. But Bozo's always had great sources of oysters, and that seems to live on.
[caption id="attachment_51207" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Crabmeat ravioli, a special at Mr. Ed's Oyster Bar.[/caption]
The waitress tells me about two specials, both of which took my attention away from the wild caught fried catfish and baked oysters I had in mind. The first of these was crabmeat-stuffed ravioli. I ask for an appetizer of this, which the cheerful server arranges with the kitchen. But could this possibly be a small portion? It is plenty enough for a main, the pasta pillows lying one deep, tossed with an Alfredo sauce, and sprinkled with an assortment of cheeses. I eat every one of them.
[caption id="attachment_51206" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Blackened black drum is no not redundant.[/caption]
Then comes a substantial fillet of blackened black drum. I realize that I never before have considered whether a black fish could or should be blackened any more. This too came with a substantial amount of crabmeat, and was too much to finish. The plate was further fleshed out with baked, small white potatoes and an assortment of vegetables. Not bad at around $20.
Ed McIntyre has added a good many new dishes to ME'sOB&FH's menu. At the same time, he expanded the concept to other parts of town. The location on Bienville Street in the Quarter has lately had a line outside. Just opened is a third ME'sOB&FH, this one on St. Charles Avenue more or less across the avenue from Delmonico.
How many more local multi-unit restaurants will open before the year is out? This new development has taken me by surprise. The restaurant industry seems to have figured out how to spread itself widely, but at the same time not thinly.
