Wednesday, April 5, 2017.
Gendusa's On Air. To Kenner For Gendusa, Which I Finally Find.
Over the last year or so, I've heard from quite a number of people who have taken a liking to Gendusa's in the old town part of Kenner. It intrigued me enough that today I made my third visit there with dinner in mind.
But it would be only my first meal at Gendusa's. My first attempt at dining there was a couple of months ago, when a freight train stopped cold on the Illinois Central* main line. I waited a for some forty-five minutes for the train to pass. It never did. I couldn't even find a way around it when I drove a mile or two in each direction looking for a pass. The second try, a month or so ago, had me looking around the address, but not actually finding it.
Today, owner Troy Gendusa came to the radio studio and explained the location. It's mildly embarrassing that I walked in front of the restaurant three or four times in that most rercent search. Especially since this neighborhood is where I lived in my last single-digit years. My school was a block away from what is now Gendusa's. I walked in front of it every day. Little did I suspect that. . . well, I think that's quite enough.
On the air, Troy let me hear his classic philosophy of cooking and serving. Best of everything. Fresh food only. Stone pizza oven. Et cetera.
Gendusa's is a cute place, with low prices and a nice, young staff. The waitress came over to ascertain my drink wishes. Glass of red wine, I say. No go, she replied. Gendusa's is across the street from a school (not the one I went to). So, no liquor license, forevermore, unless the restaurant moves.
Troy told me on the air that he has no soup du jour, because the cold season is over, and few people get soup in the summer. I'm sure that's true, even though it was cool and a windy. I settle on an eggplant lasagna, something I've not encountered in recent years. The most famous local version of that was eggplant Tina, created by Tony Angello, whose restaurant in Lakeview closed a few months ago. Gendusa's version, I would say, is better than that one. Very rich in tomato flavor from a lagre flow of the sauce. Didn't need a lot of Parmigiana cheese.
If I were looking for complaints, it would be the the amount of cheese baked between the layers was a bit much, because the cheese almost needed a knife and fork to cut it into chewable chunks. It's the old Italian abbondanza issue. Always too much. I've heard it said that if you eat a big Italian dinner, six days later you're hungry again. That is not perceived by most people as a problem, of course.
I finish up with house-made spumone ice cream, another brick-size offering.
Troy comes out at that point and we talk for awhile. He congratulates me for finding the restaurant with not too much trouble. (I only went around the block three times.)
One other note. When Troy and I talked earlier, it was about ten minutes before I learned that although he is related to John Gendusa, who created the poor boy loaf in the 1920s, he had no business connection to the still-active John Gendusa bakery in Gentilly. I should have asked about the old Angelo Gendusa bakery, which until Leidenheimer absorbed it in the 1990s made what I thought was the best New Orleans French bread. It was the bread that Antoine's used, and you don't get better than that.
*The railroad through Kenner is still an active main line, but the the Illinois Central is now part of Canadian National.
Gendusa's. Kenner: 405 Williams Blvd. 504-305-5305.
