[title type="h5"]Wednesday, June 4, 2014.
The New Southern Hotel. Mac's On Boston Uncomplicates.
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It's two consecutive days without rain now. I hope that's a trend. Today is the first time in over a week I can take my half-hour strut around the Cool Water Ranch. I can feel the fat forming from not having done so in days, my route still marshy and even flooded here and there. I wonder how much that walk is contributing to the now three-year descent in my gravitational pull on the earth. My suspicion is that it's more than I think.
For dinner with the Marys, I take a firmer stance than usual about its location. "We haven't been to Mac's On Boston in a long time," I say, adding the usual groan that I need every meal for information-gathering purposes.
I talk them into it--or, perhaps, Mary Ann comes up with her own rationale. The Southern Hotel is now open, right on time. MA, who loves fine hotels, has watched the progress of this old hostelry's renovation. It's in the middle of Old Covington, but for the past few decades it's served as expansion space for the St. Tammany Parish seat of government. It's been empty (except for Tugie's Bar, which survived long after the hotel shut down) since the courts and offices moved to a new facility ten years ago.
We stroll around the lobby and like its looks. The restaurant (Ox Lot 9 is the improbable name) isn't quite ready, but the bar is open. The hotel is not so large that it will need to bring in crowds to make a go of it. I do think it's enough to make downtown Covington even hipper and more delicious. Already a lot of good eats around there.
Mac's, for instance, is only two blocks away, down the oak-shaded Boston Street. Mary Ann and I have had a few meals there, all good, all out on the open deck. But the sun is still high when we arrive, and it's hot and steamy. We compromise with a table on what had been a porch but is now an enclosed, air-conditioned room.
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Sangria?[/caption]We get off to a peculiar start when the bartender--who I think said she's the chef-owner's mother--proposes a blueberry sangria as a cocktail. "What color would that be?" I ask. "Purple?" She laughed, but indeed it was a shade of violet. Reason: it's not really a sangria, having been made not with wine but vodka and blueberry liqueur. And the only fruit in it is a string of blueberries impaled on a toothpick. I like it anyway, but the drink was so generous that I take in more alcohol that I really wanted.
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Pork loin, slaw, and tempura beans.[/caption]I follow that with the soup du jour: cream of asparagus. It is a light tan color, made as it is with too much roux and not much asparagus. The Marys have salads and a small plate involving grilled pork loin and tempura-fried green beans.
All of this becomes insignificant in the shadow of my entree. The menu describes the sirloin strip steak as coming with "sautéed mushrooms, onion jam, red wine demi-glace, fried portabella sticks, roasted potatoes and haricots verts." This is clearly too much going on. No fewer than three items must be removed from this plate just to keep it from becoming a hash.
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Sirloin strip with demi-glace: great![/caption]
I go farther than that, and ask that I be brought the steak with the demi-glace and nothing else, except for a heavier-than-normal hand on the salt and pepper before grilling. The server is mildly puzzled. Not why I'd want such a thing, but how much she would charge for it. I told her to leave the $24 price alone--it already seems like a good enough deal. But she confers with the kitchen and the figure $18 is advanced. Whatever.
I was in the mood for a steak, and this one satisfied the craving perfectly. The demi-glace was well made, and with the added seasoning this became a first class slab o' beef. I told them they ought to scrap the overdone standard dish and feature this on the menu instead. At the full $24 price, at that. Leave any sides on the side. This was a thing of beauty.
But we are on the North Shore, where the battle between Good and Plenty always goes to the latter.
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Bread pudding.[/caption]
The bread pudding was very good, crowned with a nice ripe strawberry, and afloat in an elegant custard sauce. Mac's is one of the most underrated restaurants on the North Shore, and even better when they uncomplicate the food.
We go back to the Southern Hotel and look around some more. Nobody said that this would be a great place for Jude's wedding and reception, but I was thinking it, even knowing that there is zero chance that will happen.
[title type="h5"]Mac's On Boston. Covington: 324 E Boston St. 985-892-6550.[/title]
Written by Tom Fitzmorris June 12, 2014 12:01 in
