Diary 6|6, 7|2014: Flaming Torch Still Burns. Brisbi's.

[title type="h5"]Thursday, June 5, 2014. Flaming Torch Is Still Lit. [/title] Hassan Khalegi emailed me an invitation to dinner a few days ago. Funny he should ask. His restaurant the Flaming Torch has been on my mind. It's many months since I last dined there. The story he wanted to share was complicated, but it boils down to his having had a pretty serious health problem a few months ago, one from which he is now recovering. I was surprised to hear this, because he looked okay to me. In addition to the medical matter itself, he was away from his cherished business for an extended period of time, and discovered afterwards that his backup management was. . . let's say, less capable than he had hoped for, with predictable effects on business. [caption id="attachment_42588" align="alignnone" width="480"] Lobster Thermidor at Flaming Torch.[/caption] The good news is that he's back in the restaurant full-time, and with a rebuilt staff. Notable among them is Patrick King, a very good former Flaming Torch chef who's been away for a few years. He's back in the kitchen, making among other things the restaurant's matchless coq au vin and a new version of the old French classic lobster Thermidor. (That's what I have for dinner, good enough to add it to our 500 Best Dishes department in today's newsletter.) If there is anything wrong with the Flaming Torch this night, it is hard to see. Several tables of regulars are here, most of them sending representatives to our table to persuade me to like the place. No need for that. I have a taste for the old French dishes that make up most of the menu. (Rack of lamb en croute, mussels and fries, duck liver pate, escargots bordelaise, and French onion soup, to name a few.) It's like a time-warp to the 1970s, when the city was full of French chefs. As for Hassan, he moves forward with nary a gap in the seven-day schedule of lunches and dinners. [title type="h5"]Flaming Torch. Uptown: 737 Octavia. 504-895-0900. [/title] [divider type=""] [title type="h5"]Friday, June 7, 2014. West End Is Crowded Again, And So Is Brisbi's. [/title] The two new seafood restaurants on Lakeshore Drive in West End seem to be reviving an old feud among the now-extinct restaurants in West End Park, and particularly Bruning's and Fitzgerald's. The disagreement wasn't between the restaurateurs so much. Everywhere in the New Orleans restaurant community, competitors almost always are friends who are always helping one another. The feud was among the customers, who insisted that one restaurant was clearly the better. [caption id="attachment_40860" align="alignnone" width="320"] Brisbi's.[/caption] Now the the debate is about Brisbi's and the Blue Crab. Both occupy new buildings, lifted high above any tidal flood from Lake Pontchartrain in human memory. Both are between Lakeshore Drive and the New Basin Canal and its marina. They stand about a block apart, and when they're busy you may have to walk a block or two from the nearest available parking. I take the measure of that walk in the scorching heat. A few days ago the temperature went above ninety for the first time this year, and it is surely there again as I stroll to Brisbi's. The Marys are already there, having grabbed a semi-legal parking space practically next to the elevator. If I had parked in the same spot, I would have been ticketed, but Mary Ann is the Parking Witch, and always pulls right up to where she's going. The heat is above MA's tolerance, and forces a rare departure from her preference for outdoor tables. Good thing she makes that decision quickly; we get one of the last spots in the dining room. The bar area is packed, and so is the downstairs, where oyster-shucking and crawfish boiling go on. This will be about the end of boiled crawfish. I overhear people complaining about the thickness of the shells--the first and last cue to say hasta la vista to mudbugs until late fall. [caption id="attachment_42589" align="alignnone" width="480"] Fried with roast beef debris.[/caption] Almost as soon as I sit down, an order of fries topped with cheese and roast beef debris lands in the center of the table. It's the Creole version of poutine, the Canadian junk food phenomenon. I can't fathom why my daughter likes this mess, but it keeps her in harmony with The Boy, who as a hockey player must like it for cultural reasons. [caption id="attachment_42587" align="alignnone" width="480"] Grilled oysters with spinach-artichoke dip.[/caption] Oysters during happy hour are fifty cents each, and I think about getting a dozen. But the waitress says that the oyster bar is backed up, and the raw jobs will probably come after the entrees. I get a half-dozen anyway, and they are excellent. So are the oysters grilled on the shells with a topping of spinach-artichoke dip. I usually disdain that stuff, but it actually works brilliantly as a topping for grilled or baked oysters. While waiting, I shift to turtle soup for the starter. There is some family connection between Brisbi's management and that of Pascal's Manale, and I see resemblances in some of the food. Unfortunately, one of those is evident in the turtle soup, one of very few Manale dishes that I don't like. Even though it's rare in being made with a hundred percent turtle meat, there's too much roux in it, there and now here. [caption id="attachment_42590" align="alignnone" width="480"] Fried shrimp and oyster platter.[/caption] Entrees arrive. Mary Ann gets a mixed plate of fried oysters and shrimp, and says that the portion looks skimpy for the price. I demur and point out not only how large and crisp the oysters are, but also that she is under the influence of an illusion. It was created several times in recent weeks, when she ordered ridiculously mountainous fried seafood platters. And besides that, hasn't she sworn to me several times that she's not going to eat fried seafood anymore? [caption id="attachment_42591" align="alignnone" width="480"] Sheepshead Oscar at Brisbi's.
[/caption] I am pleased when the waitress tells us that the Gulf fish of the day is sheepshead, served with crabmeat, asparagus and hollandaise sauce. So, it's fish Oscar. And I like sheepshead, an underrated, white fish. But this is just thrown together. The fish is strangely filleted (but good enough otherwise), the asparagus overcooked, and the hollandaise cold. A little more care and they could have a signature dish in this, even at the price (around $20, which is higher than almost everything else but also fair enough). Mary Leigh eats her beloved wedge salad with blue cheese and moans about her two big cake projects. One is for a lady who has voluntarily paid a good deal more than ML was thinking of charging her for a stunning baby-shower cake, a study in a dozen pastels. And she's doing another cake with a bubble theme for her second cousin, who turns one this weekend. The downside: it's a lot of work, and she doesn't even want to think about what it represents on a per-hour basis. I think she ought to build some "cakes" out of permanent materials, and have a gallery sell them. [caption id="attachment_42592" align="alignnone" width="480"] Pecan pie.[/caption] The dinner ends with an off-note when a little pecan pie topped with chocolate chips appears. Mary Leigh takes one look and says, "They burned the chocolate. Probably in a microwave oven." She knows more about baking than I do, but I also guess the second part of that indictment from the texture of the crust. This restaurant needs a little uplift in its standards. Or am I just on the Blue Crab side of the feud? [title type="h5"]Brisbi's. West End & Bucktown: 7400 Lakeshore Dr. 504-304-4125. [/title] Minutia: With today's Dining Diary, I catch up with my usual one-week-later schedule for the first time since early April. That's when I went to Los Angeles on the train, and two weeks later traveled to Europe with the Eat Club. It all generated a lot of writing for this department. What I'm trying to say is, if you keep a daily journal, it's tough to go on vacation.