[title type="h5"]
Friday, July 17, 2015.
Apolline.[/title]
Somehow, the main air conditioning unit at the Cool Water Ranch has managed to operate perfectly all summer long. Last fall, the A/C guy made the second stop-gap repair, but said that that it was time, after twenty-five years, for a new unit. How much are we talking about, I ask. Five large, he says, and advises me to call him during the winter, when he would have more time to spare and prices would be lower.
Well, I didn't follow his advice. Although I believe that some electrical appliances can indeed heal themselves (our microwave oven and the coffeemaker have done this), I didn't really believe it would happen with the A/C, even though it appears to have done so. Until today. I know all the symptoms. I won't escape this summer without writing that check.
As if in celebration, the Marys call to say that they are free for dinner. We go through the usual indecision as to where, until I catch MA's attention with Apolline. ML has not been there, but Apolline's menu is close enough to the ground that I'm sure she'll find something. I call for a reservation. I'm told that we'd have to wait a bit later than the time I ask for. We show up at our preferred time anyway. The worst that could happen is that we'd wait the half-hour in the bar. But the regular-customer effect obviates that, and we are seated as soon as we show up.
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Apolline's ribeye with osso buco bone.[/caption]
Except for the first once or twice I dined at Apolline--when they were still figuring out a few things--I've had nothing but excellent eating there. This was the best dinner of all. My most urgent need--that the Marys find something they can be happy with--is covered when we find a thick ribeye as the steak offering. This is the girls' favorite, and big enough that they can split one. (Mary Ann gets a kick out of sharing.)
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Amuse-bouche: shrimp and herbs. [/caption]
The kitchen sends out some seared shrimp with a thick, sharp white sauce, tomato wedges, and a thatch of small herbs as an amuse-bouche. This fine beginning is improved upon by three very different appetizers. ML--a connoisseur of tomatoes throughout her young life--very much enjoys a plate of love apples in at least three colors, with a pile of corn and greens hiding them.
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Heirloom tomato salad @ Apolline.[/caption]
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Boudin balls on canapes.[/caption]
MA heads in a completely different direction with four canapes that the server says are a lot like boudin balls. That rings a bell for my wife, and four of the things line up at attention.
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Carpaccio.[/caption]
It's not because I don't like to share my food that I always order items that the Marys can't countenance. But I must perform my journalistic duties. I do so today with carpaccio--raw beef, untouchable as far as the girls are concerned. It's served pretty much as ordained by its creator (Harry's American Bar in Venice, Italy). If I say so myself, I get a fine photo of this, and it tastes as good as it looks.
The Marys gleefully--almost sinfully, given their current diets--devour the crusty steak. It has a sort of herb salad in the trench of an osso buco bone; what's that doing here?
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Scallops and shrimp with corn and Italo-Creole sauce. Best dish in the house. [/caption]
Meanwhile, I discover the best dish I've had at Apolline. Scallops and shrimp, both well seasoned and convincingly seared, lean against the upslope of an island of corn. It's surrounded by a sea of tomato sauce that's somewhere between New Orleans-Italian marinara and Creole sauce. I am on record as saying that I don't think tomatoes and seafood are very good together. But part two of that theorem is this: when the combination works, it does so spectacularly--never just a little. Here is an example of Tom's Lemma. A fantastic dish. I think the corn is the liaison. I'm going to try this at home with something like sheepshead.
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Bread pudding with pecans and ice cream.[/caption]
I am the only dessert-eater at our table. It combines bread pudding (made from the wonderful little brioche orbs they serve with dinner) and vanilla bean ice cream. Love that. The service has been attentive and helpful all night, including the food and beverage recommendations.
The restaurant looks great. ML in particular loves the environment. It's a shotgun double with the center wall taken out. One still can see where the parlor and the master bedroom were when this was two separate residences. I lived in three of these in my lifetime. I wonder how mothers and fathers with children found any privacy in that bedroom. Then I recall, for the first time in decades, that I shared a bedroom with my parents for a long time, while my sisters slept a room or two away. In the final configuration I had the rear bedroom--with my own exit--all to myself. I still couldn't wait to leave at nineteen.
[title type="h5"]Apolline. Uptown: 4729 Magazine St. 504-894-8881.[/title]
