[title type="h5"]Sunday, June 29, 2014.
Another Trim. Dickey's For Barbecue.[/title]
The Marys and I go to Dickey's Barbecue for a late lunch. The most interesting aspect the the Dallas-based chain may be how much it's like the most family-style barbecue joints way out on a highway to nowhere. And, as is well known, the better a barbecue place looks, the worse is its barbecue. The Covington Dickey's is new, but looks as if a million pounds of smoked meat has gon through it. I have had crustier, smokier brisket, but there's no way I could say that I don't enjoy what they're putting out. They are not afraid of inflaming their sauces and sausages with a lot of red pepper.
We get brisket, pulled pork, a hot sausage, a turkey breast, and an assortment of sides. And a free mini-cone of soft-serve ice cream on the way out. I feel as if I am in Marathon, Texas.
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Two-meat platter at Dickey's.[/caption]
The pepper heat matches the weather. All but forgotten are the unusually cool days of spring just past. Now it's blazing hot. In orther weather news, we hear the this year's first tropical depression will form in the next day or so--but on the southern Atlantic coast, nowhere near us. My prediction for hurricane season 2014: nothing much to worry about. I hope I am right.
My newly overhauled, fourteen-year-old lawn tractor is being pushed to its utmost. Only a week after its first job since the repairs, it has to cut the same acreage all over again, so rapidly is the grass growing. Not only that, but I take it out to the meadow by the pond, an acre and half that hasn't been mowed in perhaps a full year. The $680 repair bill is proving its value, and the old boy tackles the job with power to spare.
[title type="h5"]Dickey's Barbecue Pit. Covington: 69292 LA21. 985-871-2225. [/title]
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[title type="h4"]Monday, June 30, 2014.
Acme For Red Beans And Hot Sausage.[/title]
It's Fourth of July week, which somehow makes today feel like a Friday. That misapprehension will continue until it actually is Friday--on July 4. Then it will feel like Sunday, but followed by Saturday, which makes the day before feel like Friday, when finally reality shows itself.
To convince myself that it's really Monday, Mary Leigh and I have supper at the Acme Oyster House, for the first time in many weeks. We hold to our traditions: grilled oysters first, followed by red beans and rice with hot sausage for me, and a wedge salad for her. Everything is as it it should be.
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[title type="h5"]Tuesday, July 1, 2014.
Café B's Crabmeat Festival, At Regular Prices.[/title]
Happy New Half-Year! If we wanted to be sticklers about this, we'd note that the second half of the year doesn't really begin until noon on Thursday. But the Fourth of July holiday already has us disoriented enough.
The Round Table Radio Show is unusually varied and entertaining. The first guests to arrive are the Victory Belles, a trio of comely young women who sing songs from the 1940s. This is the third time I've encountered them in a week. They harmonized at the Roosevelt Hotel's big birthday bash last Thursday, then showed up for Boomers And Beyond last Saturday. Today, they perform a few songs to promote their show this weekend at Rivertown. They certainly picked the perfect weekend for that. Their music is as red-white-and-blue as can be imagined.
Next to show up were Emmett Dufresne and Fred Rittler. Emmett is an independent butcher with his own shop on Jefferson Highway in Elmwood. Fred Rittler manages Bassil's Ace Hardware in Metairie, whose specialty is outdoor grills. He sold me my first (and probably my last, so solid is that pit) Big Green Egg. Emmett and Fred don't know one another, but their comments are dovetail well on a program about barbecue on the Fourth of July.
Emmett brought some of his house-made sausages, of which the two best sounded unlikely. One was a sausage made with pork abd barbecue shrimp. The other is a boudin with crawfish. In just the time it took him to walk into the studio and walk back out, my colleague Spud McConnell ate four of these.
Most Charming Guest honors go to Ashley Hansen. She is the granddaughter of Ernest and Mary Hansen, the founders (in 1938) of Hansen's Sno-Bliz--generally conceded to be the best sno-ball stand in New Orleans. Ernest always said that he was so in love with Mary that he couldn't imagine living without her. True to that, he passed away only days after Mary did, right after Katrina. They were both in their nineties.
Ashley is as delightful and dedicated as her grandparents. She has had a lot of fun rolling out new flavors since taking the old stand on Tchoupitoulas at Bordeaux a couple of decades ago. Is it really that long?
My Marys are south of the lake today, therefore ordaining dinner with me. I suggest Café B. Ralph Brennan's bistro on Metairie Road has been on a hot streak with me in recent years. I am lured by a special crabmeat menu. But it's not a summer special (read discounted). Just a a concentration on crabmeat, with quite a few more crab dishes than usual.
We sampled several of these. Marinated crab fingers came in a sharp little salad with a mellow sauce something like a white remoulade. Crabmeat beignets were the best deal of the evening, with five of the fried, cornmeal-coated spheroids served very hot and with enough crabmeat under the batter to be seriously delicious. A plate of Creole tomatoes with crabmeat was in little pieces--including the crabmeat. A bit ungenerous for the price, I thought, but I pushed that out of my head, While I was doing that, Mary Ann pulled the plate in front of her and did it in before I got a good taste of it.
[caption id="attachment_42943" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Crabmeat beignets.[/caption]
Mary Leigh ate a wedge salad about which she was lukewarm. My main was a somewhat over-fried soft-shell crab served with an excellent crabmeat risotto. Again, I thought the price was a little out of control at $29.
[caption id="attachment_42944" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Crabmeat and tomatoes.[/caption]
The waiter is the same guy who deftly handled my table last year at this time. He suggested that I begin the evening with a mango Negroni. I never heard those two words together before. And it's only a few years since few bartenders knew what a Negroni is, let alone doing takes on it. This was not just a good drink but a double.
I wrap up dinner with a peach pie, which looked more like a muffin but had all the flavor you expect from fresh peaches this time of year.
This was a slow night for Café B. Not many diners were there, but I write that off to its being a Tuesday in Fourth of July week. A lot of restaurants are taking the week off.
On the other hand, we've heard the lament among Ralph's top managers that they're having trouble pulling together the kind of staff they will need to open the grand restaurant in the old Brennan's location on Royal Street. I'm sure that's getting a lot of attention from Ralph's well-oiled management machine. And taking some away from his established restaurants.
[title type="h5"]Café B. Old Metairie: 2700 Metairie Road. 504-934-4700.[/title]
Written by Tom Fitzmorris July 08, 2014 13:01 in
