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strong>Saturday, July 9, 2016.
A Second Taste Of Bacobar.
The heat is relentless. We have felt the temperature rise above 100 degrees a few times, and approach that mark even more often. Too intense for grass cutting or my afternoon walk. Instead, I spend the entire day--other than the two hours I'm on WWL--fixing the NOMenu mailing lists. Somehow, a bunch of my paid subscribers started also getting the free Red Bean edition. Newsletters are one of those things for which an extra edition adds less than nothing to the value.
Mary Ann and I go for dinner to the hip new Covington restaurant Baco Bar (or is it Bacobar? or Bac 'O bar? or, as the check says, bacobar? What I know is that they took over the former Jerk's Island Grill, whose menu was imaginative but hard for the brain to categorize--a condition that is death to all but the very best restaurants. The new management--who come from the innovative center of the local restaurant solar system--Besh, Brennan, Emeril and the like--made only minimal changes to the spacious, cool interior.
The menu, like that of its predecessor, is not easy to dope out. The first word in the name is supposed to make you think of tacos. The "bar" part is there to make you think about cocktails, wine, or beer. I tried the former, asking for a Negroni. That's one of my two or three favorite drinks. Because of its growing popularity. it still has not washed over every bartender, so it's a good test of a bar's ability. I don't know how many people in Covington like Negronis, but if Baco Bar wants to go after them, their mixologists need a refresher course.
[caption id="attachment_52159" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Cheese fries at Bacobar.[/caption]
MA asks for the cheese fries while we work on the remainder of the order. The cheese fries also keep her in mind of our daughter Mary Leigh, who will arrive in town tomorrow for a week-long stay. ML loves cheese fries. Baco Bar is one of the many restaurants that tried to do fresh-cut fried potatoes as its standard serving, but found the effort required to be too great. What comes out is a small black-iron skillet with fries, cheese, and a few mild pickled vegetables and herbs. This is nominated on the menu under the work "kimchee." That, I would say, is a misnomer, but not a big problem. We kill the fries fast enough.
[caption id="attachment_52157" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Bacobar's oysters.[/caption]
Mary Ann's main is a row of fried oysters with a spicy but minimal sauce. It's intended as an appetizer, but what with our devouring of the fries, we don't need much more to eat. Certainly not on MA's alleged diet.
[caption id="attachment_52158" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Poke (poe-kay) salad.[/caption]
The waiter touts me on the poke--pronounced "poe-kay, the Hawaiian salad of chopped raw fish (tuna in this case) with various cool vegetables. These include baby salad greens, pickled red onion rings, orange sections, and cubes of avocado, all on puffed-up tortillas. This dish captures the essence of the kitchen, I'd say, with its freshness, spicy flavors, and rawness. It reminds me of some of the dishes at Mizado on Metairie Road.
[caption id="attachment_52156" align="alignnone" width="480"]
A variation on tiramisu.[/caption]
What comes of this collection of unlikely plate-mates is a dinner that's more fun than any other one-word description. The crowd is young, and the premises and servers have an engaging style. But I still don't know how exactly I can relate the experience to anyone asking me about it. I think it may have made it onto the Cool Water Ranch Gang's North Shore B list. Which is a good thing. (Better than Tchoupstix or Chimes, not as good as Thai Chili or Zea.) On the other hand, it's still rather new.
On our way back, we see that Maribo is open. It's on Lee Lane a block off Boston Street in old Covington, in a buiding that has hosted at least five previous restaurants. (The most recent was another attempt to relaunch the twice-closed steak house Boule Bistro.) The building has undergone a major renovation, and the new look is good enough that we've kept our eyes on it.
It is full of customers tonight. Mary Ann runs in to learn that Maribo had a soft opening, but now is open for real. Much to soon to check it out, of course--although after BacoBar it might not seem to much in vogue. In a few days, the Marys will conspire to dine at Maribo without letting me know.
Bacobar. Covington: 70437 Highway 21
.985-893-2450.
Cheese fries at Bacobar.[/caption]
MA asks for the cheese fries while we work on the remainder of the order. The cheese fries also keep her in mind of our daughter Mary Leigh, who will arrive in town tomorrow for a week-long stay. ML loves cheese fries. Baco Bar is one of the many restaurants that tried to do fresh-cut fried potatoes as its standard serving, but found the effort required to be too great. What comes out is a small black-iron skillet with fries, cheese, and a few mild pickled vegetables and herbs. This is nominated on the menu under the work "kimchee." That, I would say, is a misnomer, but not a big problem. We kill the fries fast enough.
[caption id="attachment_52157" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Bacobar's oysters.[/caption]
Mary Ann's main is a row of fried oysters with a spicy but minimal sauce. It's intended as an appetizer, but what with our devouring of the fries, we don't need much more to eat. Certainly not on MA's alleged diet.
[caption id="attachment_52158" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Poke (poe-kay) salad.[/caption]
The waiter touts me on the poke--pronounced "poe-kay, the Hawaiian salad of chopped raw fish (tuna in this case) with various cool vegetables. These include baby salad greens, pickled red onion rings, orange sections, and cubes of avocado, all on puffed-up tortillas. This dish captures the essence of the kitchen, I'd say, with its freshness, spicy flavors, and rawness. It reminds me of some of the dishes at Mizado on Metairie Road.
[caption id="attachment_52156" align="alignnone" width="480"]
A variation on tiramisu.[/caption]
What comes of this collection of unlikely plate-mates is a dinner that's more fun than any other one-word description. The crowd is young, and the premises and servers have an engaging style. But I still don't know how exactly I can relate the experience to anyone asking me about it. I think it may have made it onto the Cool Water Ranch Gang's North Shore B list. Which is a good thing. (Better than Tchoupstix or Chimes, not as good as Thai Chili or Zea.) On the other hand, it's still rather new.
On our way back, we see that Maribo is open. It's on Lee Lane a block off Boston Street in old Covington, in a buiding that has hosted at least five previous restaurants. (The most recent was another attempt to relaunch the twice-closed steak house Boule Bistro.) The building has undergone a major renovation, and the new look is good enough that we've kept our eyes on it.
It is full of customers tonight. Mary Ann runs in to learn that Maribo had a soft opening, but now is open for real. Much to soon to check it out, of course--although after BacoBar it might not seem to much in vogue. In a few days, the Marys will conspire to dine at Maribo without letting me know.
