[title type="h5"]Friday, September 12, 2014.
Tableau Revisited.[/title]
Mary Ann has an insatiable desire for good parking spaces. Her results are unaccountably good. When I call her the Parking Witch, I'm only kidding a little. She has a way of finding legal parking spaces laughably close to the front door of wherever she is heading. Including inside the French Quarter, to which we are headed tonight.
I think I have a rational explanation for her good luck. She perseveres much longer than is rationally called for. Tonight's campaign is a case in point. By the time she finally finds a spot, I would have parked six or seven times. We pass several perfectly good spaces within three blocks of our destination. Those are open because it's not quite six o'clock, when many freight zones become legal for all. But she thinks she can do better. That winds up putting us three blocks farther away. En route, we are pulled over by a State Trooper because MA's car doesn't have a valid license sticker. (She lost the form some weeks ago.)
So, why is she driving the car? It's because I go too slow, she says, and I give up too easily.
[caption id="attachment_43868" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Main dining room at Tableau.[/caption]
Our destination is Tableau, Dickie Brennan's new restaurant on the corner of Chartres and St. Peter. It is in part of the building that housed Le Petit Theatre de Vieux Carre du Vieux Carre for over ninety years.
The Little Theatre (its other name) almost experienced permanent curtains a couple of years ago. Disaster was averted when Dickie Brennan's restaurant group took over a large part of Le Petit's building. It is old and difficult to maintain, and much larger than Le Petit really needs.
[caption id="attachment_43867" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Courtyard at Tableau.[/caption]
Tableau opened to diners early last year, to a great deal of celebration. Not only did Le Petit get back to work, but the restaurant is handsome beyond all expectations. Although far from identical, Tableau reminds me a lot of the old Brennan's on Royal Street (which, we all know, will come back to life in a couple of months, probably with a different look).
The first dinner we had at Tableau, some eight months ago, was so far off the standards we expect from Dickie and company that I wrote a minimal report in this space, and vowed to wait it out. Even Mary Ann was put off. And she likes beautiful restaurants and outdoor dining. We were seated on a balcony that night, overlooking Jackson Square. But that couldn't make up for the food and service problems that ran through almost every course.
[caption id="attachment_43869" align="alignnone" width="480"]
The first-floor bar at Tableau.[/caption]
I get almost entirely good reports about Tableau from readers and listeners these days, and we think it ready for another look. It was a good night for that. It had rained a good bit this afternoon, and the French Quarter felt and smelled fresh. Two wedding parties were celebrating at Tableau, and their mere presence added a lively air.
We were there without reservations (that's what happens when you make up your mind right before going out). The hostess attributed human emotions to a deuce table in the combination bar and dining room. I could feel her thinking, "Gee, we never use this little table in the middle of traffic. I feel sorry for it. I'll give it to these people."
Not so bad a table, really. But the room to the left of the funny entrance door (it looks like an afterthought) was clearly the place to be, with its open kitchen and a view into a surprisingly green courtyard.
[caption id="attachment_43866" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Crepe of the day, with tomato meat loaf (!?).[/caption]
The food is much better than last time. We begin with the crepe special, with "tomato meat loaf." Huh? The crepe is folded against the plate, and the other ingredients are piled on top of it. It is in a way a variation on pasta. (The raw materials of pasta and crepes are almost identical.)
[caption id="attachment_43865" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Oysters Choron.[/caption]
Mary Ann has a better dish. Oysters Choron are fried bivalves on the small side (that's mostly what's out there this time of year), served with bearnaise to which a bit of tomato is added. The sauce was very popular in the 1980s, and very good--which makes me wonder why I haven't run into it in twenty-five years.
I have a cup of turtle soup--the time-honored formula we all know from Commander's Palace, available in every single one of the Brennan restaurants. (Although I always thought that the version at Brennan's on Royal Street--quite different--was better. I hope Ralph Brennan brings it back.)
[caption id="attachment_43863" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Steak frites at Tableau.[/caption]
Mary Ann gets steak with frites for the entree. It is very good, particularly the hand-cut, fresh fries. You can always get MA with something like that.
[caption id="attachment_43864" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Chicken Tableau. . . or perhaps, Pontalba?[/caption]
I am intrigued by an entree called chicken Tableau. It's half of a roasted chicken (a third, really, but plenty enough), surrounded with white potatoes a little too big to be called fingerlings, and not quite enough bearnaise sauce. I poke around in it looking for any evidence of ham, which would make this a genuine chicken Pontalba, a classic dish from the Brennans' earliest years in the business. It's possibly the best fancy Creole-French chicken dish of them all, and a dish I love. And it is indeed good, except for the too-chunky potatoes. Close, but not exactly a Pontalba. I think it ought to be, given the fact that the Pontalba is right across the street.
[caption id="attachment_43862" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Tarte a la Bouille.[/caption]
I have the sole dessert at our table, tart a la bouille. This is an old Cajun idea that came back into prominence a few years ago. I don't know how it got that name. It's essentially a caramel custard served in a pie shell. Works for my palate.
We walk around the premises, taking pictures, and looking for anyone we know. I prefer not being known in restaurants, but that happens so seldom that it comes as a surprise when it does. Near as I can tell, not one person among the Tableau staff recognizes me. Either that, or they act as if they don't. If that explains what the waitress told us about the mostly-traditional food here, she ought to audition for a part in the next play next door.
[title type="h5"]Tableau. French Quarter: 616 St. Peter St. 504-934-3463. [/title]
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[title type="h5"]
Saturday, September 13, 2014.
Keith Young Keeps Doing It.[/title]
My Saturday radio session was accosted by a football game and pared back to one hour. But we have yet to be completely pre-empted this year so far.
I take a week off cutting grass, and instead go ahead with a four-lap, forty-five minute walk around the grounds. In the wooded portion of my trail, the cicadas are almost deafeningly loud. The poison ivy is beginning to show fall colors. In Fern Mini-Meadow, the namesake plants are starting to fade. I encounter about a half-dozen bolete mushrooms, which would have been edible if the flies and beetles hadn't arrived first.
[caption id="attachment_26651" align="alignnone" width="399"]
Keith Young's Steak House.[/caption]
When MA asks about dinner, I propose Keith Young's Steak House. This gets Mary Ann right between the eyes, and surprises me. We have eaten more than usual this week. That feast at Pardo's three days ago is still being felt. But it's hard to turn down Keith's fine work, so here we are, with our entire foursome.
New item on the menu (I think): turtle soup. Even though I had it yesterday at Tableau, I can't resist going for it again. The server brings it out with a stainless cream pitcher with a generous shot of sherry. Adding sherry to turtle soup in the pot on the stove in the kitchen is a great idea, but not at the table. The alcohol is the problem. However, drinking a shot of sherry with the soup is very good. That's counter-intuitive, but it is true, as I prove once again here and now.
[caption id="attachment_23449" align="alignnone" width="400"]
Strip sirloin. [/caption]
Neither of my last two meals at Keith Young's involved steaks. That took some willpower. I give myself a break and ask for my unambiguously favorite entree here: a strip sirloin ("closely trimmed," says the menu, correctly), medium rare and seared, with sizzling butter on a hot plate.
"I knew you must be here when I saw that order come up," Keith says, when he comes out to say hello and spread his good mood around. (His wife Linda is even better at that job.) This is a restaurant we love.
[caption id="attachment_38442" align="alignnone" width="222"]
Potatoes au gratin.[/caption]
The twenty-somethings and MA split two filets. Before they devour, the girls stop just short of worshiping the filets, and say that this is what a filet mignon should always look and taste like. ML officially had no entree, makeing a meal from a wedge salad and an order of Keith's classy potatoes au gratin. The Boy eats heartily, as appropriate for a guy working out with weights to get ready for an Army physical in four months
I have green beans on the side, one of the options other than potatoes, creamed spinach and the like. I am seeing a lot of green beans used this way lately. How did that get started? Have I brought up this matter before? Or did I just mention it on the radio? I may work in too many media.
I continue to be appreciative of the prices here. Keith is keeping most of the steaks under $30, at a time when beef prices are skyrocketing and comparable steak houses are in the $40s and higher for their best beef. If you want to spend a lot of money here, they have Australian Kobe beef for $65. I like the American cow better.
[title type="h5"]Keith Young's Steak House. Madisonville: 165 LA 21. 985-845-9940. [/title]
Written by Tom Fitzmorris September 22, 2014 12:01 in
