Saturday, September 23, 2017. The New Owners Of La Provence. A one-hour radio show is all I'll get today and tomorrow. It's about football games now. Which is okay with me. But what's for lunch on a day like this? Mary Ann says that I get one choice as to where we will go out to eat this week, starting tonight. "La Provence," I tell her, not really expecting her to go along with that. But she does. Although the new owner has only been in place a few months, I'm hearing consistently good reports, so I don't consider it a big risk for me to praise the place.
We have a reservation, but for a moment the young woman at the desk can't find it. That's resolved right away, and we get a great table in the sort of bower off the to left, near the fireplace. (Which is certainly not active in this sweltering season, regardless of the passage of the fall equinox.)
An amuse-bouche of the house's baked oysters is a perfect start. They are not exactly what I remember as the Oysters Oooh-La-La, but close enough with garlic, butter, bread crumbs, and the other familiar ingredients for that scrumptiousness. Of course, we also plow through two ramekins of the restaurant's famous chicken liver pâté. Wouldn't be La Provence without that.
[caption id="attachment_20819" align="alignright" width="400"]
Pate and croutons at La Provence.[/caption]
MA has a butter-lettuce salad with a buttermilk dressing. I mention that buttermilk salad dressing is the same thing as Ranch dressing, but nobody much cares. I have a beet salad, the vegetables cut into large dice, showing off many colors. Very good.
Fish for the entrees, both of them fresh and a little uncommon. MA has sea bass, a very good specimen which nevertheless leaves her dubious. But MA's criteria for all seafoods are very high. It tasted great to me. On the other hand, it's not as good as my entree, a very handsome slab of swordfish, fresh with its crusty stripes from the grill. Very, very good. The side for both of us is beluga lentils. I always wondered why this bears that name, but I know now. The beans are very small. Not as small as the namesake caviar, but I get the reference. And the beans are very good for their flavors, too.
Dessert is a trio of ice creams and sorbets, which are just fine. And then we meet the new owner, Eric Hunter. From the interview we had with me on the radio some weeks ago, I know that he is a restaurateur from Texas who fell in love with La Provence. When he learned that John Besh might want to sell the place, Eric jumped on the opportunity. He and his wife live in the restaurant and are playing it for all it's worth.
Based on this dinner, I'd say there's no reason to stay away. And only one drawback for me personally. My favorite time to dine at La Provence was Sunday evening. At least for now, they open for brunch and wrap things up by four in the afternoon. Maybe Ronnie Kole (another longtime fan of La Provence) and I can talk them into bringing Sunday supper back.
La Provence. Lacombe: 25020 US 190. 985-626-7662.
Written by Tom Fitzmorris September 26, 2017 16:06 in
