[title type="h5"]
Day Ten After The Storm
Thursday, September 8, 2005[/title]
I cannot believe the number of dislocated New Orleans people who have written asking me for restaurant and cooking advice. I've already had two requests for the Ping-Pong recipe, and many people want to know about the restaurants of Dallas, Houston, or wherever they've landed. This tells me that even in the depth of this disaster, people are thinking about how it will be when they get back to normal. That is a very good thing.
I have been actively seeking information from every restaurateur I can, but have made contact with very few. Here are some new ones:
Brigtsen's Not Moving To Shreveport. According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Frank Brigtsen has escaped the city safely, and is now considering reopening--not in New Orleans, but in Shreveport. Frank contacted me this morning and reports that his restaurant is in good shape and so is his home, and that he expects to reopen as soon as it's possible to do so. Good news.
Galatoire's To Open In Baton Rouge. That sounds like out of one of my April Fool restaurant reviews, doesn't it? But it appears to be true. Although I have not been able to contact anyone from Galatoire's directly, I hear from a very well-connected source that the staff of Galatoire's will take over a Baton Rouge restaurant temporarily, serving the same menu. It makes a lot of sense. Many of their customers are now in Red Stick, and this will allow the restaurant to keep its staff together.
Sam Urrate and Bruning's. Sam is the fifth-generation owner of Bruning's, which was badly damaged by Hurricane Georges in 1998, and never made it back into its original quarters. He wrote me this morning to say--as we already knew from the satellite photos--that truly nothing is left on West End Park but pilings. He added that he has not made any plans yet, but that he hopes to revive Bruning's, there or somewhere else in the city. Bruning's opened in 1859, and would be a great loss. I know most Orleanians are pulling for it to return.
DC Chefs Make Poor Boys For The Cause. Acadiana Restaurant, a Louisiana-style fish house opening in a few days in Washington, DC, will be serving a Poor Boy Fundraising Dinner on September 12, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., at 901 New York Avenue, NW. It’s being done by some of the best chefs there, including Jeff Tunks, who was the fantastic chef at the Windsor Court Hotel a few years ago. (He now owns three restaurants in DC.)
You get a brown bag carry-out poor boy meal: a roast beef with a side of shrimp remoulade for a donation starting at $25. Former Orleanian Simone Rathlé is handling the information. All proceeds from this fundraiser will be given to the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation (established by Governor Kathleen Blanco).
A Great Website for New Orleans Foodies. The Southern Foodways Alliance, based at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, is keeping track of New Orleans chefs and other food people. It also has news of fund-raising events to help the recovery, and job postings for New Orleans chefs looking for work. Go to http://www.southernfoodways.com/.
[title type="h5"]Day Twenty-Two After The Storm
Tuesday, September 20, 2005[/title]
Who Goes First? In the next day or two, the Brennan family (not including the part that runs Brennan's on Royal Street, of course) plans to meet in Houston to discuss the timetable for the reopening of their restaurants. What they decide will carry a lot of weight, not only with other restaurateurs, but also with the rest of the business community.
It's going to be a matter of who goes first for a lot of businesses. Nobody wants to open, then to find neither employees to run the place nor customers. It's going to be tough enough as it is.
But it seems that the return to New Orleans will have to wait awhile anyway. The approach of Hurricane Rita (I know September is a month with an "R", but this is ridiculous) has made Mayor Nagin change his mind about opening the city. The FEMA guys were telling him it was a bad idea anyway, and that the city is not safe. Whether that's true or not, what will one do other than check out the premises for damage? There's still a lot of water in a lot of the city.
Seafood is Okay. I had a long conversation with wholesale seafood distributor Harlon Pearce. His business, LA Fish, may have lost as much as a million dollars' worth of product in the weeks without power for the freezers. Nevertheless, he is up and running.
"The thing we have to let people know is that there's nothing wrong with our fish and shellfish," he says. "It's been checked by the state agencies, and it's all fine. The shrimpers are really busy, and even the oyster beds are opening one by one." He says that with all the news about the toxicity of the city itself, many people have assumed all the fish in the sea is also bad. Not so. When the restaurants get ready to go, the fish will be there for them to serve. And he's already selling a lot of it on the North Shore.
North Shore Restaurants Packed, Traffic Bad. Harlon, who lives on the North Shore, told me also of massive traffic jams on the North Shore, whose population has ballooned the same way Baton Rouge's has. "We got caught in traffic on Lonesome Road, of all place," he said. "Copeland's was packed. Dakota had a line outside. Every restaurant over there is very busy."
Drago's Kitchen Is Up And Running. The great oyster restaurant is not really open for business, but the kitchen has been cooking and serving food to relief workers and others, free. This gives us two bits of good news. First, Drago's is okay, will reopen, and is keeping its people busy. Second, the great generosity of the Cvitanovich family in a pinch is as solid as ever. Thank you, Drago, Klara, Tommy, and Gerry!
Bella Luna Coming Back. Chef Horst Pfiefer is cooking and operating his kitchen at The Foundry, his catering facility in the Warehouse District. Bella Luna, with its wide exposure to the river and the winds that must have blown across it, was damaged, but not beyond recovery. The restaurant is beginning to accept deliveries from purveyors already, although there's no reopening date sent.
Windsor Court Will Reopen November 1. That's the official word from the hotel. It sustained some damage and even some looting, but the luxurious hotel promises to have everything sparkling and operational for a November 1 relaunch. This is the first definite date for reopening I've had from any restaurant. Congratulations!
Arnaud's People, Get In Touch! The entire Casbarian family is well and anxious to return to New Orleans and reopen Arnaud's as quickly as possible. Following cleanup and get-ready activities, they will probably first open Remoulade, the restaurant's cafe. In the meantime employees are encouraged to contact the restaurant.
Washington, DC Eating Report. I can't say that I've been eating high on the hog around here--I have too much work to do. But what I've seen of the DC restaurant community is not thrilling. Chains of all sizes dominate the scene with expensive gimmicks. The number of restaurants is incredible--shopping malls have maybe a half-dozen places each, and not in food courts, either.
We have dined in a couple of New Orleans-style places. A few days ago we tried the New Orleans Bistro, but only after I ascertained that there was really someone there from New Orleans (my test question: "Do you know who Tom Fitzmorris is?"). The chicken gumbo was good; the seafood gumbo was, too, but it didn't taste like gumbo. The barbecue shrimp had a sweet sauce. The oyster-artichoke casserole had way too much butter, but was otherwise tasty. Jude ate a pair of tournedos with two different spicy sauces; that was also fine.
Today Mary Ann and I ate at the French Quarter Cafe in a mall in Germantown, in the western suburbs. The red beans and rice were right on target, but the oysters for the fried platter were enormous Pacific oysters that didn't fry very well. But their hearts are in the right place.
The Cookbook Is Done. I'm flattered by all the people who've written asking where I've been. During the last week, I hunkered down and finished my cookbook, whose title will be New Orleans Food: As It Was, And Will Be Again. I'm also pleased to say that I have encouraging interest from a publisher, and the book may appear rather soon. I still intend to donate most of the profits to the recovery.
