Tuesday, May 2, 2017.
Serious Bread.
Mary Ann is wild about the bread they make at Bellegarde Bakery, on Toledano Street where the Broadmoor location of Gambino's used to be. Graison Gill is the head baker and boss. He and his bakers make magnificent loaves of bread in a style that reminds me in flavor but not shape of the dark, thick-crusted cap bread that was widely served around New Orleans in the 1950s into the 1970s. It's also a lot like the similar bread that one eats everywhere in Italy, and makes one of the best reasons to visit the boot. Never eaten cold, it's a style of bread I love to find, but rarely do.
Graison says that his flour is house-milled. I don't know of any other bakery that does that. I asked him about rumors I'm hearing about breads made of heirloom varieties of wheat and yeasts by some bakeries around the country. He says that this is something he is exploring. And that his is a bakery serving mostly restaurants and other wholesale customers. He advances the cause of new and unusual breads, but has has a lot of bread to make every day. Starting, as bakers always seem to, at four thirty in the morning.
The puzzle in our conversation came when Graison referred to one of his breads to have a "cardboard" aroma. I never did get my head around that, but it's clear that whatever he's referring to is something that I registered as a good thing. I tried to get callers to advance a new word for the reference to wet cardboard.
Mary Ann orders me to bring home as many loaves of Bellegarde bread as Graison wanted to give us. I'm all in for what Graison and Bellegarde are laying down for us. Especially those little breads Bellegarde makes for Broussard's. They look like the heads of wheat plants. Charming. MA loves them, anyway.
The Marys call and ask me to dinner. I advance the idea of having our supper at Maypop, a fascinating restaurant created by Michael Gulotta, the owner of MoPho and Tana, and before that the chef of Restaurant August. MA and I were here a few weeks ago and I found the menu fascinating. It's a fusion place referring to Southeast Asia, Indonesia (I'm guessing), and America. Cool-looking space, with high ceilings and a style that MA--who loves swell venues--found pleasant.
As was the case the first time we were here, the menu consisted of a dozen dishes, categorized into Appetizers, Noodles, and Entrees. The girls ate nothing, but they cruised over to the tables of some friends who happened to be there. MA came back with the report that the entrees were woefully smaller than the $26-$35 prices seemed to call for. That was her opinion last time, too, when a plate of beef brisket with blue cheese and mushrooms did seem to be a little light.
But I loved the food my first time here (charred oyster on bucatini with house-made bacon). And the red bean calamarata (the neologism describes is somehow supposed to remind one of squid, the server told me. I didn't see the resemblance, but I loved the dish. Here was an intensely flavorful sauce made from something to which we usually apply the same Monday dish. Never had anything quite like it before. The pepper level was up there, as were the flavors of cured hog jowls and something the menu called andouille Bolognese. A little pasta, a little little feta. Very good, and a good deal at $19.
We finish up with house-made gelato in some peculiar flavors. The controversial one was ginger, which came across with a spicy-hot quality that I liked but the girls didn't.
We all agreed that the server was delightful, a tall, slender young woman with an aura of style and a full understanding of the food and the general concept--although she still could laugh with me. I was surprised when I got up for comparative reasons to find that I am a shade taller than she is.
Maypop. CBD: 611 O’Keefe Ave. 504-518-6345.
