Tuesday, June 14, 2016.
Three Appetizers @ Ralph's On The Park.
The direction of my driving changes twice before I get decisive about it and steer first to the left, then to the right, off the I-10 and onto South Carrollton. Which, after six blocks, becomes North Carrollton. (Not even the streets seem to know where to go.)
Now I turn left onto City Park Avenue, on which I pass Ralph's on the Park. I make a U-turn towards Bayou St. John, pass the restaurant again, make another U-turn, and park. I cross the street, then return to my car to grab an umbrella. It has been raining hard all day. It seems to have stopped, but who really knows? I almost get back into the car and drive away, but then I remember that Ralph's is running its summertime three appetizers and a glass of wine for $33. Finally, my mind is made up, and I enter the restaurant.
A waitress guides me into the bar, my preferred dining spot at Ralph's. The windows that would ordinarily give onto the live oaks of City Park instead are fogged over with the humid New Orleans summertime air. The waitress brings over the menu and I start shopping it. Almost everything on it appeals to me.
[caption id="attachment_51834" align="alignnone" width="320"]
Charlie Miller[/caption]
Now a gentleman in a white suit sits down at the piano in the bar's corner, right next to my table, which is now the best table in the house. It's Charlie Miller, who in the time I am here will play Great American Songbook tunes. He will tell me that he is seventy-eight, and that music went to hell starting in World War I, and finally after the Beatles arrived. He has numerous other thoughts on many subjects. I am mostly interested in his music, which is also my music. He plays a wide range very well. He lets me sing a couple of songs with him. It's already become a fine evening.
As I've said, the 3Apps+Wine=$33 is a very appealing formula. My order is as follows:
1. A bowl of turtle soup, made with the Brennans' widespread recipe. Or so they say. I find that the turtle soup is different in every Brennan restaurant, but about equally good as the others . This one has a lighter-than-average roux and a thinner broth. But I'm glad to begin with it.
[caption id="attachment_51832" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Agnolotti with a few other tasty things, an exquisite vegetarian dish at Ralph's on the Park.[/caption]
B. Agnolotti has many variations, too. But it's almost always a take on ravioli, stuffed more often than not with cheese. Ricotta in this case. Those noodles are tossed with thin but wide strips of various squashes, mushrooms, and brown butter. It's actually a vegetatian fdish, straight off that part of the menu. I find it so delicious that yesterday I added it to NOMenu's list of 500 Best Restaurant Dishes.
[caption id="attachment_51833" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Sopes filled with beef, mole, and more than a few other sharp tastes. [/caption]
iii. Sopes are among the least common of Mexican tortilla-based dishes. The base is what looks like a tiny straight-sided dish made from shaped and fried masa. It's filled with the same kinds of things you'd find in an enchilada or a empanada. In this case, the topping is made with beef and (be still my heart!) mole poblano.
I have now run out of appetizers on the $33 deal. I tell the server that I would probably order a fourth starter, but I am very much ready to stop. I let the dessert menu take over. It offers homemade vanilla ice cream with chocolate-mint nuggets. Very tasty.
Even leaving out the spectacular price bargain, this is a wonderful dinner. I am thinking (but I'm not ready to say) that it's a better meal than the one I had at Commander's three days ago.
The dinner is only marred by a table of four people, a table away from me, in which one of the two menu seems incapable of speaking a sentence without including the F-word, at a volume loud enough to pull quantas of pleasure from the repast. A man at another nearby table tips Charlie enough that he continues playing for another fifteen minutes. The man asks for the songs of Edith Piaf. Charlie improvises as he sings in pigeon French. He gets away with it.
After those folks leave, Charlie tells me that he's really a trumpeter, but he likes to play piano, too. He sounds very experienced. He appears at Ralph's mostly as a fill-in for other musicians. I have never quite doped out Ralph's music schedule, which I think is more in the early than late evening. But I hope I hear Charlie again sometime soon.
The three appetizers, glass of wine for $33 does on at Ralph's through the whole summer. It is one of the two or three best summer specials that have begun sprouting from menus around town.
Ralph's On The Park. City Park Area: 900 City Park Ave. 504-488-1000.
Charlie Miller[/caption]
Now a gentleman in a white suit sits down at the piano in the bar's corner, right next to my table, which is now the best table in the house. It's Charlie Miller, who in the time I am here will play Great American Songbook tunes. He will tell me that he is seventy-eight, and that music went to hell starting in World War I, and finally after the Beatles arrived. He has numerous other thoughts on many subjects. I am mostly interested in his music, which is also my music. He plays a wide range very well. He lets me sing a couple of songs with him. It's already become a fine evening.
As I've said, the 3Apps+Wine=$33 is a very appealing formula. My order is as follows:
1. A bowl of turtle soup, made with the Brennans' widespread recipe. Or so they say. I find that the turtle soup is different in every Brennan restaurant, but about equally good as the others . This one has a lighter-than-average roux and a thinner broth. But I'm glad to begin with it.
[caption id="attachment_51832" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Agnolotti with a few other tasty things, an exquisite vegetarian dish at Ralph's on the Park.[/caption]
B. Agnolotti has many variations, too. But it's almost always a take on ravioli, stuffed more often than not with cheese. Ricotta in this case. Those noodles are tossed with thin but wide strips of various squashes, mushrooms, and brown butter. It's actually a vegetatian fdish, straight off that part of the menu. I find it so delicious that yesterday I added it to NOMenu's list of 500 Best Restaurant Dishes.
[caption id="attachment_51833" align="alignnone" width="480"]
Sopes filled with beef, mole, and more than a few other sharp tastes. [/caption]
iii. Sopes are among the least common of Mexican tortilla-based dishes. The base is what looks like a tiny straight-sided dish made from shaped and fried masa. It's filled with the same kinds of things you'd find in an enchilada or a empanada. In this case, the topping is made with beef and (be still my heart!) mole poblano.
I have now run out of appetizers on the $33 deal. I tell the server that I would probably order a fourth starter, but I am very much ready to stop. I let the dessert menu take over. It offers homemade vanilla ice cream with chocolate-mint nuggets. Very tasty.
Even leaving out the spectacular price bargain, this is a wonderful dinner. I am thinking (but I'm not ready to say) that it's a better meal than the one I had at Commander's three days ago.
The dinner is only marred by a table of four people, a table away from me, in which one of the two menu seems incapable of speaking a sentence without including the F-word, at a volume loud enough to pull quantas of pleasure from the repast. A man at another nearby table tips Charlie enough that he continues playing for another fifteen minutes. The man asks for the songs of Edith Piaf. Charlie improvises as he sings in pigeon French. He gets away with it.
After those folks leave, Charlie tells me that he's really a trumpeter, but he likes to play piano, too. He sounds very experienced. He appears at Ralph's mostly as a fill-in for other musicians. I have never quite doped out Ralph's music schedule, which I think is more in the early than late evening. But I hope I hear Charlie again sometime soon.
The three appetizers, glass of wine for $33 does on at Ralph's through the whole summer. It is one of the two or three best summer specials that have begun sprouting from menus around town.
