We’ve been talking a lot about Ed McIntyre lately on The Food Show. He’s come up in several ways, whether it was his short-lived foray into gourmet burgers at Cheeseburger Eddie’s (in the space that is now La Tia Cantina) or his acquisition of the old Bozo’s to begin his Mr. Ed’s Oyster Bar & Fish House chain. But it all started with Mr. Ed’s Seafood & Italian House on Live Oak in Metairie.
Mostly we’ve talked about the Mr. Ed’s in Kenner, a place I have lately been curious about. So after picking up the car after service in Kenner, we headed to Mr. Ed’s Seafood & Italian House.
I remember the place before it in this space, Calas Bistro. That one didn’t last too long, which was disappointing, but we knew Mr. Ed’s would be a permanent occupant.
When we walked in I realized that the place was much nicer than I expected. The original one of these, and the flagship of the empire on Live Oak, is modest. This place was quite nice - not fine dining by any means, but nice enough. The prices were good and choices were plentiful. All of it fell into the category of neighborhood food. There is a long list of Chef Specials, a blackboard of daily specials, and a large menu of everything else.
We passed on a list of fried apps., mainly because the specials and menu items were too interesting. It was Mr. Ed’s Seafood and Italian, so we got one of each of those. Tom had a Trout Almondine (distinctly different from the modern Amandine) and I got white beans with sausage and shrimp. Shrimp was an option, and I chose to have it. And I had to get the meatballs and spaghetti, which I instinctively felt would be good.
All three entrees came with side salads. I asked what dressings were made in-house and oddly, only half were. I ordered the Balsamic, Caesar (for a $1 upcharge), and Bleu cheese. These were iceberg lettuce, with a beautiful red cherry tomato half, and plenty of croutons.
Neither the Bleu cheese nor the Balsamic was anything but ordinary, but the Caesar was better. (I guess $1 better.) The fourth choice was Thousand Island. Is that still around?
The white beans arrived first, and it was a smallish portion, which I welcomed. It was normal to eat this much food, unlike standard bean entrees. It was served with sausage or pork chop, and I chose sausage. As I suspected, it was the cheap Manda smoked sausage, which I admit I really like. I know it is inferior to other brands, but I like its fat content. Charred with a black crust I find it tasty and appealing. I am a sucker for white beans of any kind, particularly navy beans. These were not the best or worst of the rare lot out there, but I liked them. Not especially soupy, they were intact little beans with the sauce thrown off in cooking. The rice came with it unpretentiously like your mama would serve, not placed dead center in a molded mound. (True confession: I love that, but I am a snob.)
The accompanying cornbread was a nice chunk served with butter that you unwrap from a little pat yourself. It seemed like a mix, but I happen to prefer those to scratch cornbread.
Tom’s Trout Almondine was exactly as the name stated. Trout Amandine is distinctly different from Almondine in my experience. Amandine is a modern version with a light brown butter and copious toasted almond slivers. Almondine is coated with a heavy Meuniere sauce with almonds embedded in the batter. This was an enormous piece of fried fish drenched in this thick Meuniere sauce. The almonds were not embedded. It came with buttered and seasoned new potato halves and broccoli.
This was a fine plate of food. The batter for the fish had a sweetness to it, which seemed odd but not really. This is not sophisticated food, but it is good wholesome food. The sauce was gloppy and the fish itself was beautiful and delicious. I loved the potatoes, which had a nice spice to them that wasn’t overwhelming at all. And the broccoli was unadorned and nicely cooked. Tom ate this with relish but only half of it.
Meanwhile, the spaghetti and meatballs arrived, and this was exactly what I expected. Here were two large meatballs with a sauce that looked rich and cooked all day. This was heavily dusted with the kind of Parm I grew up with, and that is tasty enough. This came with two pieces of garlic bread which did not have much garlic presence but garlic bread is ipso facto good.
The marinara was not as sweet as I expected. It had a quality I admire in red sauce. Rather than red water at the bottom, there was a sludge where the sauce edged out, implying that there was oil or fat here. I use sludge only in the best sense. It indicated a richer mouthfeel. This was served with angel hair pasta and was very good in that soul-satisfying neighborhood cafe like-your-mama-would-cook way. Best of all, the meatballs were not crumbly but not hard, and the meat itself had a nice flavor. I liked this very much. It was hardly the best I’ve had but it’s a very good neighborhood cafe plate of Italian food.
That was only the second time I’ve been to Mr. Ed’s. The first time was the original of the operation, and its style is just too basic for my taste.
Buoyed by the success of the Live Oak Mr. Ed's, and before the opening of the one in Kenner, Ed McIntyre opened a “fancy” place on Chastant across from Vincent’s. It’s called Austin’s Seafood and Steakhouse and it originally started as just a nice first-class Metairie establishment. It evolved into a steak house as well a few years after opening.
We featured Austin’s in a recent newsletter after a very nice dinner there. Austin’s is the first-class version of Mr. Ed’s in food and spirit. The service is more sophisticated, the food is more polished, there is abundant wine and cocktails, and overall a much-elevated experience.
The evening we went we ordered specials off-menu, getting seafood eggrolls as an app, grilled shrimp in the style of La Cuisine, and Oysters Fitzgerald from the menu. These were the now-requisite crispy oysters over creamed spinach but included bacon and a lemon garlic aioli. Tom loved this.
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Our entrees were Veal Picatta, Pecan Crusted Trout with the same heavy Meuniere sauce as at Mr. Ed’s, and an off-menu Chicken Grande in the style of Mosca’s.
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All of this was very good with the same flavor components of Mr. Ed’s, just more polished in food and service in a glamorous scene.
But the place we have spent most of the time in Mr. Ed’s empire of restaurants is The Oyster Bar & Fish House. When Bozo’s closed in 2013 Ed McIntyre’s sentimental side took over, and he snapped up the building because he had great memories of tagging along with his dad, who visited Chris frequently as his bookie.
After a few months of renovation, Mr. Ed’s Oyster Bar & Fish House opened to a skeptical but appreciative crowd. The old Bozo’s left a void. It had been around nearly a century. A lot of people were happy to see Mr. Ed take over the space. But Mr. Ed’s Oyster Bar & Fish House bears little resemblance to Bozo’s, other than great oysters.
Mr.Ed’s Oyster Bar & Fish House is aptly named. There are raw oysters and four different versions of chargrilled, as well as oyster shooters. There were no chargrilled oysters at Bozo’s, because the ubiquitous imitation of the Drago’s classic hadn’t entrenched itself around town yet.
And there is a full menu of all the things we love in these parts: fried alligator, crawfish bread, Gumbolaya (gumbo and jambalaya together, but not together) Shrimp platters, shrimp & grits, etouffée, red beans & rice, poor boys. It’s all here, and at very affordable prices. No wonder it’s exploding in the number of locations.
There are currently four outposts of Mr. Ed’s Oyster Bar & Fish House around town.
Between the opening of Austin’s and The Oyster Bar came Cheeseburger Eddies, which wasn’t around long enough for anyone to make it a habit. My daughter was at one time as obsessed with burgers as I, and we went the first hour they opened. It was at the height of the gourmet burger craze at least ten years ago. We were attracted by the burger of course, but also by the hand-cut fries. Since no one was doing hand-cut fries other than Five Guys, I expected great things from Cheeseburger Eddie’s.
In that first hour of business, I could see people in line ahead of me pass with trays that included fries that were clearly not hand-cut. Just as this obvious fact dawned on me, Ed passed us by coincidence. I asked him about this, and he casually replied, “Oh, no dawlin’, that was way too much trouble!”
Cheeseburger Eddie’s was not his shortest-lived restaurant. Mr.Ed’s Fried Chicken was located in Fat City in a little strip mall facing West Esplanade. It was set to open during COVID, and got as far as tables and chairs, but never opened. Once I called to ask when they would actually open, and they told me “whenever we can get people to work.” I guess they never did, because the space is now a Todd’s Frozen Yogurt outpost.
Even though Ed is retirement age with the resources to do it, he’s probably thinking of new concepts, or more locations for these other three current concepts.
Ed McIntyre is a colorful guy whose heavy Yat accent and colorful demeanor belies his keen business acumen and tremendous success. He has brought a lot of deliciousness to this area, at great prices. A winning combination anywhere.
