There’s an odd little stand-alone building on Veterans Highway between Trader Joe’s and Party City that started out as I can’t remember what, was there before Trader Joe’s, and most recently served as home to the beignet place owned by New Orleans Hamburgers.
It has been turned into an even odder space, and this time I say that with giddy approval. Larder, the new eatery project from Allison Vega-Knoll and partner Chris Wilson is like a tiny slice of American glamour with a side of Tuscany. Part retail, part gelateria, part deli, this fast casual space seems to struggle with its identity. Speaking only for myself, I love all its identities, so no problem.
The place reminds me of a tiny and much-less-stocked Dean & DeLuca out of NYC, and even more of Joan’s on Third in Los Angeles. Both of these places cater to a sophisticated clientele who recognize, appreciate, and (most important,) are willing to pay for the finest specialty items in the culinary world. And because that customer is in shorter supply in Metairie than in either of those major population centers, Larder is much smaller.
Outside, the space between the front door and the highway has been made into a charming Tuscany-like outdoor dining space with bistro tables separated by pebbled paths and shrubbery which will be lush in the summer. Delightful!
I was told by a dining companion at lunch one day that Allison opened a place exactly like Larder in Antigua in the Caribbean, where she and husband Drew lived for eight years before returning here. My friend dives and has been there a lot. She loved that one, and loves this one.
Again, (which is getting to be a thing with me,) I showed up in their first hour of business, quite by accident actually. Checking to see if they were open on the way home, they were!
That first time I started with Wilson’s Chowder, though I ordered the gumbo. Because I always like to try clam chowder just in case I start liking it, I kept the chowder and ate it. Still not a fan, but it was fine for what it was. I also got a Cuban sandwich after fighting with myself for a while about maybe the hamburger or the shrimp and corn salad. Both sounded great on the menu and looked as good on their delivery route to other tables.
I liked the Cuban just fine. I didn’t love it. If a Cubano does not hit the bar set by Katie’s, meh. Usually I balk at housemade pickles, but I did like these. I also got a big brownie that was as good as it looked in the jar. (Perhaps the excellent Jacques Torres chocolate on the retail shelves at Larder is also used in the kitchen?) There were a number of things on the desert menu I want to try, but one thing at a time. Also, a return trip will include a scone.
My companion had a Pilgrim, which is a fancy roast turkey sandwich on homemade focaccia. There is some great focaccia out there, (Avo, Pardo’s) but when I see ordinary focaccia on a sandwich it distracts. To me, at least. My companion agreed. This was already a very complicated sandwich with a lot in it, rating a just okay as well.
Tom accompanied me on the next visit, this time for breakfast. I have to get over my adamant resistance to the reigning breakfast superstar circa 2015-to present: the breakfast sandwich. Maybe starting with the Eggslut phenom in Los Angeles, breakfast sandwiches are the “thing” if you are eating breakfast. They are simply a (hopefully) spectacular biscuit, sunny egg, bacon and cheese. All of this is piled artfully to create an Instagrammable mouth watering masterpiece, yolk running off the sides. If the biscuit is not stellar, the bacon house-cured, smoked, and of course, thick, etc., the whole thing breaks down.
The above snarky diatribe explains why I never get these, but I have to start doing it, because in hip places such energy goes into these stacks of breakfast bliss, that they are in fact stacks of breakfast bliss. I always regret passing on them. As I did here.
Instead I pleased no one, even myself, by sticking to my Big PooPooer principles with a basic old-fashioned classic of 2 sunny eggs, a biscuit, bacon, and grits.
The eggs were cooked exactly as I asked, the Beeler’s bacon not as hip as I expected, and the grits very disappointing. I have been seeing this lately a bit and now my radar is out. Fancy coarse grits, cooked in cream instead of water, with cheese melted in, they come to the table looking luscious and tasting like nothing. Pasty texture to boot. I have run into this a few times in the last month, and as a grits lover, I want to cry. To make matters worse, in a last minute decision to try something else I got the grits bowl as well. So I had double these grits. The bowl had a small pile of pulled pork in it and crispy fried onions on top. When a dish is 90 % something you don’t like, you’ll probably not like the dish.
Now. The biscuit. A thing of beauty. Utter flaky perfection. One of the best. From the cut world, a square of about 3x3x3”, golden brown, just waiting to sensually melt some butter before your eyes. It desperately wants to bookend a breakfast sandwich for you. Except that the breakfast sandwich here is served on a Kaiser roll.
So many bad decisions that day it’s not fair to blame Larder. I need to try the quiche, the coffee cake, or the chicken and biscuit sandwich next time around.
I finally made it back to get the Whoppa and the shrimp and corn salad. Both were picked up and by that choice alone, neither had justice done. I took some bites out of the burger on the way home. Here is a classic American burger circa 2018---two premium beef thin patties stacked with American cheese oozing off the sides. The whole thing is a giant pile of juiciness. I talked about the burger on the show and another burger aficionado called a few days later to complain about how far these modern hip burgers, in a quest to best the latest Instagram darling, are drifting further and further from classic burger goodness. Agreed. This one had bacon tomato jam and was served with a pile of fries. And I do mean a pile. That same caller agreed that my suspicions about enormous piles of fries is true. The larger the pile, the less you’ll want them. Surprisingly ordinary.
The shrimp salad was indeed as good as it looked. I wish I had gotten it to eat in the little Tuscan outdoor space. The salad screams FRESH, with a poblano lime vinaigrette lightly coating the plethora of corn kernels, generous amount of embedded feta cheese, and large pile of intense chewy greens. Thankfully the substantial kale presence was baby kale. The grilled shrimp were deliciously seasoned, perfectly grilled and in ample proportions. And avocado, which always makes everything better. This is a good dish.
All of this food comes from the open kitchen and is picked up from a side window near the register. The entrance space is filled with cases of prepared gourmet food, and a small nook to the right which belongs to Piccola Gelateria. There are shelves offering interesting things to buy in the front, but many more in the space by the register. Here are just a few tables, scattered in the front and the back of this mostly retail space. Flanking the left wall is a large cooler of eclectic hip sodas and waters, containers of grab-and-go gourmet, premium olive oils and mustards, pickled items, and a rather large section of chocolates by Jacques Torres, one of the original premium chocolatiers in New York City. We see him a lot at culinary events down here. He is a great guy and obviously friends with many in our chef community. These are fantastic chocolates, and it’s great to have them close. (We used to order his chocolate baking chips in bulk from NYC.) That good.
Larder is a very welcome addition to the Metairie culinary scene. We look forward to going back and trying a lot more on this very diverse menu. And with warmer weather, sitting in the lovely pebble garden.
