With one spot still open for this newsletter, I resolved to try a new place near my home last evening. But when I went and sat waiting for a server I decided to leave. After perusing the menu for a while, I still couldn’t find a single thing I wanted to eat. Mary Leigh and I wound up at Kantunil, our new favorite place to hang outside. One of us had to eat, so I got a special gourmet version of a Chile Relleno with pomegranate seeds they are running right now as a special. (More on that in nomenu.com.)
So with business to attend to in town the following day, I dropped in on Luke in the CBD, a place I haven’t been to in years. My feelings about Luke have been ambivalent from Day One. I loved the place the first time we went. It was a French Brasserie, and at the time there weren’t many of those. There still aren’t, perhaps because we don’t need that many?
The back seating area near the kitchen has always appealed to me more, but I sat today at a table that may have been the same one from our first visit. The first dining room at Luke is French in every way. Mosaic tile floors and wood everywhere else, there is brass as accent. It was lunch so the big seafood tower area was not operating. That first visit to Luke was the first time I saw the Raw Bar phenomenon, and it wasn’t a thing way back then.
Even after as many times as I have been to Luke, I never really noticed how French it was until today. Perhaps it has become more French in the ensuing years. The menu is both straight French and New Orleans food, with the famous Luke Burger as a constant. I was surprised to see classic New Orleans red beans and rice alongside a Flammekueche, Croques Monsieur or Madame, or a fried chicken sandwich. A Trout Amandine or Pork Schnitzel. I wasn’t sure which way to go.
I started with breakfast, getting an American breakfast that included both housemade sausage and Benton’s bacon. A biscuit was part of this plate. Then I went to the New Orleans classics, getting a cup of seafood gumbo and a Speckled Trout Amandine for an entree.
The breakfast came almost immediately. Eggs were done exactly as I asked, the bacon was crisp and the sausage browned nicely. The grits were clearly the gourmet version, coarse and creamy. I am a cut biscuit person, because I like density in a biscuit and flakiness. Lately what I have been seeing most is a hybrid biscuit, one with clearly defined boundaries but the fluffy and crumbly interior of a drop biscuit rather than a flaky dough. This version is okay but not preferred. It came with a pear jam and was just fine.
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The eggs were pretty, glistening with melted butter around the edges. There was enough yolk for the biscuit to mop up. They were, in an overused term, cooked to perfection.
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I am not a fan of Benton’s pork products usually, but this bacon was crisp and not as strong in flavor as usual. I liked it. The sausage grind was fine, which is not usually a preference for me, but this was a good link with a hint of sage, and just a bit dry. The grits were the gourmet kind, which I have dismissed in the past. This type of grits is growing on me. They are stone ground and cooked with dairy rather than water, and it results in a dense and creamy cereal. They were mild in flavor but glamorous.
By the time I lounged around a bit it was time for lunch. I wanted to see both, so I ordered a classic New Orleans lunch. The Croques were calling to me but I went with Speckled Trout Amandine, and a cup of seafood gumbo.
The seafood gumbo was bursting with seafood, but lacking in crab. Shrimp and oysters were plentiful. It is rare to see even one oyster in a seafood gumbo, and here were several. I was thrilled. Lots of okra and enough shrimp, this was a filling gumbo, especially with the plentiful rice.
The word Amandine evokes in me an image of a fried slab of fish with plenty of slivered and toasted almonds and brown butter, like the version at Galatoire’s. On the menu here it clearly describes another dish, but the word Amandine lured me in. What came to the table was a beautiful piece of speckled trout lightly dusted in flour and covered in meaty wild mushrooms and shrimp and haricot verts. Toasted almonds were almost a garnish like the pea shoots. It was a combination of perfectly-executed elements adding up to a beautiful whole. I still would have preferred what my mind imagined. And that’s on me.
We are so privileged in this city to have several groups of restaurants helmed by great chefs. I remain partial to the Besh brand, ever since first discovering him in the early days of Artesia all the way back in the late 1990s. Right in my neighborhood.
It's been a long time since then and he has come a long way, with an inventive business model of partnering with great chefs who became celebrities in their own right. All have moved on from the group, like Alon Shaya and Aarón Sanchez. My favorite of this group Erick Loos, is now corporate chef for BRG. Two more restaurants are coming on line. Delacroix has just opened, and the one in Covington is not quite finished.
I expect they will be terrific too, in keeping with the Besh brand.
