More space than is probably appropriate has been dedicated here to The Larder Eatery, a fast casual place in Metairie. Tom would never be a regular at a fast casual place, but this is not your normal fast casual place.
It sprung up out of a drive thru that began as a Burger King at the crossroads of Causeway and Veterans. These are hardly promising recommendations.
But The Larder Market & Eatery was started by Allison Vega, and that changed its prospects entirely. Allison Vega came to our attention with her Vega Tapas Cafe on Metairie Road before leaving for a stint of more than a decade in the Caribbean. She returned to reconstitute a dilapidated building in Bucktown into the glamorous Station 6. Prospects for the new drive-thru-turned-eatery were good. I couldn’t wait to try it.
Her accomplishments at turning a tear down into Station 6 were eclipsed by this project. I was immediately struck by its resemblance to a place I adore in Los Angeles called Joan’s on Third. Joan’s is a glamorous but welcoming place in Studio City that is part eatery and part market and is filled with things both gorgeous and delicious. One could spend a lot of time in there, and it isn’t even all that large.
I mentioned Joan’s to Allison the first time I visited, and she admitted that it was her inspiration. The major difference is size: inside the building is where Joan’s has an advantage, and outside the building is where Larder prevails.
And outside is where the similarities widely diverge. The place in Studio City is surrounded by L.A. grunge, which has sadly taken over everything there. At The Larder eatery in Metairie, Allison Vega has cast fairy dust over a space between a busy highway and her front door, and transformed it into the most unique and inviting outdoor space I have seen in these parts.
Yes, there are great patios around town: N7, Brennan’s, Cafe Amelie, Irene’s, Shaya, Chemin a la Mer, Tableau, Rosedale and Bayona, Broussard’s, and Saba, but none like this manicured French space. It is so well done I forget I’m sitting in front of Trade Joe’s and next to a highway. I would love nothing more than to while away an afternoon there on a beautiful day. The problem with that would be finding enough food on the menu to do that. We have been to The Larder Eatery many times and that has been the single challenge, even if we didn't want to spend the day there.
Since the last time Larder appeared on these pages, a wonderful thing has happened. Larder became part of The Besh group, or BRG. We hope we haven’t seen the last from Allison Vega, but our hopes for the menu and service style, (and hours) were raised by this news. We couldn’t wait to see the changes. I had heard rumors of table service which are currently untrue. It is still fast-casual. There appears to be more on the menu, but not a lot more.
The breakfast here is wonderful. I am crazy about the biscuit in particular, which is a proud specimen from the cut biscuit universe. The bacon is top quality, and a simple addition of great grits and fried eggs that are not too runny will do me. The last time we were there a French Toast Casserole was on the menu. Huh? That sounded fabulous and right up Tom’s alley but they aren’t doing it anymore.
This is not your grandma’s breakfast menu. It is hip: Chicken and Waffles, Goat Cheese Toast, a breakfast sandwich, granola, etc. Dinos like us have the classic American Breakfast I just described and Bananas Foster Pancakes for only $10.
Lunch offers sandwiches like a burger, Cuban, veggie wrap, turkey Club, and grilled cheese. The day we went there for lunch there was a hot lunch special of grilled redfish with popcorn rice and crawfish étouffée. But it’s the salads here that are outstanding. Massive plates of interesting lettuce with other vegetables and proteins. The salads are so large they are enough for two comfortable portions. With a side of soup or quiche, these salads as half salads would be a hearty and interesting lunch.
I always say that The Food Show works first on me, and that also applies to writing. This piece started with me on the deck outside in the early morning, thinking about the lovely Larder garden. I called my sister, who is a great third person and we all met for breakfast an hour later.
She was wowed by the place and had never even heard of it, but I know she will become a regular. It’s that lovely. She was also wowed by the food.
We got the Larder Breakfast at $19, which was bacon & sausage with two eggs, grits, and a biscuit. This was also enough for two. The pork sausage links were enormous. The eggs were beautiful and cooked exactly as I requested.
My sister has a texture problem with all grits since she was a kid, and no amount of swooning on my part could convince her to try these. Her loss. I was swooning because they were exceptionally great. She didn’t care. She was gushing over the biscuit, which is one of my faves around town, and for the reason she noted. She loved how toasted it was.
Tom was busy with his Bananas Foster Pancakes. This was a stack of three fluffy pancakes served with a little mug of sauce and slices of banana in it. When poured over the stack this dense and rich sauce gave Tom his own thing to swoon over.
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I also got a Snickerdoodle to keep Tom satisfied till the food came. Tom and my sister had it for dessert.
We whiled away hours at a table outside in the garden, with fall breezes keeping it pleasant. I was surprised at how busy the drive-thru is. A drive-thru seems incompatible with a place with food of this caliber, but I am grateful to have it.
Our last visit was from that window. On that visit, we had a chocolate chip cookie and a burger. The chocolate chip cookie was fantastic. It looks chewy but it is hard and not overly crispy. Pretty perfect in every way, with a lot of melty chocolate throughout.
I was surprised and disappointed in the burger. It was very good. It had a classic burger taste with my favorite bun (a Kaiser roll) that was buttery and toasted. It was loaded with crisp and fresh dressings and a lot of melted cheddar. But the patty itself seemed pre-formed, and I’m always suspicious of a tidy uniformed patty. I can’t quibble with the collective package. It was juicy and tasty in that classic burger way. It came with fries that I was sad to hear were not housecut, though they certainly looked that way. These came with a “special sauce” aioli.
The drive-thru lunch followed an earlier lunch visit where I had a salmon salad and Tom had the grilled redfish. We started that one with the quiche of the day and ended it with a brownie.
The quiche was not spectacular. It wasn’t bad but how bad can any quiche be? There are two ways to get quiche here. It comes as a complete meal with a side salad, or a single slice is half the price. What is interesting is that the single slice comes with a huge pile of dry arugula as garnish. It is missing only a light toss of vinaigrette. The crust on the quiche was quite nice. It was dense and flaky, but the quiche itself was not very tall and it looked deflated. As I said, it’s hard to imagine a quiche I wouldn’t eat, but this was not one of the great ones.
I wish I hadn’t been worried about the étouffée being too spicy. I asked for it on the side, and the bare grilled redfish looked unappealing. Still, what’s not to love about a grilled piece of fish with popcorn rice? The étouffée was as spicy as I feared but still delicious.
The salmon salad I had was sensational. I couldn’t believe how large it was, and how good it was. The fish itself was a massive slab with a thin Teriyaki glaze. This sat on top of a gigantic pile of interesting greens, with tomatoes, bacon, avocado, chopped egg, and pickled red onion, all heavily dressed in a terrific housemade Ranch dressing.
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The brownie was a classic brownie with nothing in it. I usually like “stuff” in brownies, but the intensity of the dark chocolate was satisfying enough.
The Larder Eatery under the Besh logo isn’t noticeably different from the same place helmed by Allison Vega. Both are superb tastemakers on every level, in both atmosphere and food. I have the same complaint I had here all along. I want more, more, more!
