Friday, February 15, 2013.
Junior Achievement At Antoine's.
One of the radio production people stuck a note on my studio door at the end of today's show, alerting me to five commercials that needed to be recorded tonight. I knew about one of them, and already had recorded it. The rest were a surprise, about which I could do little. An account executive will be mad at me come Monday.
Junior Achievement asked me to contribute something to its charity auction a few months ago. I offered to take the successful bidder out to dinner in a four- or five-star restaurant. I get a lot of requests to do that--enough that I could probably host one such event every week if I had the time and budget.
But I was happy to do something for Junior Achievement. I was in the program as a high school student, and enjoyed it more than any other extra-curricular activity. So much that after I graduated I joined the staff for a year.
In the Junior Achievement of the 1960s, the participants formed companies, sold stock to get capital, elected officers, made and sold a product, and at the end of the year paid back the shareholders if a profit had been made. The first year we returned seven cents on the dollar. The second year--with me as president--we took a loss.
This was back in the days when we had band saws and drill presses and other heavy equipment. In the first year, we cut scrap Formica countertops into the shapes of pigs and cows, and sold them as cutting boards. When people demurred by saying that cutting on Formica would ruin their knives, we just said, "No, it won't!" (Of course, cutting on Formica is a terrible idea.)
The idea of a bunch of teenagers running table saws and the like is unimaginable now. Today's Junior Achievement is a much different program, aimed now at students less affluent than we suburban boys and girls were then. As I understand it, one learns how business and the job market work.
The successful bidders were Kip and Julie Hanks. They were ecstatic to join us for dinner at Antoine's, a restaurant where I'm always happy to be. Mary Ann, who was feeling much better today (I suspect she had another food poisoning episode last night), was also with us. It was a delightful evening.
Antoine's had its big, Germanic Annex occupied with a wedding reception. It was serving regular customers in the main dining room, the bright, beautiful space that most locals eschew in favor of the Annex. It's not often that the original Antoine's dining room is completely full, but it was tonight. So were the tables in the Mystery Room and the Dungeon. I'm glad we weren't in there. The wedding party's band that played--as all bands do--much too loud.
It was a classic evening of Antoine's food, except that everything was five or ten degrees cooler than it should have been. Nobody mentioned this. Soufflee potatoes with bearnaise. Two orders of baked oysters three ways. Escargots bordelaise, with the brown, sherry-laced, chunky-garlic sauce. A whole loaf of French bread was eaten with that sauce. Grilled pompano with brown butter. Black drum with crabmeat. Brabant potatoes. Creamed spinach. Baked Alaska, with "J.A." emblazoned in whipped cream on its side. And a good showing of café brulot, the flames running around the table. The Hankses were very pleased. And I got the chance to pay back Junior Achievement for all the stimulation it gave me back when.
Antoine's. French Quarter: 713 St Louis. 504-581-4422.
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