Friday, January 23, 2009.
Another Good One At 7.
For the past few nights, I've had a series of dreams in which odd situations develop, requiring my remediation. But the problems are far beyond my capabilities to solve them, and the fantastic sub-plots of the dream go on while I work around the problem, which never goes away, not even after hours of plot development. Is this a narrative arc?
After the radio show, I made the three-block walk to 7 on Fulton, where I had an encouragingly fine dinner last week. This one was even better. This one began with an alligator raviolo as an amuse-bouche. The pasta was a little on the thick side, but the stuffing was tasty, and the sauce was superb. It was a fifty-fifty hybrid between a fresh-style Italian tomato sauce and Creole sauce, with the sweetness of the former and the herbal, peppery quality of the latter. Great dish.
Then another in the current series of new takes on oysters Rockefeller. All the young chefs seem to be playing with that these days. (They move in lockstep.) This one tasted nothing like oysters Rockefeller, of course. But it was good. Three enormous fried oysters sat atop a line of spinach flavored with anise (very subtly), and what looked like either spinach puree or that green ketchup that we used to see in the supermarket a few years ago. (I wonder what happened to that?) A little splash of truffle foam on top (I think that's what it was). 
The entree was a thick puck of Denver leg of venison. The Denver leg is from the round, which doesn't usually lend itself to grilling. For some reason, this part does, and while it's neither as tender nor as tasty as the backstrap, it comes across like filet mignon. The chef did a great presentation on this, particularly with the sauces, which had a nice play of olive oil, pepper, and sweet fruitiness. Fine winter-evening eating.
Dessert was nugatory, though. A little square of heavy, lemony cake atop some orange and strawberry macerations. The best thing I have to say about it is that it was the right quantity of dessert for a guy my size.
I walk around the Warehouse District a good bit at night. So many great restaurants are near the radio station that it's hard to resist. It really feels like a neighborhood, now--much more so than when I lived around here, in the 700 block of Camp Street, back in the 1970s. But some echoes of the old times appear. The block of Girod between Tchoupitoulas and the Convention Center--alongside the Ranaissance Arts Hotel and its La Cote Brasserie Restaurant--can be a little deserted and creepy. On my way back, I walked an extra block down Fulton (which Harrah's has lighted brightly) to avoid going that way in the dark again.
7 On Fulton. Warehouse District: 700 Fulton (in the Riverfront Hotel). 504-681-1034. Contemporary American.
