Friday, July 15, 2011.
Abort Mission. Antoine's. Harold And Rene.
Without my commercials done, I cannot go on vacation. So the Marys left without me. I will finish the work today and leave tomorrow, if my ticket can be changed. I'd really prefer not to go at all. I could use a relaxing week at home, doing oddball projects I never have time for.
But Jude is looking forward to my visit. It's over two years since the last time. I'll just have to go and hope Mary Ann doesn't plan so many activities that I come back from vacation more frazzled than when I left.
And I am frazzled. I haven't taken more than two days of vacation at a stretch since a year and a half ago. That was the great thing about the years when we hosted several cruises a year. People expected me to be onboard, so I couldn't cancel.
I was saved from looking like an unfeeling dad by a twist of fate. The airplane for the Marys' flight had been downsized, and twenty-eight people were booted off. Including the Marys. Ironically, I would have been able to board had I been there, because I checked in online last night.
Mary Ann got a pound of flesh from Delta. They rebooked her for tomorrow, and gave her a $400 credit per ticket. Whoopie! We will all fly out together tomorrow morning.
I left for downtown shortly after the girls returned home, and went ahead with my plans. Those started with lunch at Antoine's. Before we got married, I went there almost every Friday. Mary Ann talked me out of that in short order. But twenty-three years later, I still think about lunch at Antoine's almost every week.
Rick Blount--the great-great grandson of Antoine's, he runs the place--visited my table. He was in workman's clothes. One of the buildings in Antoine's rambling collection needed his personal inspection. He stayed only long enough to say that the current $20.11 lunch menu included two new entrees I needed to try. I turned that order over to my waiter Charles Carter, and added that he should blow off the appetizer course to make room for the extra main. He didn't take me seriously, and brought the shrimp Regua anyway. That's a sort of white remoulade with fried green tomatoes, in contrast to Antoine's classic red remoulade. Okay, we'll just call that a salad.
The first of the two entrees was trout with artichokes and mushrooms in a butter sauce. The description suggested the fish Marianna at Impastato's or the fish Kottwitz at Brennan's, but the taste was different. The fish was overcooked (it almost always is at Antoine's), but other than that it was fine.
The other entree was a pork loin stuffed with andouille and roasted, with sweet potatoes on the side. Nothing wrong with any of that. The special came with a chocolate bread pudding, served in the small size that kept me from feeling guilty about eating it all. (All I seem to get lately are gigantic slabs of bread pudding.)
Lunch done, I crossed the street then ascended and descended two flights of stairs to get to the barbershop in the Royal Orleans Hotel. The last time I was here, I needed assistance to get around on my walker. How things have improved!
Harold Klein insisted that we go back up and down the stairs so he could crow about what may have been a personal coup. Harold campaigned for months to have Chef Rene Bajeux take over the food operations of the hotel, including the Rib Room. The timing was perfect. Former chef Anthony Spizale left to go to the Upperline. Rene finished a gig at a hotel in San Antonio and another in the Caribbean, and was interested in returning to New Orleans.
So here he is. The tall chef from Alsace-Lorraine ranged over the rotisseries, where he had ducks roasting--just as he did in his Rene Bistrot before the hurricane. Today was the first day of his new menu. The Rib Room classics were still there, of course--too many regulars come here to start from scratch. But most of the card was filled with new dishes.
Back down the stairs for my trim, which took a long time. Harold wanted to tell the full story of how Rene had come here. Rene's deal included being able to hire his own staff. That will make a big difference.
Now to the radio station to knock out the remaining pre-recorded commercials. Chef Duke was sitting in for me, but I didn't stick my head into the studio, for fear I would be caught there a long time. Still a lot to do at home if I'm to leave for a week. And four a.m. comes mighty early in the morning.
Antoine's. French Quarter: 713 St. Louis St. 504-581-4422.
Rib Room. French Quarter: 621 St Louis St. 504-529-7045.
