Friday, July 27, 2012.
Audubon's Place. Chili Con Carne And A Cubano.
A few months ago, Mary Ann was talking with the manager of the New Orleans Hotel Collection--a group of seven properties around town. He invited us to spend a night in the Audubon Cottages, the most luxurious and interesting of the group, comprising a few historic buildings in the 500 block of Dauphine Street. Mary Ann is an avid collector of classy hotel experiences. It was inevitable that sooner or later we'd take them up on the offer. (Fortunately, there's no restaurant aspect to the property, so I can't be accused of taking a bribe by going along for this ride.)
The Audubon Cottages are so named because one of the apartments in it really was where John James Audubon spent many weeks during one of his visits to New Orleans in search of our native birds to paint. That cottage is one of the small ones. Unlike the others, it has never had its brick-between-post walls covered with plaster, for reasons of historic preservation.
We checked in yesterday afternoon. I already liked the place: it allowed me to take a nap between the end of the radio show and the beginning, two hours later, of the Spirited Dinner at The Pelican Club. More important, it freed us from having to drive across the lake after that cocktail-studded dinner.
The moment we entered the courtyard I realized that I'd been here before. The Audubon Cottages were once an annex to the Maison De Ville Hotel, whose manager invited me to try the place out about twenty-five years ago. (She and I later had a single date. It added this note to my bio: before she got into hotel management, she had been a Playboy Bunny.)
Mary Ann is no fan of ancient buildings. At least not when used as hotels. It's a measure of how fine a hostelry this is that she loved the place. It was spacious enough that, had she known ahead of time, she would have had a small party during our residence. The door leads out into a perfect New Orleans courtyard. Roderick Bernal, the butler (!) said that here was the oldest swimming pool in the French Quarter. We asked questions, and he gave us a tour of this marvelous place.
After a nice night's sleep, I awakened to find a plate of fresh fruit, some pastries, and coffee waiting for us at a table on the courtyard. Perfect! I let MA continue sleeping (I'd kept her up all night, but not for the romantic reason; she said I snored) and got to work on today's Menu Daily.
With great regret, we checked out at around one-thirty, and went to lunch at the Canal Street Bistro. I needed to take a look at their breakfast and lunch food to complete the data for a review. Mary Ann was not crazy about the place, for reasons I don't understand. It's a nice old two-story residence that its previous owner--a law office--had restored and renovated very well. The only obvious additions to make it a restaurant were the additions of a large bar and the kitchen.
I was still recovering from last night's dinner, and wanted to eat light. Only I could consider as light a platter of pulled beef brisket with chili seasonings (Chef Guillermo Peters called called it chili con carne on his menu), black beans, rice and soft corn tortillas. Excellent! Mary Ann had a Cuban sandwich on some kind of thick, grilled bread. She finished that off, and I helped her with the big wedges of fried potatoes on the side.
The Canal Street Bistro began as the Eco-Café, with all the New Age feelings that the name implies. One of the good things is a juice bar, from which I had a glass of cloudy apple and cinnamon juice. Very good.
By then it was showtime, after which I had no inclination to have dinner at all. I was home before the sun went down. To tell the truth, I didn't feel all that good. A little lightheaded, and jittery. This usually precedes a cold.
Canal Street Bistro. Mid-City: 3903 Canal St.. 504-482-1225.
It's over three years since a day was missed in the Dining Diary. To browse through all of the entries since 2008, go here.
