Friday, May 25, 2012.
Antoine's Hits Its Bullseye. Barefoot.
Today I proved to myself that I can still jam a bunch of consecutive, hard-deadline agenda items into limited time slots without buffers, and not start shaking.
Not that any of the tasks were in any way unpleasant.
Yesterday at the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience's Royal Street Stroll, Jennifer Wall invited me to a lunch at Antoine's. I never say no to Antoine's, and there I was, at noon, in the Rex Room. Most of the people there were writers and wine buyers from other places, in town at the invitation of the Experience. (NOW&FE invites so many people and puts them up in such nice hotels that I wonder why I don't get such invitations to similar events in other cities. Probably answer: there are no similar events.)
I arrived just in time to grab two soufflee potatoes from the last pass-around of the balloon-like spuds, and a flute of Barefoot Brut bubbly. Jennifer, the winemaker and face of Barefoot, let fly a couple of interesting statistics. She is now making over four million cases of Barefoot wine every year. And it is the biggest-selling wine brand in the country, almost all of it under ten dollars a bottle.
A winery like that gets scant respect from the wine press. Nor will I say that Barefoot's wines are great. I'm unlikely to buy it for my own drinking, given the number of wines out there I'd like to try. But I would say that it's better than it's logical to believe without tasting it. And that the Barefoot line is a very good first step into wine for people who been drinking only tea and Coke. I suspect a lot of such people have been moved to consider wine as a regular drink after tasting the sweet, low-alcohol Barefoot Rosé of Moscato d'Oro and Grenache (the latter there mostly for color).
Some Barefoot wines are not only good but unique--notably the sparkling Pinot Grigio (I can't think of anyone else who makes that) and the Cabernet Sauvignon-Petite Syrah blend, an enormous wine that impressed everybody at the table and made a nice beverage to accompany the Chateaubriand marchand de vin we were served as an entree.
More impressive still was the very well-made Pinot Noir, a nice companion to Antoine's unique escargots bordelaise, with its thick brown sauce, sweet garlic, and light encrustation of cheese.
But here's what I really came here to talk about. The first course at the table was a trio of Antoine's famous oysters Rockefeller. They were exactly as they should always be: hot enough to burn the roof of your mouth, the oyster big and firm enough not to be overwhelmed by the sauce, and the sauce's ingredients--notably the white pepper and anise flavors--exactly in tune.
The escargots were also as I hope for, with the sauce good enough to require an entire loaf of French bread. I also note that the restaurant has finally bought new, handsome, silver-metal snail dishes, to keep the slugs and their flood of sauce bubbling all the way to the table.
And the Chateaubriand was a generous cut of tenderloin covered with a dead-on version of Antoine's most celebrated sauce for beef, again with the seasoning and other flavors all in perfect proportion.
In other words, it was a meal in which Antoine's hit its bullseye on everything. I can't remember having had a better lunch there. Given the inconsistencies that have bedeviled the old restaurant for so long, this makes my heart leap. The canons of taste that made Antoine's famous in the first place are, more and more often, fully honored by the current kitchen and dining room staffs.
I assume that was also true of the peche Melba for dessert. I got a look at it as I left the Rex Room on the run for a haircut appointment across the street. I was a little late, but in Harold Klein's chair sat wet-haired Frank Maselli. Frank is in both the wine and spirits business (City Wholesale Liquor Co., an outfit you are very unlikely to ever deal with, although it's a very solid business for many decades) and real estate development. He is also a Blue Jay of my vintage and a singer. We have things in common other than our barber.
Harold was instrumental in luring Chef Rene Bajeux to the Royal Orleans Hotel (Harold's shop is in its basement). But after only a few months, Rene up and left to reassume his former gig at the Renaissance Arts Hotel. He opened La Cote Brasserie a couple of years before the storm, but was gone from it afterwards. Now he's back, under the name he used for another brief engagement at the other Renaissance hotel here: Rene Bistrot.
What did Harold know? "Money talks," he began, and followed those two words with the two that usually accompany them. "The Marriott made him a much better offer." I can believe that. The Marriott hotels in New Orleans are numerous and large, and lately they've taken to boosting their profiles by opening real restaurants inside them.
Harold hacked through the jungle of hair I came in with until I looked civilized again. That gave me exactly enough time to get to the radio station for today's regularly-scheduled programming. After which I went home, the Antoine's lunch having satisfied my appetites both physical and spiritual.
Antoine's. French Quarter: 713 St Louis. 504-581-4422.
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.
