Friday, November 25, 2011.
Chiming In. The Browning Tree.
Yesterday, I listed the three default eateries my family often goes to when the three (or, this week, all four) of us are together. I noted that the Acme is not as strong with us as it was a year ago. The restaurant that picked up the Acme's slack is The Chimes Grill and Taproom, the expensively-built big new eatery on the Bogue Falaya River. Jude has not been in town since it opened, and he was eager to try it. The Marys need no encouragement, and I only a little. The Chimes has an oyster bar, and they also grill the bivalves as well as the Acme does.
So there we were, eating a dozen grilled oysters (very good), a pile of thick onion rings (pretty good; we reaffirmed our preference for thin onion rings), and an enormous seafood platter that not even Jude and Mary Ann working together could completely finish.
My entree was barbecue shrimp, with a sauce made using the Emeril method (they peel them, make a dense stock with the heads, and work that stock back into the butter). They serve the shrimp on top of what proved to be a deep-fried brick of grits. Can't say I thought that was a good idea, especially since it was apparently a replacement for the bread which, in my opinion, must always be there when barbecue shrimp are on the table. We asked for bread, and they charged us two dollars for it.
Let me once again sound the alarm that bread and tablecloths are disappearing from restaurants that really should have them. I hope that people other than me raise hell about that cheapening trend.
The LSU game was on Chimes's many screens while we dined. The customers and staff were fully engaged in the game, which was not going the Tigers' way at the beginning. I decided this was all my fault, and left for home in the second quarter. That's when they started playing more typically. They blew out the Razorbacks while I wasn't looking.
Jude also departed for his own needs. He has caught a West Coast bug that makes people who live there require a workout in a gym every day. This is a new development, and he takes it very seriously. He didn't miss a day the whole time he was in town. Mary Leigh, who works out at Tulane, took him there a couple of times to add some variety. All this strikes me as a little strange, but unarguably a good thing.
Ever since Katrina, we have bought our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving, which is about as early as you can buy a tree. The reason back then was that one or both of the kids had to head back to their out-of-town schools after Thanksgiving weekend, and would not be back until right before Christmas. The trimming if the tree is another of those Norman Rockwell institutions that our foursome clings to.
Same tree lot as always--Red's, on Claiborne Hill. Red is an old guy who had his arm in a sling last year, but he said he was a lot better this one. We never before asked for any kind of deal on our tree, but this year we did. Mary Leigh--whose vote on which tree we will get counts for two or three votes--wanted a blue spruce with some serious browning of its interior needles. "They wrapped that tree too tight," explained Red. Mary Ann thought it unfair that a tree with such an obvious problem should be the same price as a comparable all-green tree. Red came back with the news that a tree like this was just the kind that they would flock and sell for an even higher price.
Nevertheless, after a few more rejoinders from MA, Red agreed to lower the price from $60 to $50.
Why did ML insist on this distressed tree? Jude in particular was perplexed by this. MA understood completely, and I did mostly. My daughter felt sorry for the browned tree. That emotion is another reason I'm glad women run more of the world than they seem to.
The Chimes. Covington: 19130 W Front St. 985-892-5396.
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.
