Friday, November 4, 2011.
Lola.
Worked at home today. That has a downside: we usually wind up dining on the overcovered North Shore. But Mary Ann's suggestion for our supper was a place we haven't been to in at least two years: Lola. It's in the old Covington train depot, a charming but inconveniently narrow building. Covington never was a major freight stop for the Illinois Central, whose branch line across St. Tammany Parish is now the Tammany Trace bicycle path.
Lola was on our minds because Chef Nealy Frentz guested on the round table radio show a couple of weeks ago. She and her husband Keith are both chefs. They met while working at Brennan's on Royal Street, and opened this place after Katrina. The serve dinner only on Fridays and Saturdays; the bulk of their business comes from people on lunch break from the St. Tammany Courthouse across the street.
The dinner menu is much more ambitious than the sandwich-and-salad lunch card. At first, some of the menu was dishes straight out of Brennan's, which I found very welcome. They've come a long way since then. Most of the current menu is contemporary. I wish some of the traditional Creole-French stuff they used to serve were still here. But this is Covington, and Northshorinians are suspicious of oysters Rockefeller.
The restaurant was busier than I've ever seen it at dinner. We got the last available table, a rotten deuce in front of the counter where people order and pick up their lunches. This bothered MA more than it did me.
She started with a pair of crab cakes with a white remoulade. For me, a creamy oyster stew with herbs. The flavor was good, but it was too thick by a factor of two for my tastes. They are right with the vogues on that: all chefs seem to be making their soups thicker all the time.
In the long run, that may be a good trend for my needs. I inherited from my father a tremble in my hands. All my sisters have it too. My big sister Judy finds it all but impossible to eat soup anymore. Thicker soups are decidedly easier to handle.
After the house salad (very good), we received entrees from the grill: salmon for MA, hanger steak for me. The fish came astraddle a pile of risotto. This is a trend I'm less excited about. Soft stuff under fish has been common for only the last decade or so. I don't know why anyone finds that appealing.
Hanger steak for me, with potatoes sliced into thin sticks and fried just right. The sauce was a demi-glace with pearl onions. I like the flavor of hanger steak--it really is different from other cuts. But it is a chewy cut, and I think this matter needs to be addressed more assiduously than chefs usually do. I think it needs a marinade.
Panna cotta served in a small jam jar was the dessert. Mary Ann patiently waited for me to enjoy not only that but a cup of coffee. Among the many mismatches between the sexes is the way women are finished eating well before men feel satisfied. The survival value in that could be that a man who eats a lot is a less effective lover. But I can't claim to have a strong grip on these matters.
Lola. Covington: 517 N New Hampshire. 985-892-4992.
