Friday, October 12, 2012.
In A Restaurant Food Warehouse. Smilie's.
The radio show originated from Marque's Foods, a bare-bones semi-retailer that fills an unusual niche. It's not a supermarket, although it is open to the public and sells a lot of what you'd go to a supermarket to buy. And it but it's not exactly a wholesaler, either, although they sell a lot of their stock in large quantities, and many of their customers are restaurants and other food-service operators. It has elements of Sam's Club, but that's not it, either.
Marque's goes back a couple of generations, and started as a chicken farm and poultry processing plant. In the 1950s, you could go to the West Bank (they're still there) and buy a live chicken or turkey, and have them butcher it for you. Too bad they're not in that business anymore. I think the time is ripe for it.
Today my program became part of the grand opening festivities for Marque's new store on Jefferson Highway, just shy of Harahan. It's in the building that for decades was Suda Salvage--a company that bought and sold merchandise with minor cosmetic problems (dented cans come to mind).
That's not at all what Marque's does. Among the many aspects of the business that I saw, they have loins of Angus beef stripped down for restaurant service. The silverskin and other junk was somehow removed from the tenderloin while leaving the good parts whole. A chef could take that and slice each steak he serves off the loin to order. I like it.
Also here: a fair amount of restaurant equipment, which is becoming the norm in a lot of homes. Everybody wants to be a chef.
After talking about all this and meeting customers for three hours, I went to dinner at the nearby Smilie's. It's been a long time. Smilie himself--Rodney Salvaggio, who is now one of the owners of Mr. John's Steak House--is long gone. Some years ago, Augie Lopez bought the place. Augie had a string of popular restaurants in the 1970s and 1980s, of which the Glass Garden was the most memorable.
I've never been much of a fan of Augie's food. But I'm always ready to give a place another look, and lately a number of people have called saying they thought the place has been better lately.
The dining room was nearly deserted. Smilie's has always been primarily a lunch place. Its cafeteria is much liked by workers in the Elmwood area. But still, on a Friday night, this wasn't auspicious.
I began with fried eggplant sticks. In its heyday, Smilie's made the best in town. Long, thick ones, fried to a dark brown with a coating of seasoned bread crumbs. They were the same size and shape but not as good, needing better seasoning.
Next came a salad of no special note. I asked for Italian dressing, thinking that an old-style place like this would surely have it. But no--they've moved to the new age, with a balsamic vinaigrette being the closest they could get. It was good enough, though, so we move on.
The menu was shorter than I expected or remembered. Also gone are the huge piles of food that Augie used to put out. Now the portions are generous but not overwhelming. A good thing. A fillet of trout amandine with a brown meuniere sauce was decent. Not decent were the side vegetables, all of which were cooked to the old-style softness. That part of the kitchen is unambiguously back in the 1970s.
Great bread pudding. Prices were low. The waiter was reasonably attentive, but didn't know a lot about the fine points.
The best I can say is that it was all better than the last time I was here. But it's a good thing that Harahan has a few good restaurants these days. Smilie's had the market to itself for a long time.
Smilie's. Harahan: 5725 Jefferson Hwy. 504-733-3000.
