Friday, October 28, 2011.
Checking Out The New Rib Room.
Harold Klein, the Gourmet Barber, is to some extent responsible for one of the two or three biggest current stories in the local restaurant world. For almost a year, from his shop in the basement of the Royal Orleans Hotel, he has cajoled all concerned to have Chef Rene Bajeux installed as the chef of the Rib Room. The hotel's fifty-year-old meeting place has been in decline for years, and Harold says it affects his business. Plus, he likes to eat in the Rib Room, as do many local people--although not as many as once did.
Well, Chef Rene has been there for four months now, and is happy to be. Although he traveled across America and the Caribbean opening major hotel restaurants during the past half-dozen years, his family never has moved from New Orleans since he originally came to town to chef the Windsor Court Grill Room.
Mary Ann said she could be talked into dinner with a good plan. I knew the Rib Room would get her; she loves both the place and prime rib. I would have to talk her out of the prime rib, though. Even though it may be the best in town, prime rib at the Rib Room is in my mind a wasted meal. She's trying to lose weight anyway, so she'd thank me for encouraging her to get the grilled salmon.
I have a knack for showing up at restaurants the last day before a new menu goes into force. It happened again here. But the old menu in this case was a long way from the one Chef Rene inherited. Everything we ate except for the Rib Room house blue cheese salad (which is untouchable) was a Rene dish.
A Negroni for me and Pinot Grigio for MA, with a pile of fresh-cut potato chips. Now some shrimp and crabmeat croquettes with an aioli and slaw. Mary Ann loved every bit of that. Before me were a dozen steamed mussels, in the classic French mariniere style. The salads appeared and disappeared. (The house salad always has been good.)
My entree was a rack of lamb, which Rene cooks first in the oven, then with a pass through the rotisserie. The Rib Room has not made enough use of its large French rotisserie in recent years. But Rene is a rotisserie kind of guy. He used to cook chickens and ducks on it back at his Rene Bistrot in the years right before Katrina. He promises many new dishes proceeding from the rotating spits.
The manager of the restaurant dropped by to tell of other plans in the works. These include a renovation of the restaurant, designed to make it a bit softer. The open part of the kitchen will expand, so more dishes will be cooked within view of the diners. In other words, we ain't seen nothing yet here.
Desserts have not apparently been touched yet. Mary Ann liked the chocolate pots de creme okay. I think the bread pudding needs to go back to square (cube?) one. The hotel used to have a full bake shop through most of its history. It disappeared after the hurricane, but it ought to be brought back.
Now here's the shocker. Prices in the Rib Room have come down, although in a way that would only be noticeable on the final check. This dinner was $128. I would have expected at least $150 in the previous administration, which was really losing its mind on the menu prices.
The final measure of how well the Rib Room is coming along is that Harold Klein is ecstatic about it.
Rib Room. French Quarter: 621 St Louis St. 504-529-7045.
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.
