Friday, September 23, 2011.
Mr. John's Steakhouse With The Best Man.
Our rescheduled dinner with Oliver and Carolyn Kluna. Mr. John's has become such a busy place that it's nearly impossible to get a table without reservations well in advance on weekends, and last week they were overwhelmed by couponers. They were pretty busy this week, too.
Everybody was waiting for me at the bar. I had a Manhattan made with Sazerac rye whiskey. That's a product that came out a few years ago in answer to a much-asked question: why should the official cocktail of New Orleans be made with Old Overholt, a mediocre rye whiskey? The Sazerac Company must have asked itself that question, then answered it by rolling out its own rye. I ask for it wherever I go. One out of ten places in my experience stock it. Why is this? I think I know. It's the flavored vodkas, which continue to come out in such numbers that all the real estate behind the bar is full. But who ever asks for rye? Old Overholt has seniority, and that's that.
We sat at a corner table and began with Mr. John's distinctive amuse-bouches. It's a meatball, slathered with a very good red sauce. The sauce was on my mind as much as the steak was. I advise everyone to whom I recommend Mr. John's (which I believe is the best steak house in the city) to take advantage of the Italian side of the menu. It's not as extensive as when Chef Christiano Rossit was here. But it's still enough to provide, say, a pasta bordelaise as an appetizer. Or spaghetti with the aforementioned red sauce as a side dish. Steak and marinara go very well together.
The girls got salads for their appetizers. I had a special: veal marrow. This had a striking presentation: a six-inch length of veal bone cut in half from end to end. It was osso buco with all the meat gone. The weight of the marrow was one percent of the entire dish. But this was a big bone, and that's enough marrow, a high-cholesterol edible. I wish my dad had been there. Marrow was his favorite flavor.
Winning the prize for the biggest steak on the table was Mary Ann, who cannot pass up a cowboy steak. That's a ribeye with the bone still attached, and that accouterment alone forces extra thickness and extra layers around the outside. She complained all night that this was too much food, and indeed she only ate half. Why not? I would prefer to order an extra-thick steak and bring the leftover portion home to get the cooking advantages that thick steaks have.
The waiter mentioned that the New Orleans Cut steak available. It's not on the menu, and they may have been offering it just for my benefit. I'm trying to establish an extra-thick sirloin strip cut into two filet-size pieces as the New Orleans cut. Why not? If there's a New York steak and a Kansas City steak, why not one named for our town? We're as important a steak city as anywhere else. At least in terms of quality.
Well, that was mighty good. The strip has always been the best cut here. With a dish of fettuccine with marinara sauce on the side, it was a good eat.
Oliver and I go back to 1974, when I worked for an advertising agency that handled his Sleep Factory stores. We hit it off and became good enough friends that he was my best man and the Klunas were Jude's godparents. So many characters have passed us on our mutual path that we can spend an entire evening reminiscing about them. But a new color is creeping in. Quite a few of those people aren't around anymore. Despite that, we laughed our way through the evening and killed a bottle of Sangiovese.
Mr. John's Steakhouse. Garden District: 2111 St Charles Ave. 504-679-7697.
