Friday, September 7, 2012.
Pardo's.
As I thought it would, the review of Root fell right out of my brain onto the electronic page. I had it done in about an hour. That leaves only another six or seven major new restaurants to study before I'm caught up--although by then, there will be more new ones. Keeping up with the New Orleans dining scene is the task of Sisyphus. Good thing it's fun.
I stayed on the North Shore today, eager to get into the weekend. No relaxation will be involved. I plan to make an attack on the raccoons that Mary Ann says are still running around on the roof every night. This will be done by pruning the trees whose limbs hang over the house--particularly one large branch of a water oak, whose leaves actually brush the surface of the roof. There will be much ladder climbing. That would have been anathema six months ago, but something about taking a brisk half-hour walk every day seems to have emboldened me.
We didn't have lunch, and were both pretty hungry when the radio show ended at six. Mary Ann suggested Pardo, a four-month-old restaurant near the I12-LA21 shopping mall nexus. Oh, why not. A lot of people have been telling me good things about it. At the very least, their comments show that the place is operated by people who know what they're doing.
On the other hand, nobody knows the ins and outs of the restaurant business better than managers of chain eateries. I don't know the background of the owner of Pardo's, nor is this part of a chain. But they seem to be using a few pages from the chain handbook. Can't say exactly why, but I get that feeling. On the other hand, most restaurants are so influenced these days.
We arrived not a minute too soon. Five minutes after we had a choice of tables, people were beginning to stack up at the bar and around the entrance. That backup would grow through the entire time we were there. This place has caught on.
When the waitress heard my third corny joke, she remembered waiting on me at Juniper. Which, she told me, has closed. I'd heard that, but hadn't been able to contact owner Pete Kusiw about it. She didn't know the details, either.
She did know the specials. And what a Negroni was. And how good the little fried ball of crabmeat would be alongside the cocktail. Off to a good start.
Pardo's has a wood-burning pizza oven, inherited from the Italian restaurant that was here for a few months a couple of years ago. But they didn't seem to be using it for any major pizza offering. The menu listed a couple of flatbreads, neither of which appealed to us. I'll bet they work real pizza in at some point. How can they not, with a resource like that oven.
Mary Ann was intrigued by the seafood cheesecake, which even non-gourmets now know is a standard cheesecake with none of the sweet ingredients. The seafood was minced and incorporated into the filling. The red sauce didn't seem well-advised until we tasted it, and then rather liked it.
My appetizer was three generous seared scallops in a creamy sauce. It was rendered even richer by sliced of foie gras served over the tops of the scallops. Both the bivalves and the fat liver were good on their own, but I thought together they clashed badly. You're on thin ice when you pair seafood and poultry, in my opinion.
Mary Ann--who claims to be eating light these days--downed most of a pork osso buco. She loves that sort of thing, meat cooked until it falls apart, in a homestyle gravy. And she loved this.
On my side of the table was a couple of thick pieces of salmon, cooked to temperature, appearing to float in a juicy sauce. Thinly-sliced onions and a trio of steamed mussels have a bit of a bouillabaisse aspect to the dish. I thought it was pretty good.
We finished with a slice of pound cake covered with what I think the waitress said was a white chocolate frosting. Leaning on it was half a banana, sliced end to end, bruleed with brown sugar over the cut length. The cake was too sweet, but I liked the banana idea.
Not all the rough spots have been worked out. They offered espresso, but served it such that I wondered whether I were the first person to get it. It came in a standard-size coffee cup, without sugar on the side. By the time I flagged someone down to get the sugar, the coffee had gone cold. My asking to have it renewed brought a procession of several staffers to ask what had gone wrong. Well, at least they took it off the check.
Looks like a keeper, but not quite there yet. And at $112 before tip, it was more expensive than I expected. But now I know.
Pardo's. Covington: 69305 Hwy 21. 985-893-3603.
