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Gott Gourmet Cafe
Uptown 2: Washington To Napoleon: 3100 Magazine. 504-373-6579. Map.
Casual.
AE DS MC V
Website
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
A very well run restaurant with an original, droll menu involving high-class and unusual ingredients in offbeat sandwiches and salads, a few platters, and breakfast. Although a few decidedly local items show up, for the most part the food here is contemporary American deli, with a Midwestern twang. Nothing wrong with that, but one misses what the Creole-tuned palate expects.
WHAT'S GOOD
The sandwiches and salads employ the likes of organic greens, truffle oil, first-class cold cuts (many finished on the premises, others brought in from legendary makers), and special breads. The presentations look great. But the flavor you'd get from the average poor boy or muffuletta is preferable to what I find here. Can't exactly figure out why. Maybe it has something to do with the Higgs boson.
BACKSTORY
The chef-owner may be overqualified. Chicago native David Gotter got the food bug on a college-age trip to New Orleans. He worked for a number of years in some very classy, formal, large kitchens. He returned to New Orleans a few months after Katrina and opened a catering outfit (aha!). He joined the Magazine Street restaurant boom with Gott Gourmet in late 2008.
DINING ROOM
Surrounded by every flavor of New Orleans funky in the burgeoning Magazine-Garden District restaurant row, Gott Gourmet is so neatly designed and clean as to feel almost sterile by comparison. Chairs made of gleaming silver metal. The service staff is cheerful and full of advice.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Sandwiches
St Paddy’s Day massacre (corned beef, Swiss, slaw, mustard, pumpernickel rye)
»Fresh mozzarella panini, roasted tomatoes, pesto mayo
»Cochon de lait Cuban (pulled pork, baked ham, Swiss, slaw, mustard, chili mayo)
»Hot pastrami, red onions, mustard, Swiss, rye
»Curry chicken salad croissant
Pulled pork wrap, avocado, chili sour cream, chipotle cream cheese
Shrimp BLT wrap
Grilled vegetable wrap
Smoked turkey breast BLT croissant, avocado, cucumbers
Fried chicken club, bacon, cheddar, mustard, avocado
Fried shrimp poor boy
»Smothered fried oyster poor boy
»Muffuletta
»Chicago-style hot dog (poppyseed bun, yellow
Mustard, relish, peppers, pickle spear, diced onion, tomato, celery salt
»Hamburgers (many possible configurations)
Salads
Gott salad (fried brie, greens, pecans, berries, tomatoes, raspberry vinaigrette
Prosciutto and asparagus salad
»Fried oyster and spinach salad, blue cheese, apple, cashews
»Curry chicken salad
Grilled vegetable salad
Chicken club salad
Caesar salad
Entrees
»Daily specials
»Gumbo with chicken, andouille, shrimp, crab, ham, okra, potato salad
Five-cheese mac and cheese, truffle butter, shaved parmesan
Breakfast
»Jumbo shrimp and smoked gouda yellow grits, andouille, lobster cognac butter sauce
»Crab and brie omelette, asparagus, lobster Cognac crème
Omelettes made to order
St Paddy’s day breakfast (corned beef potato hash, chaurice sausage, jalapeno, cheddar, peppers, two eggs
»Ham and brie eggs Benedict
Biscuits and sausage gravy with two eggs
»Buttermilk pancakes
Fresh berry buttermilk pancakes
Broken yolk sandwich (fried eggs, cheese, chipotle cream cheese, roasted tomatoes; ham, bacon, or sausage
»Breakfast burritos filled with a wide assortment of vegetables, cheeses, cured meats, and eggs; you pick
FOR BEST RESULTS
The Saturday and Sunday breakfasts are the best food here, and the most crowded.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
Here is a great example of the biggest problem in the restaurant business today: chefs thinking too much about ingredients and not enough about how good the finished dish tastes.
FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.
- Dining Environment +1
- Consistency +1
- Service+1
- Value +1
- Attitude +2
- Wine & Bar
- Hipness
- Local Color
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Sidewalk tables
- Good for business meetings
- Open Sunday lunch
- Open all afternoon
- Unusually large servings
- Quick, good meal
- Good for children
- Curbside parking only, a little hard to come by
- No reservations
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
No ingredient here is just plain. Example, from the description of the house salad: "Panko fried brie over organic greens, house candied pecans,
seasonal berries, grape tomatoes, with raspberry vinaigrette." Unfortunately, one can't really be talked into liking a dish. They use biodegradable take-out containers.
