When I heard that Michael Gulotta was opening an Italian restaurant in Metairie I got very excited. He is Italian, and I am a big fan of his food, though I had no illusions it would be anything like what I knew. Michael Gulotta puts his spin on everything so he keeps a diner guessing. Why would I get a sweet taste from an olive salad? I wondered. Answer: Bing cherries.
I like Tana, despite these anomalies. Mainly I like the fact that there is a glamorous restaurant in Metairie. In an area with the Galley, Porter & Luke, and Giorlando’s, stylish is a welcome departure. The meals that we have had at Tana were nice but not all that exceptional. I’d go for the ambience more than the food.
And then I saw an IG post mentioning pizza, which really surprised me. I couldn’t imagine Tana incorporating something as pedestrian as pizza into its offerings. But they aren't really. It seems that pizza is only served at Happy Hour every day from 4:30-6.
From there it gets complicated. There is a bar which means barstools at the bar. There is a Lounge which is filled with sumptuous tall banquettes. There is a small patio outside around back, and there is of course the dining room.
We checked at the desk at arrival and learned that Happy Hour pizza would not be served outside, could not be served in the dining room, and was available only in the bar and lounge. Because it is hard for Tom to sit anywhere much less a high top, we chose a table in the lounge.
House wines were $9 a glass and I got a Cab. It was terrific. It made me almost want to linger with a glass of wine like normal people.
The pizza thing was interesting. I don’t know what I was expecting because I expect anything with Michael Gulotta.
They were a little larger in size than a personal pan pizza and were priced at $12 and $15 dollars. My initial reaction was that it seemed high but this ain’t Pizza Hut. It’s a beautiful first-class restaurant using premium ingredients.
And these premium ingredients made it unnecessary to eat a lot. There was a mushroom white pizza and a red sauce sausage pizza. They both were great. Thin crust, but stiff crust, and each slice was small enough to hold the ingredients which on both pies was a rich combination of flavors.
And then our enthusiasm came to an end. There were only these two pizzas on the Happy Hour menu, and we wanted to get an app or two from the regular menu. Tom would have loved to have the Oysters in Bordelaise sauce that we had last time. They are golden brown crispy and greaseless fried oysters in a pool of New Orleans Bordelaise sauce dusted with Parmesan cheese.
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And I liked the Stuffed Focaccia enough to have it again. Yes, the Bing cherries are weird but the rest of it is good. It’s Michael Gulotta’s spin on a muffuletta. All the classic ingredients are there except they are stuffed into a focaccia roll and toasted, with the olive salad exploding from up top and cascading down the sides.
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We asked to order these two apps and were told we were sitting in the wrong place. We could move to the bar or move to the restaurant, but the only food available where we were sitting was the pizza.
I asked the waitress to see the manager, thinking that when we explained that it was hard for Tom to move from where he was, and even harder to get him on a high chair he would allow us to “break this rule,” but he was immovable. “If I allow you to do it, everyone else will want to do it," he said, gesturing to an empty lounge.
Considering how obvious Tom’s impairment is I found his reply astounding. Tom is not the only handicapped person in restaurants, and I just assumed a manager would not turn down an opportunity to add to a check.
I was wrong.
