Throughout Tom’s career, I remember him often saying how much he wished he could just eat what he wanted and not where he had to go. It took me thirty years to fully understand that. Now circumstances of his compromised health play an oversized role in where we eat, the choice often having little to do with food.
Case in point: Labor Day weekend, a holiday, which to me requires something special. I wanted to take a little road trip to eat. We headed west to go to Phil’s Oyster in Baton Rouge, but I thought I should check to see if they stayed open all afternoon. They were set to close in a half hour.
I turned around and headed east to the Gulf Coast. Thorny Oyster was closed, BR Prime at Beau Rivage was closed, and the new Biloxi location of Field’s Steakhouse was closed. We hadn’t yet gotten to the Hwy 434 exit from I-12 to Lacombe. Instantly I thought of Sal & Judy’s, a place we don’t visit often enough.
We love the food turned out by the Impastato brand. We were delighted when Joe Impastato’s wife and daughter opened a place here in Madisonville, but I have since totally cooled on the place. Lately, when we need a fix of the Impastato’s deft hand with seafood and cream sauces, we drive to Sal & Judy’s.
It took barely a minute to get excited about another visit there, even though it wasn’t on our minds when we left the house. I was surprised that they weren’t full, but Sal explained on a visit to the table that the place cleared out at 3pm because of the LSU game. Good for us.
We had a wonderful young lady server, but that is true of every member of the wait staff here. I was delighted to see my favorite stuffed artichoke on the menu, even though it has gone from $9.95 a few years ago to $15.95 now. Unfortunately, they were out of them. Sal also told me when he visited that they sell at least thirty every day.
The table immediately had the big pile of French bread croutons or crostini in the basket, and another loaf of perfectly toasted French bread, wrapped warm in a napkin,. These were accompanied by a ridiculously enormous crock of butter.
We ordered entrees after the stuffed artichoke realization, but then I came back with crab claws for an appetizer. These were a nice size and came in the most delectable lemon cream sauce. I was aghast at the amount of the toasted French bread I consumed with that sauce.
Tom’s Trout Almondine came with a Caesar salad, which at Sal & Judy’s oddly comes with a separate dish of Bleu cheese crumbles and large housemade garlic croutons. I am always puzzled by this combo, but it is still good. Sal’s brother Joe at Impastasto’s in Metairie serves a delicious creamy Italian dressing on their house salad. I prefer that one but this one is great too.
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The trout was an enormous portion. Two filets were pan-seared and topped with a generous brown butter sauce and blanketed in toasted almonds. This was divine. It came with intensely buttered haricot verts.
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I also ordered a side of the fettuccine for Tom, who considers the Impastato version of Fettuccine Alfredo second to none, including the original version at Alfredo’s in Rome.
My entree changed. I intended to get the Aglio Olio, which is something I get whenever I see it. Mine is the best to my taste, but I continue to keep an open mind. On this day, though, I switched instantly to meatballs and spaghetti when a pile of it was delivered to a neighboring table. Plate envy strikes again, but in this case, my nose led me to it. Wafting through the dining room was an intense herbal tomato smell, and it literally grabbed my attention. The portion was large, and I got a kid’s size instead.
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The meatball was good, occupying that ideal space between firm but not too firm. The spaghetti was served pomodoro style, so there was little extra sauce after it had been tossed with the angel hair pasta. This was a tasty plate of food, and it really hit the spot. Tom ate so much I could hardly believe it. But it was so good it was hard to stop. The fettuccine, though not as good here as at Impastato’s in Metairie, is still very very good. The noodles here are wider than there, but the sauce is the same thick and delicious Parmesan cream sauce. It was pretty obscene what we ate, but it was so good we just didn’t stop. And that’s how it is every time we go.
There are countless Italian restaurants in New Orleans, featuring the Sicilian version of the classic red sauce and cream sauce dishes. We like them all, but none more than the consistent food put out by these brothers from Palermo.
