Many years ago Tom took me to a little dump of a place on the levee in Jefferson called The Rivershack. It was charmingly raffish, and the food was basic: sandwiches and poor boys, etc. Fast forward to now and I was shocked to learn that The Rivershack had opened a new place on the river in charming old Gretna. Did we need another Rivershack? Apparently, because a third location just opened in Rivertown in the space that was DiPiero many years ago.
I was delighted to hear that the Rivershack was taking over the long-dormant restaurant space left by the Italian restaurant DiPiero. The renovation is beautiful. I couldn’t wait to try it.
It is smaller than you think when you walk in. Light and airy, with beautiful tilework, it is a far cry from the dumpy original. I learned that there were three owners, who split off and two are reproducing these new ones. One kept the original.
The food at The Rivershack is ordinary. And the prices are cheap. And the place will be packed. I am so happy to see someone else revising the fortunes of poor Rivertown. Between The Rivershack and Ground Pati, Rivertown is booming. But I wondered about two places a block from each other doing essentially the same thing. It will be interesting to see.
At lunch recently we went crazy with the apps. We got the Kennebruh Queso, which was queso with Patton’s hot sausage, Buffalo shrimp that I mistook for a Bang Bang shrimp clone, eggrolls, and spin dip.
The queso is named for the location. In the other locations, there is a name to indicate the place, and all have the Patton's hot sausage, which is a unique take on this idea. We liked this.
The eggrolls were not interesting at all and frankly need reworking. There was some chicken and some beans and some cheese, which all added up to nothing. There are too many good eggrolls out there to be serving these. They were also dark, which annoys me when I see them. Change the oil.
I liked the spin dip. It was a little dry, which reminded me of my own. Very cheesy with a lot of spinach. Both dips were served with the most ordinary and boring chips out there.
The Buffalo shrimp were very spicy. They seemed to be coated with a Buffalo coating rather than a sauce. These left me cold as well. There was a lot of good Bleu cheese interspersed with the shrimp.
Of all of these I think the queso was the best, but that doesn’t mean it was good.
For entrees, I inquired about the Club Sandwich and was told it is served on French bread. Hmmm. I switched to a combo seafood plate to share with Tom. Someone else at the table got the Wimpy burger, which is a small one-patty burger, and a bargain at $11.
The seafood was very crispy. The platter came with two pieces of catfish and an ample amount of shrimp, plus a lot of fries. This was a fine plate of seafood but again very ordinary. The fries were the best thing about it to me. Frozen fries are ubiquitous and usually boring. These little shoestring fries were fried well and nicely seasoned, and I found myself wanting to eat way more of them than I should. That is different. In hindsight, I wished I had gotten the Garbage Fries, which is debris gravy and cheese over these very good fries.
The little Wimpy burger was also quite good. It was basic meat and bread and we got cheese and dressings. There is no need for a bigger burger. There is a full menu of burgers, which might be worth exploring.
A more traditional club sandwich is set to be rolled out soon, along with an old-fashioned Chef’s Salad. I will return to try that. In the cooler months, it will be fun to sit outside on the ample patio and relax with ordinary food. The setting is such that there isn’t really any need for it to be better. It is plenty good enough.
