A few months back I noticed an interesting place deep in an Old Metairie neighborhood. It is clearly a bar in an older, less orderly section of the area. It’s on the corner of Hesiod and Orion and is surrounded by homes. This is not the manicured swanky section of Old Metairie. This is the older section around before zoning would have eliminated such a situation.
I was instantly intrigued by Mama’s Place and finally made it back there just recently to see what it was about. It’s an old building and clearly a dark bar inside. There is the requisite pool table, and an assortment of guys sitting at the bar. The bartender was surprised when I entered the building. I was clearly not the regular customer.
The order was not easy because there were a few things I wanted here. There was a meat pie which I was told was sold out, so I pivoted to the spinach and artichoke dip. It seemed like I should get a burger at a place like this. I’m always told about burgers in bars, so here was my chance to have one. The waitress seemed proud of this burger.
And of course I came for the club sandwich, so I added one of those. A bar is the least likely place one would find me, so I went outside to a large patio. It wasn’t a planned patio or a groomed one, but it worked. The tables were plastic with red umbrellas, and a big gravel covered space was underfoot. It was a little uneven with tree stumps sticking out in parts, adding to its humble charm.
What I noticed as I sat waiting for my food was that there were pots of herbs growing about. Very unexpected for a bar.
When the waitress told me that they made their own salsa fresh every day and fried their own tortilla chips, seeing the herbs made sense.
Who would have thought a little bar deep in an Old Metairie neighborhood in an Art Deco building would be doing such things? But maybe that’s why they do it. The building dates the place to well before the convenience culture encouraged cutting corners. The owner inherited the place from his mother, so that’s probably the way she did it. If it ain’t broke….
The menu was rather lengthy, and it includes things like Royal Red Shrimp, snow crab legs, and a filet mignon sandwich among the usual sports bar offerings. The burger section alone was enormous, featuring hand-formed patties. I asked with some trepidation if the fries were cur in house. At any other sports bar I would not have asked that but if they were doing these other things an ordinary sports bar wouldn’t (and didn’t need to) do, perhaps they were. They weren’t doing that extra step. The fries were regular frozen fries.
On the other hand, the place has a wine list that includes Caymus! Okay, that's the only one in that league, but still…
It took a while but the spinach dip arrived and it was a large portion in a cast iron crock, spilling over with grated Parm. The requisite salsa and sour cream came in their tiny cups, as usual. I meant to tell her to leave these off but before I remembered they had landed on the table. I’m glad I had the salsa to try. It was fresh as promised and very good. So was the spinach dip, which improved with every bite. It was really rich, and thick, providing a heft test to the chips which were large and fried in house. They were hefty enough to support the dip. I liked this.
.jpg)
The club sandwich was very nice. Not exceptional in that you have to go there to get it, but it is a very good classic club sandwich.
Because the fries were frozen fries and because I didn’t want a whole order, I asked if I could sub out the fries with onion rings. They approved the switch and those came on the plate too. The onion rings made me less enthusiastic. They were too large for my taste and a tad greasy. Still fried onion rings, but ordinary.
My expectations grew too much after the spin dip, and the hamburger was a surprise disappointment too. The hand-formed patty was very nice but the bun got all my attention, and it wasn’t good attention. The dense, large bun was dusted with cornmeal, which I normally like. But this was a cold bun. Not room temp…cold. Right out of the refrigerator. That was such an affront that I could barely focus on the rest of it. But this would have been a nice burger otherwise. Not great, but certainly good enough.
After reading this through it sounds like Mama’s Place is pretty ordinary, but I don’t think that is true. I respect the little extras that they do at a bar where expectations are low. I haven’t had nearly enough here, but I plan to return to this charming little place off the beaten path to see what other surprises might await.
