Monday, August 8, 2011.
Return To Petunia's.
After the radio show, the Marys deigned to join me for dinner, but only if. . . [the usual considerations]. From out of left field an idea hit me. What about Petunia's? "I could do that," said MA. "Me, too," said ML.
Petunia's is a restaurant we've not visited in seven or eight years. We used to go there so often that we tired of it. It was very big among the Scouts, when they were all in single-digit years. It had home-style cooking, big poor boys, burgers, and seafood, and everything was amply served and inexpensive.
I never warmed up to the place because it was self-service. I'm not lazy, nor do I have a thing about being waited on. But because a server provides a link between you and the establishment, restaurants with table service almost always have better food than similar restaurants without it. After Katrina, Petunia's hired its first staff of waitresses. This has made a tremendous difference. Not only is the eating nicer without all that running around for iced tea refills, napkins, and food, but it seems to me the menu has become much more interesting.
My entree, for example. Oysters Darin are fried, placed atop artichoke dressing, which in turn is piled on a fried eggplant slice. The whole thing was drizzled with a creamy, pink sauce with shrimp. Pasta bordelaise on the side. Of course, this is a classic example of too much stuff on a plate--common in St. Tammany, even in the better restaurants. By picking around I made it work.
Mary Ann was going after that artichoke dressing, which she loves. But something else at Petunia's grabs her even tighter: jambalaya. That's one of her favorite dishes, enough so that she makes a batch every week or two. She orders jambalaya everywhere she encounters it.
"It's just like I remember it!" she said, eyebrows raised, after the first forkful. "This is still the best jambalaya in town!" Coming from her, that's saying something. I have to admit it's pretty good.
Meanwhile, Mary Leigh packed away half the immodest portion of chicken parmigiana. (After an order of cheese fries. She's on a diet, see.)
I had the only dessert at our table. It was an amaretto cake, the texture of which was so light as to suggest a soufflee. That's quite an achievement, given that three sauces were soaking it.
Physically, it's the same homey place. One of the tables has a pattern of hot sauce bottles on its surface. In the old days, we used to play some kind of game with this, but none of us could remember the rules. The lady who waited on us was fun and efficient. Owner-chef Darin LeBoeuf and his wife came over to update us on their kids, who were very little the last time we were here. It was all very nostalgic.
In its food, Petunia's is a much better restaurant than I remember. Even its decor--dominated by pictures of pigs--has come of age. Now some of the hippest restaurants in town plaster pig images all over the place. (Petunia was Porky's girlfriend, and the LeBoeufs had a pet pig by that name.)
I think Petunia's is back on our list.
Petunia's Place. Mandeville: 2020 Hwy 59. 985-674-3436.
