Monday, July 9, 2012.
Don's Seafood Hut Comes To Covington.
The rain just keeps on coming. I remember other times like this--notably the summer of 1963, when the thunderstorms started coming at ten in the morning and trapped bicycle riders like me in some odd places for hours. My father loved weather like this, and even liked being stranded. He was an odd bird in a few ways, but none that make me feel anything less than warm when I remember him.
So I did my usual work, paused for a salad lunch exactly like the one I had yesterday, did the radio show, then went out to dinner. I wasn't sure what I wanted, which is why the relatively new (four or five months) Don's Seafood Hut suggested itself to me when I passed in front of it. The place has been packing them in, of course. Nothing like a spanking new place to draw Northshorinians. But the rain and Mondayness opened up tables.
Other than at the original Don's in Lafayette, my luck at Don's has been abysmal over the years. This is especially true of the one in Metairie. It's very popular, but for reasons beyond my understanding.
I never write off a restaurant forever, and it was time to try the new Don's. The hostess was one of those young ladies who don't yet understand the preferences of other people, and who instead seems determined to wear out each table in the place equally. A solo diner like me gets a pick of the worst places in the house. I wound up with one under a freezing air conditioning vent, with a heavily-trafficked path for the waiters right behind my chair.
But then things got much better. "Jacked-up shrimp" come to the table in a special skillet with seven pockets, sort of like the pans used for escargots. The contents of each pocket were bubbling: cheese, butter, jalapenos, bacon, and a big shrimp. I ate the first one too soon and burned my mouth. I got the other kind of burn (the kind that lasts quite a bit longer) from the hot-pepper content, just a tad over my limit. But the taste and the aroma were alluring, qualifying this as an exciting, innovative dish--if one needing a little moderation of the chile peppers.
This is one of Don's newer dishes, and to emphasize it the new Don's has a large open grill in the center of the dining room. It is kept full most of the time with grilled oysters a la Drago's. (They have a variation on the idea called kicked-up oysters.) So they seem to be emphasizing that side of the operation.
They certainly have done nothing to change the fried seafood. I never liked it, and I still don't. Both the catfish and the oysters were overfried, resulting in two equally unappealing problems: 1) the seafood was dry and b) the distinctive flavor of overheated oil lingered as an aftertaste. Not even the cole slaw--with an icky-sweet, very thick dressing--meshed with what I expect from such a platter.
As has always been the case at Don's, the service staff was happy, friendly, flexible and responsive. The restaurant itself--originally built as a TGI Friday's, then turned into a Sake Cafe--has been redecorated with a rustic theme mixed with clean lines, so that's pleasant enough.
Don's dates back to the 1930s, and understandably doesn't want to mess with its heritage recipes. But it has to sooner or later, and needs to.
I just beat the next lightning storm to the house. It would be the most violent yet, forcing me to unplug everything to keep the electronics from frying. I sat on the sofa waiting for the deafening booms after the brilliant flashes, a few of which were unnervingly nearby. The rain came down in bathtubs.
Don's Seafood Hut. Covington: 126 Lake Dr. 985-327-7111.
It's over three years since a day was missed in the Dining Diary. To browse through all of the entries since 2008, go here.
