Monday, May 21, 2012.
Farewell, Buddy. Same Old Copeland's.
Funeral today for Buddy Himbert, father of one of Jude's closest friends during their years at Christian Brothers School. The four of us met during the school's annual fishing derby, on the boat going to Ship Island. During the voyage, Buddy had no end of stories about his many encounters with rock stars during his years working on the production side of such gigs. We got to know the Himberts well enough that Buddy's wife Debbie handled all our Eat Club travel arrangements for years, and they shared Thanksgiving and other feeds a few times at our place.
After the services, Mary Ann wanted to have lunch. I didn't have quite enough time before the radio show began. I'm trying to make up for last night's surplus meal at La Carreta, anyway.
And I knew we were going to the newly-renovated Copeland's on Veterans Boulevard tonight. Mary Ann is trying to sell them an ad, but first she has to sell me on the place. I thought Copeland's was good for many years, but in recent times it has been much less impressive. The menu seems old hat, and they're covering lots of flaws with cream, cheese, and other kinds of richness.
But this new edition of Copeland's is supposed to be a harbinger of a new era. I'm always ready to open my mind. I liked immediately that barbecue lamb ribs are back. Those were on Copeland's original menu in the 1980s. They emerged from the fertile mind of chef Warren Leruth, who consulted for a long time for Al Copeland. But nobody ordered them but me, or so they told me when they took the lamb ribs off the menu after a couple of years. I wonder how long they'll remain this time at $30 an order.
We had a table of five, with Mary Ann's brother Tim and his daughter Hillary, plus the Marys and me. First came crawfish bread. Nothing like the dish of the same name at the Jazz Festival, more like a really cheesy, overloaded garlic bread. Pretty good, actually. And fried eggplant rounds topped with shrimp remoulade and a single fried oyster. So, a variation on the Upperline's fried green tomato with shrimp remoulade. Good, but the shrimp were cool while everything else--including the sauce--was warm. That seemed funny to me.
A hamburger for ML, chicken Creole for Hillary. They were in a hurry to leave, because they were off to a concert downtown.
I was going to get the lamb ribs. But the server never came back to the table to take our order. We sat and sat. I heard that the high school and college graduations had stressed the service staff over the weekend, and they may have been taking a breather.
I aborted the rest of the dinner, and vowed to come back on a better-staffed night. On the other hand, if this is really the renaissance that a lot of us former Copeland's regulars have been hoping for, it was not in evidence in anything I saw here tonight.
Copeland's. Metairie: 701 Veterans Blvd. 504-831-3437.
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.
