Mary Leigh came to me rather excited about a place called Odelia, which had just opened in Mandeville. Last week Tom and I were looking for someplace new to talk about from our small Northshore orbit. We drove to Mandeville and were heading to the Times Bar and Grill when I remembered that Odelia was not far away. I chuckle thinking about the dichotomy of these two places. The Times Bar and Grill is like Ground Pat’i but maybe not as good. And Odelia? Well, Odelia it turns out, is hard to describe. There is certainly nothing like it on the Northshore. On the Southshore there is Bar Marilou, but even that isn’t a relevant comparison.
Bar Marilou is a little French “library” connected to the Hotel Maison de la Luz on Carondelet as part of the Ace Hotel complex. It is vintage in style, small, and clubby.
Odelia is glamorous, and it is easy to believe it is owned by an interior designer and her son. The style here is hard to describe, but it is a very modern French wine bar and cafe. While it is not my style, the place is a feast for the eyes. Tom and I were very underdressed for Odelia, but we would have been perfect for the Times Bar and Grill. Most of the other clientele here were smart and casual and mostly female. This is definitely a chick place, but also a great date space for a kind of sexy date. The music overhead is cliché French, and I love it!
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The menu is smallish but adequate. I had to really think about things I wanted to eat, and Tom didn’t seem interested in anything. I was surprised to learn that they were cutting potatoes in the back for their fries. I am always impressed by this. These came in two versions: Sea Salt, and Truffle Parmesan. I asked them to hold the truffle as I usually do. The fries were battered, or seemed so, and came with a chimichurri sauce and a garlic aioli I didn’t care for either of these, and I love both those sauces pretty much everywhere else.
It looks to me like the chef has the right ideas (though I never see chimichurri with anything other than meat) but maybe lacks experience in execution.
We also ordered white bean hummus. The Del Porto version of this is the benchmark, and this didn’t come close. It was frankly a little odd, with a perimeter of oil around the edges of the spread, with green olives and sprigs of rosemary in the center. The pile of toasted crostinis was perhaps the best thing about this.
Our adorable waitress suggested we try the onion soup. I wasn’t feeling like soup, but her enthusiasm sold me. This was a large portion in a beautiful tall crock with a thick crouton on top, covered in a blanket of melted cheese.
The soup itself was fine, with thicker slices of onion than I expected. The broth was thicker than I like without much of a hint of sweetness. My first thought about it was a rating of ordinary, but it did improve with each bite. The toast on top was properly sealed with melted Gruyere, but the bread was unusually dense, like a ciabatta. And too thick. I had to wrestle with this.
Our main course this day was two sliders with pimiento cheese. They were cute little burgers with a shiny brioche top and pimiento cheese as the condiment. Alongside this duo was a cup of veggies made up of a heart of lettuce, a slice of red tomato, and somewhat sad pickle slices.
The best thing about this by far was the pimiento cheese, and a great app here would be a crock of this with some of those crunchy and buttery crostini. I liked its texture which tended to be dense. It wasn’t especially vivid in flavor but it was very good.
As an afterthought, I got an egg tartlet of the day, which was bacon and cheese. It was way too salty, but otherwise perfect. The crust was light, flaky, crumbly, and buttery and the ingredients were a delicious mix of tasty bacon with the exact right amount of cheese, herbs, and a few veggies. I have thought about this little pastry more than a few times since we left, and I will definitely be back to get more of this, even as a grab-and-go.
Finally, three little macarons were sent out with compliments from the chef. This was served in a beautiful glass dish, so pretty I actually ate some. The peanut butter was my favorite, but I also liked the raspberry one. Tom ate a plain vanilla cookie. Nice touch.
We sat by the window and were the first thing anyone saw walking in, but in reality, we’d be a great example of one of those kid puzzles “What doesn’t belong here?” Everything about this place is smart, sophisticated, and downright sassy. And I think that eventually, the food will catch up.
