[title type="h3"]Breaking News[/title]
About ten years ago, Steve Supperman saw two things that fired up his entrepreneurial zeal. The first was a food truck with a long line of people waiting to by nothing more impressive than basic tacos and enchiladas. Later the same day, walking up Decatur Street in front of the House of Blues, he saw three immense private tour buses. They belonged to a major band Steve never heard of. He asked the guard how many people the buses could hold. Sixteen to forty, he was told, depending on whether the travelers needed sleeping and eating facilities. "What's it look like in there?" he asked. The guard wouldn't let him in, but he did say that the occupants of the bus live a lot better than he does at home.
A few weeks later, Steve had two big buses on his hands. A few months later, he installed a kitchen in one bus, a bar big enough to contain its own live band in the other, and elegant dining rooms in both. From opening night--February 6 just past--both buses have been sold out for two dinners every night as they drive around the most scenic parts of New Orleans.
Readers of this column for a long time might remember Steve Supperman's name. In the 1980s, he operated a moving restaurant in two streetcars on the St. Charles line. Doors allowed passenger-diners to go from the front car for drinks to the rear car for the main part of the meal. Maintenance of the old streetcars was too expensive, though, and after a year and a half Steve had to shut the service down.
He appeared again in the late 1990s. This time he had an antique railroad dining car that served dinner between Little Woods and Point aux Herbes on the Lake Pontchartrain shoreline. It looked promising, but a few weeks after the inaugural trip a malfunction left the car powerless on the tracks for several days, discouraging future riders/diners.
Steve's new movable restaurant--its name is "Going Forward"--is literally a little closer to home. The route changes, but usually takes in St. Charles Avenue, the French Quarter, the lakefront, and a river crossing on the Huey P. Long Bridge. "I'd like to include the Garden District and Magazine Street," he says. "But I can't fit my coaches around the drainage digs. They make dinner hard to cook and even harder to eat. Same story in the cemeteries and Lakeview."
Going Forward takes its culinary standards very seriously. The chef is Willis Gottlieb, who has experience in the kitchens of Antoine's, Galatoire's, Commander's Palace, all of the John Besh restaurants, Gautreau's, the Port of Call, Clancy's, Mr. B's, Café Giovanni, and Houston's. He also was for a time a chef on oil rigs in the Gulf.
His food is upscale New Orleans in its general style, but with more than little influence from the grand French dining palaces. The best way to sample it is to command the chef's tasting menu, an eight-course dinner at the alarming price of $20.16. I sampled it in early March.
The dinner starts with foie gras with jumbo lump crabmeat topped with hollandaise and a sprinkling of caviar. The second course is a cold plate of house-made (or should we call it "coach-made?) charcuterie, with shrimp remoulade, raw oysters, and more crabmeat in the center.
Chef Willis says that serving soup aboard a moving vehicle--even with its servo-balanced stabilizers--is tricky. "I just make the turtle soup, gumbo, or crawfish bisque very heavy in texture," he says. "You can turn the bowl upside down and it will stay!"
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Autumn place setting with leaves, candles and pumpkins.[/caption]
Course Four is the fish of the day, with an emphasis on pompano, red snapper, cobia, or all three. Again with the jumbo lump crabmeat all over the place. Or, out of season--big sea scallops.
Next comes a rack of Colorado lamb--the best there is--with strata of sauces including bearnaise, mint demi-glace, peppercorn cream, and molé. Very hearty, this brings six chops to the table, with some fresh vegetable sides, to boot.
The tradition of serving a game course following the main is alive in Willis's kitchen. The night I was there it was a pressed duck, as spectacular as the famous version at Tour d'Argent in Paris.
It is in this part of the dinner that the peak appreciation of the wines set in. Big red Burgundies are the standard, since the Bordeaux wines were in charge of slaking thirsts in the previous course. It is also at this point that we discover the wines are served on an all-you-can-drink basis. You get a bottle, no matter what, and it's bottomless.
The seventh course continues the good luck. If you're a cheese connoisseur, you'll freak out to see what Going Forward serves you in the way of fromage. With everything at perfect ripeness. The dessert cart comes forward tout de suite, with bus-made pastries, flaming desserts, baked Alaska, and too much to fit it all in here.
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One of the two luxury coaches for service aboard Goaing Forward.[/caption]
Somehow, you eat all of it. If you're still hungry, they have no problem with bringing second or third courses--even if you take the whole thing home with you.
And, again I tell you: all this for the price of $20.16. The tip is not included, but you are asked to give your waiter five dollars--no more, no less. The servers are fully pleased with this unique policy.
Written by Tom Fitzmorris April 01, 2016 13:01 in
