Back around the time of Katrina an obscure little space behind Mandina’s would become the flagship location of the Ruby Slipper empire. It’s in a quiet Mid-City neighborhood, and Ruby Slipper became a restaurant because the owners wanted a neighborhood brunch place. While Ruby Slipper was breakfast brunch, Rosella only serves dinner with brunch on weekends.
That was twenty years ago, and it’s been a number of years since Ruby Slipper left the building. It’s been a thing or two since then, and it is currently a restaurant called Rosella. The proprietors of Rosella are Romney Richard, the founder of Louisiana Cookin’ magazine, and her husband Charley. They seemed to keep a low profile around the dining scene after the sale of the magazine in 2012. Romney and I chatted at Tom’s services and she mentioned that she had taken over a little place from her daughter.
I made a mental note then to go see what Rosella was about but just got there last weekend. I was glad it came to mind as I was in search of a lunch spot in the area. A “little spot” is the perfect description of Rosella, which is in a two story building with a New Orleans-style diagonal entrance. Inside is a charming mid 20th century decor, with colors of pink and green and furniture of upholstered metal chairs and banquettes. Very cute.
The place is surprisingly large in terms of numbers of seats. The adorable bar has round upholstered swivel seats and the remainder of the space is filled with mostly 2 tops. I’ll bet the place is buzzing when you go at the right time.
I swung in for a quick breakfast, ordering the Basic Betty from the menu, which translates to my usual 2 eggs any style…, etc. I chose bacon, potatoes, and biscuits to fill out the other slots. It took a while to get food, but I showed up in the opening minutes of business. I watched the bartender pouring glasses of fresh-squeezed orange juice for another table. It had the gravitas of color and density that makes the real deal obvious. She affirmed that they were indeed doing this labour of love.
My little breakfast arrived as a proper portion of food to eat. The eggs were cooked exactly as I asked, placed alongside two cute biscuits and a little pile of rosemary potatoes. A few slices of bacon finished out the plate. The bacon was smoky but I would have much preferred it to be cooked to crisp. This just sat there limp and greasy. I would have blotted it and eaten it but I didn’t want to use a cloth napkin.
And I didn’t care for the rosemary potatoes, which were appealingly soft and bite-sized, but rosemary should just be a subtle hint. The little biscuits were what I am now calling a hybrid of drop and cut. They were cut circles but had the texture of dense and lumpy drop biscuits. They were charming little biscuits.
This does not sound appealing, but there were lots of other things on the menu I could have gotten that were far more exciting. I just didn’t feel like eating them.
Just the fact that they are squeezing their own juice means they are doing things right, and taking those extra steps. I look forward to going back to Rosella, which is an adorable little place with an eclectic menu of fun things to try. The owners know food, and they managed a successful magazine featuring New Orleans food, so I think there is a lot of promise here.
And who knows? There is magic in that space...
