Saturday, June 2, 2012.
Shut Out Of Zachary's. Lakehouse And The Breeze.
Mary Ann asked to be joined at breakfast. Two weeks in a row! Life is good. Mattina Bella again, where I learned that the young server who has made the Saintsations team is actually the daughter of owners Vincent and Debbie Riccobono, not a former employee like I said last week. The Riccobonos have seven grown children, and all the girls are beautiful, so I get them confused.
A new addition to Mattina Bella's menu is eggs Benedict with smoked salmon in place of the ham. I have had this before--most memorably at the extinct Bistro Steak Room in Westwego, back in the 1970s. But all the others served the salmon hot. Here it was at cool room temperature, revealing a mistake on the part of the other places. The subtle flavors of smoked salmon get out of whack when it's heated. Once again, Mattina Bella stands in the top ranks of careful egg cookery.
A three-hour radio show in the afternoon came and went. As soon as it ended, Mary Ann said that we really ought to go someplace nice tonight--not a restaurant we need to attend for business reasons, but one we simply like. This from the woman who keeps telling me that my love for dining out is an evil force in her life. Well, I'm not complaining.
Her first idea was Zachary's, the little bistro in Mandeville that has been so enthusiastically received by a lot of my callers. We ate there a few months ago and found it good as those touts averred. But when I called for a reservation, I got a recorded message. When we showed up at six (they open at five), no cars were in the parking lot, the lights were off, the doors were locked, and no message was posted anywhere. Maybe they're on vacation, or maybe they have an equipment problem, or an illness. It's mainly the chef and his wife here, and a couple of servers. Tiny place. Hard to make a go of it, as several previous occupants learned. But I will assume that they are still in business until I can contact somebody.
So what now? La Provence? Nuvolari's? Café Lynn? No, no, and no said MA, who needs not only good food but a match to her mood of the moment. How about Lakehouse? she offered. I could do that, but are they open? You never know when they will be, since owner Cayman Sinclair and his staff have a very active business of catering weddings and parties there, and another one feeding movie crews shooting here.
We got lucky. Open and ready to go. We sat outside, of course--Mary Ann's default, especially on a pleasant, warm, breezy evening.
The chef sent out an amuse of shrimp with pickled vegetables, "which did not amuse me," says MA. Then a half-order of the pasta carbonara with shrimp. Very good, but very rich--I don't know how anyone could have got through a full order of this. MA--who suddenly has begun ordering oysters wherever we go, something she never did until recently--got the flash-friend oysters scattered with shavings of cheeses and antipasto-style cured meats. She hated it for the same reason I liked it: the oysters were cooked in such hot oil that the crust browned before the inside of the oyster firmed up. Her texture problem was my enjoyable extra appetizer.
Two salads, hers with heirloom tomatoes (the only thing they inherited was an orange color), feta cheese, and greens. Standard Caesar for me, continuing my satisfaction so far.
That ended with the sauce on seared mahi mahi. The fish was good--better than usual for that highly variable fish. But the piquante sauce was a very thick, peppery Creole sauce. Much too thick, I thought. And too much of it. A shame, because here was one of those rare dishes involving seafood and tomatoes that actually worked pretty well.
When Mary Ann orders crab cakes, she is usually doomed to disappointment. Most of what are served as crab cakes are really stuffed crab in a cake shape. These were about halfway there. But she'd already decided that Chef Mark McInness wasn't on duty tonight. (He wasn't, gassed out as he was from an all-night movie shoot he had to cater the day before.)
We ended up with a little comp dessert of chocolate mousse with half a strawberry, served in a disposable plastic cup of the kind used by caterers. Well, that was easy to dope out.
Although the food failed Mary Ann's desires, we still had a nice evening, the breeze coming in from Lake Pontchartrain across the street forgiving many sins. And MA always likes to chew the fat with Cayman, who can keep right up with her.
Lakehouse. Mandeville: 2025 Lakeshore Dr. 985-626-3006.
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.
