Saturday, June 22, 2013.
Back To Mac's.
If Mac's makes it long-term--and it looks like it's doing pretty well--Mary Ann and I will be very happy about it. The restaurant is in the middle of Old Covington, a place that we find very charming. The typical decay in small towns has not destroyed the downtown. In the time we've lived nearby, it seems consistently to be on the rise, albeit in a more tenuous way than we see on, say Magazine Street.
Several restaurants have come and gone in Mac's space. It's a modest, renovated cottage with a deck. It's a little hard to see. The best landmark is across the street, a gigantic live oak that encroaches a bit on the right-of-way of Boston Street, the main drag through Covington. It's easy to drive past, and because Boston Street takes a dog-leg turn at that spot, it's a little hard to figure out how to get back.
Despite all of that, Mac's was filled this evening. Mac was even there. We can't figure Mac out. By day, he's the chef at Liz's Whereyaat Café in Mandeville, a phenomenally busy place for breakfast and lunch. Then he runs his namesake restaurant at night.
I think Mary Ann was going to declare it too hot to sit out on the deck for dinner, despite her love of al fresco environments. But we didn't have that choice. All the indoor tables were full. And, with a rain that had come through earlier, things had cooled down reasonably. And the full moon--the biggest of the year--was clearing the horizon.
Mac's had $4 martinis. I have all but given up martinis, but once in awhile is okay. Mary Ann put in an order for her own poison: macaroni and cheese. With crawfish tails, in this case. I am no fan of macaroni and cheese, having been spoiled by the bechamel-rich kind my mother made for us when I was a kid. Mac's was way too cheesy for me, but MA loved it. I guess a restaurant called Mac's has a right to serve mac 'n' cheese.
We split what was identified on the menu as "Just A Salad." That is not accurate. "Just A Salad" would not have artichokes, olives, red onions, or feta cheese, which this did. Crunchy and cold and good.
Redfish a la Mary Ann was next. Mac's doesn't call it that, but we do: grilled fish topped with crabmeat in a light cream sauce, especially with capers. MA's most-ordered dish in white tablecloth establishments. Came with green beans. Am I the only one who's noticed that green beans are being served an order of magnitude more often than they were even five years ago?
People have been eating steaks around me a lot in the past few weeks. I have a strange lack of appetite for filet mignon anymore. I prefer strip sirloins, but I never had a problem with filets if that's all there was. (And eighty percent of the steaks sold in white-tablecloth restaurants are filets.) But now. . . I think If I were told I could never eat a filet again, I wouldn't miss it.
I got it anyway. It came with potatoes au gratin that were almost pommes dauphinoise. Panneed portobello mushrooms slices and fried red onion rings, too. On the side (because Mary Ann asked for it; I would have left it off completely) was a seafood cream sauce. The steak was good--crusty top and bottom, juicy in the center.
Creme brulee for dessert. A nice conversation ensued as we experienced the gloaming. The big topic: which cruise do we want to take next spring? Holland America all around Italy, with side trips to Tunisia and Monte Carlo? Or a river cruise on the Danube? We seem to be leaning toward the former. I'm glad we're talking about April 2014, instead of October of this year, which is too soon to just be getting around to it now.
Mac's On Boston. Covington: 324 E Boston St. 985-892-6550.
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