Saturday, June 9, 2012.
Tom Wolfe's New Restaurant In Pass Christian.
Among the few cavils I have with my PT Cruiser is that mechanics find it hard to work on. Everything is jammed into the engine compartment so that several pieces need to be removed to get at something crucial. This is why I couldn't get the garage guys to change a battery on a Saturday. A mechanic was needed to clear the way to remove the old one.
Fortunately, we have an extra car, what with Mary Leigh out of town. Mary Ann took ML's Audi to drive to Bay St. Louis, where she had a book signing this afternoon at the charming little Bay Books. I had a radio show from two until five, and by then it was raining so hard that I'm glad I had MA's Honda Pilot.
I joined her in mid-signing. She sold thirteen books--a depressing number for her, but one I thought entirely respectable. (She will not be happy until Suzie Homemaker makes it to the New York Times best-seller list.)
Also at the bookstore were Margaret and Katherine King. They're twins who in their sixties still dress alike for public appearances. Their book is Y'all Twins?, the inevitable question they're asked by everybody. It's obvious that they are. Yes, they did swap boyfriends at one time. They lived next door to William Faulkner in Oxford, so that's part of their book, too.
After the bookstore gig, with rain pouring down, we cross the new US 90 bridge over the bay to Pass Christian, where Chef Tom Wolfe has a new restaurant. It's called Wolfe's, of course, just as all three of his New Orleans restaurants were (or are; Wolfe's in the Warehouse is still active).
Tom has been sidelined for most of the years since Katrina with a serious neck ailment. That left Wolfe's on Rampart and Dumaine (better known to New Orleans diners as "that place that used to be Peristyle") in limbo. For the second time, Tom told me that he's waiting until the new streetcar line planned for Rampart Street is finished before he and his partners reopen that restaurant.
Tom took over a post-Katrina restaurant called French Charlie's in Pass Christian about three months ago. He was consulting with Shaggy's, a casual seafood house across the highway. (Such gigs have kept him busy.) Through that connection he learned that French Charlie's was for sale, and he bought it.
The place looks great--even Mary Ann thought so. Exposed brick walls dominated the interior. Outside is a rectangular bar flanked on one side by a big barbecue pit and a wood-burning brick oven. All of the seating there is in the open, with a good view of the marina and the Gulf beyond across the highway. The building was not here before Katrina, which would have washed it away with everything else if it had been.
We were in good spirits once we managed to get inside through the rain. But then my reluctance about going to newly-opened restaurants began proving true again. We ordered a pizza for an appetizer, to be followed by baked oysters in more or less the Drago's style, barbecue shrimp, a bowl of the soup du jour, and a crab salad. I told the very friendly waitress what I tell them all these days: Do not put two dishes in front of me at the same time. She nodded as if she understood.
Then here came the oysters, barbecue shrimp and the pizza--all together. Less than a minute later, the soup arrived. Four dishes before us. Which ones should we allow to get cold? We didn't worry much about the oysters--they weren't hot even when they arrived. (In terms of flavor, however, that was the best dish of the night.) The barbecue shrimp were peeled, and served with a dark-brown sauce dominated by something like Worcestershire. Not terrible, but not what I'd call barbecue shrimp.
I picked up a slice of pizza and took a bite. I turned it over. There was no mistaking: here was a pre-fab crust. So they built a brick, wood-fired pizza oven, but they're buying ready-made crusts? Tom told me that he would begin making his own dough soon, but that the kitchen wasn't quite up to that yet.
The soup tasted like nothing much. The crab salad was made with crabmeat like the kind you find in sushi bars. Whaaa?
My shaken confidence grabbed the reins when two perfect desserts came out. One of them has been on Tom's menus since he set out on his own: Ellie's white chocolate butter bars, from his mother's recipe. Even Mary Ann--who hardly ever eats dessert, and then only if it involves real chocolate--though this was spectacular. The other was a cold apple crepe with a good, slightly spicy sauce like a zabaglione.
The following Monday, a lady who was at the restaurant at the same time I was called to report a much better meal. Maybe it's relative to other restaurants on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I'm glad to see Tom Wolfe cheffing again, but I hope he installs his former standards here soon. Three months isn't long enough, as I always tell people. Shame on me for coming.
We'll try this place again next summer.
Wolfe's. Mississippi Gulf Coast: Pass Christian: 111 West Scenic Dr. 228-452-9953.
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.
