Sunday, July 24, 2011.
Late Night Burger And Beer At Lager's.
I'm glad I had a quiet Sunday between that grueling vacation and the resumption of my daily grind tomorrow. I worked as much as I would on a weekday--perhaps even more--but it created the illusion that I was catching up.
I would like to have cut the grass, which in spots is now three feet high as the weeds celebrate the daily arrival of the monsoon storms, bracketed by blistering sunshine. But the rain began before I could even think of getting the obstinate tractor started.
Save for my usual small breakfast and lunch snacks, eating was put off until late. The Marys are coming in on the same flight I took yesterday, arriving a little after midnight. This gave me the opportunity to try a late-night South Shore restaurant--something I rarely do. I considered the several twenty-four-hour options like the City Grill and Dot's Diner, but I would have been forcing myself.
I wound up at Lager's, the beer-and-burger specialist on Veterans at Severn. I have tried numerous times to eat there, but most of the time the place was on a waiting list--if, in fact, parking were even possible. Late on a Sunday night, they weren't too busy.
The place is very serious about beer, with what looks like three dozen brews on tap, plus many more in bottles. The menu has a few paragraphs pointing out that the drafts are kept at the perfect temperature and pushed through the tap with a special blend of non-oxidizing gases.
The beer menu is lengthy, in small type, and hard to read in the semi-darkness of the place. So I went with an old favorite I haven't had in awhile: Pilsner Urquell, a beer introduced to me in 1973 by Richard Collin. One of the advantages of it is that it has a modest alcohol content, which is all I could handle at this hour.
The one other time I was here I had a chicken sandwich that I thought was pretty good. I tried a burger this time. One of them is served with caramelized onions, which sounded great to me. It came with pepper jack cheese, too, which was one item too many. The beef part was juicy to the point of being borderline greasy, but with the nine dollars. Certainly big enough to fill me up. It came with waffle-cut fries of no distinction.
In places like Lager's I get the same mix of feelings. The best of them is nostalgia for my college years, when I went with friends to places like this (although not this good) all the time, to hang out as much as to eat. Less warm is the sure knowledge that I have outgrown this experience. But why should sixty-year-olds and twenty-year-olds like the same things?
On the other hand, how will my work be relevant to twenty-year-olds if I don't cover this important part of the restaurant business?
I arrived at the airport early in case the flight did, too. It didn't. But it gave me time to look at the Louis Armstrong iconography in the terminal. It's a little cheesy, with a Mardi Gras aspect--but I guess that's appropriate. One thing I believe needs addressing: the statue of Satch next to the escalators off Concourse C shows him blowing his trumpet without a handkerchief in his left hand. Armstrong traveled with 200 starched, clean handkerchiefs. I've never seen a photo of him in action without one. Sometimes he needed it urgently, when his lip started bleeding. Mostly he used to to joke around with, mopping his brow and saying, "My makeup's comin' off!"
The Marys are home a week earlier than they'd originally planned. I think they've had enough of Los Angeles for now. And Jude gave us about all the free time he has.
Lager's. Metairie: 3501 Veterans Blvd. 504-887-9923.
