Sunday, November 6, 2011.
Saints @ Chimes. Tea Time At Vianne's.
We've been trying to get together with our friends Karen and Doug Swift, and Mary Ann figured out what would make the meeting happen. She invited them to join us for the Saints game at Chimes Grill in Covington.
We have been much more regular customers there than I would have imagined. It's not exactly my kind of place. But it's perfect for casual dining with a football game. The Marys love it, and the place has enough decent food that I can stand eating there as frequently as we do.
MA grabbed a table on the deck equidistant from two television screens. Some of us were watching one of them, others the other. That dynamic felt funny, but in a pleasant way.
Doug is a beer fan, and I thought he would love the fifty or so beers on top at Chimes. But he drank iced tea. I guess he must be the designated driver. I had a glass of Harp Lager, an Irish beer that was common in pubs long before the current craft beer phase began. A little too smooth for me. I like a beer to have bite. Makes the food taste better.
A dozen grilled oysters and a half-dozen big, skewered, spicy, grilled shrimp began the eating. The Saints took the lead and kept it during the salad course. We turned the conversation to other matters. Doug and I are the same age. He's a physician with, he says, four jobs. He's making plans to begin taking off Fridays in a year or two. The Saints did something spectacular when he said that, and it kept me from saying that I look forward to taking off Sundays someday, followed by Saturdays in the distant future. I can't even imagine what it would be like to have a weekday off. But Doug is a doctor and the stress is, I'm sure, greater than it is for my hobby-like "work."
Last time we were here on a Sunday I ordered something from the brunch menu and didn't like it. The culprit was the Chimes' boudin, which is terrible. Today I chose a variation on eggs Benedict, with the eggs on a croissant lined with ham and goat cheese. Roasted potatoes on the side. Much better.
I had to leave at about halftime, keeping my perfect record intact of never having seen an entire Saints game. My appointment was at Vianne's Tea Salon, a lovely little shop near the Mandeville Trailhead. Kerri Blache and her husband Michael started this place in the fall of 2003. I wouldn't have predicted back then that the place would be as successful as it is. Vianne's has expanded a good bit since my last time.
It's easy to figure why. Kerri is almost too enthusiastic about her specialty teas, and she has so much to talk about that people get turned on. And Michael is a good chef. He heard I was coming and made a batch of lasagna based on the recipe from the old Ruffino's on St. Philip Street. (Kerri's family owned Ruffino's at one point.)
Kerri had invited me and my co-author Peggy Scott Laborde to talk today about our Lost Restaurants book. Peggy couldn't make it, so I told my usual jokes and anecdotes to the small roomful of tea-and-scones indulgers.
For the occasion, I wore a bowtie Kerri gave in 1988, when she was in charge of selling underwriting for WYES-TV. I was wearing mostly bowties back then, and one of her clients was Wembley. The motif of the tie was brilliant: bowties. Bowties on a bowtie! Kerri gave it to me because we were in the midst of two or three dates. But then Mary Ann turned up, and for the first time I had the nerve-wracking experience of having two beautiful women in my life.
Mary Ann proved to be The One. Kerri had better luck, marrying a handsomer guy. I remember the whole bowtie incident more vividly than she does, apparently. She had no recollection of it at all. I seem to have that effect on women.
Vianne's Tea Salon and Cafe. Mandeville: 544 Girod. 985-624-5683.
