Sunday, October 30, 2011.
Feast With The Stars.
The Feast With The Stars is my calendar marker for the mean de facto beginning of fall. It shows that fall came early this year. Take, today, for example. We awakened to temperatures in the forties, for about the tenth time this season.
The Feast is a Sunday brunch buffet with food served by some two dozen restaurants in Gallier Hall, the Greek-style old City Hall. It's a fundraiser for the Parkway partners, the volunteer arm of the city department responsible for planting the streets with trees and shrubs. It's gone on for over two decades, and I've been one of the "stars" for about fifteen of those parties.
The food was better than I remember its ever having been. For the third year running, the dish that had most people talking was the lobster macaroni and cheese from 5Fifty5, the restaurant in the Marriott Hotel on Canal Street. (The Feast has traditionally leaned toward hotel restaurants.) I'm not as wild about mac 'n' cheese as the vogue says I ought to be. But this stuff is hard to resist.
Also good were both versions of shrimp and grits. Right in character, the Windsor Court's was richer, Deanie's was spicier. Susan Spicer, whose restaurants are perennial attendees at the Feast, had a great black drumfish taco. K-Paul's--another regular--doled out a marvelous, creamy squash soup. The Columns Hotel broke its string of many years by dropping its eggplant casserole in favor of a beet crostini, which I thought was excellent.
More music than usual. In addition to the marching band that comes through every year were two small traditional jazz combos. And a familiar musical organization: the Mardi Gras Chorus, the local barbershop harmony group. Ten guys were there, ringing chords. I was a member for about a decade, and I know all this music. They all but pulled me physically into the lead section to join them. It didn't take a lot of pulling.
What with Halloween this weekend, a lot of people were in costume. Do I even need to say that the famously flamboyant Margarita Bergen wore the most elaborate getup?
When the Feast was planned for this year, the Saints game was scheduled for late afternoon. But the time moved to noon, and the event had to compete with the game. I was pleased that the contest wasn't on screens in Gallier Hall. A few people were, however, listening to it and maybe even watching it on through their cellphones. They were punished for this: the Saints took a drubbing from a team they were supposed to beat easily. One of the advantages of my not paying much attention to football is that upsets don't upset me.
Football is kicking the restaurant business badly this year. What's the matter with these people? What will they do the rest of the year if all the restaurants close?
Mary Ann joined me again this year, and like last year bought over $100 worth of potted-plant table centerpieces. Last year's batch is mostly still alive. I consider that a miracle.
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.
