Rediscovering Meribo

While COOLinary is taking place in New Orleans, across the lake, the Tammany Taste of Summer is offering the same experience with reduced menus and prices north of the lake. I am much more familiar with the northshore restaurants because that’s where I live, but I vowed to try something new on my side as well.

While I have been to Meribo in downtown Covington a lot, I wouldn’t call myself a regular customer, and I don’t know why.
The food at Meribo has been great since Day One, and that was ten years ago. I remember my excitement at the look of the place. After a series of restaurants going through the revolving door of a peculiar space, two partners from the Baton Rouge market changed this equestrian-themed space into one that reminded me of my favorite L.A. spot, Bottega Louie. Louie is a primarily white-tiled space, bright and airy, with a wood-fired pizza oven as a focal point. At Louie, customers can’t get near the oven, but at Meribo, it is close enough to be sort of a hearth. I love that in the winter. Just the visual of flames dancing in the oven warms me.

Meribo has been constantly tweaked since its arrival, both physically and in the menu, but the two changes that please me most are the staff, who are young, cute, and helpful. And they are finally brewing their own tea.

Meribo has cool stuff going on all the time. I am cuckoo for their Tuesday burger special. It is a terrific burger on a special little puffy round top, overseeded bun. It comes with housecut chips that are very good. I wish I could remember it on Tuesday much more than I do.

Their Happy Hour is a big deal: 3-6 weekdays and all day on Wednesday. The place remains busy. The pizza list has nearly doubled, with great new additions. Meribo also has a pretty glamorous brunch, much of it served in cast-iron skillets. I realize, as I write this, how overdue I am to do that.

But it was the special Tammany Taste of Summer 3-course for $33 menu that brought me in. There were only two choices per course: the first course offered a “Harvest Salad” with tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, perky red peppers, and Castelvetrano olives, tossed with chili garlic oil. This was served over a thin schmear of herbed ricotta. I wasn’t sure about the ricotta, but the more I ate it, the more I liked it. The salad was interesting, as well as refreshing and delicious.

The English cucumbers were chopped in an unusual way, lending their special texture to make it pop. The hearty spice came from a lot of little peppers, which were in large pieces. The red onion was sliced thin and spread throughout this mix. Castelvetrano olives are a favorite of mine, but these were smaller than normal and sliced. The ricotta lent a creaminess to it all. Interesting, and good.

The entrée course was crawfish Radiatori pasta. In a cream sauce. There was a substantial coating of breadcrumbs, which I could have done without. I just don’t understand breadcrumbs on pasta. There were a lot of crawfish in this dish, and the cream sauce was luscious. It needed salt in my view, but that was an easy fix

The last course was a big draw for me. One of the choices was Pots de Crème, which is a great favorite of mine. But it didn’t occur to me that it wouldn’t be chocolate. This was vanilla, with a little crumble and chopped plum. A travesty! To me, Chocolate Pots de Crème is one of life’s great pleasures.

This vanilla version had all the right elements minus the chocolate. It was dense, rich, and creamy, with a wonderful mouthfeel. The crumble was a good foil for the creamy texture, and the plum a perky addition.

It was good to be back at Meribo, and I thought this was a sensational deal. The food was outstanding as ever. This Tammany Taste of Summer meal was a great reminder of that. I’m putting it higher up in the rotation.