I don't have a quick answer to one of the five to ten most-asked questions on my radio food show. It comes up after I say that a restaurant gets five of my ratings fleurs-de-lis. I always add that this is my top rating. And that only eight restaurants in the New Orleans area win it. Within a few minutes, I will get a call wanting to know which eight restaurants get the five fleurs de lis. I ought to have a ready answer. I don't change the ratings especially often. (Reason: one of my considerations for a high rating is a good track record--something that figures in very few of the online, reader ratings, which are usually based on just one meal.)
But I always seem to get stuck after rattling off six or seven of the five-fleur My memory isn't what it used to be. Then I ask pardon, and say I will finish the list shortly, after a check my database. But searching cyberspace is hard to do while maintaining a three-hour-long ad-lib radio conversation.
That's what moves me to present--for the first time in decades--a list of all eight of the Five-Fleur restaurants as of this writing. They are in reverse alphabetical order. (That is not a manipulation of the data, but a balance with the conscious way restaurant names are decided upon, with most names in the top one-third of the alphabet.)
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Restaurant August upstairs.[/caption]
Restaurant August. CBD: 301 Tchoupitoulas. 504-299-9777. The moment when chefs moved guys in suits aside in the management of grand restaurants was when Emeril opened his first restaurant, in 1990. Eleven years later, Chef John Besh took that game to the next level. Restaurant August was incontestably one of the most culinary advanced restaurant in New Orleans, and even though competitors at that level appeared, remained a contender.
Besh now has six restaurants locally: twice as many as Emeril or any branch of the Brennan family. Having that many restaurants takes an uber-chef out of the kitchen. Indeed, Besh and his lead partner Octavio Mantilla were elsewhere on all of my last three visits to Restaurant August. If this made a difference in the food or service, it was lost on me. The only decline I see at August is in the dress of the customers--but that disease is endemic now.
Pelican Club. French Quarter: 615 Bienville. 504-523-1504. Top rating since 1993. The Pelican Club plays a game that is unique at its level of cooking. Chef-owner Richard Hughes buys beautiful food and cooks it with skill and originality, as any first-class restaurant must in these days. But after 26 years (it's the same age as Emeril's), neither the chef nor the restaurant ever had an especially high profile. Its many local regulars treat it like a secret club. It's somewhat hidden on Exchange Alley, which even among lifelong locals is a familiar name but a mysterious location.
Something else the locals know is that the Pelican Club is unusual offering table d'hote dinners at prices so attractive that one becomes suspicious. Particularly during the summer and in December, these prix-fixe dinners have an almost cult following. And the place has its share of specialties. Nobody does better cold seafood appetizers. chock-a-block with crabmeat, shrimp, and even lobster. Here is the best version of the old West End-style whole flounder. Between the familiar names and flavors, Asian dishes appear and add sparkle. It's a little too loud when the place is full. Sit in the bar to alleviate that.
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Osman Rodas at Pardo's.[/caption]
Pardo's. Covington: 69305 Hwy 21. 985-893-3603. Top rating since 2015. It may surprise some to see that three of my eight five-fleur restaurants are on the much less populous North Shore. Some of that owes to the fact that I live on the North Shore, but I don't dine out for review purposes any more often there than on the South side of the lake. Pardo's is the most recent nominee for the top rating mostly by being one of the first North Shore restaurant to offer the food, service and style of the gourmet Creole bistro. Such restaurants have been dominant in New Orleans proper since the early 1980s, but until now they never got a purchase across the lake. Its dining room stays full every evening, owing to a team of adept chefs and the management skills of owner Osman Rodas, a graduate of Emeril's organization. You never know whether he will be in the dining room or in the kitchen; he can do it all. The exterior is much less than inviting: ignore that and allow yourself to be pleasurized by Osman's skill as a host.
La Provence. Lacombe: 25020 US 190. 985-626-7662. Top rating off and on since 1972. Chris Kerageorgiou--one of the all-time greatest chef personalities in the history of New Orleans dining--came to New Orleans in the 1960s after cooking around the world. He opened his own place in 1972 in the North Shore woods. It seemed like a crazy plan--the population of gourmets there was minuscule, and crossing the Causeway to get there and back was daunting. But Chris's cooking drew enough avid eaters to keep it going until Chris died soon after Katrina. His long-ago protege John Besh bought the place, but failed to find the right chef for the gig. Erick Loos, a young guy who understood the legacy of Chef Chris--took over in 2009. La Provence has been great ever since, with semi-Provencal cooking blending with local flavors. And it has the city's best fireplaces.
La Petite Grocery. Uptown 2: Washington To Napoleon: 4238 Magazine. 504-891-3377. Top rating since 2015. One of the two or three brightest lights on the brilliant Magazine Street restaurant row, the Grocery has matured into a reliable, comfortable, sophisticated bistro. Behind the illusion of French technique are first-class local groceries, and the originality and fluidity that keeps things interesting. All this goodness started early on, when the staff of the extinct Peristyle restaurant moved in. Chef Justin DeVillier was also on the line, and he wound up buying the restaurant in 2009 and keeping the consistency of the food solid from then to now. Very busy most of the time, with good reason. Also nice: the ambient sound is under control.
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Emeril on my radio show on the occasion of the restaurant's 20th anniversary.[/caption]
Emeril's. Warehouse District & Center City: 800 Tchoupitoulas. 504-528-9393. Emeril led what would become the most powerful current local trend in cooking: finding the best local ingredients and making everything from scratch. His flagship restaurant innovates consistently without leaving the New Orleans flavor palette, nor ignoring the preferences of diners. But the chef's television fame kicked up a negative: many local people find it hard to believe that a tremendous success can possibly be good. Visitors--and locals unaffected by this disease--find the same exciting food that made Emeril famous in the first place. His reworking of barbecue shrimp, for example. The ingredients, wines, and especially the service know few equals. Also here: the best restaurant pastry shop in town, with fresh breads and an amazing dessert list.
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Dokota's chef-partner Kim Kringlie.[/caption]
Dakota. Covington: 629 N US 190. 985-892-3712. Top rating 1991-2012, and since 2016. It's not unusual for a restaurant that hit the top ratings to lose its grip. I could make a long list of those. But it's tough to make a comeback. Dakota, while never ceasing to serve good food and even better wines, seemed to lose its magic for a few years. This may have been because they opened two new restaurant on the South Shore. Some months ago I was very happy to see that the staff had tightened up the act, and had resumed cooking at level as good as what it served here in its first two decades, when it was really the only gourmet shop on the North Shore. The dishes for which they became famous are still there, but the new food--particularly among the specials--make you raise your eyebrows with each bite. And co-owner Ken Lacour's wine list continued to be impressive. Good new bar menu, too.
Commander's Palace. Uptown 1: Garden District & Environs: 1403 Washington Ave. 504-899-8221. Top rating 1984-2005; again 2012-present. Commander's Palace gets voted Best Restaurant In New Orleans a lot. It really does have all the pieces of this restaurant puzzle in place. It has history (since 1893), atmosphere (two floors of unique surroundings, and a big courtyard), food (ever evolving under the creative mind of longtime chef Tory McPhail), the best wine list in town by a long way, and an exacting service staff. For decades, Commander's set the standard for fine dining in New Orleans. But after the death of Chef Jamie Shannon it was almost as if the place had been spooked. That didn't adjust itself until the mess left by Katrina was swept out. Commander's has been on a roll ever since--although it's fair to say that the chef might be having a little too much fun in his Playground. Two dinners there lately showed me the best evening of dining I can remember ever having, followed a couple months later by a parade of specials too far out for me. But that's an easy issue to remedy in your ordering.
Written by Tom Fitzmorris June 22, 2016 13:09 in
