It was a lovely Sunday afternoon and we three were on a mission. Back a few hurricanes ago, we had to prepare the house in Metairie, where a continuing roof problem persists. A potential buyer was coming from California to look at this unique mid-century house, and there was a little clean-up in order. I worked on the inside and ML went up on the roof to secure the top.
After the frustrations of that project, a little refreshment was in order. We went for brunch to The Mill NOLA, which is the very cool place in the Cotton Mill building in the Warehouse District. This space first grabbed our notice when the building opened with Susan Spicer as proprietor of a store/eatery predating Foodies. I remember two things about the place besides its hipness: the design of the kitchen, a butler’s pantry which I noticed for the first time and which we incorporated into a renovation of our home ongoing at the time, and olive barrels. I love the olive barrels. I didn’t realize you could have barrels of olives (this was over 20 years ago) and I was giddy at the prospect. I remember Susan coming over to our family to chat, explaining both the olives and the butler’s pantry. I don’t remember anything we had to eat that day, and perhaps the place made that kind of general impression on others, because it was short-lived. Definitely before its time. Too bad.
There may have been one or two places in there between that one (whose name I don’t even recall) and the Sun-Ray Grill, another good place operating very successfully on the West Bank and in Old Metairie before moving to this great space in the Cotton Mill. It too, was rather short-lived, though not as brief as Susan Spicer’s place.
The third one I remember is Sac-Au-Lait, the second location for a husband and wife team from New Roads. The place near Baton Rouge is a cajun food joint with the usual fried foods of all varieties, poor boys and alligator everything. Sac-Au-Lait was the upscale version of the food offered by these two culinary school grads, Cody and Sam Carroll. And it was upscale. A gourmet darling for a short time, Sac-Au-Lait was also short-lived.
And now the tradition continues in this very attractive and industrial space with the delicious food. The current occupant is also turning out great food, this time, with a Caribbean twist on Southern food. We thought it a quite delicious, and adventuresome take on some regulars.
Tom got a Bene-Bake, which was a standard Benedict with andouille sausage and hollandaise. There was nothing bad to be said about this. Pretty standard with a perky hollandaise, he loved this. The poached eggs were done properly, the andouille was a spicy sausage with a good chunky grind and seared just right. This was accompanied by a little pile of arugula with a light dressing. I got a crab cake Benedict which was quite pretty on the plate, accompanied for some reason by a squash blossom whose purpose was to be different. Pretty though, and the crabcake was very good. Less a stuffing and more crab. It had a fried egg on top with a spicy remoulade drizzle they call their Millmoulade sauce . It was served with thick toast.
Mary Leigh got the Trinidadian grillades and grits, which was delicious. This was the star of the table. The grillades were tender, the sauce had just the right consistency and spice levels, and the grits were thick stone ground high-quality grits. We all definitely wanted more of this. I found the portion sizes of all of this wanting, particularly the grillades and grits, which was definitely more grits and less grillades. Tom had a cocktail with some passion fruit, making it that pretty fuschia color.
We love the service here. Our waitress could not have been more accommodating. Small complaints aside, this was some delicious food, and we will definitely go there again.
