Thursday, December 6, 2012.
My First Reveillon Of The Year, In A New Restaurant.
The primary insight I took away from Manresa was that if I adjusted a few things about the way I come on to other people--both in person and through my many media--I could get more and better work done. Explaining this would be as difficult as it would be boring, and would in fact go against the strategy. But I can say that it seems to be working. All the radio shows this week have been peppy and interesting.
Criollo (officially pronounced the English way, not the Spanish "kree-OH-yo"), opened early this year to take over the job of feeding the guests of the Monteleone Hotel. It replaced Le Café and the Hunt Room Grill, both of which were impossibly antiquated, worn, and so little known to New Orleans diners that their closing generated few laments. (You know how we hate to lose any institution here, even the bad ones.)
Before Criollo, I ate at the Monteleone once a year. That was for the Hunt Room Grill's Reveillon, around which we often built an Eat Club event. I always liked it, because Chef Randy Buck--who, earlier in his career, orchestrated the original Reveillon-style dinners at the Sazerac--always gave his menu a bit more holiday character than most.
But we must leave those memories behind. Criollo bears not the slightest resemblance to anything in the Monteleone's past. It's a handsome room--the lighting is particularly well executed. During the renovation, large new windows were installed along two formerly solid walls. It feels good.
I was there early--around six-thirty--and asked the hostess for the brightest table she could give me. I wanted to read, and to take pictures of the food. Sure, she said, then directed me to the darkest table in the room. It was a deuce, and I was a single. It's the Hostess's Law that all seats must be worn equally, and singles are great for balancing off the underuse that the booth-style tables for two will get. For some reason, the only well-lit tables were large ones.
I ordered a Manhattan, mainly because I saw they had a new-style rye whiskey called (r?). The parentheses are part of the name, which looks good on the bottle but is not writer-friendly. The product is great, however, and so was the drink.
The left side of the menu showed Criollo's standard dishes. The right side had the Reveillon selections. Both sides were a la carte. Reveillon menus have always been table d'hote (French for "ride all the rides for one price"). I asked the waiter about this, but I didn't quite grok his explanation. I suspect it's because he didn't understand it himself. But when I added up the a la carte prices it worked out to be about $10 less than the advertised prix fixe of $75. (Which, let it be noted, would place it among the most expensive Reveillon numbers of all time.)
I pushed all that out of my mind and downed a cold salmon mousse with shredded cucumber, offered as an amuse bouche. The first revenue course was quite a platter of food: half a rabbit with the legs removed, with wild mushrooms and sweetbreads, in a nice, sticky reduction.
An oddity in the Reveillon array this year is that six chefs decided that the perfect soup would be a butternut squash bisque. Here was one of them, served inside the squash itself, with a rectangle of dry toast with a smaller rectangle of Brie on top of it. Somewhere in here was supposed to be the flavor of white truffles, but that manifested itself to me more in a general pleasantness than a Wow! Truffles! way.
Next came an artful beet salad, made with several kinds of beets, a strip of rhubarb (!), wild greens, and a rolled-up pecan tuille. That last item is the kind of thing designed more to add visual and textural contrast than flavor, but in this case it was my favorite part of the plate. And I liked the beets and all the rest of it, too.
The entree was a breast of duck roasted to medium rare. Common enough item, but several aspects of this made it a standout. First, it was local Muscovy duck, from the animal-husbandry side of Covey Hill's Farm, on the North Shore. It was not just agreeably local, but juicy,tender, and tasty. A little gamy (a plus). Nice crispness at the skin. The sauce was made with Marsala wine and red currants. Rice pilaf--the only ordinary part of the dish--lay underneath.
The old Hunt Room Grill always featured a buche de Noël--the Yule log--among its Reveillon desserts. And it still does. It's a different recipe from the rolled genoise and meringue of past years, and had the texture and richness of a butter cream.
Tax, tip, cocktail and wine brought this up to $118. But I'd say Criollo's cooking (all coming from an open kitchen, by the way) is in a league with the best of the local hotel restaurant's. And its dinner service is just getting started.
Criollo. French Quarter: 214 Royal. 504-523-3341.
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