Thursday, January 15, 2009. Old Friend. Chad's Again.
No matter how long I host my radio show, I will never understand what it is that makes a lot of people call in one day and almost none the next. All I know is that callers beget callers. If nobody is calling, nobody will call. So many things in life are that way. The economy. Sex. Friendships. Happiness.
A guy named Barney called me on the air a few days ago. I asked whether he were Barney Seely, a classmate of mine in the sixth grade at St. Rita's in Harahan. He wasn't. But a friend of a friend of Barney Seely's told him I mentioned his name on the air, and he e-mailed asking how it was that I knew him. I have not seen or heard of him since sixth grade. He didn't remember me at all. I reminded him of an incident in which both of us were sent to the principal's office. (It was my doing, not his, and the nun let us off with a warning.) He didn't remember that, either. He wants me to send him a photo from those times, to jog his memory. I hope I can find one.
Another dinner at Chad's Bistro would give me enough material to write a column. At least it would if the food and service were as good as they were two days ago. In fact, they weren't quite--but close enough. I started with a martini, thinking that since the place has such a strong bar aspect (it stays open pretty late, and I understand it's a gathering place for people much younger than I am), a cocktail here would be well made. It was. But. . . a martini glass is hard to deliver when it's full to the top, and I was far away from the bar. So it wasn't full to the top. It must be noted that this glass, if filled to the top, would hold a double. I like the idea a number of restaurant have of delivering martinis in a small shaker, and pouring it into the glass at the table.
The reason my table was so far away from the bar was that the main dining room was filled with a rehearsal dinner for what looked like about fifty people. The smaller dining room was nearly full, too. So what the waiter told me two days ago about the restaurant's staying busy was right.
First course: crab cakes. These were like what the old seafood restaurants at West End used to call a "crab chop." It looked like a panneed pork chop, then and now, here. It was also far from being solid crabmeat, and was deep-fried. So it was a hybrid of a crab cake and a stuffed crab, which are really two different things. I'm making this sound like an indictment, but really, I like stuffed crab and miss finding them everywhere I go. All this is the long way of saying these were good. Certainly for the price, well under a ten-spot.
Next, a wedge salad with blue cheese. (Mary Leigh's love of these has infected me.) Good-looking, fresh, ample, good dressing. Exactly right.
Chad's menu has enough Italian dishes on it that I thought I'd better try one. Chicken Parmigiana here is made with an ample fried chicken breast cutlet, covered with melted mozzarella. That landed atop an enormous bowl of overcooked angel hair pasta with a thick (too) red sauce. There was enough food here for a family of four and a small dog. It wasn't terrible, but I do not think pasta with red sauce is a specialty here, if this is how it is.
The current vogue for serving things like this on a bed of pasta has a problem, I think. The steam that rises from the sauce and the pasta itself makes the veal or chicken or whatever soggy. I think the Italians have it right. A dish like this should be served separate from pasta. Two different plates at least. Better yet, two different courses. This configuration is something you'd never see in a restaurant in Italy patronized mostly by locals.
I had no room for dessert, but I had one anyway: creme brulee, recommended by the chef. It was beautiful to see and had a great texture, but I could swear he forgot to put the sugar into the custard. There was enough browned on top to make it palatable, but of there hadn't been I think a diabetic could have eaten it.
I'm complaining too much. This was a reasonably good dinner for the price (about $50 total), and much better than what I found here a few years ago. 
Chad's Bistro. Metairie: 3216 W. Esplanade Ave.. 504-838-9935. American.
