Thursday, September 8, 2011.
A Glorious Return At Redemption.
Much has been said about my so-called (not by me) six-month rule. I say that it's not a good idea to go to freshly-opened restaurants unless you're ready for the imperfections that inevitably occur in new operations of any kind. I don't have a specific timing; the six-month thing caught hold (mostly among people who want to catch me up) because I say that six months is the average length of time between opening and reasonable consistency. What I wait for is a leveling off of the comments I hear on the electronic street.
After wildly varied reports on Redemption during its first few months, the talk about it has moved in a narrow range centered on "good but not as good as Christian's was, beautiful, getting better." That's enough for me. It's been open seven months.
Redemption is the little old former church which, for thirty years, was the highly distinctive home of Christian's. That restaurant was the greatest loss due to Katrina among restaurants. The owners at the K-moment--Henry Bergeron and his family--kept talking about reopening, but wound up selling the building to Tommy and Maria Delaune, longtime seafood wholesalers in the area. Delaune at first wanted to start a new church in the space, but after awhile changed him mind and rehabbed it back into a restaurant.
When I parked my car and walked across the street to the restaurant, I felt a frisson of excitement. I was about to enter a dead restaurant that had come back to life. I know that Redemption is not Christian's and never will be. The menu has little in common with the old one, other than a general Creole-French style. Still, this was a happy moment.
They were not busy. This is the slackest week of the year for the restaurant business, and the Saints are playing tonight. Still, the place was staffed up, certainly in the kitchen. And Maria Delaune was in the dining room, watching over things.
The waiter strongly suggested that I begin with prawns del lago. (Lake shrimp, to you and me.) The shrimp were still entire, fried to crisp with a minimal coating, sprinkled with an assortment of garnishes including bacon and green onions, and splattered with a white remoulade sauce. Rings of beets wound around the plate, entirely for visual effect.
Next was seafood gumbo, presented uniquely in a small, heavy-metal pail. Dark and dense--a bit too--but well made. I didn't really need a salad but I liked the idea of a Caesar made with artichokes. Good as it sounds.
The main course was a half-duck with a sauce made of cherries. Now there's a good old idea that we've allowed to get away from us. (There's even a French name for it: canard Montmorency.) This one was cooked twice, the current way of handling a duck. It's first roasted, then fried to order in a shallow pan with hot oil to make the skin crisp. I though this one was more than a shade overdone in the second step, but the sauce was good, with whole cherries. And there were the beet strings again, with no more flavor than the first time.
I had no room for dessert, but they pushed two of them on me anyway. One was a pistachio-topped, very heavy cheesecake. The other was an intense flourless chocolate cake that the Marys would have loved.
This was only the first of several dinners I plan to have at Redemption. But a few conclusions are already clear. First, the renovation to the building was very well carried out. The old carpets were replaced by a wood-plank floor. The bar turned 180 degrees and dropped down to floor level. (The tricky step up as you enter is still an issue, as it always was at Christian's.)
Second, the menu could use more range. Although it's probably good that none of the old Christian's dishes are here (that way nobody can get stuck on a useless comparison), it would be nice to have something along the lines of trout meuniere. And people will ask for the famous Christian's smoked soft-shell crab until they add it, so they may as well get onto that project.
The third item is something I find myself asking a lot lately. Why does a restaurant this classy not have tablecloths?
Redemption. Mid-City: 3835 Iberville St. 504-309-3570.
In yesterday's edition, the rating for Squeal was incorrect. It should have been two stars. Butterfingers on the keyboard.
It has been over three years since a day was missed in the Dining Diary. To browse through all of the entries since 2008, go here.
