Tuesday, February 5, 2013.
Frankie & Johnny's Gone? Two Spicy Courses At Trey Yuen.
A week since I was last in town. At this, rate, I'll lose track of where I am in my audiobook.
No Round Table show this week. Too much else going on. After the show, I had an hour and a half's worth of writing and recording commercials. Some of them are late, but so far nobody has given me flak about it. I once again reflect on how lucky I am to have been in radio all these years without ever having anyone try to change me.
On the other hand, I hear that Walton and Johnson--the long-running morning show, carried in New Orleans and quite a few other cities--has lost its Houston outlet. That has to hurt, but I think they'll survive. I remember when they first came to the New Orleans audience's attention in 1979. They came from Beaumont to do a show on WQUE 93.3--a rock hits station then. Their show was a lot like what they do now. Their studio was on the other side of a double-paned window from where I did my first long-form talk show. (Which was also a lot like what I do now.)
I heard today that Frankie & Johnny's on Arabella Street Uptown has closed. Seems that the owner of the building--whose parents opened the restaurant a long time ago--pulled the plug on the current operators. Although I am as steeped in the ethos of the New Orleans neighborhood joint, that's one I never warmed up to. But they have a strong following as an icon.
To Trey Yuen for dinner. My intent was to have just some hot and sour soup, followed by an order of dumplings. Then it occurred to me that I hadn't eaten their spicy lemon chicken in a very long time. So long that I didn't remember how it looked. The flavor, however, connected then and now instantly.
Trey Yuen. Mandeville: 600 Causeway Blvd. 985-626-4476.
To browse through all of the Dining Diaries since 2008, go here.
