Tuesday, January 11, 2011. La Petite Grocery. Mary Ann called during the radio show to say that she was in town, and would be pleased to be taken to dinner. We went through the usual rigamarole of trying to find a place serving our disparate needs. My original plan was to make a first visit to Pho Nola in Metairie, but I knew that wouldn't fly.
The suggestion of La Petite Grocery binged her bell. Once we were there she was even more pleased. The Grocery is a nice environment for dining. Well designed, but not richly so. Comfortable, on the quiet side. Our table in front of the bar, behind the mirrored room divider, was well protected from the cold air that blew in with every customer through the single set of doors.
The first thing to arrive was an amuse-bouche version of an appetizer special: baby octopus ceviche, served atop the restaurant's homemade pickles and topped with parsley and red onion. This was about 2.630573 times as good as I expected it to be--an appetizing nibble in every sense. And I got two of them! (Mary Ann eat octopus? I don't think so.)
They make spectacular fresh-cut French fries here, and serve them in what looks like a miniature washtub. They are perfect with cocktails or a glass of wine, and at four dollars for way too many even for two people quite a bargain. MA said that I would have to eat most of them (her diet, you know), but she didn't resist and kept right up with me.
Her first official course was a ramekin of crabmeat, brie, and cheese, which she liked okay. (It was offputting to her that it was just barely warm, but I think they intended it as sort of a dip.) Better was the two pucks of sheep's milk cheese, browned in a pan in such a way that they resembled seared sea scallops. Underneath it was a ragout of pork cheeks. Very tasty, and the perfect thing for this weather.
Mary Ann is a fan of beef short ribs, which is served here as an appetizer. Root beer glazed, at that. This satisfied her need to eat light, and besides that she was entirely pleased by the flavor. Short ribs, whose vogue among chefs only grows, comes across to me like a roast beef poor boy without the bread, dressings, or mayonnaise--and the worse for that lack.
On my side of the table was some very pretty, tender panneed rabbit. What isn't good panneed? And what panneed item is better than rabbit? It came out with spaetzle noodles that seemed to have been fried in the brown butter that surrounded everything. But I am a fan of brown butter.
Caramel bread pudding finished the meal nicely. The server was not only competent and responsive, but she played along with my semi-goofy banter. I love a server like that. Mary Ann just rolls her eyes. Maybe I ought to start tipping her.
La Petite Grocery. Uptown: 4238 Magazine. 504-891-3377.
