Tuesday, January 22, 2013.
The Four Thomases. Meaters, Pupusas, And A Good New Bistro.
Bill and Jim Thomas are father and son. I know them from our mutual Manresa retreat group, and from many lunches the three of us have had over the years. They began because Bill looks a lot like my late father did at Bill's eighty-ish age. "He must have been a very handsome man," Bill said the first time I mentioned this. And then he laughed. Bill always seems to be in a good mood.
We were due for a lunch, and here we were at Criollo, the new restaurant in the Monteleone. Two years ago, the hotel tore out everything that had been its two restaurants and a dark private dining space. The put it windows along Royal Street and around the corner down Iberville. That alone totally transformed the formerly dungeon-like space. The single restaurant that came out of the rebuilding starts at the back of the Carousel Bar and continuous spaciously all the way to the open kitchen. Score another big hit for Ron Pincus, one of the most brilliant hotel managers in the city. The Monteleone is leagues above what it was twenty years ago.
For the first time, there were four of us at the table. Jim's son Jim joined us at this year's retreat, and here he was again. Aside from adding another interesting conversationalist to the table, it will now require four lunches between times I have to pay. I think next time will be eat.
We started with salads or turtle soup; I had the latter. The Monteleone is over a century old, and even though the restaurant is entirely new it's clear that they haven't thrown away all their old recipes. This is one that desired to survive.
The most handsome of the entrees was Bill's osso buco. I could have guessed he was going to order that. It would have been something that he and my father could have talked about. My dad liked few things better than bone marrow. I recall that when we lunched at American Sector, Bill ordered the tongue sandwich. He's consistent in his likes.
The Jims went after the swordfish. For me, a pair of very large sea scallops and a small slab of beef short ribs. What these two were doing on the same plate was beyond me. But then I'm no fan of short ribs, as I think I said a few diary entries ago. There's just too doggone much beef short ribs on menus these days.
A wonderful lunch with these representatives of three generations. I wonder I will ever marshal such a troika. Judging by what I'm hearing from Jude in California, it's not impossible. I will not mention this to Jude. Nor that, in his generation, he is the sole forwarder of the Fitzmorris name in the family branch that started with my grandfather. Don't want to put any pressure on because of trivial matters like this.
Three good guests from three very different restaurants visited today's Round Table Show.
Isaac Toups, the chef and owner (with his wife) of Toups Meatery near City Park, was the most talkative of them. That figures. He has the most offbeat restaurant of the three, with a menu that's hard to categorize beyond its clear preference for non-seafood. "We had a fish on the menu," he said. "I think you had it." Good memory, but chefs always remember what their customers ate. "It's gone now."
Next to him was Frank Salmeron, who runs the Salvadoran restaurant his mother converted from a really old gas station and tire store and opened some twenty years ago in Gretna. The name rolls off the tongue (assuming you don't trip over it): Pupuseria Divino Corazon. The first word indicates that it's a place where pupusas are made and sold. A pupusa is a tortilla that differs from the ones you get in Mexican restaurants in that they're about a half-inch thick, and stuffed with cheese, pork, green onions, or all three. Pupusas are genuine street food from El Salvador. They're very inexpensive and filling; two of them about fill you up.
Frank brought not only a half-dozen pupusas for us to love, but also a dish I find fascinating. The tamal de elote is described as being made with "sweet corn." This is not the same thing an American would expect, but an actually sweet item that can serve as a dessert. I've never run into anything quite like it.
Over in the corner was the red hair of Matt Farmer, the executive chef of Apolline, one of the two or three best new restaurants of 2012. The restaurant evolved from Dominique's on Magazine, although Matt wasn't there in that period, and his menu has nothing in common than the one it replaced. I told him with a little embarrassment that among all the dishes I've tried in my three visits to Apolline, the one I remember best was the big K.C. strip steak. He said I wasn't the only one. It's one of the most popular dishes at the restaurant, Matt said, and even in the company of much more complex dishes it's something he likes to serve.
Criollo. French Quarter: 214 Royal. 504-523-3341.
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