Tuesday, July 13. Galatoire's Is 105. BP still hasn't deployed the promised new well cap over its renegade oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. They keep saying that the new apparatus has a good chance of stopping the flow completely, but they don't want to rush the complicated job. It must be tough to be cautious when everybody in the world is screaming at you to hurry up. I'm on the side of doing it right.
Back on nearly dry, only lightly oiled Bourbon Street, Galatoire's doesn't know the exact day it opened. But it opened a long time ago, and unconventionally at that. Jean Galatoire took over the existing restaurant Victor's after working there a few months. It is known that he changed the name of the place to Galatoire's in 1905. This is about the halfway point of this year, and the current management thought it was as good a time as any to celebrate the one hundred fifth birthday of this essential dining parlor.
The party was in the upstairs dining room. It was Galatoire's crowded, which in any other restaurant would be considered anchovy-can crowded or Mardi Gras crowded. You could move from one side of the room to the other, but it would take awhile. First, because you'd have to sidle your way through the gaps that open and close between people. Second, because you know at least half of these people, and all of them want to talk with you. Third, because waiters are also trying to navigate through the intermittent gaps, and they draw people closer to them like a magnet pulls steel filings. You yourself are getting in the waiters' paths so you can pluck off his tray a crabmeat maison in a pastry shell, a fried oyster atop Rockefeller sauce on a crouton, shrimp remoulade on a Belgian endive leaf, a smoked trout canape, or a glass of bubbly wine.
I had many conversations as I drifted through the mass:
"Fish is all right. The oysters are going to be a real problem for years."--Harlon Pearce, seafood wholesaler.
"We're getting all the oysters we need from P&J. We're one of their better customers, and they're taking care of us."--David Gooch, long-time Galatoire's manager and member of the third generation of the Galatoire family.
"I'm liking the idea of hotel restaurants more and more."--Ann Gooch, David's wife, and one of the founders of the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience. She was talking about the current idea for my NOWFE seminar next year.
"I'm feeling a lot better."--Justin Frey, also third-generation Galatoire, formerly manager both on Bourbon Street and at Galatoire's in Baton Rouge. He retired a year or so ago because of health problems.
"You never change!"--Julie Fotiades, a friend from way back who I haven't seen in awhile. I'm pretty sure she meant it as a compliment.
"I fell on top of it on the bed when I was a young man, and it's been stuck on me ever since!"--G. Frank Purvis, retired chairman of the Pan-American Life Insurance Company, talking about his trademark bow ties. At ninety-six, he's been a regular at Galatoire's for most of the restaurant's history. He really can tell you what it was like in the old days. I've seen him there dozens of times, but this was the first time I've had a chance to speak with him. He was happy and sharp.
Todd Trosclair (the guy who bought most of Galatoire's from the Galatoire's family last year) called the formal program to order. He emphasized that the new owners (John Georges is the other major stockholder) are in awe of the long history of the restaurant, and had no intentions of altering the direction of it. David Gooch got up and gave a cursory history of the Galatoire family, from its beginnings in Pau, France, through the four generations to the present.
This was significant, because the big moment of the gathering was the unveiling of the Galatoire family tree. It was executed by a fine hand and will hang in the restaurant henceforth and forever.
Melvin Rodrigue, who is the operations boss of Galatoire's and the overseer of most of the changes that have occurred there in the past decade, got up to thank all the regular customers for their loyalty. That's when I noticed that most of the guests were, indeed, customers. The only other food writer of note there was Sharon Litwin, who compiles the Zagat Survey.
Melvin suggested that I lead the necessary singing of Happy Birthday to the restaurant. (You can't go to Galatoire's and hear any fewer than five of these during a meal.) I did it in the style of my favorite Galatoire's waiter, Imre Szalai, who in his Hungarian accent says, "Let's all sing loud, wit a vun, and a two, and a tree!"
The circulating appetizers made for enough of a meal for us to depart the party when it ended and head home. (In separate cars, as usual.) I did make a pass through the dining room to see who might be there, but I guess anyone who was anyone had also been at the party. I still halfway hoped someone would ask me to join them, but it was a touristy night.
Galatoire’s. French Quarter: 209 Bourbon. 504-525-2021. Classic Creole.
