Tuesday, June 12, 2012.
Visitors From Begue's, Copeland's, And Arnaud's Bar. Dinner At Caffe Fresca.
A few pop-up restaurants were so good that they're now permanent brick-and-mortar establishments. But I never heard of the reverse process until Pete Page--the executive chef of the Royal Sonesta Hotel--told me on the radio today that Begue's is wherever its Sunday brunch happens to show up this week.
From the opening of the hotel in 1970 until about a year ago, Begue's was the flagship restaurant of the Sonesta. It was named for (but having no connection with) Madame Begue, who in the 1880s was the first American chef superstar. At the Sonesta Begue's stars included chefs Willy Coln, Gerard Crozier and Michel Marcais, and maitre d' Felix Gallerani. The restaurant can claim to have mounted the first permanent Sunday brunch buffet in New Orleans restaurant history.
Begue's began in an overly plush (even for 1970), red-velvet dining room on the Bienville side of the hotel. In the early 1980s, its menu (but not its service style) moved to a lush, bright dining room with windows to a large courtyard. There it remained, serving three meals every day. Then the hotel management contracted with Chefs John Folse and Rick Tramonto to open the much grander R'evolution in Begue's original space. Begue's #2 became a banquet facility, and the hotel's basic breakfast, lunch and dinner service moved to the Desire Oyster Bar.
That left Begue's popular Sunday brunch without a home. I still goes off every week, but not in any firmly-rooted place. Hence, it's a pop-up, after forty-two years. This week, to serve Father's Day, it will be in a large banquet room, a part of which will be made into a man-cave with kegs of beer, seven-meat omelettes (yes), barbecue ribs, and like that.
Chef Pete told us all that while Chris Hannah, master mixologist in Arnaud's French 75 bar, made cocktails for us. The first was a variation on the Manhattan, involving some offbeat bitters. Later, he would introduce us to his house-made falernum--a cross between bitters and liqueur--and make a tart, bracing drink called the Lion's Tail. Both of these kept the conversation flowing. I've discovered that for a three-hour roundtable show with the same guests throughout, the genius doesn't arrive unless a bit of alcohol is served.
Our third guest has been with us before, but representing a different restaurant. Bill DePaola has made the rounds of several significant dining rooms around town. That last one was the Crescent City Steak House, which he managed for a couple of years.
Now he's the GM of the newly-reopened Copeland's on Veterans across from Dorignac's. That restaurant has more texture in its career than most restaurants. It was the second restaurant in the chain, opened in the mid-1980s. Its building--originally a renovated Bonanza Steakhouse--has been torn down and rebuilt twice.
In addition to the original Copeland's concept, the location has purveyed two variations: Sweet Fire and Ice and Social City. I couldn't dope out either one. A Creole restaurant opened by a Czechoslovakian company would not have seemed much more peculiar.
While rebuilding the place this time, Bill said, the Copeland's management took a poll of the likely customers and found that by a large margin they wanted the original Copeland's back. Which is what this is--with the steakhouse and cheesecake add-ons that have appeared throughout the years.
One encouraging sign: the barbecue lamb ribs, created by Chef Warren Leruth for Copeland's first menu, are back after a two-decade accent. Bill brought some, and I ate one. But cold food in a radio studio isn't a good sampling, so I will withhold judgment.
A few days ago I got a call from Sidney Parfait, a friend I haven't spoken with in many years. In the 1960s we lived in the same Old Jefferson neighborhood. We were in the same class at Jesuit, and in our teens even worked at the same Time Saver.
Sidney said that I was past due for visiting Caffe Fresca, a place he likes. He said I have it classified in my restaurant list as a coffee shop, when in fact it's a full-service restaurant and has been for years. In the past few years all reports from listeners have been favorable, especially since the place moved to its surprisingly handsome space on West Esplanade near Clearview.
So I went for dinner tonight. I wanted to begin with fried eggplant sticks with marinara. I could only eat half of those, but only because of their tremendous size. They could have used a bit more seasoning in the coating, but otherwise were satisfying, coming red-hot out of the fryer.
Before that came a side salad. It was a bit dry, suggesting that a bunch of them had been plated at the beginning of the shift. The dressing was an interesting feta-laced, herbal vinaigrette they called Aegean (where have I seen this before?), served in a little cup on the side. I will never understand--even when they're free--why salads can't be assembled and tossed with the dressing to order. I'd pay extra for that.
The entree was a familiar blackboard special, panneed chicken with penne pasta Alfredo. The coating on the chicken could have been crisper, and the sauce was way too thick and rich for my tastes. But these are minor complaints, and the place does seem to be operating at a much higher level than I have assumed.
The bread pudding was beyond reproach. Light texture, good sauce, pecans. I at the whole thing--the only course in which that happened.
I realize as I am writing this that I really should have had coffee with the dessert, given the name of the place. It translates as "fresh coffee."
Caffe Fresca. Metairie: 4441 West Metairie Ave. 504-887-2010.
It's over three years since a day was missed in the Dining Diary. To browse through all of the entries since 2008, go here.
