Tuesday, March 26, 2013.
Small Plates? How Small? Iconic Pizza Guy. Andy's Bistro. Another Taste Of MeMe's Food.
The Round Table radio show featured Chef Justin Brien and general manager Greg Thomas, both of Salú, the small-plates restaurant on Magazine Street at Pleasant. They just changed the menu in a big way, and they wanted to explain the difference between tapas and "small plates." The latter are more like what we used to call an "appetizer," and maybe even nearly the size of what was meant by the outmoded expression "entree." It all gave me a headache, so I had a sip of "wine" from the bottles that Greg brought.
Also here was Jeff Arcemont, the founder and owner of the legendary Mo's Pizza in Westwego. A bit of New Orleans Incest (my theory of local society, in which I claim that only 500 people live here) turned up. Jeff said he got into pizza by working at the old Pavone's Pizza in the now-gone Plaza in Lake Forest. But that place was started by our friend Carmelo Chirico, who still makes pizzas in his classy Italian restaurant across the lake.
The two owners of Andy's Bistro--brothers Brandon and Blake Bennett--showed up to talk about that new place. It is in a building that has seen a long parade of previous restaurants, of which the most famous were Archie & Danny's, Romanoff's, the Butcher Shop, India Palace, Gimchi, and Sid-Mar's. Chef Andrea consulted on the menu, which specializes in pizza and hamburgers, but has much else. I suspected Mary Ann's interest in the place owes mostly to the hamburgers. But when I got home, she revealed another matter. "Are both those guys as good-looking as I think they are?" I have no idea.
Tommy Cvitanovich stopped in late in the show. He answered a much-asked question: why haven't we heard about the Taste of the big grazing event at Lafreniere Park? He said that the restaurant association and the park administrations has had a parting of the ways. The event will still occur, but probably not until the fall.
After the radio show I returned to MeMe's, the Chalmette restaurant that impressed me so much last week. Dinner began more pleasantly this time: I now know where it is. (I believe that not having a firm image of a restaurant's exact location does more to prevent people from trying restaurants for the first time than any other force. In my reviews and even commercials on the radio, I always begin with a vivid description of where the place is.)
I asked for the brightest table, the better to read and to take photographs. I took the deuce next to the door. But the unseasonable cold weather was working its way through the gaps we Orleanians ignore when constricting out buildings. So I kept my jacket and tie on. I wonder whether one would need the fingers of more than one hand to count the number of St. Bernard diners so attired in this Tuesday night.
"Hey, you know how you can spot that radio food critic Bill Fitzsimmons if he comes to your restaurant?" I can imagine a restaurateur saying. "He's the only fool wearing a jacket and tie!"
I began with the other two oyster appetizers I didn't have last time. The three Rockefellers were more or less standard, with a good but light sauce in the modern style. (The old style has a roux and bread crumbs, making it pile up.) The other three shells on the plate held oysters Bangkok, which didn't taste Thai, exactly, but did have an exciting blast of pepper from what the waitress said was Sriracha sauce.
After a good, oversize salad, I really was close to being full. As I noted last week, no restaurateur who knows the St. Bernard palate would dare to serve less than that much food. The theme carried on into the fish special--an enormous (couldn't finish it) fillet of speckled trout, nicely seasoned, cooked a point, with an underlayer of various steamed (but not too) vegetables. This could be served in the best restaurants in town without change. (It certainly beat the comparable dish I had last week at Herbsaint, for example.)
The too much food theme continued into the bread pudding, which had a minor dryness problem. I will hereby state Bread Pudding Rule Number One: When making the custard to soak into the stale bread, figure out the maximum amount you think you'll need, and use half again as much.
Tomorrow, I will write a review of MeMe's (what a Chalmette name!) for CityBusiness, and call it the best restaurant in the history of St. Bernard Parish.
RocketFire Pizza Co. Covington: 1950 N Hwy 190. 985-327-7600.
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