Tuesday, September 11, 2012.
Rene Bistro. Bacchanal. Great-Great-Great Grandson.
I wish that in the months following this date eleven years ago, I could have foreseen that today I could think about the event without scaring myself. I still don't understand my reaction to it back then, but it seems to have changed something in my mental chemistry.
At the round table for today's radio show was an interesting mix. The most talkative and eminent member of the trio was Chef Rene Bajeux (left, below), the executive chef of Rene Bistro. That's the renamed La Cote Brasserie, which Rene designed back in 2003, then left behind when Katrina hit. With a reputation as a skillful tastemaker--he's one of just a few hundred Maitres Cuisiniers de France in the world--he has been hired by a succession of restaurants around the country and in the Caribbean. The most recent and disappointing--he didn't think the chemistry was right--was at the Rib Room at the Royal Orleans.
Rene said that his current place would be very French and rustic, with the kind of food he did at the first Rene Bistro but not exactly the same. He does have fresh sardines, he said, but he'd run into so much trouble trying to find skate wings that he's given up on maintaining that as a signature.
Rene clearly gets around more than most chefs. Every time I launched into a commercial, he had a comment to make about it. Unless it wasn't his kind of place. He's not a Charlie's Steak House kind of guy, for instance, but he does like the Flaming Torch.
I was also interested in his responses to a couple of callers, who asked him how he would cook this or that. "I don't really understand that dish," he'd say. "So I wouldn't do a good job of cooking it." He said the same thing about dessert pastries. "I'm a terrible baker," he said. Good for him! Who likes a know-it-all, anyway?
Also here was Beau Ross (center), one of the partners who started Bacchanal. It's a wine store, but it could be considered the trigger for the restaurant boom in Bywater. In the early months after Katrina, Bacchanal started serving wine and bar snacks out in the patio.
Then Chef Peter Vazquez began showing up with a food truck, and cooking the unique dishes for which he was famous at the shuttered Marasol. Then other chefs appeared. Now they have a real kitchen, live music every night, and plans to build a real dining room on the second floor. They need it: if it starts raining, they have no place to serve people.
Beau said that he'd been in radio for awhile. He used that skill to good advantage, and gave good conversation.
The great-great-great grandson of Antoine Alciatore--the founder of Antoine's--was with us. Henry Guste (right, above)owns a neighborhood-style restaurant in the Hickory-Dickory nexus in Harahan, in what used to be the Fat Hen, and Verona before that. It's called Huckleberry's now. He warned that the story behind the name was long and not very interesting, and I'd say he was right about that. But I gave him a better hook: huckleberries are native to this area. I have at least 20 bushes around the Cool Water Ranch, all wild. The birds love the blueberry-like fruit, and so do we if we can find any.
Henry is the son of Randy Guste, who was the seventh "proprietor" of Antoine's. (The title is not to be taken literally, and Randy's successor Rick Blount has dropped it.) So Henry is steeped in the restaurant business. The menu is an interesting collection of everyday New Orleans cooking, for which local appetites have no limit. I haven't been yet, but the reports from listeners have been good.
I had planned on going to Rene Bistro before Mary Ann told me that Rene was booked for today's show. (She persists in doing this at the last minute.) When I learned that the plat du jour was bouillabaisse, that settled it.
Rene Bistro is convenient for me. It's two blocks from the radio station. When I arrived, Rene had donned his whites and was on duty. (I didn't tell him I was coming, but that's as far as my presence could remain secretive.)
I sat at the snaky chef's table between the kitchen and the bar. The waiter fetched a glass of Picpoul and told me that fresh sardines were an appetizer special. Sold, I said. It's been years since I had these. (Might even have been at the old Rene, pre-K.) Three fish came out, skins still attached, sizzling on a black iron pan with garlic cloves, fresh thyme, lemon, and olive oil. The aroma filled the large dining room, and the flavor was big an exciting.
Rene thought I should try his garlic soup, an early favorite of the customers. Then a few pieces of his blood sausage, made in house in the French (not Cajun or British) style. His mention of that during the radio show fired up a few listeners to ask where that came from again?
The bouillabaisse was light on tomato and fennel, but chock-a-block with fish and shellfish. In the photo here, I had already removed a couple of big bites of seafood, but the bowl it still looks generous. The rich, spicy rouille on French bread croutons made me eat too much bread. Indeed, I was pretty well stuffed, but at least all of this was light far. (Bouillabaisse is pretty harmless to your waistline.)
It distresses me that this handsome restaurant, even with free valet parking, in the hottest neighborhood for restaurants anywhere in New Orleans, still is having trouble gaining a grip on local palates. But Rene just started a couple of months ago, and he says a few adjustments are yet to be made. I hope he stays for a while.
Rene Bistrot. Warehouse District: 700 Tchoupitoulas. 504-613-2350.
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.
