Tuesday, September 4, 2012.
Dining Doldrums, Chapter 58353-G. Manning's.
At certain times of year, the minds of New Orleanians wander away from their proper obsessions with food. Some are unpredictable. When a hurricane draws a bead on us, or when the Saints are on a winning streak. Others arrive with the seasons. The weeks before and after Labor Day feel like everyone has gone on a diet.
We are there now. And the incursion into our waters of Isaac amplified the effect. Restaurants are unbusy. To quote Ella Brennan: "It's been that way for all the forty years I've been in this business. I know it's coming, but that doesn't keep it from driving me nuts!"
Secondary phenomena--like my radio show and website--are slow too. The round-table show was on hiatus this week. Too many restaurant people were busy getting things squared away after Isaac. I could have used someone to talk to, so slow were the phones.
Something else happens this time each year. A few restaurants close, having come to the end of their patience or credit lines or both. This too is connected with the hurricane season. Restaurateurs whose properties are messed up badly by storm or flood may well decide to chuck it all.
There's also a metaphorical side to this, according to my high school economics teacher Joe Bertrand, one of my all-time favorites. "Recessions and hard times are like hurricanes. They sweep out the weak businesses and open up room to let the strong get stronger." I wonder which political party he's in these days.
Three closings are noteworthy. Two are four-star places. Juniper, chef Pete Kusiv's rustic restaurants in Old Mandeville--has apparently given up the ghost, although I haven't been able to reach him to confirm that. Tough spot: the building has seen at least five restaurants come and go. However, Pete managed do keep it rolling for eight years, even after his original location two blocks away was Katrina-fied and Rita-nized.
Kevin Vizard operated his namesake restaurant for almost seven years, the longest stint in his illustrious but punctuated thirty-year career. Starting the week of September 10, Vizard's will shift from being a four-star gourmet Creole bistro to a salad, soup, sandwich, and platter lunch and early supper place. This was almost inevitable. The restaurant is too small to become really prosperous, despite the quality of the cooking. Which was never in question. I could also say that he could have done a better job of promoting his restaurant. Most of the people to whom I recommended it on the radio had never heard of it.
The third closing is of a neighborhood café called Braxton's, 636 Franklin Street in Gretna. If that address rings a bell in the minds of longtime restaurant connoisseurs, it's because for twenty-five years (1966-1991) it was LeRuth's, a candidate for Best Restaurant In The History Of New Orleans. I never made it to Braxton's, and I know nothing about its goodness. Its immediate cause of closing was a fire that looks to me to have totalled the place, but what do I know?
To dinner with Mary Ann, who got excited when I suggested that we go to Manning's. That's the new (nine months) restaurant bearing the names and images of Archie, Cooper, Eli, and Peyton Manning--father and three sons, all football players of note, all local boys. The restaurant is managed by the Harrah's organization. The building was built seemingly overnight on an empty lot across Fulton Street from Harrah's hotel, which is already heavy with restaurants: Ruth's Chris, Grand Isle, and Gordon Biersch are Manning's immediate neighbors.
A sports theme, of course. The most unusual part of the restaurant is an arc of movie-theater-style seats in front of a movie-theater-size screen. Dozens of other screens are active with varied games.
The opening chef here was Anthony Spizale, who came here after short stay at The Upperline and a long one at the Royal Orleans Hotel. He was the executive chef at both, and here too. Was. He's gone from Manning's now. Don't know the story.
Nor do I want to blame the menu at Manning's on Anthony, who I know is capable of better. Whoever came up with this collection of food clearly wasn't aiming for a clientele that chooses restaurants primarily for good food.
Mary Ann has been here a few times--including on the second day. (That's only because it was impossible to get in on Day One unless you were a serious celebrity.) Mary Leigh joined her, and took away a decidedly negative feeling. Mary Ann liked it better, because the menu includes some favorites of hers. She's nuts for greens, for example, and here is turnip greens and tasso dip. Like spinach-artichoke, but greasier. MA says she loves it anyway. Nice presentation, with thick-cut potato chips in a fry basket (although they were not warm).
The cocktail service was amateurish. I asked for a Manhattan, up. It came in a rocks glass, without the rocks. The waiter said this was because serving a drink in a martini glass made the drink look small. "Ah, the tyranny of the measured pour," I said.
"That's all there is these days," he said.
"Not in the bars I like," I said.
We split a Cobb salad, described by the menu as "micro-chopped." That's a good description of a well-made Cobb. But this one was decidedly macro-chopped. Everything was in big chunks, which degrades the point of having all those ingredients in there. You should get a little of everything in each forkful. This one made you choose: cube of chicken, hunk of blue cheese, or whole green bean?
MA was happy with her entree, crawtator-coated (as in the Zapp's chips of the same name?) fried drumfish with a mostly-hot sauce beurre blanc, wilted spinach and dirty rice. For me was a generous dozen overfried oysters on top of creamy bacon-tasso grits, topped with a thick brown sauce and green onions. I found this actually gross. I am not one to reject foods for textural reasons, but when I encounter a dish that my late restaurateur friend Mark Smith called "glop on glop," I shrink back. I left two-thirds of this behind, while imagining the conversation in which one of the F&B guys said, "Hey, everybody does shrimp and grits. Why not oysters and grits?" This is why.
Obviously, here is a restaurant that is not ready for a formal review. I expected much better. I hope the new chef can hold the corporate guys at bay and put out better than this.
Manning's. CBD: 519 Fulton St. 504-593-8118.
