Wednesday, April 20, 2011.
Ramping Down, Then Up. Rene To Rib Room? Eat Club At Le Meritage. Big Napa Cabernets.
Since I was going to the French Quarter today it was the perfect time to get an overdue haircut. It presented a challenge. The barbershop in the Royal Orleans Hotel, where Harold Klein has cut my hair for many years, is in the basement. A ramp from the garage is on the steep side, and I don't feel confident in the brakes on my four-wheel gimp cart. A lift designed for people like me wasn't working, so I had no choice. I went down the ramp, with Mary Ann standing in front of me and calling me a wuss all the way down.
Harold was waiting for me. Not just to cut my hair, but to discuss the future of the Rib Room, now that Chef Anthony Spizale has left to take over the kitchen at the Upperline. Harold is lobbying hard for the hotel to hire Chef Rene Bajeux.
That would indeed be a good move. Rene came to town about a decade ago to take over the Windsor Court Grill Room's menu. After a few years, he opened his own place--Rene Bistrot--where MiLa is now, in the Pere Marquette Hotel. The hurricane damaged the hotel and the restaurant enough that they sat empty for a few years. In the meantime, Rene was the second chef of the John Besh era at La Provence. That seemed like the perfect situation, with Rene welcoming the opportunity to farm on the restaurant's property. But for some reason that didn't work out. Restaurant fans who follow chefs wonder where Rene has been since then. "In and out of town" is the answer, as he opened several restaurants in hotels here and there.
Whether he would accept the Royal Orleans job is questionable. The Rib Room turned fifty last year, and has a lot of traditions and momentum in a style very different from Rene's. But maybe it's time for the Rib Room to move on. The management of the past few years showed such an inclination, even though their efforts didn't bring any permanent new attractions.
This discussion lengthened the time Harold took to cut my hair. I almost was late for the radio show--especially since we had to negotiate that ramp again. Harold helped me make the climb. It was easier going up than down. Or at least less scary. I'm glad this is the only haircut I'll have to get in my injured state.
The show started a minute or so after I rolled into place at Le Meritage. This is the gourmet room of the Maison Dupuy Hotel, and an historic one at that. In this space, Chef Paul Prudhomme opened his first New Orleans restaurant, in 1975. It was called Le Bon Creole, and in it we got our first look at the rustic Cajun stylings Chef Paul would lay on America five years later.
It's a very different restaurant now, sleek and sophisticated. Chef Michael Farrell purveys a unique and interesting concept here. The entire menu is available in either small-plate or large-plate versions. And each dish is paired with a selection of three to five wines. All those wines are available not only by the glass, but by the half-glass. This allows the creative diner to assemble his own wine dinner, any night of the week.
It's a wonder other restaurants haven't copied the idea. Or maybe not. Le Meritage is not exactly bulging with customers, despite consistent goodness in its food. My theory: it's on the wrong side of the French Quarter. Not many other restaurants are on Burgundy Street.
The fifth annual French Quarter Wine Festival is going on at Le Meritage. Major wineries contract to send their principals or winemakers to pour their deep-cellar juice. The excellence of the wine lineup is only matched locally by the winemakers who come to the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience, and maybe not even then.
The management asked me to host a radio broadcast and the Eat Club for one of these dinners. The one that grabbed my attention was tonight's Ehlers Estate dinner. Although better known wineries were on the schedule, I see it as my job to introduce people (and myself, often) to great wineries that are less well known. I had Ehlers a couple of times in the past and loved it. It's a small, estate-growing winery in Napa, just west of the town of St. Helena. The owner is a French entrepreneur who has entered the philanthropic side of life. Among his recent donations is this entire winery, whose profits now all go to heart research.
The evening started with a rose of Cabernet Franc out in the courtyard. I couldn't roll over the courtyard's stones, there wasn't a place to sit, and it was hot out there. So I stayed in the lobby, with some folks who come from Cut Off for our dinners.
I'd already met the winemaker, anyway. Kevin Morrisey spent a few minutes with me on the radio show. He's a good front man for the winery, personable and good-looking in that I-live-on-almonds California way. He herded everyone inside at a bit after seven, and started the dinner with some words about his wines. It was a little hard to hear: some corporate group had paid for two large tables at the dinner, and I got the distinct impression that those guests weren't all that interested in the finer points of wine. They wouldn't be quiet, especially later in the evening. (That's why I ask anyone who speaks at our Eat Club events to get it over with at the beginning.)
The first course was some starkly-presented hamachi (yellowtail) sashimi, served with a shot glass of sweet soup made with corn and coconut. Ehlers' Sauvignon Blanc, it was agreed, was a better wine than the courtyard rose.
Then came something very cool: a panneed soft-boiled egg, encrusted with herbs and bread crumbs, still liquid in the center. This sat on a nest of salad greens, and when the yolk spilled out on my cutting in, it created the dressing for the greens. Same idea as a classically-made Caesar salad, really--and no vinegar to fight with the two reds presented with this course. The 2007 Merlot and 2008 Cabernet Franc. The latter grape is rarely made into a wine on its own. After tasting both of these, I made a cuvee, and thought a better wine came of it. Morrisey said that I had broken the law by mixing two different vintages in large quantities.
One had to think hard about the next course. Its theme went over the heads of most people (me included) until it was pointed out. The name of the wine--a straight Cabernet Sauvignon--is One Twenty Over Eighty. It was served with hearts of palm, hearts of baby artichokes, and blood sausage. Find the motif, then laugh at me.
All of this was prelude to the main course, featuring Ehlers' flagship. It's a monster Cabernet Sauvignon, two years in oak, bottled in the heaviest standard wine bottle I've ever hefted. Last time I had one, Mary Ann insisted on bringing the empty bottle home for some purpose as yet undiscovered.
We had the 2005 and the 2007 vintages tonight. The 2007 had the more appealing aroma; the 2005 had the flavor of the night. Neither one was ready to drink, of course. I asked Morrisey when he thought it might be. "Twenty years," he said. "But I prefer it now. I don't like the flavor of old wines." Hmm.
The entree was a filet mignon with a cool red onion jam on top. I found this dull, the jam sucking the warmth from the beef. Better was a little tart the chef said was a blue cheese creme brulee.
No dessert wine, but the big Cabs worked well enough in that role. The dessert itself was an assortment of little chocolate things. It was served with no fork or spoon, just toothpicks--and a couple of items on the plate were not toothpickable.
I was surprised by the attendance. At around $125 a person, to have sixty-five people on a Wednesday night is doing something. All of the dinners in this series have been doing well, with a few of them drawing almost a hundred people.
This was the first Eat Club dinner since my accident on March 7. Also my first alcoholic beverage, and quite a bit of it, too. I think I can handle wine. I'm still afraid of cocktails.
Le Meritage. French Quarter: 1001 Toulouse. 504-522-8800.
