Wednesday, July 10, 2013.
Redeeming Dinner.
Beware of summer hours. Redemption was on my mind for dinner yesterday, but for the nonce it's closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. But now that it was on my mind, I returned today to scratch that itch.
The restaurant wasn't very busy, which is nothing new. Nor is it uncommon this time of year for any restaurant. Slack enough for Maria DeLaune to join me for what proved to be the entire meal. She and her husband Tommy own the place, along with a major seafood distributing company.
Chef Greg Picolo makes much of that seafood connection. He has nice fish and shellfish when a lot of other eateries have hardly anything at all. Tonight, he seemed to suggest that if I didn't have a smoked soft shell crab it was proof that I am out of my mind. (Greg is famous for joking around with his friends. I think it adds something to the acquaintance myself,)
In fact, the soft shell was on my mind when I was en route to Redemption. It was the signature appetizer at the old Christian's, whose premises Redemption now fills. Even though there's no continuity between Christian's (which met its demise with the hurricane), Redemption could not ignore the specific requests from a lot of customers to pick up a few of the former restaurant's work.
I've had four or five iterations of Chef Greg's version. Of course, it's a bit different. The smoke flavor is a bit more apparent (Christian's flavor was almost subliminal). And if the crab I was served today was any indication, Redemption is using much larger crabs.
After a salad and a lot of talk with Maria about life in general, I allowed Greg to show off a new dish he's making with catfish. "I wanted to show that catfish doesn't need to have a crunchy coat and a firm inside," he said.
I told him my belief that cornmeal-crisp fried catfish is its finest example. But that I'll try anything. I conceded that the flavor of this new approach was good. It tasted just like Greg said: like a piccata, with a buttery, lemony sauce with capers, with a lot of vegetables. But even though I rarely let textures get in the way of my enjoyment of something, one has to reorient one's taste to eat something like this and not think that Middendorf's or the old Bozo's had a better idea. We're just too accustomed to catfish that way.
The great dish of the evening was the simple-sounding strawberry crepes. There was much more to it, mainly a creme anglaise that enrobed the berries with a thin layer of mellowness. It was one of the best strawberry desserts I've ever had.
"It's a good place for people who love dogs," Greg said about the new patio Redemption has built for its customers. It's around back, past the parking lot, in a nicely-planted nook. "Especially at brunch, people come here with their dogs and sit outside. Where else can you do that?" In now learned that brunch is on both Saturday and Sunday at Redemption. That seems to be a trend among New Orleans restaurants, and a good one at that.
Redemption. Mid-City: 3835 Iberville St. 504-309-3570.
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