Wednesday, June 23. Santa Fe. The thunderstorms every afternoon this time of year are very convincing lately. A look at the radar today showed small, isolated patches of rain across the area. But within those green blobs on the screen are patches that go into dark green, yellow, and orange. Even into red, darker red, maroon, and--if it's really bad, as it was today--small spots of lavender. Lavender in most color schemes connotes delicacy and calm. It's the second most violent color on weather radar.
One of those storms ran across the city at the end of the radio show, and left everything dripping as I walked under Esplanade Avenue's trees en route to Santa Fe. That restaurant had a long, very successful run in Marigny, but when its founder and chef Mark Hollger had a health problem and sold the place, it went into decline, not really reopening after the hurricane.
Now it's owned by a former chef at the old place, who reopened Santa Fe with more or less the same menu as in the glory days. He took over the former hamburger stand on Esplanade which, later in its life, was the site of a few major restaurants, most notably Gabrielle.
As I expected it would, the new Santa Fe took a tremendous backlash from its old regular customers when it opened here last year. They expected everything to be the same way they remembered it. But Santa Fe was gone long enough for those memories to have been well coated with icing and sprinkles, and not even the old place at its prime could have lived up to that. And a relocated, re-staffed place reopening after four years' absence would, of course, be less than perfect.
Those complaints have faded (but not gone), and the restaurant is always busy now. It was time for me to take a look. Despite the rain an hour ago, the tables on the sidewalk were all occupied. I thought these might be people waiting for tables, but they wanted the alfresco experience, complete with the tiki torches. Many tables were available inside. The place is as ramshackle and worn as it had been during the Gabrielle days--but, of course, a very large percentage of New Orleans diners find that charming.
The server was quick to point out that the menu in front of me was only a small portion of what the kitchen had to offer, and that this was the last night of the old menu anyway. (The number of times I've found myself in restaurants on the last night of the old menu defies the laws of probability.) But she added that the new menu would include many of the specials they would have tonight.
So, after a margarita, that's what I ordered. The first items was another iteration of the fried green tomato topped with shrimp remoulade, a dish that's becoming as universal in hip bistros as spinach-artichoke dip is in chain places. These were exceptional, however, in having been grilled with the heads on. The remoulade sauce was a hybrid of the red and the white isotopes, and topped with capers--all in all, a fine presentation and flavor.
Next course: gazpacho, and a side order of guacamole. I love the Upperline's idea of adding a spoonful of the latter to the former. The tastes really go together well, here almost as much as there.
I did not come here to eat a rack of lamb, but Mexican food. The server and the hostess made such a fuss over the lamb, though, that it seemed a mistake not to get it. It was as fine as advertised. The chops were the small ones from down under, but cut double thick, grilled to crusty-juicy, and wet down with a natural sauce with a touch of garlic.
That ran my per-person check to about as high a level as I suspect they ever see here. But I had the flan for dessert anyway. It was without flaw, and big enough to even push a lifelong lover of egg custard like me past the brink of total satiety.
I'd say Santa Fe is fully revved back up to speed, except for people who need it to be exactly the way it was in 1990.
Santa Fe. Esplanade Ridge: 3201 Esplanade Ave.. 504-948-0077. Mexican.
