Wednesday, May 9, 2012.
The Other Round Table. Mary Leigh's Second Decade Ends. Morton's New Menu.
Socialite and friend Margarita Bergen asked me to speak to her lively, monthly Round Table gathering at the Royal Sonesta. My second time in a year. I knew I wouldn't have to give it a lot of thought, because the main speakers were Chef John Folse and Chef Rick Tramonto, who will shortly open a new restaurant at the Sonesta called R'evolution. I have no room to criticize, but John Folse can really talk. After he and Rick gave their presentations, their assistants got up to give some background. Which involved calling the chefs back up to say even more.
As if that weren't enough, the other speakers were Susan Ford and Jyl Benson, who just launched a new magazine called Louisiana Kitchen. And who's on the cover of their premiere edition? Chef John Folse and Chef Rick Tramonto! And what did they talk about? R'evolution!
Which--getting back to that--bids to have diners expiring with delight with its grandeur. For example, lacquered Chinese jewelry boxes for the presentation of the after-dinner bon bons! A dessert menu made of two hinged iPads! A glass staircase for the serving of caviar! Salt from the Himalayas, chosen for its colors! (I am not kidding about any of this.) And the sommelier showed off a bottle from R'evolution's cellar: a magnum of 1982 Chateau Mouton Rothschild!
Those of us who like dining in the grand style (as I certainly do) will be very intrigued when this restaurant--whose opening has been delayed six months--premieres in June. I hope the food is good when I get there in January or so.
It may well be. The luncheon for the Round Table today began with a turtle soup which, although its flavor profile was entirely traditional, was served in a unique style, ladled at the table into a bowl with two hard-boiled, stuffed eggs and two smears of something yellow across the plate's margin. It was very good, deliciously spicy.
The entree was less interesting: a tournedos of ribeye. (Odd expression, like drumstick of trout.) Its main problem was toughness, but it kept me from eating a lot at lunch.
A good thing, because this very crowded day featured an important dinner. Today is our daughter Mary Leigh's twentieth birthday. She doesn't often get big celebrations of her day, because it's so close to Mother's Day that the two events collide. But she always gets a nice dinner, many of them at Morton's Steakhouse, one of her favorite restaurants.
I walked to Morton's from the radio station, beating the girls there. That gave me time to a) have a $15 Negroni and 2) study the menu, which is new as of a few months ago. It showed more changes than I've seen since my first visit to the original Morton's in Chicago in 1981.
Two changes on the card made me raise an eyebrow. First, the prices have risen to intolerable levels. Morton's now has the highest single-item price on any New Orleans menu: $112 for the porterhouse for two. The cowboy bone-in ribeye that I knew Mary Ann would order is $54. A six-ounce filet is $39! A side of macaroni and cheese is $11. It stops being fun at these prices--at least for the payer.
The second datum I noticed on the new menu may explain the changes: "Wholly owned by Landry's, Inc." It's true: Morton's was bought out at the beginning of the year by that terrible Texas-based chain of insulting Kreole-Kajun restaurants. Of course, Morton's was already a chain, but with a good, quality-oriented culture. I wonder what will happen to it now.
I pushed all this out of my mind when the Marys arrived. We would have a good evening, at our favorite table, the menus printed with "Happy Birthday, Mary Leigh!" at the top. Morton's no longer rolls a cart of food over to the table to show you not only what the steaks look like, but tomatoes and potatoes, too. We agreed that was time for that corny service touch to die. All the key staff, from the chef to the manager, stopped by to say hello.
The girls went with their favorites. They split a wedge salad with blue cheese, then had the cowboy ribeye and the small filet. Macaroni and cheese, not hot enough. Baked potato, also less that steaming. Sliced tomatoes, not ripe enough.
I tried new items, starting with clams casino, a dish we almost never see in New Orleans. It's everywhere in the Northeast, and I order it whenever I see it there. Morton's version have something in common with its oysters Rockefeller: they both remind me of the classic dishes, but don't really taste like them. But good enough.
I eschewed my usual sirloin strip (with the ribeyes, the only steak the menu says in USDA Prime; $56) in favor of the new "prime" pork chop. There is no USDA grading of pork, so I don't know what they mean by that. I couldn't possibly complain about the chop, though. I asked for it to be cooked to 155 degrees, and I got exactly what I was after, crusty on the outside, juicy in the center, with a black truffle butter bubbling over it. Smelled and tasted spectacular.
Desserts were a flowing chocolate torte for the birthday girl, and a Grand Marnier souffle for me. (Morton's remains the only restaurant in town that always has a variety of hot soufflees available for the asking.) But then the chef came out with an array of new desserts, including an individually baked (in mini-springform pans!) cheesecake, with a bruleed top (excellent) and a monstrous slice of dark, dark chocolate cake (which the chocolate-mad Marys loved).
My God. I have a daughter in her twenties.
Morton's The Steakhouse. CBD: 365 Canal (Canal Place Mall). 504-566-0221.
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.
