Wednesday, October 19, 2011.
Eric Paulson, Peggy, Green Beans Jazz, And Me At Eight In The Morning. Breakfast At Blue Plate Cafe.
Forty-seven degrees this morning. That crosswind on the Causeway last night was not kidding around. It had lessened only halfway when I grappled with it again this morning. I had to head in at six-thirty to do a television segment with Eric Paulson on the Channel Four morning show. Peggy and I are pushing our Lost Restaurants of New Orleans--The Book, of course. First time I've been there in a few years. At that time--and the time before--Eric seemed gloomy about the future of the city. He seems to be much more upbeat now. He gave us a hearty recommendation for the book, and completely understood why New Orleans people would be interested in a book about restaurants that have been closed for years.
While waiting to go on, we talked with the Creole String Beans, a band that plays New Orleans music from the Fifties and Sixties. "People your age are our target demographic," their lead singer said, pointing to Peggy and me. They played the music buffers out of commercial breaks--a good way for a local band to get some exposure.
The singer told me about a saxophonist around town whose name is Tom Fitzgerald. People are always asking him for restaurant recommendations. He's heard that joke enough times to be thoroughly sick of it.
I invited Peggy to join me for breakfast at the Blue Plate Café. I've always liked that Lower Garden District eatery. I breakfasted there often before Katrina, in teh days when I was the chauffeur for Jude and Mary Leigh on their daily conveyance to Jesuit and Sacred Heart respectively. At eight in the morning, with nothing official on my schedule until radio time at four in the afternoon, I had time for breakfast and lunch. I'm not often on the South Shore for either meal anymore, and it was nice to reconnect.
Peggy is friends with Holly Diliberto, the alarmingly blue-eyed chef and owner of the Blue Plate. Peggy didn't know whether her marriage to a guy named Diliberto put her in the family of Buddy D., whose sports show was on the air in the next studio from mine for many years. I'll bet people ask her that a lot, so I didn't.
Peggy is wild about a poached egg dish here topped with a uniquely flavorful version of creamed spinach. Holly said that in the many months the Blue Plate was closed following Katrina, people posted notes on the window-covering plywood saying "Please come back! We need our spinach!"
I had two breakfasts, to make up for lost time. One was the first item on the menu, the Southshore omelette. The egg wrapper--perfectly yellow and moist, not scorched anywhere--was full of beef chili, corn, onions, and cheese, with black beans on the side. This was seriously delicious, at least as good as anything else I've had here, or anything like it elsewhere.
The other half of my breakfast was a pile of three pancakes with various fruit compotes between the layers. They call it pancakes Bonaparte--a clever reference to the layering effect usually credited to Napoleon. I was reminded of a television commercial I saw once depicting Napoleon. He was interrupted in taking a bite from his namesake pastry to say a few words about car insurance or something. I wonder how many people got that joke.
I wasn't equipped to work on the South Shore, and I can't afford to lose an entire day's labors. I went back home. The wind on the Causeway had tapered off a little more as blue skies opened and it kept getting cooler all day. The big breakfast tided me over the rest of the day.
Blue Plate Cafe. Lee Circle Area: 1330 Prytania. 504-309-9500.
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.
