Wednesday, October 24, 2012.
Menu Art At Ralph's On The Park.
Whoever is designing the menus at Ralph's On The Park has reached back a century in the annals of printing. All the dishes on the list are arranged not by ingredients but by the length of the line when the dish is described. There are only two categories: starters (including soups and salads) and entrees. Each of them had the profile of a Christmas tree.
This sort of thing was very popular in the early 1900s, when typography had moved forward so much that the typesetters could get artistic. The last functioning example of the style was the old French menu at Antoine's. The menu's 140 dishes allowed many fanciful shapes to be made with the words. What was most interesting is that they did keep all like dishes together. I suspect a little rewriting had to be done.
Although I admired the work (I was a typographer myself for a long time) I employed less than half of Ralph's typographer's masterpiece tonight. Most of my order was from the specials list, plus a nice amuse bouche of boudin from Chef Chip Flanagan. The sausage was neither the familiar Cajun rice-filled link we get at festivals. Nor was it the dark-brown blood sausage I'm always happy to find. It sat on a nest of caramelized onions with a little Creole mustard on the side, and it hit the spot--even after similar stuff yesterday at Ralph's nearby neighbor, Toups' Meatery.
Next came a half-order of gnocchi, which the menu had as an entree. This was seriously good, with a tomato butter sauce throughout and paper-thin slices of what looked like white truffles. Ralph is still the kind of white truffles, even though it's been a couple of years since the annual truffle festival at his now-gone restaurant Bacco. I don't think these were the hyper-expensive Alba truffles that used to show up (at this time of year, come to think of it) at Bacco. For one thing, the price wasn't high enough. And I didn't pick up that unambiguously sexy aroma.
Now a bowl of lobster consomme. Is consomme--whose heyday was the same as that of sculpted menu typography--also making a comeback? Probably not, but I have seen more of it lately than in a long while. The broth had a little of that lip-sticking, gelatin-rich quality of beef consomme. The lobster aspect was a sort of mousse cut into small dice. Not much lobster influence here, really, but I enjoyed it anyway.
The entree was called City Park pork. It was chunks of pork shoulder that had been smoked over fallen oak tree limbs from across the street. (Which is the part of City Park with the biggest, oldest live oaks.) With the shoulder was a chunk of braised and broiled pork belly. At last, here was a serving of that very trendy meat that wasn't overwhelmingly fatty. In fact, I'd say the fat content was less than that of a slice of lean bacon. (Same thing, after all.) It was the best part of the dish, the pork shoulder in need of two or three more hours in the pit, I thought.
The dessert I was advised to get was a rich panna cotta topped with. . . pears? I should have asked. Good, though.
I don't know why I don't dine at Ralph's more often. It's my kind of place. Of all the Brennan family's restaurants, it comes closest to continuing the energies that Commander's Palace epitomizes.
Ralph's On The Park. City Park Area: 900 City Park Ave. 504-488-1000.
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