Wednesday, October 5, 2011.
Eat Club At Impastato's XIV. A Little Opera.
The best idea I've had in my thirty-seven years of doing radio is the Eat Club. But even great ideas get worn out with time. What doesn't? I need to make an adjustment soon. Tonight's dinner at Impastato's drew only thirty-five people, instead of our usual fifty or more. I know exactly why. First, we have two dinners this week (another one tomorrow). Although the pool of attendees is easily large enough to support that, my promotional capacity is stretched with more than one at a time. Second, as good as Impastato's is, we have dinners too often there. I think it's diluting the specialness of our events.
A third matter is one I can't do anything about. When we started the Eat Club eighteen years ago, few wine dinners were on the schedule. Now everybody's getting into the act. WYES's Season of Good Tastes dinners, for example, go off at the rate of one or two a week. And their format is almost identical to that of the Eat Club. (Not saying they copied us, or that they shouldn't be doing events, but we were there first.)
It all worked out tonight, though. Joe Impastato had another private party in the big dining room, and enough walk-ins that the restaurant was completely full.
The usual menu. I didn't have the seafood appetizer--I was too busy talking with the peeps. I did have the pasta, which was the same dish Joe served at the Saints game party he had on Sunday. I was happy to see it again: penne with Alfredo sauce, and a spicy red sauce on top of that. I was moving around again during the salad course and didn't get that.
I followed through on the notion I had when we were here on Sunday. I got the pecan-smoked filet mignon, slathered with a combination of marinara sauce and barbecue sauce, both made at Joe's brother Sal's house. Although that has its fans, I have not been one of them. Until now that I've added the missing touch. That dark-red sauce transformed the steak into a stunner. Steak pizzaiola meets Texas barbecue. I'm going to ask Joe to put that on the menu and name it after me.
Helicopter pilot Glen Girard and his family have been coming to Eat Club dinners for years. He casually mentioned on the air one day that his daughter Moira is a singer. Where does she sing? I asked. "Let me check her schedule," he said. "Hmm. Her next appearance is at Carnegie Hall." She's an operatic soprano.
Moira and I have done duets at Cafe Giovanni when she came to town. And here she was with her husband. She and I did "If I Loved You," the best boy-girl duet song I know. Then she did a number from Phantom of the Opera with Impastato's singer Roy Picou. They looked and sounded fabulous together. Then Moira warbled a few acapella Italian opera songs. For Joe Impastato and all the others who were in the bar having after-dinner libations, this turned the night into a real occasion. I think Joe will ask us to come back again.
Impastato's. Metairie: 3400 16th St. 504-455-1545.
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.
