Patton's

Restaurant Review

Anecdotes & Analysis

Patton’s premises are the striking and beautiful Salmen-Fritchie House, a century-old landmark in the old part of Slidell. It’s the latest in a series of restaurants here; fortunately, none of them have renovated the old mansion drastically, and the many rooms and parlors are intimate and comfortable in an elegantly antique way. The Pattons have been in the catering business for about 50 years, and are well known for their crawfish sacks at the Jazz Festival every year. But this is their first restaurant. The chef is Ryan Stone Ware, a young man who is much in the thrall of current local and national cooking trends. Perhaps too much so. The goodness of a dish can almost be predicted by noting how unusual it sounds. The more familiar the flavors sound, the better the dish will be. For example, you might want to start with the half-pound crab cake, which could be split satisfactirily between two people. The seafood-stuffed artichoke hearts (which are then fried and topped with hollandaise) are also delicious. And the crawfish sacks are on the menu, of course. They’re crepes filled with a crawfish stuffing, tied up, fried, and napped with a creamy crawfish sauce. A ragout of exotic mushrooms with goat cheese is rich and tasty. Soups and salads keep the standards high. The gumbo and turtle soup are both respectable. A salad of avocados with grilled proscuitto-covered shrimp and mango is a pleasant blend of flavors. And the basic salads are well assembled. There is a distinct decline in interest when we get to the entrees. The signature dish is the drunken duck, a grilled breast with a sauce made from Jim Beam and served with a savory bread pudding. This is not as good as it sounds, mainly because of the sauce. I'd also prefer rice to the bread pudding. The seared tuna and crabmeat with pasta and the bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin with sweet potatoes are better compositions. Amberjack with prosciutto has a good sauce and garnish, but the prosciutto presence adds nothing. The salmon is tasty enough, but fish with mashed potatoes strikes me as a bad idea. The grilled lobster tail is dry. Veal medallions have an interesting port demi-glace but the veal is tough. The menu fishes up with basic steaks. They make excellent desserts here. For an Eat Club dinenr one night we had a great pear tart. The bread pudding, creme brulee, and a flowing-center chocolate cake round out the offerings. Service could be better, but it’s standard for Slidell, whose restaurants all suffer from undertrained waiters and waitresses.

Backstory

Patton’s premises are the striking and beautiful Salmen-Fritchie House, a century-old landmark in the old part of Slidell. It’s the latest in a series of restaurants here; fortunately, none of them have renovated the old mansion drastically, and the many rooms and parlors are intimate and comfortable in an elegantly antique way. The Pattons have been in the catering business for about 50 years, and are well known for their crawfish sacks at the Jazz Festival every year. But this is their first restaurant. The chef is Ryan Stone Ware, a young man who is much in the thrall of current local and national cooking trends. Perhaps too much so. The goodness of a dish can almost be predicted by noting how unusual it sounds. The more familiar the flavors sound, the better the dish will be. For example, you might want to start with the half-pound crab cake, which could be split satisfactirily between two people. The seafood-stuffed artichoke hearts (which are then fried and topped with hollandaise) are also delicious. And the crawfish sacks are on the menu, of course. They’re crepes filled with a crawfish stuffing, tied up, fried, and napped with a creamy crawfish sauce. A ragout of exotic mushrooms with goat cheese is rich and tasty. Soups and salads keep the standards high. The gumbo and turtle soup are both respectable. A salad of avocados with grilled proscuitto-covered shrimp and mango is a pleasant blend of flavors. And the basic salads are well assembled. There is a distinct decline in interest when we get to the entrees. The signature dish is the drunken duck, a grilled breast with a sauce made from Jim Beam and served with a savory bread pudding. This is not as good as it sounds, mainly because of the sauce. I'd also prefer rice to the bread pudding. The seared tuna and crabmeat with pasta and the bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin with sweet potatoes are better compositions. Amberjack with prosciutto has a good sauce and garnish, but the prosciutto presence adds nothing. The salmon is tasty enough, but fish with mashed potatoes strikes me as a bad idea. The grilled lobster tail is dry. Veal medallions have an interesting port demi-glace but the veal is tough. The menu fishes up with basic steaks. They make excellent desserts here. For an Eat Club dinenr one night we had a great pear tart. The bread pudding, creme brulee, and a flowing-center chocolate cake round out the offerings. Service could be better, but it’s standard for Slidell, whose restaurants all suffer from undertrained waiters and waitresses.