 |
Jim, Sarah, Ms. Nev and
me at Borgne |
That evening Ms. Nevest and I met our friends Jim Underwood and his wife Sarah at
John Besh's Borgne for dinner. When I go to the city of my dreams I so look forward to seeing Jim and Sarah, because they're the most lovely people. I'm lucky to have inherited them from my brother Brit--Jim is his friend from back in the day. But I'm selfish that way, so I've colonized them--don't judge me. Did I mention they're lovely?
Anyway to get back to the story, I've resisted going to Borgne because it's in the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Yuck! The idea of a hotel restaurant, at least in NOLA, doesn't appeal. But Jim suggested it and who are we to argue with a local. Once again, Jim knew. It was a wonderful meal, laid back with great service. I'm still thinking about the shrimp and crab salad with horseradish dressing. It's the best thing I've had in years. And Ms. Nevest laughed all night.
 |
| St. Roch Market |
The next day I dragged Ms. Nevest up and down through the Lower Garden District, the Bywater and the neighborhood north of St. Claude to have a look at houses on the market in our price range and the neighborhoods they're in. That was like, 2 houses. We made a lunch stop at the newly renovated
St. Roch Market on St. Claude where I had a delicious order of avocado toast with fried eggs at Juice NOLA. Also worth a try, Koreola for a Korean-Creole mashup. We also checked on the progress of the new Rampart Street streetcar line.
Christopher arrived midday and we all napped after the afore-mentioned Tracey's poboys (with a few oysters on the halfshell and bloody marys tossed in). Our evening plans centered around dinner at Brennan's, which was also celebrating a birthday (its 70th)
 |
| poster on Magazine Street |
with a complete redo. And it's a restaurant to which Ms. Nevest had not been in 30 years. We started out in the lovely courtyard with a bottle of Billecart-Salmon (our inescapable favorite--that's a whole other story). The staff was very attentive about Ms. Nevest's birthday (to the point that it felt just marginally creepy) and the food was tasty in that classic Creole sort of way (which is to say once every decade might be enough). Among other things we had the blue crab remoulade (meh), the lamb rack, the palm sugar roasted duck and the vadouvan roasted drum. Nice-nice-nice. All of the main courses were very well done, although at times it was hard to see them through the haze of the special of the day, Steak Dianne, that was being cooked table side throughout the dinning room. Between the smoke of Diane and the the flames leaping from the bananas Foster I was worried that someone was going to catch on fire. We get it--bananas Foster with its tableside preparation was invented at Brennan's. Still. There was a whole lot of sizzling going on! All in all I had the clear sense that Ms. Nevest would have preferred to get Olive Garden takeout and eat at home in front of the TV. So next year, . . .
 |
| in the courtyard at Brennan's |
Afterward we went to the Sazarac Bar in the Roosevelt Hotel for, well, Sazaracs, to round out the evening festivities. I always forget how lovely the murals are (they remind me of the murals at Bemelman's in the Carlyle in New York--not in style, but in significance). It was a nice way to end the evening.
 |
| Joe and Carl at the Spotted Cat |
The next day Ms. Nevest said her goodbyes and was off on I-49 to Lafayette. Christopher and I had 24 hours to do our own thing before the arrival of our friends Joe and Carl. We walked the neighborhoods looking at houses and went to the
Audubon Zoo (well worth a trip). The gorillas
La Petit Grocery, Justin Devillier's restaurant on Magazine. What we didn't do is have the crab spaghetti (which we ALWAYS have) because, sadly, it has been taken off the menu. But we did have the blue crab beignets (think creole soup dumplings), charred cucumbers, the roasted broccoli bagna cauda and the justly famous burger. The service is top notch.
freaked us out a little; they looked a little too much like us and they were sitting on cardboard boxes, which made them look like homeless gorillas. Just a little sad. That evening we did what we always do for our first evening meal in NOLA, we sat at the bar at
 |
| Casamento's oyster loaf |
We ate at many other NOLA restaurants, some old and some new. We had oyster loaves at
Casamento's on Magazine, the buffet at Lil Dizzy's on Esplanade, amazing cocktails at
Cure on Freret, a surprisingly mediocre meal in an atmosphere reminiscent of the Cheesecake Factory at Donald Link's
Peche in the Warehouse District (though the "fish sticks" and the spicy ground shrimp and noodles were pretty tasty), and some workman-like pizza at
Ancora on Freret. We heard music at the the Spotted Cat on Frenchman and Maple Leaf on Oak.
 |
| Cure on Freret |
The highlight of our visit (food-wise)--as we expected--was the Israeli restaurant
Shaya on Magazine. Truly memorable food. In the last decade, for all the wrong reasons, New Orleans really has been transformed from a food museum into a food destination with all kinds of surprises--Shaya is one of them. The food at Shaya has nothing to do with historic NOLA foodways (at least in terms of content) but everything to do with the transformational and additive dimension of a city that has had to reinvent itself many times over the centuries, incorporating the new in innovative ways. The food at Shaya is fresh and bright and very interesting. The space is lovely and the service is too.
 |
| Mardi Gras Indians on Super Sunday |
Finally, our trip providentially coincided not only with St. Patrick's Day but also with St. Joseph's Day and Super Sunday. We checked out the
St. Joseph's Day Altar at Our Lady Star of the Sea in St. Roch and we attended uptown Indian Practice and saw some pretty amazing costumes. Super Sunday was more chaotic that I had imagined it would be but I guess that's just part of it.
 |
| Joe and Carl at Cure |
include in my white bean stew with smoked pork sausage from Johnson's Boucannerie in Lafayette, LA that Ms. Nev sent up for Christopher's birthday. It was pretty delicious--just sauteed chopped onions, garlic and a carrot cut in big chunks. A half pound of white beans, washed and soaked in cold water for a few hours while I transplanted. A bay leaf, salt, pepper, a spring of thyme uncovered when I raked the herb garden. Some frozen diced tomatoes (looked like about a cup) and the dregs of some white wine I had around. That's it. I had an endive in the vegetable drawer which I cut in half, rubbed with olive oil and salt and pepper and then put under the broiler for about 10m. I topped that with some shaved parmesan and it was a passable first course. For the main I did the smoked sausage in a traditional method--put the links in a skilled and cook over a medium fire until browned then add some water. Continue to cook until the sausage wass glazed and crisp. I split the sausage and served it over rice with the bean stew on top and it was pretty damned good.
