My Favorite Restaurant

How many times have you been asked, "What is your favorite restaurant in New Orleans?" For me, it is a query I receive at least once a week. I am hesitant to ever declare any restaurant my favorite. Too many healthy differences exist between cuisines, styles of cooking, and restaurants to have a favorite. But if I did pick a favorite a restaurant it would look at lot like this.

My favorite restaurant would be Uptown, preferably on a busy corner. The building would have an interesting history, maybe it would be the site of a few failed restaurants. There would be a long bar anchoring half of the room and pressed tin ceilings. The bar would have the requisite knowledge to make fantastic classic cocktails, as well as the innovative spirit to stay on top of trends. A barrel aged martini would be a good example of the expertise of the bar, turning the robust floral notes of genever into cinnamon and spice and everything nice.

Something to snack on from the kitchen might come out while enjoying a cocktail. On a recent visit it would be cracklins as light and airy as children's whispers, the size of half footballs, and painted with honey and hot sauce. Bar food, gentrified and made delicious. 

The kitchen would showcase originality without quirkiness. Perhaps on one visit, the upstairs would be turned into a lascivious den of fried chicken. The crust of the chicken would crack under pressure sending chicken skin shrapnel tumbling down your chin. The meat would be brined and seasoned through. Tart pickled shrimp, mashed potatoes, cole slaw, and collards would provide all the comforts of home executed much better. Stealing the show that summer evening would be a simple salad of watermelon tossed with scallions and sea beans. No award exists by a major sparkling water company for this type of cooking, but there should be.

My favorite restaurant would also know how to do more than just craft house made charcuterie. They would take blood sausage and pair it with caramelized onion broth and a confetti of apple and cheddar turning each bite into a fall symphony. At times the kitchen would seem to be daring you try a dish, so there would be a lamb heart appetizer. Take the challenge and you are rewarded with thin, tender grilled segments of lamb on steroids adorned with crispy, bright pickled vegetables.

Still the kitchen keeps pushing you, so there may be a pasta course which makes no sense on paper. Brussel sprouts, fried chicken, cavatelli, and butternut squash sounds like a post-Thanksgiving midnight fridge raid, it tastes even better. Scallops ride on the wings of the god smoked pork, the pork coaxing out the sweet, meatiness of an oceangoing vessel. Pork loin is sliced and served as it should be with a rosy interior and cracker crisp crust. Set atop grits punctuated with fresh kernels of corn this is about as good as eating gets.

My favorite restaurant would realize dessert is just as important. So there would be apple fritters that put beignets to shame. There would be a chocolate tart as dark as midnight. Blueberries and Vacherin become a ballet orchestrated by a small scoop of lemon sorbet. All of this would be overseen by a smart, young staff which knows the menu, but also understand how to let a night out develop on its own.

I don't have a favorite restaurant, but if I did it would look an awfully lot like Coquette.

Coquette- Eagle

2800 Magazine St.

265-0421

Dining Al Fresco

The courtyard at Martinique Bistro.

Although it's a rainy Monday morning, these past 2 weekends of beautiful weather have proven that Spring has begun, and with it the countdown has started on the fleeting outdoor dining season. When the sun is shining and the mercury reads 75° or lower, any time spent indoors seems like a missed opportunity, and that includes time spent eating.

Most of my outdoor dining is done on Saturday or Sunday during lunch, and at those times I usually have zero motivation to dress well enough to enjoy the setting of Commander's courtyard or the patio behind Bayona. Luckily, there are plenty of options casual enough to only require throwing on a pair of jeans.

Two weeks ago when I walked my dog through Exchange Alley, I could not believe how many tables The Green Goddess had set up outside. There had to be at least 40 diners enjoying Sunday brunch in the sun, and another 20 or so waiting patiently for the next available table. A few blocks away at Sylvain, the rear courtyard is usually full at all times, and that particular day was no exception. Headed toward Uptown, Martinique is always one of the first restaurants that come to mind during this time of year and is on a surprisingly short list restaurants that offers lunch/brunch on Saturday. Dante's Kitchen is also in that category, as is St. James Cheese Company, which is probably my favorite spot in the city for an outdoor lunch on Saturday.

What are restaurants to do when people are anxious to eat outside but they have no courtyard or patio? Throw a few tables out on the sidewalk, of course. La Petite Grocery and Coquette both offer front row seating to Magazine Street. The sidewalk tables at Cochon are usually full on almost every night during dinner. And although its not open for lunch on the weekends, it seems remiss to write about great outdoor dining spots without mentioning Herbsaint.

Yesterday as I drove down Freret Street, I noticed that Company Burger had set up picnic tables outside, and I had to appreciate the great lengths that restaurateurs will go to accomodate our ever so short al fresco dining season. Whether you are dining on Shrimp Henican in the courtyard at Commander's or scarfing down a roast beef po-boy on a white picnic table in the back parking lot at Parkway Bakery, be thankful that you are enjoying it while you can.

Winesday

Rene: Crisp and mineral this wine has a faint taste of salt, the ocean. I get a little bit of citrus, like a squirt of grapefruit. It is a perhaps a little heavy for an aperitif, but it definitely needs seafood. Maybe some fried seafood, but not in a heavy batter. I'd want a batter more resembling tempura, so maybe the fried Gulf shrimp with sambal and grapefruit that is always on the menu at Coquette. Or ditch the batter and go with the marinated Spanish anchovies with stewed onions from Lilette. If you choose the latter, just make sure your date will kiss you regardless.

Peter: This is a nicely balanced wine. Kind of heavy in the mouth, a little buttery but not overly oaky or rich. This wine tastes like a pear with a little effervescence. Would go well with the Veal Alyssa from Mr. John's playing nicely with the saltiness of the capers and the tang of the lemon beurre blanc.

Joe the Wine Guy: 93% Pinot Grigio and 7% Chardonnay make up this 2009 Stellina di Notte Pinot Grigio. This is a gorgeous fresh, dry white wine with fragrant floral, fruit, and spice aromas. The silky flavors are filled with pear, kiwi, melon, honey, and spice notes that culminate in a lemony finish. This Pinot Grigio makes the perfect aperitivo and pairs well with light, fresh salads and seafoods. The wine retails for $12.99 and you can find it on the wine list at Byblos and Cafe Amelie.


Editor's Note: When we saw the price of this wine, it became clear of all the wines tasted in this series, this may be the best value we have run across. Thanksgiving is coming; stock up for Aunt Gertrude. 

A Vintnerview with Michelle Gueydan

Michelle Gueydan left New Orleans after high school for college in New York. After college she worked for then gubernatorial candidate Mark Warner and then a job as a private event manager eased her into the wine world. She returned to New Orleans where she is in an integral member in three wine related businesses. At Swirl, she is a "wino" helping customers choose a wine to take home. As the principal in VinoSolutions she outsources sommelier expertise to restaurants and home collectors to organize and build their wine holdings. Recently, Gueydan partnered with Brian Dias to start NOLAWineSpeak, a wine education company. Twentyish questions on the clock....

I was in college in upstate New York. Had done most my partying in high school so when I got to college found partying sort of boring and focused more on studying. Close to college was the Finger Lakes region which makes a lot of wines, so one day I just volunteered to help pull leaves at a vineyard. It was there I first learned wine could be art and not just pink stuff that got you drunk.

I had been working for a few years as the event planner for a guy who owned a real estate asset management company. My boss also did a lot of philanthropic work with Quincy Jones so we were always planning dinners of some sort. Or we were flying to a dinner and talking about wine while reading food and wine magazines. So originally pairing was something of a foray into an unknown world, but I still knew very little about wine. After a series of events on the Mediterranean, I hadn't slept in a week. I was sitting on a yacht and the steward came over and asked if I'd like a glass of wine. I said sure, whatever you have. She brought a white wine that was so perfumey and unctuous that I asked what is this. She said Chardonnay and I didn't believe her. From then on, wine became a side passion and then an obsession.

Well, that bottle of Meursault on the yacht. But I don't remember the producer or vintage or anything like that. The other bottle I chase and will never catch again was a 1905 Chateau La Tour. I was in Colorado helping my boss organize his cellar before leaving to start a job in a tasting room in Alexe Corton when I got a call that the French government would not allow an American girl such a prestigious job. So I was pretty despondent and my boss cheered me up by asking, "What should we open?" I told him the 1905 La Tour was leaking a bit. So he pulled down that bottle, a 1929 Mouton, a 1950 Haut Brion, and a 1961 Petrus. Of all those bottles, the 1905 was far and away the best with the fruit still prominent after over 100 years.

I never thought I wanted to come back to New Orleans. All of my family here has died, so there was nothing to come back to, until Katrina. And then I felt a really strong urge to come home. At the time, I was the sommelier at the Inn at Little Washington. Came down here and got a job with John Besh as sommelier at August. In general the position of sommelier in New Orleans is not as supported as a free standing position in a restaurant as in other cities. In other cities, if you are the sommelier on the floor, it is your job to help guests select wine and manage the wine list of the restaurant. As a sommelier in New Orleans you are expected to be a manager as well. So I've had this idea of a sommelier education program to make more sommeliers truly sommeliers in New Orleans. But it was just an idea until I met Brian. The goal is to see be progressing with our wine thought in New Orleans. And that is what we want to do with NOLAWineSpeak.

I can't stand formulated wine descriptions. The one I hate the most is gooseberry. I didn't have the slightest clue what a gooseberry tasted like when I started learning about Sauvignon Blanc as tasting of gooseberry. I still dont know what a gooseberry tastes like. But people use that term as if everyone is eating gooseberries all the time. Other thing I hate is wine descriptors that are awful images but used in a positive context like "wet dog" or "barnyard". Who wants to drink a wet dog?

Best way to ease the tension with customers who are apprehensive about wine is just to start a conversation with the guest. Find out what they are interested in, what they are in the mood for, what do they normally prefer to drink. Sometimes people ask me what I like to drink and I tell them it depends on the day.

Rose. Across the board there is no wine better suited for New Orleans cuisine. A dry rose, with good fruit, good weight, and good acidity is nearly perfect match for the spiciness of our food. Always enjoyed rose, but I really started liking them with food when I moved back to New Orleans.

I hate the single palate based point systems which dominate the wine world. There is value in ratings that are group efforts but just go to off a single palate? I don't like that. I went to Bourdeaux to barrel taste the '05s. We were tasting 200 wines a day and there were a lot of us. But every winery was waiting for the scores of Robert Parker before prices could be set. You could sense the stress in the room and in all of the producers while awaiting Parker's judgment.

If I made a wine, it would be an eclectic, off the beaten path varietal that would challenge me to make it into a single varietal bottling. Turning something that is usually just blended with other grapes into its own wine that is what I love and it would be a limited bottling all hand sold.

Windows on the World. Extremely Pale Rose. A great book for the intro level person is The Wine Bible. Karen MacNeil does a very good job of adding fun tidbits and making wine an interesting read. All that said, I prefer to read magazines and newsletters like Decanter and Food and Wine for wine info. Mostly because wine is always changing and books are sometimes outdated by the time the fifth chapter is written.

I like that people are more adventuresome with their palates. Nowadays, people are open to try other varieties other than Chardonnay and Cabernet. On a winemaking level the focus on sustainability and artisinal approaches are things I really like.

To enhance enjoyment at home, try new things but try them with food to make the daily task of having dinner a grander experience. Really try and think about how the flavor profiles of wine and food could work together.

Yes, but I have been pretty fortunate in that I've normally been offered a taste and not have to think, "Man, I wish I could drink that." But I found that while at August, visitors, New Yorkers specifically, thought their expertise outshined that of any local sommelier. So they would often not offer me a sip.

Vietnamese - Riesling. Tex-Mex- Tequila, my second favorite thing to drink. American Chinese - An Austrian Gruner Veltliner. Crawfish Boil - Rose.

I've pretty much drank through most of my collection I had built up. Former employer called and said he had been diagnosed with cancer and wanted to know what the most expensive bottles in his cellar were because he was going to drink them, chemo be damned. So I thought, why am I holding all these wines that one day I may never be able to drink? I had First Growth Bourdeaux and Italian wines that I drank. I still have some 1982 Margaux, Lafitte, Mouton, older Pahlmeyer. But what do I drink? My heart is in Burgundy, my pocketbook in Spain. I drink Tempranillo and Albarino. Also, drink a lot of boxed wine. James Moises is releasing a boxed Oregon Pinot (at right) that is pretty amazing in my book. Higher quality boxed wine with no chance of spoiling is on the rise.

Boucherie. Nathaniel (Zimet) and James (Denio) have managed to build a wine list that presents wines off the beaten path at an affordable price point that don't intimidate. And then of course, Commander Dan at Commander's Palace. From a revered wine list stand point, Commander's Palace best in town. From a consumer's point of view, Boucherie.

Boucherie, Cowbell, Herbsaint, and Coquette. Ohh and can I add Patois, I can't just pick four restaurants?

Hall and Oates - Chardonnay. Not because it is cheesy, but because it is a wine that was really popular back in the day. Mozart- German Gerwurtztriminer. Dr. Dre- Australian Shiraz.

Most memorable food and wine experience was at 2941 Restaurant in Virginia. The wine was a Madeira. The dish a soup sort of similar to our version of turtle soup but not quite the same. Madeira was new to me and the combination of it with the food created a third flavor, different than either the soup or the wine  which enhanced both the soup and the wine. Just a great pairing.

Desert Island wines? That is tough. 1905 Latour. 1990 E. Guigal La Landonne. Aged Vouvray-Huet would be first choice, but it doesn't matter. I just love aged Vouvray and we need more of it. Sake Daiginjo. Meursault, nothing specific because I like to many producers.

Stoltzfus

Michael Stoltzfus came to New Orleans from Maryland to work at John Besh's August. Not long after,  he and then girlfriend now fiancee, Lillian Hubbard opened Coquette on the corner of Washington and Magazine in December of 2008. Within a few months they had Four Beans from the Times Pic and the restaurant was well on its way to joining the roster of restaurants one has to eat at in New Orleans. In December, Stoltzfus will open his second eatery, Sweet Olive in The Saint Hotel. Let's put twentyish questions on the clock and get to know Michael Stoltzfus.

I was about to go to college and my mom opened a bakery. She said, "why don't you work here for a few weeks before school starts?" I never left for college. Started cooking breakfast and lunch in the back of the bakery. Got an Alain Ducasse book and just taught myself from there.

While I was working at my mom's in the morning, I was spending nights working at a fine dining restaurant in Chestertown, Maryland. Then I went to work at Julia's, probably the best restaurant at that time in Maryland. At Julia's I worked every position in restaurant- waiter, cook, manager- save bartender. After that, I went to work at August. Stayed there for a year and a half before this opportunity fell in our laps.

Losing all my money (laughs). Actually the thing I was most afraid of was not being able to cook. When you work for someone else, there is always a way to do things. Their vision, their recipe are what you use. I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to cook food that was any good. When we opened, we had no idea what was going on with national economy. Luckily, Louisiana was pretty recession proof at that time. We were steady for the first five months, and then Brett Anderson reviewed us, and we took off from there. We had no idea he had been in, no idea we were on anyone's radar, and then the Times Picayune called to do a photo shoot for a review. We were shocked.

My approach to food has changed a lot. When we first opened, I was trying to emulate the cooking of the people I had learned from and so there was a heavy Besh presence to my food. In a way this was detrimental to my growth as a chef. A few years ago, something switched and my cooks and I started focusing our menu on what we would like to eat. How would we like to eat this ingredient. My cooks create more than I do now and in the last year we really started to focus on local products and purveyors. I'd say right now we get 80% of our produce locally and hopefully with Sweet Olive we will get that number to 100%.

I've become much more laid back recently. My biggest kitchen pet peeve is probably watching a cook turn a burner on high and try to cook something. The only time a burner should ever be on high in a kitchen is when you are trying to boil water. One of the most important aspects to cooking is controlling your heat and you can't do that on high. Also, I need a really clean kitchen. But all chefs are like that.

I love making bread. Making bread everyday for the restaurant can be monotonous, but there is nothing more rewarding than baking bread. What is funny is that at my mom's bakery, I never baked anything. Now I bake 60-70 loaves a day. Pulling a loaf of bread out of the oven is super rewarding. It is just flour, water, and yeast, but what comes out is so much more.

Hardest part of opening the restaurant was that neither Lillian nor I had any business background whatsoever. We had no idea of what we were getting ourselves into. I learned I was halfway decent at business things.

The French Laundry Cookbook- It is sort of the template of most cooks for the last 10 years or so, but I really love that book. Bread Baker's Apprentice. The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock's. And I really like the NOMA cookbook, because it is so different and revolutionary. His emphasis on foraging and cooking ingredients I've never heard of is so different, it is really cool.

These days my favorite kitchen tool is my Sharpie. But always the knife. I use an 8 inch Misono chef's knife for just about everything.

Had a cook on maybe his third day. Right before service on a busy Friday night there was a huge stock pot on a table by the dishwasher's station. The leg of the table gave out and the cook rushed over to save the stock. 15 gallons of near boiling hot stock went everywhere including all over him. That was a pretty gruesome thing to see.

The food at Sweet Olive is going to be updated versions of New Orleans and Southern food classics. We are going to take a similar approach there that we do at Coquette and have a good time with the food. I've been obsessed with collard greens lately. One idea has us cooking whole leaf collards sous vide, then treating it like a grape leaf and wrapping it around boudin. We are also going to do bar food for the bar, a really great Continental breakfast, and maybe a tiki bar themed rooftop bar. We've got 3-4 months to put together the menu; when we opened Coquette we did not have that luxury.

I get really nervous cooking for people, especially chefs. Cooks all have different approaches to foods, so I am always nervous when I serve a chef he is thinking, "This is not what I would have done." I'd probably just want to cook for friends and family mostly. I love when people come in and I can cook on the fly, just make new things with the ingredients we have in our kitchen. If I spend weeks on a new menu, it is invariably crap. But if I just throw something together it is always great. Desperation plays a critical role in this kitchen.

When not in my restaurant, I like to eat. I eat out a lot. When we first opened, we ate out whenever we could, in order to scope out the competition. But now we do it because we love to eat.

Most memorable meal was at Babbo. We had gone to New York to eat. One night we ate at Corton, Paul Liebrandt's restaurant. While the food was good, it was nothing special. You could tell that a lot of time had been put into each dish, but it was just lacking. Plus it was a very expensive meal. The next night we went to Babbo and did the pasta tasting for like $60. Everything was so simple, but so well done. The sommelier waited on us and halfway through switched pairings to grappa, there was rock music in the background, just a great meal.

Mike Gulotta of August, probably. He taught me how to make food taste good and how to run a kitchen.

Truffle oil, but thankfully that is going away anyway. I can't stand the stuff and will never use it here. That is disgusting stuff. And of course, I wish restaurants would get away from commodity meats and the like. I am not preachy about it, don't plaster farms all over the menu, but that is really important to me. As cooks we have a duty to our customers to give them healthy food- not just for their bodies but for the environment also.

Right now, I am really being influenced by Spanish and Vietnamese flavors and cooking. One of my cook's is from Miami and so he has a huge love of Spanish cooking. Another one of my cooks is absolutely obsessed with all things Vietnamese. Eventually I'd like to have a really casual spot that just serves awesome food without worrying about plating or dining rooms. I cook to make people happy and casual food does that better than anything else.

Usually the last thing I want to do when I get home is cook. Lillian is an excellent cook, so usually she has something ready. If not, I like to grill. The other day picked up some boudin stuffed quail from Butcher and threw those on the grill. If nothing to grill, Lillian hasn't cooked anything, and nothing in fridge, I just eat almonds.

La Boca is my favorite restaurant in the city. There is absolutely no pretension there. I love that they can serve me an appetizer that is just a piece of sausage and an entree that is just a piece of meat. Lillian is an occasional vegan, but even she loves La Boca. Adolfo thinks I am stalking him because I go to a lot of his restaurants and he is always there. Nine Roses, we go here pretty much every Sunday night in the winter. Horinoya is the only good sushi I've found in the city and their service is incredible. And Butcher, that place is an anomaly. Every time I go in there, it gets better and better. I love Butcher.

On a deserted island, I would need sparkling water. I go through 3 liters of the stuff a day. Something to dip ranch into, along with ranch dressing. Marconna almonds and crispy pig ear. We fry it up to order at the restaurant, and there is always a few bits for me to snack on. I figure I eat pig ear all night. Probably not healthy but hey it is good.

The Heat Is On

Look, I understand that we live in a man-made concrete jungle in the middle of a swamp, but the heat lately has just been ridiculous. I appreciate this morning's gift of a taste of fall, but unfortunately I realize that the previews start at least a month or two before the premiere.

I was at the farmers market on Saturday morning for a total of 15 seconds before my shirt looked like it had been sprayed down with a gardening hose. You take one step outside of your air conditioned comfort zone, and it's like your entire body is instantaneously covered in one of those hot towels that the server hands you when you sit down at a sushi restaurant. Living downtown and having the luxury of walking to work has been transformed to a game of cat and mouse between finding the shadiest route and timing your departure so as to avoid having to wait for the crosswalk signal.

The Folk Singer has resigned to driving to work. We live three blocks from her office.

This August has almost sucked all of the enjoyment out of eating. I was craving a po-boy over the weekend, but knocking out a hot sausage po-boy from Parkway I had to take an ice bath for 3 hours just to get my core body temperature back down to 98.6. Firing up the grill outside is like paying russian roulette unless you have grilling tongs which stretch from your kitchen window out to the old Weber. Turning the oven on just seems completely counter intuitive considering that your primary goal is to keep your house as cool as possible. It's too bad that braised dishes are out of the question because you could cook osso buco simply by throwing a few veal shanks, tomato, and wine in a dutch oven and leaving it on the front porch while you are at work.

But all hope is not lost for culinary delight in the land of the 110 heat index. Here is a list of my favorite foods that help stave off the summer:

• Cold Soups - Gazpacho is the most well known (and rumor has it that Coquette's version is one of the best in town). At last week's Tuesday market at Tulane Square, I had an amazingly refreshing and flavorful vichychoisse served up by La Divina under the Green Plate Special tent. On the menu this week is a chilled cucumber soup with housemade creme fraiche and dill that sounds equally delightful.
• Pate, Cheese, & Olives - And wine of course, and maybe a loaf of bread. St. James Cheese Company is an obvious choice, but don't forget about the affettati misti at Domenica or the long list of offerings at the Delachaise.  Or stop by Butcher and build your own.
• Sushi - I won't open that can of worms again by telling you where to go, but let's just say that I have ejoyed a few strong meals at Horinoya over the past few weeks.
• Cold Crabmeat & Shrimp - Nothing wrong with a generous portion of shrimp remoulade or crabmeat maison over mixed greens with maybe a few slices of avocado or hearts of palm. I'm partial to the chilled roasted beets topped with crabmeat in a horseradish emulsion at La Petite Grocery.

Or you copy my dinner from last night by skipping dinner and knocking out a pint of mascarpone and lemon zest ice cream from the Creole Creamery.

What are your favorite foods that help beat the heat?

A Tale of One Great Meal

About Coquette, I said almost a year and a half ago it had "Some growing up to do if it wants to run with the big boys."

Well, Coquette has grown up. A lot, in fact. Not only is Coquette running with the big boys, in some ways it is setting the pace. Take for instance the fact that Chef Michael Stoltzfus has melded the higher end cooking of places like Restaurant August (where he trained under John Besh) with the farmer's market driven menu of the new American Bistro.

A shining example of this is his salad of market vegetables which arrived last Friday studded with cubes of kohlrabi, spears of baby carrots, tender peas, cherry tomatoes and more on a taut pool of yogurt. No more, very little less. The flavors of the salad changed with each bite leading the diner on a treasure hunt through the garden. It was simple. It was elegant. It was the best salad I've ever eaten.

Another salad played on the classic combination of ham and eggs. But here it was big leaves of Bibb lettuce topped with a soft poached egg and crispy fried strips of pig ear. If Stoltzfus sold those pig ear strips by the can, he'd put Bac Os out of business.

Most restaurants in town have a version of shrimp in a spicy sauce (see remoulade, BBQ shrimp, "BBQ Shrimp" at Stella!). At Coquette, briny shrimp coated in tempura and fried to the color of a California girl's hair get tossed in a sambal vinaigrette to become a most welcome change of pace and a good way to start your meal. Or maybe you choose a clean white bowl, the bottom painted with shaved asparagus, crabmeat, and candied orange. A waiter will come by and pour a puree of pearly white aspargus puree. Their is a lusciousness, a flirting between ocean and plant, the two never really uniting, but having a good spring fling.

There is a homemade pasta dish, here echoing not just traditional New Orleans food, but also that of Stoltzfus's childhood home of Maryland. Thus, you get a golden brown fried softshell crab sitting on top of chitarra pasta in a brown butter sauce with peas. Breaking into the crab sends out a tidal wave of crab and fat which mingles and coats the pasta. This is great eating.

Scallops are de rigueur in fine dining now and Coquette has a good version of those as well. On this night, they came over a parmesan sauce with strips of fried chicken skin. Good if a tad oversalted. "Rene you are nitpicking," Lindsay says. As always, Lindsay was right.

But then came the star of the show. A smoked pork shank removed from the bone and tossed in a rich dark stock and studded with morel mushrooms. Beneath it sat a raviolo filled with cream cheese and an egg yolk. There was also a cigar of pork bone filled with aromatic and fatty marrow. You do the math.

Pre-dessert here came ice cream sandwiches made with a cinnamon macaroon and stuffed with ice cream flavored by horchata that refreshing Mexican quencher. This was followed up with a goat cheese mousse served with barely macerated Ponchatoula strawberries and a brittle, which I thought was a very clever alternative to creme brulee. Fried dough of any kind is Lindsay's krytonite and Coquette has beignets with a chocolate dipping sauce and salted caramel. That is never a bad way to end a meal.

There was of course cocktails, wines, and impeccable service. But like good lingerie, it is better to leave a little to be desired. Get yourself to Coquette. The next great New Orleans restaurant is really hitting its stride.

Coquette - Birdie/Eagle
2800 Magazine Street
(504) 265-0421

Week in Preview

At Blackened Out we are happy to promote any and all dinners, tastings, and other events that help further New Orleans as one of the premier fun-loving, food-centric cities in the country. This week, the Big Easy is bursting at the seems with myriad of opportunities to taste a bit of controversy, praise all things pork, and enjoy some of America's best roadside eats, plus a whole lot more.

Your faithful bloggers have a personal stake in two events this week - the Encore of Gabrielle in Purgatory on Thursday night and Hogs for the Cause on Saturday. We hope to meet and greet many of our readers at both of those events. But in any case, whether you are a cheese lover headed to St. James or a wineaux looking forward to Once Upon a Vine, this week we encourage everyone to get out there and taste what New Orleans has to offer. Remember that everywhere else in the world, it's just another week in March.

Tuesday

• Cafe Degas 25th Anniversary Dinner - Join Cafe Degas in celebrating their 25th Anniversary with a food and specialty cocktails pairing menu.
• Opus One Wine Dinner (SOLD OUT!) - The French Quarter Wine Festival dinners kicks off with one of Napa's elite wineries.

Wednesday

• Wine Sense - Cork & Bottle's wine tasting series continues with a tour of Southern Italy led by Italian wine specialist Antonio Molesini.
• Cakebread Cellars Dinner (SOLD OUT!) - Chef Michael Farrell creates a multi-course dinner paired with wines from one of The Pope's favorite California producers.
• St. James Cheese School - Our favorite cheese mongers are teaming up with New Orleans winemaker James Moises for a cheese tasting featuring his Oregon pinots.

Thursday

• Gabrielle in Purgatory - Encore! - A second chance to taste crowd favorites from the Sonniers' beloved Mid-City restaurant
• An Edible Evening - The Edible Schoolyard New Orleansand FirstLine Schools present the Second Annual "An Edible Evening" garden party under the stars.
• Abita Beer Dinner at Coquette - Chef Michael Stolzfus cooks up a special 5 course menu served with a different Abita beer to complement each dish.
• St James Cheese School - Another opportunity to taste the wines of James Moises and a selection of cheeses to match.

Friday

• Taste of the Town - The Louisiana Restaurant Association holds its annual culinary event at Lafreniere Park.
• Oysters, Cocktails 'n Cracklins - The New Orleans Roadfood Festival kicks off with this cocktail party at the Southern Food & Beverage Museum.

Saturday

• Hogs for the Cause - The Gulf South's premier pig cookoff explodes onto City Pork with plenty of live music and the crowning of the High on the Hog Grand Champion.
• New Orleans Roadfood Street Festival - Six blocks of Royal Street are overtaken with vendors cooking up some of America's best roadside grub, plus the world's longest oyster po-boy will be built.
• Taste at the Lake - The Lakeview Civic Association hosts this inaugural celebration of food, wine, and neighborhoos strength.

Sunday

• Once Upon a Vine - Martin Wine Cellar takes over the Pavilion of the Two Sisters for a tasting featuring over 150 wines and a grazing buffet from Martin's catering kitchen.
• New Orleans Roadfood Street Festival - The good times continue on Royal Street with a whole other day of roadside specialties and the beignet contest between the New Orleans Police and Fire Departments.

A Tale of Two Meals

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Much has been said and written about Coquette. Based on a recent lunch there, the restaurant still has some growing up to do if it wants to run with the big boys. The meal was a study in contrast. My basic bistro fare sung although it was not without its issues, whereas Lindsay's more refined menu just fell flat.

The space is well-located and beautiful, with large windows looking out onto bustling Magazine Street and a pressed tin ceiling. If one is looking to pick up a bored housewife from the tony Garden District, this would be the spot for you. The food however has some very major flaws. It is at times perfectly executed and at others infuriating.

Lindsay got the sunchoke soup with crabmeat and parsley puree. The soup was boring and lacked seasoning. The background flavor was that of plastic, rather than anything natural. Now admittedly, we had recently had the sunchoke soup from Iris, and compared to that fine specimen this seemed cheaper than a pair of Oakley knockoffs at the Flea Market.

I, on the other hand, had the marvelous, meticulous, well-executed fried shrimp with grapefruit, pomegranate seeds, olives, and arugula. The batter encasing the shrimp was a cross between tempura and a traditional fish 'n chips batter - light, greaseless, and crunchy. The entire dish floated between the seaside flavors of the shrimp, the pop and zing of the grapefruit, the briney olives, and the peppery arugula.

Lindsay struck out again with her main. The redfish with mushroom risotto and chow chow lacked focus. The risotto itself was textbook - well-cooked and earthy, but the redfish was greasy. The goal of the chow chow was to introduce some acid and pungency to the dish, but the force of the chow chow was like being hit in the jaw when all you needed was a tap on the shoulder.

Steak frites, while not difficult to make average, are very hard to make excellent. The steak component bordered on excellent. The hanger was well-seasoned, well-rested, tender and cooked to an exacting medium rare. The red wine demi and caramelized onions added some additional heft to the meat. The aioli had a wonderful vinegar and mustard component that paired equally well with the steak and the fries.

But the fries. They were sad, soggy, and as far as I could tell had never had the pleasure of being introduced to salt before greeting me. The fries also would have benefited from another sixty seconds in hot oil. Just by looking at the photo of the fries, you can tell they were not up to snuff. If you are going to go to the trouble or making house cut fries, which I believe these were, how could you forget to just toss them in some salt before plating?

Service started out with a bang and fizzled. As we waited for our main course to be cleared, the table next to us went through two courses. As we sat, the hostess stared off with a far away look reserved for when you don't want to make eye contact with someone from your past. Finally the waiter returned and cleared our plates. Five minutes later he came back to ask if we wanted a dessert menu, we said yes, which lead to another long wait. And so on and so forth. By the time our post lunch drinks had arrived, the lunch hour had become two.

I wish I had better things to say about Coquette, but then again, I bet they do too.

Coquette -Bogey, the bad far outweighed the good.

Coquette

Coquette is a French bistro located on the corner of Magazine and Washington, in the building which formerly housed Table One and more recently Takumi. With the past two failures in this location, you would think that Coquette would just be the next one to bite the dust. I hope that's not the case because the restaurant seems to have all of the important attributes of a successful establishment. The layout is inviting. Downstairs has a white tiled floor with large windows looking out onto the streets, with the tables set next to the windows and a long bar running along the opposite wall. (I hear the upstairs dining room is equally welcoming, but I did not make it up there.) There is ample parking in a next-door lot accessible by an entrance on Washington.
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Oh, and the food is pretty damn good too. The Folk Singer and I tried Coquette last week, after deciding against Boucherie because... well ... everyone else has been writing about it lately. (Though I am greatly anticipating my inaugural meal at Boucherie. I just want to plan ahead so that I can bring my own bottle of Makers.) And in a last second surprise, our friend Vandy Vicky happened to be in the area and made the meal a menage a trois.

Coquette's menu includes some creative cocktails, one of which is cleverly entitled the "Katrina." Both of the girls ordered one of these, and they seemed to really enjoy it. I am not really sure what comprised this concoction, but when I asked TFS she said, "I don't know, but it was a whole bunch of deliciousness." (We need to stop letting her hang around The Pope.)

I started with a quintet of baked oysters topped with fennel, ham, and horseradish cream. Yeah, these tasted as good as they sound.

Next up was pumpkin cappelletti served in a shallow pool of duck au jus and topped with shreds of duck confit and shaved parmigiano reggiano. Pasta stuffed with squash has been a pretty big fad this year (I had it at The French Laundry in November), but it works.

Sometimes you can't get much better than steak frites. At Coquette their version is a flat iron steak with carmelized shallots and fresh cut fries. Brought me right back to my summer in France. As did...

Profiteroles stuffed with Nutella ice cream and drizzled with caramel. You had me at Nutella.... You had me at Nutella.

Coquette - Birdie.