Monday Night Countdown

Fact: If the Saints beat the Eagles tonight, we are only one loss behind Seattle for the final wild card spot.

Do you believe?

But before you stand up and get crunk in the Dome, you likely want to sit down and get stuffed at the dinner table.  In my younger years, a Monday night game meant fighting off hunger until just before the 8:00pm kickoff, when I made a stop by the nachos booth (extra jalapenos, please). The end of the first quarter usually called for a chicken-on-a-stick, then a Dome dog at halftime, followed by a DoveBar for dessert.

Today, I usually do most of my eating before I take my seat in the Dome. While the food options on this end of Poydras have greatly expanded since the Dome patrol days, my pre-game meal loyalties lie almost entirely with the Besh family of restaurants.

Domenica, Luke, and Borgne all run happy hour specials everyday from 3:00-6:00, and for Sunday and Monday night Saints games these deals are impossible to beat:

• Domenica - Half off pizzas, beers, specialty cocktails, and wines by the glass.
• Luke - $0.50 oysters and half off drink specials.
• Borgne - $1 pulled pork empanadas, $1 catfish buns, $0.50 crabmeat croquetas, and half off draft beers, well drinks, and wines by the glass.

Who Dat?

Domenica

Fried squash blossoms.

About 3 years ago I started keeping a running journal of my dining notes. On my home computer I have a desktop folder filled with Word documents for individual restaurants that contain my notes from every meal eaten. It's a tedious exercise, but one that forces me to write down my thoughts almost immediately instead of relying on memory to write a blog post days (or weeks or months) later.

Whenever I open a restaurant's Word doc, it's always interesting to see how far down that I need to scroll to make the newest entry. Some restaurants have notes from only one previous meal, while others - such as Cochon Butcher or Felipe's - are filled with reflections from 20 or more visits.

But the restaurant with the most entries by far is Domenica. I counted 36 entries the other day, and I would estimate that I left off another dozen or so. Our repeat business is a reflection of a number of factors: (1) the convenience of living 3 blocks away; (2) the convenience of working 4 blocks away; (3) The Folk Singer's school girl crush on Chef Alon Shaya; and (4) the fact that Domenica is simply our favorite restaurant in the city. It's no surprise that after a 3 day evacuation for Hurricane Isaac, Domenica was our first stop upon returning home.


Prosciutto pizza.

Our devotion to Domenica is easily understood considering the breadth of the menu and excellence of execution throughout. It all starts with a complimentary basket of thick sliced focaccia swiped through pools of olive oil spiked with chilis. If I am feeling especially over indulgent, I'll ask for a basket of torta frita - airy, flaky pillows of dough fried in pork fat - which remind me of the sopapillas from Pancho's, except 100x better. Salumi and cheese boards with accoutrements of satsuma/jalapeno marmalade and picked fennel are optimal for large parties, and you should always make sure to include taleggio on your list of choices.

Rarely does a full service Italian restaurant put such an emphasis on perfect pizza. Chef Alon first mixed the pizza starter dough in 2008, more than a year before the restaurant opened. Like a fine wine, the dough has improved with each passing year. Often times we forget that pizza is just as much about the crust as the toppings and sauce, but the fresh, bubbly pies pulled from the oven at Domenica might be the best bread in the city. As for toppings, my favorite is the Bolzano, with chunks of roasted pork, some fatty, some lean, and fennel, bacon, and sweet onions. Basil pesto with goat cheese and heirloom tomatoes is a close second.


Stracci with oxtails and fried chicken livers.

I have tried every pasta course on the menu, but I always come back to the stracci with oxtails and fried chicken livers. The rags of pasta are incredibly thin and incorporate perfectly with the shreds of oxtail cooked down with tomato. To be honest, the dish is great even without the fried chicken livers, but I gladly devour the rich, crunchy morsels covered in a shower of grated parm and a squeeze of lemon which cuts through their richness. Tagliatelle with rabbit is an excellent choice, as is the garganelli with white bolognese and peas. And the kitchen is constantly rotating new dishes in and out, such as sea urchin with spaghetti, an inspiration from Chef's recent trip through Barcelona back in April. Smash the fat, salty orbs of uni with the olive oil and chili flakes in the bottom of the bowl, then toss to coat the pasta. Luxuriously delicious.


Fried kale.

Admittedly, I rarely venture outside the pizza and pasta categories, save for branching out for an order of wood roasted goat in colder months. But I always find room for an order flash fried kale, crisp and rich but balanced with acidic bite of tart lemon, richness of grated parm, and sweetness of heirloom tomato. Perfect as a side dish, but worthy of anchoring a meal despite what Mitchell Pritchett says.

As much as I love Domenica and TFS loves Alon Shaya, I make no representation that there is not room for improvement. Lunch service has always been slow, although speed has picked up over the last few months. Still, I've found that dining at the bar is your only chance at keeping the lunch hour to under 60 minutes. And I always feel that the prices in the anti-pasti section are about 15% too high. $18 for a head of roasted cauliflower? The same price for a portion of burrata? $14 for three fried squash blossoms?

But despite what can be a long lunch wait, I am still quick to jump at the opportunity for lunch at Domenica for a porchetta panino built upon a foundation of the freshly baked focaccia and filled with warm juicy, thick slices of roasted pork, barely melting provolone, rapini for greenery, and garlic mayo. The roasted cauliflower, toasty golden brown with a knife protruding out from the top like the sword in the stone, usually finds a place at our table along with a plate of whipped goat feta sprinkled with chiles. And the fried squash blossoms are still better than their counterparts at Mario Batali's Otto Enoteca.

Is it any wonder why I love this place?

Domenica - Birdie/Eagle
123 Baronne Street
(504) 648-6020
Open Daily 11am - 11pm

The Beet Goes On

The moment of reckoning finally arrived in sixth grade. The science fair. Every grammar student's (and parent's) worst nightmare. In the world which existed before wikipedia and google provided the solution to every problem, choosing a science fair project took hours of thumbing through encyclopedias and multiple trips to the public library to browse through periodicals for ideas to steal. And to raise the level of competition just a bit higher, the science fair was the only school project where it was both acceptable and expected for the parents to actively participate. Figuring out who had a doctor for a parent was simple - just look for the kid whose science project was entitled "A Thesis on the Causes of Chronic Pulmonary Problems in the Post-Industrial Era."

After 4 months of painstaking research, internal debate, and much procrastination, I finally decided on the subject of my science fair project approximately 36 hours before the deadline. "Natural Dyes" was the title. Basically, I made coloring agents out of different plants and wrote up a few blurbs about how the natural stuff was just as effective as synthetic paints. Remember what I said about parents assisting children with their projects? Yeah, well when I was in sixth grade, my Mom worked in sales for an upholstery cleaning company. A PhD was not required to understand that a coffee stain is, for all intensive purposes, a stain for life.

I never cared much for science class, and I did not win an award for my opus on the power of natural dyes. (I  believe that the first place ribbon went to 1 of the 15 geniuses who discovered that baking soda + vinegar = volcano eruption). However, one factoid I will always remember from my science project is this: Beets will stain your fingers for about 8 days if you are not careful. But it never really occurred to me that those blood red root veggies might actually be worth eating.

My first experience with beets as food occurred on a trip to Piccadilly, an episode which caused me to suffer with PTSD for the better part of a decade. In the last few years though, I have come to appreciate beets as a delectable delicacy, and lately there has been no shortage of opportunities to indulge. I would guesstimate that close to a third of the ambitious restaurants around town serve a dish which matches sweet roasted beets with a salty cheese. There is the roasted beet bruschetta with goat cheese at Sylvain, the burrata and beet salad at Herbsaint, and the beet and ricotta ravioli at Meauxbar. The popularity of the combination is a testament to it's success, and all of the above are delicious and worth ordering.

One of my favorite uses of beets was at La Petite Grocery, where Chef Justin Devillier used chilled roasted beets and thinly sliced pickled onion as a foundation for cold crabmeat salad spiked with horseradish. Just a phenomenal dish, whose flavors touched upon sweet, sour, spicy, and richness. Unfortunately, that dish is not a part of the current menu at La Petite, but I see that you can still get your beet fix with a salad also featuring arugula, toasted pecans, local citrus, and cane vinegar.

It probably comes as no surprise that my current favorite beet dish in the city comes from the kitchen of Alon Shaya at Domenica. The winter vegetable pizza: roasted yellow beets and carrots scattered with a little goat cheese upon that ethereal crust which just keeps getting better every time I try it. Simple and sublime.

So where are you getting your beet fix?

The Incredible Edible Egg

One of my best friends from college always told me that there is but one principle to live one's life by:

"If one is good, then two MUST be better."

In regard to food, many chefs have tried to uncover all-encompassing augmentation which will improve almost any dish. Unfortunately for them, I have never come across a sushi roll which benefits from being deep fried in tempura batter, a dip in a chocolate waterfall cannot mask the texture of less-than-fresh fruit or dry pound cake, and a heavy shower of creole seasoning or Tabasco only overpowers a flavorless pieces of meat.

But if you add a fried egg to just about anything, you have increased the odds of me ordering that dish by about 50%.  And I must not be the only one easily persuaded by the temptation of a rich, flowing yolk because lately chefs have been supplementing all kinds of dishes with a fried egg. Perhaps it's the inner stoner in all of us that craves some combination of breakfast with just about any other food, but no matter whether I am completely sauced or stone cold sober, the phrase "add a fried egg" is as strong a call for me as the song of the sirens.

Below are four of my favorite dishes in the city which feature an addition of a gratuitous egg*:

• Bayou Banh Mi Special (Geaux Plates) - Owners Henry Pulitzer and Andrew Gomila take their version of the Vietnamese po-boy to another level by adding a fried egg to the combination of lemongrass grilled chicken and boudin.
• Tutto Carne Pizza (Domenica) - The staff favorite features four house cured meats - fennel sausage, bacon, salami, and cotechino - plus a fresh egg cracked in the center of the pie.
• Breakfast Burger - I remember when the waiter used to have to check with the kitchen before he let you order your burger topped with a fried egg, but now everyone's doing it. Capdeville, The Company Burger, Cowbell, and Tru Burger all feature a fried egg as an optional add-on to your burger.
• Pork Lovers Rice Plate (Tan Dinh) - How do you improve on a plate full of chargrilled pork, pork pate meatballs, pork chop, and shredded pork? Top the whole shebang with a couple of fried eggs, of course.

Did I miss out on any eggscellent dishes?  Let's hear about them in the comments.

*There, of course, other dishes in which the egg yolk plays an integral (if not) essential role.  The spaghetti with guanciale and deep fried poached egg at Herbsaint and Green, Eggs, & Ham at Vizard's are two which immediately come to mind. But here I am focusing on those dishes which are great on their own but taste even better with a gilding of the golden lilly.

Pizza Consegna & Domenica Deliver

It was a long, fun-filled weekend for the hard partying folks at Blackened Out Dry Cleaners and Plumbing Supplies. We took full advantage of the Carnivale du Vin festivities, beginning with Boudin & Beer on Friday night followed by the gala and wine auction which started on Saturday evening and went into the early hours of Sunday morning.  More on those events in the coming days.

Needless to say, by the time the Saints game kicked off yesterday, The Folk Singer and I were resigned to spending the entire day on the couch - and it's not only because someone drove his car into the parking garage gate at our apartment building and disabled the only vehicle entry/exit point so that we had no way to get our car out. It's days like those that we are thankful for the lazy man's best friend: pizza delivery. And the CBD area has added two new options in recent weeks.

Pizza Consegna is the in-house pizza delivery service from the newly renovated Hyatt Regency Hotel. During a tour of the hotel the week before its grand opening, The Folk Singer and I were given a sneak peek of the kitchen facilities where these Neapolitan pies are made, and I must say that the stone ovens peaked piqued our interest and gave us the impression that this is no standard pizza that rolls off the conveyor belt. The proof is in the pie though, and I can say that Pizza Consegna is one of the few the delivery pizzas whose crust was still crispy upon arrival, and that fact alone makes this pie appealing. The look and flavor remind me of those late night slices that I used to get from the Dough Bowl next door to the Boot - plenty of cheese and no shortage of grease. The most intriguing aspect of the Pizza Consegna experience is how the delivery box breaks down. The top is perforated so that it tears into 4 plates for serving, and the bottom folds into a leftover box short enough to slide into the fridge. And considering that the pies only come in one 18" size (at an affordable price of $10.95), you can expect leftovers.

Adding another delivery option to residents and workers in the CBD, Domenica has recently started to offer bike delivery of their pizzas during lunch and dinner everyday of the week. Chef Alon Shaya said that Domenica's monstrous oven has a capacity much greater than what was being used, and thus adding a delivery option will only increase opportunities for Domenica's fans without detracting from the quality of the pies or speed of service in the dining room. Now if we could only convince him to throw in a whole roasted cauliflower into that to-go box...

Winesday

Rene: Rich spice on the nose; get some coffee and dark berry flavors. The tannins are tight and restricted, wound up like a kid on Halloween. This wine screams out for something like rich duck with crispy skin or maybe lamb braised. Let's split the difference and go with the roast quail with steamed buns from Nine Roses. They also have it at Tan Dinh if you cross the bridge today and find Nine Roses closed.

Peter: This baby needs to open up for a bit to let the peppery flavors mellow out. Not much dryness going down the throat from the tannins. I'm thinking something gamey like venison. How about the wood fired goat at Domenica or the lamb neck from Herbsaint.

Joe the Wine Guy: The Numanthia 2007 is made from 100% Tinta de Toro and is both intense and complex with several layers of aromatics in the lively nose: red and black fruits first, then sweet spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, and then vanilla and toasted black pepper. On the palate, this wine is expresses dark fruits with concentrated and velvety tannins. This full bodied wine shows exceptional acidity revealing some chocolate, toasted, and spicy notes. The juice was aged in new French oak Bordelaise barrels for 18 months. The 2007 Numanthia retails for $59.99 and you can find it at Emeril's and Cork & Bottle.

Tale of the Tape

The other week Peter and I debated the merits of fine dining vs. casual dining. One of the points made was that casual dining is no longer casually priced. As an example, I mentioned that a recent casual meal at Domenica set us back $200.Chefs keep opening casual spots because they tell us, "This is what the public wants in these tough times" or "I just want to serve food without all the BS". These are noble goals, but are we as consumers getting hosed on value?

For comparison sake, let's compare and contrast the two meals using the Warren Buffet definition of value v. price wherein, "Price is what you pay, value is what you get." Both meals were very good to excellent from a food perspective. Both Domenica and Restaurant August are headed by talented, young chefs, Alon Shaya and Michael Gulotta, respectively. This comparison only uses the experiences to compare the cost to find out which meal had a better value.

Opening Impressions

Domenica - Placemats double as menus, hard surfaces predominant, and room is loud in a good and festive way, bottle of water placed on table.

August - Cloth bound menus, although one seam of my menu was nearly split, tablecloths, noise level moderate, bottle of Cava to start.

Food

Domenica - Starters included the always delicious octopus carpaccio ($12) with its thin coins of briny tenderness offset by shards of fennel and citrus. Also had the crema fritta ($14), an Italian mornay sauce essentially, that is cooled to a consistency harder than a pudding but softer than a solid, then fried. The braised goat ($28) came out in a cauldron studded with baby vegetables and was delicious and filling. The other entree on the table was a simple pizza, the tutto carne ($13) loaded with fennel sausage, bacon, salami, and Cotechino cheese. Dessert was the always reliable frittole ($8).

August - After placing order, the first course to arrive was an amuse bouche, cubes of pork belly with a spicy glaze (gratis). Next up was a shared first course baby beets ($17) split into quarters sitting atop pristine jumbo lump crab, all accented by baby greens and a tart vinaigrette. Then a bowl of ramen with a pork and shrimp broth ($14) and a tortelli with chanterelles and bone marrow ($16). Entrees were next and included an overcooked duck breast ($37, the only dud of the night) and the pork three ways ($36), the pork tenderloin wrapped in crispy dough, being one of the best things I've eaten in 2010. No dessert, but mignardises of chocolates, pralines, and other candies.

Wine

Domenica - Asked the waitress for a recommendation of something different and she suggested an Italian pinot noir ($65). Unfortunately, the wine lacked acid or structure to stand up to the gutsy cooking. Blame myself though, pinot is a French grape. The glass of limoncello at the end, however was perfect.

August - Juve Y Camps Cava ($45) to start, which was lovely with all of the starters. And then the sommelier suggested an '08 Hautes Cotes de Baune ($90) to round out the meal. I'd order both wines again, but if pressed two bottles of the Cava.

Service

Domenica - The service fits the restaurant. It is unpretentious and driven to make you happy. Any hiccups are readily fixed. Of all the Besh satellites, this is the most complete.

August - Despite the frayed menu (yes, it is stupid to dwell on, but so simple) service was flawless. The courses were timed perfectly and anyone on the floor could answer any question with ease and grace.

Final Cost with tax and tip

Domenica - $200

August - $325

Value winner? August, hands down. Now listen, I spend a lot of money on restaurants. Money that could certainly be put to better use elsewhere. I know that spending this much money on food goes against the teachings of at least three major religions and two political theories. But dining out is a hobby. Given the option, I'd forgo one and half meals at Domenica for one at Restaurant August. Your values, may and will differ. What is your definition of value in a meal?

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?

All Alon the Watchtower

Chef Alon Shaya heads up the kitchen at Domenica in the Roosevelt Hotel. He is also an actor who has received critical acclaim for his role in Treme as the dans le merde grill cook. A native of Israel, Alon spent a year in Italy before opening Domenica with his partner Chef John Besh. 20ish questions on the clock.

I was really young when I got into cooking. My mom worked two jobs, so I became in charge of cooking for the family in 1st grade. Always looked at cooking as necessity...to do my part to help the family.

After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, I went to work for Jean Louis Palladin in Las Vegas. Spent three years out there working in a variety of restaurants inside the Rio Hotel. Then worked in an Italian place in St. Louis where Octavio (Manilla) worked. Then, came to New Orleans and worked at Besh Steakhouse.

The idea for a John and I to do an Italian place came about before Katrina. I had always cooked Italian food and it was my dream to open an Italian restaurant. John also had passion as he had visited often while training in Europe. So, Katrina hits and all that, took us a few years to get Besh Steakhouse back on track. Then time came for me to go to Italy and so off I went for a year. Knowing we would open Domenica when I came back. Originally we wanted to do a real family focused place with spaghetti and meatballs and the like, but then when Roosevelt had an opening we refined the idea.

First stop in Italy, was in Bergamo. Marc Vetri flew to Italy with me and took me to the family in Bergamo that he had worked with. Bergamo lives very much in the past and culinararily they never really had much of an identity and borrowed from many other regions. Then after a few months I went to Parma, where I worked from 6 am til 3 learning how to make salamis and then from 3 til midnight in the family's restaurant. I stayed in Parma for 7 months and that family became my second family. Then I went to Bussetto for a few months.

On my days off I would explore restaurants, or other villages or towns, or we would all just gather and eat. Sunday's were the time when family and food came together, and I wanted my restaurant to have a similar vibe. What is so interesting about Italy is that in many things like style, architecture, technology they are fashion forward. But in cooking, they are all about preserving the past. For instance, you will go into someone's modern kitchen and they make lasagna bolognese. In some ways the interior of Domenica reflects that.

Anolini filled with nutmeg, Parmagianno Reggiano, and mortadella is a textbook dish from Parma. The Bolzano pizza represents my time spent in the Alto Adige, where you get lots of smoked meats, specifically pork. That pizza has roasted pork shoulder, fennel, bacon and fontina cheese. The panna cotta on our menu is the recipe from a panna cotta I had in the Piedmote which was just the best panna cotta I'd ever had. The culatello is from Bussetto.

The anolini is traditionally served in broth in Parma. When we did that here people did not like it, they found it very underwhelming. So now we serve those anolini with tomato sauce and people love them. Another example is there is a Venetian dish of fish in a sour sauce with pickeld veggies. I love it, but I think I was the only person. So we try to stick to simpler, which I find always translates to be best.

Peaches are coming in soon as well as blueberries. So thinking of putting those peaches on a pizza with gorgonzola cheese. Watermelon and goat cheese salad will soon go back on the menu. And in summer we start pickling things. There will be fried artichokes and asparagus, prosciutto with melon. We try and take a micro-seasonal approach to cooking here. That is how the Italians cook as well.

My culinary approach is not to do much inventing. I pull from my time in Italy where regions have had the same dishes for centuries. These dishes never change and are unique to each region. Our menu is based off of first what is seasonal and then doing the best you can with that ingredient. I like taking those old dishes from Italy and introducing them to New Orleans. For instance, octopus carpaccio is a snack on the beaches south of Liguria. Or the passover meals. I love doing those meals. In fact, many of our guests for those meals were Catholic priests who wanted to eat these foods they had studied in the Old Testament.

I don't like not having as much time to spend with my girlfriend. She is awesome, graduated from Tulane a few years ago and is originally from Georgia. She spends time with her family back in Georgia and being a head chef means many times I can't go with her because it is NOWFE or Mardi Gras or Easter or whatever.

My favorite part of being a chef is mentoring young cooks or disadvantaged people jobs that lead to careers in the food world. Angel, one of our cooks, came from Cafe Reconcile and she has become such an integral part of our team that I can't imagine our kitchen without her.

I really like making pizzas. Working with with the wood burning oven (at right) and the dough is more akin to dealing with people than cooking. The dough is alive and each day it needs to be treated differently.

The wood burning oven is my favorite kitchen tool. You can do everything in there from breads, sardines, roast goat, spinach and ricotta crespelle, you name it, I would like to cook it in that oven.

The Encyclopedia of Italian Cooking which is 1,000 pages long and all in Italian has references to every Italian dish. Marc Vetri's cookbook, il Viaggio. Salumi, another 1,000 page behemoth that I use all the time for salumi making. And then my mom sends me all these Jews in Italy books which chronicle the food of Jews in Italy. Reading those always makes me fall back in love with being Israeli.

I'd love to cook and eat with Mario Batali for obvious reasons. Marc Vetri who has been a big influence on me. Jean Louis Palladin, who although he is dead, first saw me as a poor fish cook and I 'd love to show him what I've accomplished. And Watch Chupal, a Thai chef from Vegas I worked with. I haven't cooked for him in at least a decade and I'd like to do so again.

I don't like crazy fusion. Cooks are bastardizing culture when they combine traditions. That and the trend of trying too hard. They just end up screwing it up.

Parma. I spent so much time in Parma that I am really drawn to that regions' style of cooking. Parma swears it is the best region in Italy. The people never get tired of prosciutto or Parmagianno cheese. I love the fact that these people live off of these ingredients. You know here in America, you have success with a restaurant and everyone asks, "What is your next restaurant?" In Parma, and Italy on the whole, a family has one restaurant, and everyone works there, they aren't opening any more restaurants. I plan on Domenica being a restaurant I have for the rest of my life.

I love Vietnamese food. I go all over. Dong Phuong for the pork pastries and banh mi. Ba mien for squid. 9 Roses for the BBQ grills. Kim Son for fish. Tan Dinh for shrimp in house sauce with pickled veg and rice.

No. Uh oh. No music in my kitchen.

Love that I don't feel like this is a job. This is my livelihood. Making people happy through food. It is a good calling to have.

No, never worked in the front of the house. But have always had a strong connection with customer experience. I never want to lose touch with their experience because their experience influences what happens in the kitchen. The back of the house works so hard, I need to insure that translates to a great experience in the front of the house.

After work, I love going home, hanging out with girlfriend and dog, having a glass of wine. In general, during my time off I don't go out on the town, I much prefer to spend time with the people I love.

Winesday

Peter: Some good spice but can still taste the grape. High in alcohol though, which is a shame. How about some braised short ribs from Sylvain or the ridiculously good lasagna from Domenica.

Rene: Powerful oak on the nose, smells like the inside of a barn. Lot of heat in the back of the throat from the alcohol. Don't get very much fruit, just woodsy spice. But wine could stand up to something heavy which makes me want Ian Schnobelein's ravioli with veal cheeks, but since that doesn't seem to be on his menu anymore the rigatoni with oxtail ragout, broccoli, and ricotta at Iris would be a good substitute.

Joe the Wine Guy:  That wine is 2006 Domaine Chandon "La Riviere" Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. It has enticing aromas of cocoa powder, red plum, black cherry, and cedar which are a prelude to flavors of black cherry, dried cranberry, cocoa, and cardamom. It finishes with vanilla bean notes which would be perfect with roast rack of lamb with a fig reduction, or maybe a black truffle risotto, or even with a dessert like Black Forest cake. You can find it at Galatoire's and The Wine Seller and it retails for $45.

A Whole Lotta Burrata

Tomato and burrata salad from Herbsaint.

Trends are everywhere around us, especially in the food world. Whether it's a distributor pushing a particular wine, bartenders wearing fedoras, or short ribs showing up on nearly every menu, the food and beverage industry is not exempt from the "herd mentality" which our high school disciplinarian so often preached against.

Right now, burrata cheese is all the rage around town. According to Wikipedia, burrata is basically a thick skinned, hollowed ball of mozzarella that is filled with scraps of mozzarella curd and topped with heavy cream. It's a fresh cheese that is usually eaten within days (or hours) of being made. When you cut open a ball of burrata, the interior flows out in a silky, creamy, buttery rich white lava. The texture is soft with only hint of the chewiness of its cousin mozzarella. The flavor is, in a word, delicious.

Traditionally, burrata "season" is in the summer months, but a few local chefs have decided that this cheese is worthy of being served into the fall. No complaints from me. At Domenica, Chef Alon Shaya incorporates burrata into a panzanella salad with sweet tomatoes, peppery arugula, and toasted bread. Chef Donald Link serves this fresh cheese as a small plate with tomatoes at Cochon Butcher and as an appetizer with roasted eggplant and peppers at Herbsaint. Uptown at the newly opened Bouligny Tavern, burrata is featured on bruschetta sprinkled with fleur de sel, a grind of cracked pepper, and drizzled with truffle oil.

Anywhere else around town that I missed? Who else loves burrata?

The Post-Katrina Top 20: #5 - #1

Today, we unveil the Top 5 additions to the New Orleans Dining and Drinking Scene Post-Katrina. We knew this was a cliche idea. However, going through the exercise provided us with an opportunity not only to examine the New Orleans restaurant scene in toto but also to look with special favor upon what came after the storm. Those restaurateurs, bartenders, and shopkeepers who chose New Orleans to hang their shingles or branch out, despite the odds.

First off, we realize many great restaurants struggled to return to New Orleans. They found their cooks, bussers, and waiters all over the country and brought them back. They dealt with insurance adjusters and new regulations. They reopened with skeletal crews and out of whack balance sheets. To them we owe a lot. For if they don't come back, these places don't exist. So a big round of applause to all the restaurants in New Orleans that reopened after Katrina.

We also know there are many great places that didn't make the list. Places like Il Posto, which Rene refuses to write about because he doesn't want to fight crowds on Saturday morning trips for a cappuccino and a California bagel. Places like Meson 923 which have returned to New Orleans a prodigal chef in Chris Lynch. Places like Mondo and Coquette which are putting good food in great neighborhoods and watching the lines form. And restaurants, stores, and bars that have yet to be conceived, developed and opened.

Cue the Chairman of the Board, "The Best is Yet to Come."

#5: The Sun Rarely Sets on The Besh Empire - In the days after Katrina, John Besh and his trusted cooks Blake LeMarie and Alon Shaya used the Katrina trinity (propane tanks, flatboats, and ice chests) to serve loads of hungry refugees and recovery workers. Nearly five years later, Chef Besh was once again at the forefront, this time in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. In between those times, he did little more than open 3 new restaurants and continue the legacy of a 4th. Not a bad stretch, if you ask us.

But it's not so much the quantity as the quality and diversity of the Besh family of post-K restaurants which warrants high praise. When Cobalt failed to reopen after the breach, Besh seized the opportunity to reinvent the first floor of the Masonic Temple into an Alsatian brasserie, complete with pulley and belt-driven fans which were a trademark at Kolb's. Enter Lüke, now the most popular restaurant for a business lunch in the CBD.

The dichotomy of forward thinking paired with a nod to the past was exemplified in two of Besh's post-K acquisitions. When his former mentor Chris Kerageaorgiou was in search of someone to pass the torch to at La Provence, Besh took over the reigns and revived its farm-to-fork history by growing vegetables and raising livestock on the grounds, while continuing the tradition of rustic French cuisine in a country house setting. Similarly, at The American Sector, Besh honors the greatest generation by serving World War II era food using contemporary ingredients and techniques.

And if three is good, four must be better. New Orleans has always had its own distinctive Creole-Italian cuisine, known for smooth, sweet red sauces and an unconventional bordelaise comprised of olive oil and garlic. But with the opening of Domenica, Chef John Besh and Alon Shaya ushered in a new era of Italian dining in the city. House cured salumi and wood-fired pizzas share menu space along with exquisitely made pastas, with no "red gravy" to be found.

#4: Sucre - Tariq Hanna, chef of Sucre, said it better than we ever could. When asked about why people like sweets he responded, "You only eat sweets for two reasons: because you are seeking comfort or soothing guilt."

No matter where you were when Katrina hit, or how you have lived your life since then, those descriptions fit. When Sucre opened it set off an only in New Orleans brawl between supporters of Sucre and supporters of La Divina Gelateria. The Jets and Sharks, Bloods and Crypts, and Hatields and McCoys look like catfights compared to the Blue Bloods and Hipsters.

Sucre has distinguished itself in our eyes. There are airy, pastel colored macaroons, petit fours with layers of raspberry, chocolate, and more chocolate, milkshakes spiked with Bailey's, espressos, truffles with sea salt, and of course cakes resembling whichever team the Saints are destroying that week.

Joel Dondis always had a sweet tooth. But it was while living and working in Germany, he first decided to one day own a pastry shop. He found going to the bakery down the street provided relief from long hours and low pay as a cook. Dondis and Hanna teamed up to open Sucre in April of 2007. Since then the childhood inspired, sweet shop on Magazine has expanded to include a pastry factory near Broadmoor, where the cakes, truffles, ice creams, and baked goods are made by a dedicated staff. A staff that includes many graduates of the Culinary Institute of America. The word is out among the nation's up and coming pastry chefs. If you want to be somebody, you need to work at Sucre.

Soon a location will open in Lakeside Mall with an espresso machine called the Slayer. "This is going to revolutionize the coffee drinking experience in New Orleans," Dondis explains. "You will be able to choose your blend, grind size, water temperature, pressure, all of it."

To steal from Rick Pitino, "McKenzie's isn't walking through that door."

But that's OK. We got Sucre now.

#3: St. James Cheese Co. - "People said we were insane to open a cheese shop in New Orleans," Danielle Sutton says. "We are glad to prove them wrong."

Prior to Katrina, Richard Sutton worked as a cheesemonger in London. He and his wife, Tulane alums (we hear it is a college), returned to New Orleans with the idea to open a quiet, little cheese shop uptown. When they opened in November of 2006, the plan was to only have one or two sandwiches and to build a small niche as a supplier of fine cheeses. That plan soon changed once the public got a taste of their sandwich creations.

In winter crowds clamor for the raclette and croque monsieur. And last summer, the removal of the BLT with Serrano ham replacing bacon caused an uproar. "We had customers call and ask if the BLT was on the menu. When we would say no, they would hang up on us," Danielle recounts.

But still, the staff at St. James focuses on delivering the best cheeses and charcuterie from around the world. To witness, walk in to St. James on a Thursday around noon. The line will snake from the register down the display cases filled with people drooling over the selections. Richard, or one of his able staffmembers, will come over to and ask you what you want. "What is new," you ask.

Their eyes light up like a kid on Easter Sunday who spies a basket of candy on the mantle. "Have you tried the new aged gouda? Or the Ste. Marcelin? A delicious Triple Creme is in, layered with truffles, try it. What about this blue from Humboldt?"

And off they go dispensing samples of cheese, pates, and cured meats, while taking an order for a Mozzarella sandwich, and uncorking a bottle of rose. Recently, St. James added an online presence via a partnership with Taigan.com, the high-end, luxury online shopping center (backed by First Street resident Julia Reed). Previously they only accepted phone orders for out of town shipments. Which is a great gift to give a sister, should you have one living in say DC or New York.

St. James is also a great spot for dinner. Let us explain. You know those Fridays, when there is no food in the house and you don't really feel like going out to dinner? Swing by St. James, pick out three or four cheese, a pate, some slices of Jamon Serrano (or Iberico if you got that cash money), and a baguette. Take it home and lay it out on the biggest cutting board you have. Open a bottle of wine, put your feet up, and graze the night away.

With Andy Scurlock manning the charcuterie and turning out impressive truffle-studded pates and English meat pies, the future of St. James is bright. But it is the last four years that are special for Richard and Danielle. As Danielle explains, "We love the feeling that we have become a neighborhood spot in a city of great neighborhood spots. Our customers have become our friends, they go to Italy or France and bring us back treats. That really means a lot to us."

When the Sutton's came to New Orleans, they did not know what to expect but what they found has warmed their hearts. "New Orleans has been so supportive and welcoming to us. Even dealing with City Hall was enjoyable," Danielle says.

If that isn't a sign, New Orleans is back. We don't know what is.

#2: Cochon/Cochon Butcher - Chef Donald Link said it best during his segment on No Reservations: "You respect somebody for staying here. Staying here after the storm and raising your family here is making a statement."

Not only did Chef Link stay in New Orleans to raise his family, he and partner Stephen Stryjewski also moved forward with their plans to open Cochon, the porcine mecca on Tchoupitoulas Street. Beside introducing New Orleanians to the wonders of rustic Acadiana cooking, the media frenzy surrounding Cochon sent an important message to the rest of the nation: New Orleans and its food culture still matter and are worth saving. While some members of the press were kicking us while we were down, restaurateurs like Link were too busy raising the city up to even bother with the naysayers.

But all of the press and accolades were no reason for Link to rest on his laurels. In early 2009 the Link Restaurant Group launched Cochon Butcher, the forerunner of the salumi movement that has swept both the local and national dining scenes. Many people don't realize that before ABC Restaurant in NYC began curing its speck in house, the coonasses of Cajun country had about a 250 year head start on them. Butcher has brought those time tasted crafts to the Big Easy, which in turn launched this artisan movement onto the national level.

#1: La Boca - The worst kept secret in New Orleans is that it is a wonderful place to get a steak. For years Ruth Fertel's halfway eponymous restaurants showed the world how to cook and serve a steak. Ruth's Chris Corporate Office left the city with the flood waters, pissing a lot of people off. Into this vacuum stepped La Boca, which has established itself as the city's best steakhouse.

Nick Bazan and Adolfo Garcia came up with the idea of La Boca prior to Katrina. Originally they wanted a 150 seat restaurant devoted to all things Argentinian meat. But the federal flood caused them to change their plans. Luckily, Taqueria Corona never returned and they got a good deal on a 47 seat restaurant. They also had to focus the menu to what ingredients they could get reliably day in and day out. As chef/partner Jared Ralls puts it, "Adolfo and I always talk about keeping dishes simple and singularly focused. By lessening the stuff on the plate, we can increase our chances for success."

La Boca opened on June 1, 2006, which as you are well aware is the first day of hurricane season. "It was a way of saying 'Screw it, we aren't going anywhere.' We had faith in New Orleans, faith it would come back, faith people would get what we were trying to do from a culinary standpoint," Ralls recounts.

It took about two years for the restaurant to really catch on with both locals and tourists. "Business was always good, but then all of a sudden at the beginning of 2008, we just exploded," Ralls says. The success has not stopped La Boca from doing a Service Industry Night every Thursday, when you can spy some of the city's best chefs digging into steaks and slugging red wine long after the customers have gone home.

La Boca has all the classic grill marks of a steakhouse, with subtle nods to more contemporary dining. The interior of La Boca is like eating inside a large brick fireplace, with red masonry, wood timbers, and a warm glow from the kitchen. In other steakhouses the walls are lined with pictures of sports stars from year's past shaking hands with the owner. Here, are Boca Junior soccer jerseys and paraphernalia from Argentina.

Rather than beat you over the head with bottles you can't afford, the wine list at La Boca offers an all Argentine selection of toned, lean whites and muscular, lusty reds. Affordability is the main link. Hell, there even is a surly maitre d', albeit one wearing a Marilyn Monroe tie, Scarface suspenders, and saddle oxfords.

The vibe of La Boca has nothing on the food. Gooey provoleta smeared over those rolls and lacquered with chimichurri make the grilled cheese seem juvenile. The plump, tender sweetbreads, grilled whole and served with just a squeeze of lemon, have no equal in the city. The gnocchi is like eating a potato that just made love to butter and cream. Even the heart of palm salad makes a compelling argument to eat more veggies.

Then we come to the main event, the steaks. Sourced from places with cool names like Snake River and Painted Hills, this is not the place to order a filet (although the bone-in job is pretty good). Go with the hanger, the skirt, the skirt with skin, or the flank. All of the steaks, save the bottom sirloin flap, get only a sprinkling of salt and pepper before hitting the grill. This absence of fussing around means you taste the beef in all of it's glory. The three chimichurris are the colors on your palette wheel. Paint as you will.

Don't forget an order of the fries, or the mashed potatoes, or the corn pudding or the asparagus. Go ahead and linger for a while. If it is a nice March or October evening, the windows to Fulton St. will be open wide. Sit, swirl, and sip that Malbec. It should be loosening up about now, as should your mood. Stick around long enough and the Red Eye will open. Go ahead and go, we won't judge. Lord knows we've all been there once before and soon enough, will be again.

We chose La Boca as our favorite Post Katrina addition to the New Orleans food scene for a few reasons. First, we love steak and feel it is the best steakhouse in the city. Secondly, although La Boca is a few years old, there is still a feeling of excitement every time we go. One of us will go and text the other, "Heading to La Boca." Instantly a wave of jealousy spreads over the other Blackened Out twin.

Third, the Warehouse District has become the post-Katrina center of dining in the city. The sheer volume of excellent restaurants within a 6 block walk keeps each operator on top of their game. And in this area, there is no better place we like to eat than La Boca.

Finally, we all lost nouns in Katrina - places, things, and people. Whatever it is Katrina took from you, what you really lost was the memory of the noun. Your kids walking down the stairs on Christmas morning, the picture of you and your cousin in Destin, or the restaurant where your husband proposed. Restaurants in New Orleans have always been more than places to get a meal. They are links to the past. Memory place card holders which evoke not only good food but also great times. Maybe it was eating at Ruth's after either your First Communion or high school graduation. Maybe you never went but always wanted to go to Christian's. Restaurants matter here almost as much as the World Champion Saints.

But what Katrina didn't take was our ability to dine out. To eat well with friends or perfect strangers. To create memories which will live on past the latest fad in cooking or the bonds of any friendship. La Boca has become our favorite new place to create lasting memories. The restaurant has accomplished this by borrowing from the past while being truly original. By extension, La Boca feels like it has always been a part of New Orleans. For that, it gets our nod as the best addition to the New Orleans food scene Post-Katrina. Here's wishing it stays a treasure of New Orleans forever.

Mangia

Even after three visits to Domenica, I still feel that I have much to explore on the menu. Once you look past the decor (the style of which contrasts with the rustic cooking) and the uniforms of the wait staff (which The Folk Singer classifies as "hideous"), there is an excellent restaurant worth visiting again and again.

You begin your meal with a selection of salumi and cheeses, which in terms of quantity are the most expensive items on the menu. Bresaola was not as salty as expected (a good thing), and paper thin slices of lardo melt away just by the heat of your tongue. Each plate is accompanied by a sextet of accoutrement including eggplant caponata, olives, and the best of all...

Mortadella mousse which you then spread on the torta fritta. These "savory beignets" are rich, flaky, and light as a feather. On my second visit, I skipped the meats and cheeses in favor of only a basket of torta fritta and a generous scoop of mortadella mousse. Both are that good.

Pizzas are like none other seen in New Orleans before. The crust reminds me of the pizzas I indulged in all over Europe - thin, crispy, and crackly. The prosciutto pizza is baked with only a scattering of fresh tomatoes and mozzarella, then covered with an abundance of sliced prosciutto and a generous handful of peppery arugula.

Pastas are served in both small and large plate form. Some are so rich - like the spinach gnocchi with ricotta and brown butter - that the reduced portion is more than ample.

The thin "rags" of stracci have an incredible al dente texture and serve as a base for shreds of oxtail and fried chicken livers whose richness is cut with a pronounced squeeze of lemon which your nose easily detects. The tagliatelle became one with the rabbit ragu (think "pasta and sauce" instead of "pasta with sauce") to create a hearty but not heavy dish.

Prices are much lower than you would expect from a John Besh restaurant nestled in the opulent Roosevelt Hotel. Just another surprise from a restaurant which keeps giving you reasons to keep coming back for more.

Domenica - Eagle

Domenica

The buzz around town is that John Besh opened a new restaurant in the Roosevelt Hotel called Domenica. And that is partially correct. A more accurate statement would be that Alon Shaya has a new restaurant in the Roosevelt called Domenica. This is not to take anything away from Chef Besh, but Domenica is Shaya's restaurant. And although it needs some improvement, in a few months I suspect this will be one of the top restaurants in New Orleans.

Domenica is Chef Shaya's place because you see the general concern in his face as he walks over to your table to ask how your meal is going. When you tell him the pea risotto was salty, he says, "That is something I will fix." Alternatively, when you tell him how marvelous and stunning the octopus carpaccio is, he responds, "We love that dish, and we are glad you did too." Notice the difference?
The menu is such that appetizers and pastas can be ordered either in half-size or full size. This allows you to try a bunch of options without stuffing yourself or draining your wallet. With a large, and ever increasing selection of house cured meats, this also would not be a bad spot to pop in for a cocktail and a plate of prosciutto before heading out. The watermelon basil bellini was impeccable with the herbacious basil, sweet watermelon, and bubbles of prosecco creating the profile of the classic aperitif in a modern drink.

That octopus dish is worth the trip alone. Thin disks of octopus, each one like an ancient mosaic coin of purple, brown, and white, are topped with a light and refreshing salad of thinly sliced fennel and juicy segments of orange. Upon taking a bite, you are immediately transferred to a beach in the Mediterranean. Breathe deeply. There is the salty, oceanic air. You sip on a pastis while smelling the citrus groves. It is a beautiful dish.

Other admirable starters include the delicately fried squash blossoms stuffed with goat cheese and the aforementioned house cured meats. The bresaola comes fanned on the plate and crowned by a nest of arugula and Parmesan - a dish which can be shared and enjoyed by the entire table.

Another favorite was the stracci pasta. Triangles of spinach pasta are tossed with slow cooked oxtail ragu and topped by a few nuggets of fried chicken livers. You expect the dish to be heavy and cumbersome, but a barely imperceptible hint of acid washes across the palate. "That is a shaving of lemon zest," says Shaya. The lemon lightens the dish, creating a harmonious bite of savory, rich, salty, and sour.

The gnocchi, no bigger than a thumb, pack a wallop of flavor in the density of a cloud. The anolini pasta are more like nonpareils stuffed with mushroom, topped with pecorino, and a delight to snack on, but maybe too much cheese on top. The fazzoletti pasta could have been a tad thinner, but there was no denying that the rich burrata cheese added an amazing depth of flavor. The salty risotto is likely the result of combining peas blanched in salted water and adding rendered pancetta on top, but the concept is there.

Some of the other pastas were a little salty as well. Often when a restaurant cooks a lot of pastas, throughout the night the pasta water evaporates leaving a saltier solution than would be desirable. By properly monitoring the pot, and refilling with water, this can be avoided. These are the hiccups which will hopefully be fixed with time.

The menu also has a selection of pizzas and mains. Those pizzas can suffer when the place gets busy. The center came out slightly undercooked and soggy on a busy Friday night. Management told me people are sending back pizzas that are crunchy, blistered, bubbly, and black in spots because they are "burned." Personally, pizzas like that are a delight. On a busy night, redoing 20-30 pizzas would destroy the kitchen, so they anticipate a problem and adjust. So if it's busy, mention to your waiter that you will wait for the pizza to be cooked properly. The best of the pizzas is the Calabrese with capers, olives, and spicy salami strewn across the crust.

The wine list at Domenica is broken down by region, with a handy map on each page pinpointing the exact location of the region. The prices are reasonable enough to allow one to casually order a bottle or two with dinner, while there is just enough variety and depth to keep a wine geek occupied. Order the tart, vibrant Bastianich Sauvignon Blanc for your apps and pastas. The 2007 Marcani Dolcetto D'Alba is a great match with the pizzas.

For the sweet portion of your meal, go for the ricotta and fig fritters with the muscadine sabayon. So delicate, so flavorful, and exotic, yet so similar to those beignets from 'round the corner. One order can feed a squad of five comfortably. With a glass of nocello, limoncello, or grappa, your evening is complete.

Some have often said the interior is smart, handsome, and stylish. Considering as how my interior decorator skills tend towards posters of John Belushi, zebra print chairs, and a coffee table to put my feet on, I will defer to others.

On the two separate occasions we went, we have enjoyed good service, at times great food, and had a lovely time. Will you have the same experience? I hope so. Domenica is not perfect, likely never will be. But it is getting close to being Shaya's perfect restaurant.

Domenica - Too early for an official ranking, but second visit was in the birdie range.