Reveillon & the Rib Room

With the weather change last week, it's beginning to actually feel a lot like Christmas, and just in time for the start of the reveillon menu season. According to history the reveillon meal is taken on early Christmas morning after midnight mass, but our local restaurants have extended the tradition to encompass basically the entire month of December. Leave it to our fair city to take the most extravagant meal of the year and duplicate it over and over again for 30 days.

This year, 42 restaurants are serving reveillon menus in conjunction with the Christmas New Orleans Style campaign. Prices range from $38 for the classic 4 course dinner at Tujague's to a decadent 5 course repast at Restaurant August featuring foie gras and burgundy truffles.

Last week The Pope, The Folk Singer, and I found ourselves in the Quarter with no agenda for dinner, and so we decided to duck into the Rib Room to see what Chef Rene Bajeux was cooking up on his reveillon menu. Overall the reveillon menu is a great value at $45 for 4 courses, with winners and losers in each course. TFS started with a delicious savory pumpkin soup, which avoided the pitfall of tasting like a dessert. For me, an offbeat combination of shrimp remoulade and ahi tuna carpaccio - the former a fair rendition of the classic; the latter was actually seared and lacked the intrinsic vibrancy without which raw tuna just tastes flat. There is no choice in the second course: the classic Rib Room chopped salad with blue cheese, which is delicious in simplicity. In the entree section, the sauteed drum was one of the best pieces of fish that I have eaten all year. The filet was moist with a khaki exterior and a wonderful perfume of garlic; the hash of diced sweet potato and thin coins of andouille underneath paired marvelously well; and the lemon caper vinaigrette tied it all together. TFS had buttery BBQ shrimp over grits; not exciting but nonetheless good. The Pope tried to order the sirloin, but the kitchen was sold out. (Personally, I thought they should have swapped out a different cut.) Instead, he opted for the roasted duck, which I sampled and found to be quite tough. Desserts were unnecessary, especially the stale profiteroles, but a thin slice of the classic yule log was a nice touch for the season.

The high back chairs, dark woods, and vaulted ceiling at the Rib Room create a grandiose atmosphere, all the more appropriate during the holiday season. I am so fond of the ambience that I can't say that I have ever had a bad meal there, regardless of the quality of the food. This night was no exception.

Reveillon at the Rib Room - Par/Birdie
621 St. Louis Street
Lunch & Dinner Daily
(504) 529-7046

Reveillon

Photo courtesy of Noteworthy in NOLA.

New Orleans has many local traditions, but none are more linked with the holiday season than the Reveillon celebration. Rooted in French Catholicism, the Reveillon is traditionally a meal taken early on Christmas morning after midnight mass. Because Christmas Eve was a day of fasting, the Reveillon was an extravagant and luxurious feast.

Today, one need not keep a vigil till the wee morning hours of Christmas in order to take part in a Reveillon celebration. In conjunction with the "Christmas in New Orleans" campaign, local restaurants now serve a Reveillon menu for the entire month of December and into the first few days of the new year. A full list of participating restaurants with Reveillon menus can be found here.

Reveillon Returns

One of the best restaurant deals in town returns starting after Thanksgiving. I know what you are thinking that is really far away. But you know how hard it is to get a group of people together to celebrate over the holidays? With office parties, shopping days, and religious rituals, time is at a premium. I am not talking about spending time with family; I am talking about spending time with people you actually like.

The Reveillon Dinners harken back to a tradition when people would go over to other people's houses for grand feasts during the holidays. In today's world a good thing to do is to gather some of your friend(s), head to one of the restaurants, let someone else cook and clean, and have a good time. The participating restaurants offer a set menu with usually 2-3 choices per course at a low fee (average is $50 a head).

Menus and information available here. If there is interest perhaps a State Dinner?