Winesday

Peter: OK, I'll admit that I knew exactly what this wine was just by looking at the red neck of the bottle. This is the best bottle of wine that I have tasted in two trips to the Napa Valley. Plain and simple - this is the easiest drinking cabernet on the market. Dark in color but smooth going down. This wine is made for food or for sitting in front of the TV on a Tuesday night watching Sons of Anarchy. Thinking the beef carpaccio and arugula salad from the Italian Barrel.

Rene: Deep, fruit filled noise but floral as well - violets. The taste is that of stewed dark fruits - blackberries, say. A soft wine in the mouth, though with velvety tannins. The words elegant and Stifler's mom comes to mind, which leads my mind to one of the dishes at Stella! Perhaps the duck five ways or the Kabayaki glazed beef tenderloin.

Joe the Wine Guy: 2006 Hewitt Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford has intense layers of dark fruit, bittersweet chocolate, black licorice, clove spice, mineral and cedar. This is one of Napa's most voluptuous cabernets. The palate is packed with black cherry, plum and blackberry character. Then malted cocoa powder tannins enhances the wine's plush, opulent texture. The elegant, fruit-imbued finish lingers with espresso, toffee, and nutmeg. Pair this with rich, robust meals, like seared beef tenderloin with shitake mushroom sauce. You can find it at Speckled T's and Royal Palm, and it retails for around $80.

Winesday

Peter: Good juice. Easy drinking, with not a lot of tannins. Want to take this to the East, via the West Bank so thinking the Korean style short ribs from Tan Dinh.

Rene: This wine has a deep rich flavor with a strong but not overbearing background of tannins. I get loads of cherry flavor and the richness makes me want something dark, salty, and...why am I thinking chocolate. For that, the Grilled Cheese Sandwich with dark chocolate ganache and triple creme cheese at Stella! will hit the mark. And shoot, why not?

Joe the Wine Guy: The Lost Grape returns! This wine is a 2009 Lapostolle Casa Carmenere, the Casa designation denoting exceptional quality grapes from the Rapel Valley in Chile. The wine is mostly all Carmenere (85%) with a small amount of Merlot from Apalta to bring red fruit flavors in harmony with the spiciness of the Carmenere grape. The nose starts out with black and red fruit mixed with some spiciness and white chocolate aromas. On the palate, great acidity blends with juicy red fresh fruit. This wine is perfect with pastas, pork, and grilled red meat. It retails for $15 and you can find it at The Wine Seller, Oak, and Jackson.

The Post-Katrina Top 20: #20 - #16

No one will argue that the game was forever changed on August 29, 2005. As we approach the five year anniversary of that fateful day, no small number of scribes will dare to put paper to pen and describe post-Katrina existence. Over the next month you will read hundreds (if not thousands) of articles on the recovery of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Most will be well-written pieces focusing on how far we have come, how much further we have to go, what is better, what is worse, and what ain't dere no more.

We could wax on poetically about the casualties of the storm, but we have never been known to cry in our beers. An equally emotional tale could be written about the restaurateurs who rebuilt and persisted through the recovery, but that's a whole other task to which we will leave for the professionals. Instead, we want to focus on the enormous growth of the New Orleans restaurant and beverage scene over the last 5 years. So each Monday over the next four weeks, we will be counting down our favorite additions and improvements to the New Orleans food and drink scene since Katrina. Better than before? You tell us.

#20: Cure - Our first brush with Cure posed some... ahem... challenges. It occurred about one month after the amber-hued apothecary opened. After waiting at the bar for fifteen minutes, Peter tried to order a vodka tonic and was told, "We don't serve that here." What he got instead was a sweet drink topped by a cute umbrella. But both Cure and our experiences there have changed for the better. The converted firehouse now dispenses one of the city's best cocktail experience. Neil Bodenheimer consistently pushes his staff, led by Kirk Estopinal, to develop new cocktails incorporating long forgotten elixirs. Plus, the bartenders at Cure have gotten over their original celebrity cache and now focus their energies on just getting you a drink. All this makes Cure one of the most delightful places in the city to grab a cocktail.

#19: Stanley - While the concept was born pre-Katrina, Chef Scott Boswell first opened his upscale diner only out of necessity when renovations to sister restaurant Stella! were derailed by the levee failures. After a year-long run in an adjacent space on Decatur, closing down for the reopening of Stella!, and moving to a prominent location on Jackson Square, Stanley is now one of the most popular breakfast spots in the French Quarter, where the Breaux Bridge Benedict has diners craving boudin first thing in the morning.

#18: Huevos and Crescent Pie & Sausage Co. - Disaster beget a second restaurant for Bart Bell and Jeff Baron as well, when the building which was originally supposed to house Crescent Pie & Sausage Co. collapsed during Hurricane Gustav. In serious need of cash flow, the duo began serving breakfast next door at Huevos while the new home of Crescent Pie was being constructed next door. Patrons still flock to Huevos for tamales and chorizo in the morning; but when the sun goes down, the shift focuses to the offbeat pizzas and flaky crusted handpies at the quirky restaurant on the corner.

#17: The Meteoric Rise of Tales of the Cocktail - Tales of the Cocktail began before Katrina, but perhaps no festival better showcases why people love coming to New Orleans. People travel to the Big Easy to have a good time, explore, and drink. Tales does all of this and more. Led by the charming Ann Tuennerman, her husband Paul, and a team of Angels, everyone from cocktail geeks to beach bums, industry vets to molecular mixologists can find a seminar, tasting or party to their liking. Just the sheer volume of people, brands, and PR gurus who show up to pitch the latest rum or new cordial make Tales an indispensable item on any cocktail aficionado's calendar. As one brand rep told us, "If your product isn't at Tales, you lose an entire year of revenue, recipes, and respect." Plus, any festival that can draw almost twenty thousand people to New Orleans in the middle of July deserves a hearty cheers from us.


#16 Food from South of the Border - Every cloud has a silver tequila lining. The Mexican and Central American food scene in New Orleans has never been greater, and it started with the humble taco truck. Originally these Mexican meals-on-wheels catered specifically to the growing number of laborers who flocked to the city for recovery work, but soon people of every creed and color could be seen standing in line for affordable lunches of barbacoa and carnitas. Several vendors have capitalized on their success by moving into permanent spaces, but others like Taqueria D.F. continue on as modern day chuck wagons. With newbies like Taceaux Loceaux catering to late night crowds around town, the taco truck looks to be a delicious fad which will be sticking around for the foreseeable future. The scene has further grown as places like Restaurante Telemar, Taqueria Guerrero, and Pupuseria La Macarena have set up shop all over town showing that the food of Central and South America is as varied and interesting as the countries themselves. We look forward to watching these cuisines establish a permanent foothold in the New Orleans scene.

Farewell to Meat - Stella!

Carnival has arrived and with it another Blackened Out Feature. As Carnival traditionally was a time to bid adieu to meat, every week we will profile one of our own and ask them a simple question, "What would be your last bite of meat before Lent?". Peter and Rene will team up to interview, photograph, and write each story. We hope you enjoy it. And now, for the first installment of Farewell to Meat.

Scott Boswell
Chef/Owner- Restaurant Stella!, Stanley, and Scott Boswell Enterprises

The Meat: Kabayaki-Glazed Prime Beef Tenderloin with Seared Japanese Yam, Steamed Baby Vegetables, Wilted Baby Bok Choy, and Sweet Soy-Sake Butter

"Fire one beef."

"Pick up one steak."

Only moments before the kitchen inside Stella! had been quietly humming along, preparing the day's prep work for a Sunday night service. One cook peeled potatoes, another sauteed mushrooms, a third checked on tiny Earl Grey macaroons, all focused on their task. Then Chef Scott Boswell placed an order and like a flick of a switch, the kitchen transformed into an operating room.

On his left, a sous chef placed a sauce pan filled with kabayaki beurre blanc to which Boswell dropped a rare, 7 oz. prime beef tenderloin filet. On his right a sake poached, seared Japanese yam. In front of him, were a set of chopsticks and a tray of roasted winter vegetables. With the precision of a surgeon, Boswell poured the beurre blanc into the bottom of a cauliflower shaped plate, stacked the vegetables, plated the meat, placed the yam, and topped it with a sprig of tempura battered tanno.

"Meat and potatoes," Chef Boswell remarked with a sly grin.

The process began hours before in the kitchen. First a whole prime beef tenderloin is butchered and portioned into 7 oz. increments - 7 being Chef Boswell's favorite number.

Then the beef is seasoned with salt and pepper and left to rest for 10-12 minutes. Then over to the sautee station where the beef is seared in clarified butter set on a thermonuclear range. After a few turns, whole butter is spooned into the pan and used to baste the meat in order to give it color. The milk solids also import a rich, well-rounded flavor to the beef.

After the beef is browned (but nowhere near cooked), the filet is dropped into an ice chest filled with liquid nitrogen to stop the cooking process. After a minute or so of bubbles raging like a jacuzzi on full blast, the filet is put in a plastic pouch and placed in a pressurized chamber for vacuum sealing.

From this point, the individually wrapped filets can be stored in the deep freeze for an extended period of time. Then once an order is placed, the wrapped filet is dropped in one of four immersion circulators set to varying degrees depending on desired level of doneness. This process, known as sous vide, slowly raises the internal temperature of the beef to that of the water.

This technique is not just a parlor trick. As Boswell explains, "The filet comprises 40-50% of our entree sales. The grill cook gets slammed and is always running around with steaks in the oven, on the range, poking, prodding, testing for doneness. If a steak gets sent back overcooked, that can really affect not only the flow of the kitchen, but also the bottom line. This allows to serve a perfectly cooked steak every time."

But there is one more wrinkle to this dish. Once the sous vide process is complete, the steak is thrown into a deep fryer for just a few seconds to give it that "mongolian beef crust." The filet is then coated in the kabayaki beurre blanc. Kabayaki sauce, a traditional Japanese accoutrement to eel, begins its life as a large vat of carrots, onions, soy, sake and sugar. The mixture reduces until a syrup like consistency. The kabayaki then gets added to a class French beurre blanc. After its warm butter bath, the steak is sliced in half, sprinkled with a touch of coarse salt, and plated.

The resulting dish makes us doubt the motives of vegans even more. The sprinkle of salt on the final plating, sweetness and acid from the kabayaki beurre blanc, and slight bitterness from the vegetables all unite to tantalize each taste bud. The yam's texture and taste is similar in some ways to a polenta cake. It is easy to see why, even among returning customers, this dish is a favorite. That goes for Chef Boswell's wife Tanya as well, who always requests extra sauce with her delivery order.

If Chef Boswell were eating this dish he would start with the truffled gnocchi with Iberico ham and end the meal with a trio of creme brulees. His sommelier, John Mitchell, suggests pairing this filet with either an '05 Joseph Phelps Cabernet Sauvignon or a Domaine Gallet Cote Rotie. But served with a fruit forward Chianti in the kitchen was not a bad choice either.

As for Mardi Gras, Chef Boswell will be hard at work at Stanley which, for the first time this year, will be open on Fat Tuesday. His Lenten resolution, as always, is to abstain from alcohol. It's going to be tough eating this steak without a nice glass of wine, but Lent is always about sacrifice, now isn't it?

Stanley?

Let's get one thing straight. It was not an easy decision by Peter and I to write this piece. We went to Stanley recently with the intention of writing about it for OffBeat. However after our meal at Stanley, Scott Boswell's tribute to the American diner/lunch counter, we were left with more questions than answers. Stella! certainly deserves that exclamation point, but Stanley is just a conundrum. So here goes our attempt at some constructive criticism.

To start the space is beautiful. Exposed wood beams, white walls, marble table tops, a white tiled soda counter blocking an exposed kitchen all make for a pleasant environment. Plus, it is right on Jackson Square which heightens the ability to people watch and gaze.

From left to right a Pomegranate, Blood Orange, and Blackberry Italian Sodas. They tasted like a melted snowball, which was passable for the citrusy blood orange and the tart pomegranate, but cloying for the blackberry. A little less syrup and a bit more of the soda could turn this into quite a refreshing drink, especially come summertime.
A kitchen sink gumbo with andouille, shrimp, and oysters. Believe it or not, you can make a roux too dark. And the oyster and shrimp both suffered the same fate as the roux. Gumbo served in such a beautiful location by this talented of a kitchen staff should not suffer from these errors. Addition by subtraction here: less time cooking the roux and ditch the seafood unless you can add the oysters mere seconds before the dish is served.
An Eggs Benedict Poboy. This dish tasted fine, it tasted great actually. And the concept sounds Einstein-esque in theory. But then you realize you can't eat a po-boy with a poached egg on top of slippery ham lubed up with hollandaise. So you are forced to eat it with a knife and fork. The top of the bread becomes useless and you are left wondering, "Why make it into a po-boy? This would be better served as Eggs Benedict on Rounds of French Bread rather than an English Muffin..."Which brings us to our next dish.
The Breaux Bridge Eggs Benedict. French bread rounds topped with boudin, a poached egg, and hollandaise. A very rich dish, but if I was hungover this would hit the spot. Good level of spice offset some of the heaviness of the (over) poached egg and the hollandaise. We liked this.
This is almost a travesty. A $17 Korean Bar B Q Beef Po Boy with Housemade Kimchi. The beef is just more scared by the flame than cooked by the heat. Also, there is more meat on a supermodel than on this sandwich. The kimchi is spicy and flavorful, but paying $17 for preserved cabbage on a piece of French bread seems well, silly.
Delicious. An old fashioned, perfectly made, thick as thieves strawberry milkshake. And I think this is where Stanley's market should be. As we ate we saw a few burgers and reubens pass by the table. They looked delicious and well made. We also ordered some fries-albeit frozen-and onion rings that were very good, if not addictive. A remark about the fries. Herbsaint, Luke, La Boca, Boucherie, etc... all make house cut fries. We, as diners, have been spoiled. Stanley should offer house cut fries.

Service is not very fine tuned, but it is the first month. However, if you are going to have an ambitious menu the service needs to be better prepared to deal with customer questions. Also, it should not take fifteen minutes to get a credit card slip returned.

We really hope Stanley takes off. But there is no need to reinvent the American Diner. Serve those seemingly delicious burgers and fries, some patty melts, and cheese fries. Keep the egg dishes, but don't feel the need to add po-boy to the end of them to make them authentic New Orleans. If you want a beef po boy, than give my old friend Roast a call. Make this place seem like a French Quarter version of Camelia Grill. You do that and a customer base will never be a problem.

Let's face it, this spot is a perfect location for both locals and tourist alike. If you can offer a few solid classic New Orleans dishes for the ambitious traveler or devoted local and a good burger for the boring conventioneer from Beaumont and the picky kid, how do you lose?

Or just ignore everything we have said as at the end what the eff do we know?

Stella! Tasting

The weekend got off to a great start. After work on Friday, headed over to Le Bucket's to sample his latest homebrew. A Lemongrass wheat ale. Awesome beer. Unfortunately Le Bucket stayed behind during Gustav and survived solely on this beer, so there was only enough for a glass. Would love to try this beer with Indian/Thai food.

Saturday night Lindsay and I tackled the tasting menu at Stella! This meal turned out to be an absolute stunner. Both of us remarked that at least culinarily, and lets face it that is why we eat, this was the best meal we had eaten in New Orleans.

Amuse Bouche: A fried wanton filled with goat cheese and jalepeno surrounded by a coconut curry emulsion. A very elegant and very delicious take on the jalepeno popper. This was a prelude of things to come. One focused flavor ( heat) and a delightful blend of textures (crunchy and creamy). There was a wine as well, but I forget to remember it. Fault me.

1st Course: Crab, Gulf Shrimp, and Avocado Salad with grilled corn and roasted red pepper salsa, 100 year old balsamic, and sweet corn emulsion. In this dish the kitchen relied on the sweetness and almost butter flavor of the crab and avocado. Many restaurants that do a similar dish, attempt to overburden the components with acid to cut the fattiness. The flavors blendedd together and spread throughout one's mouth in a brilliant way. The wine was a 2006 Salomon Undhof Gruner Veltliner "Von Stein Reserve." The sommelier did an excellent job of not only explaining each dish but also why he chose each wine for each dish. And he did it all without lecturing us.

2nd Course: Summer Kabocha Squash Puree with Applewood Smoked Bacon and Valrhona Xocopili. I have made pureed soups before, but no matter how many times I strain it they never come out this smooth. This soup was almost like squash water, yet the soup wtill had an amazing body. The bacon added saltiness which contradicted and enhanced the sweetness of the chocolate. Yes, you read that correctly; chocolate soup. It worked. Lindsay's favorite dish of the evening. Wine was a 2005 Lieser Riesling Auslese.

3rd Course: Louisiana Gulf Shrimp and Lobster Mushroom Risotto with English Peas, Local Scallions and Virgin Olive Oil. Creamy, briney, with a hint of parmesan this risotto was cooked perfectly, dressed simply, and presented beautifully. The sommelier warned us that the wine would be rather minerally (to me on its own it had more of a rust flavor), but that with the risotto it would work very well. And again he was right. The 1997 Kalin Cellars Semillon, Livermore Valley had a copper tint but did a great job of cutting through the creaminess of the risotto. Maybe not a great sipping wine, but a great wine to pair with this dish.

4th Course: Fish and Chips. Did not love this dish. Tempura beer battered redfish with sweet potato puree, taro root chips, and spicy red chili caramel. This dish was too sweet for both of our tooths. But then again that may be because we were thinking main course not dessert. wine was a 2007 Clos Ste. Magdeleine Cassis Rose. Personally I find roses to be a great wine, and I really liked this one.

5th Course: Porcini Crusted Rack of Australian Lamb with Potato Galette, Sweet Red Onion Confit, Caramelized Baby Shittake Mushrooms and Micro Heirloom Root Vegetables. This dish knocked me out of the chair. The lamb had just the right amount of tooth to give it an explosion of flavor. The crunchiness and saltiness of the galette got the saliva working which in turn helped to draw out more and more of the lamb flavor. "These are more like fetus root vegetables," Lindsay said.

If you read this blog, you already know of my affinity for wines in the style of the summer house of the pope. Not our Pope, the Catholic one. The sommelier paired this dish with a 2005 Tablas Creek Vineyard, "Espirit du Beaucastel" which is an American wine made in the style of the Papal French Red.

6th Course: L'Amuse Fromagerie Signature Gouda with Dried Bing Cherry Compote and Candied Pistachio. Lindsay loves cheese almost as much our 5,000th fan. And she really liked this one. I did too, but I liked the wine more. A 2000 Chateau Camplazens Premium La Clape, Coteaux du Languedoc. A very cherry intense front with a tobacco finish. That made me happy.

7th course: Bananas Foster French Toast with Tahitian Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, Spicy Candied Walnuts and Crisp Plaintains. If you like sweet things, this dessert will challenge you. That being said, what a great concept. Toast, the French, and New Orleans all coming together. Sommelier chose to pair this dessert with the best overall pairing wine: champagne. Hubert Clavelin et Fils Brut-Comte was dry enough to let you go back for more dessert.

Finally, some mignardaise. A vanilla marshmallow and a mint meringue. A glass of vintage port at the bar and a disussion with Chef Boswell and we were on our way.

The entire experience was wonderful. We left full and content but not stuffed. Each dish was so well thought out and focused that one really felt as if the kitchen was having a conversation with you. I know that sounds weird, but it made us feel very special.

It was very expensive. So save this for a special occasion. However, read back over each of those dishes. Look how many elements each dish has; yet, each dish tastes very focused. That is an amazing trick to pull off. Service is engaging and educating without being snooty.

Numerous components, perfectly executed, and artfully presented; perfection, or the pursuit of it, comes with a price. To sum it up, a hell of a f*cking meal.

Eagle.