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

Rene: A very smooth, well balanced white wine similar to a white burgundy, but different. I get some very slight oak, which makes the wine seem heavier in the mouth. I get a touch of stone fruit- apricots mainly. Nothing overbearing though. Something makes me want veal with mushrooms. Maybe veal marsala or alfredo from a place like Vincent's. Or the porcini crusted veal tenderloin at Stella! could work very well here.

Peter: The first two words that come to mind are straw and spice. Flat on the tongue. Not overly oaky, but it tastes of high alcohol. Need a dish with substance to hold up as a pairing. A nice roasted chicken would do - Mondo does a good one. Or a filet of sauteed snapper, skin on, from Cafe Atchafalaya.

Joe the Wine Guy: What you have here is a 2006 Newton Unfiltered Chardonnay. In the glass, the wine has an inviting dark straw hue and then opens with rich creme caramel, butterscotch, and fresh vanilla bean aromas later revealing baked apple and nutty characters. Flavors of white peach and caramel with a touch of honey lead to a lingering creamy finish. Lobster bisque would be perfect or poached fish or even pasta with a cream sauce. This wine is available at Antoine's and Ruth's Chris and retails for $49.99.

Vinterview

After graduating high school in New Orleans, Joe Briand enrolled at Loyola and began working in restaurants. Eventually he found his way to Herbsaint where he climbed up the ranks to general manager and wine buyer for the Link Restaurant Group. Last fall he left the Link Restaurant Group to begin working as Manager/Wine Buyer for Hopper's Carte des Vins. The new wine shop, which should open shortly, is located on Magazine St. across the street from Whole Foods. 20 ish questions on the clock.

I was working at Vaquero's with a friend when we decided to go work at this new Susan Spicer restaurant called Herbsaint. While working at Vaquero's we would get really excited if we sold $400 of margaritas in a shift. When I got to Herbsaint all of a sudden I was selling $1200 of wine a night. So there was a financial draw first into wine. But the initial group of waiters and managers at Herbsaint was very strong wine wise and we would do blind tastings on Sunday afternoons.

The wines that changed everything for me were two bottles of Burgundy. Both came from vineyards less than 2 miles apart. One was a Chambolle-Musigny that had a perfume of what I then imagined the winemaker's sexy, French wife would have smelled like. The other had that dirty, in a good way, musty, barnyard funk, it was a '96 Nuits St. George. I was fascinated that two wines from same varietal and same area could be so different.

Leaving the Link Restaurant Group was the toughest decision I ever had to make. I have a wife and son, with another on the way, and I just needed to be able to spend more time with them. Donald tried to change my responsibilites and job to keep me on and we are still very close. In the end after 10 years of working in restaurant business, I knew the demands of the job and how you really have to throw your whole self into the job. It was like a divorce, but a friendly divorce (laughs).

The misconception is that Hopper's is a wine shop filled only with high end bottles. In fact, 40% of the bottles are under $20. At Carte des Vins, I want to offer people the most bang for the buck. The core of our offerings will come from the Old World, sort of like the wine list at Herbsaint. I really like the fact that I can sell a Rhone wine for $15. A wine that was made over there with care and dedication, bottled, and shipped, and it is great for only $15 bucks. That is amazing. I'll try to turn people on to wines they haven't tried previously.

It is important for the casual wine drinker to find a retailer they trust and develop a relationship. It is easy to do. Walk into a retailer, introduce yourself, and ask them to put together a mix case of wines for you at such and such price a bottle. I dont understand why people are afraid to ask questions when it comes to wine. In every other merchant transaction, the customer has no problems asking questions. Look, when I go to wine tastings, I am constantly asking questions. Customers should do the same.

I'll tell one story about the foolishness of wine tasting notes. I was at a tasting once of German wines. And the person leading the tasting had some initials behind their name. German wines are incredibly confusing. The names on the labels, the styles, the language. I love German wines but they still confuse me. A wine buyer from a restaurant asked a question and in the question he mentioned he "got an herbal note." So the person leading the tasting says, "Yes, I get a lot of blackberry leaf." I spit my wine out and started howling laughing. Seriously, who the fuck has ever eaten a blackberry leaf? Nor remembered it how it tasted to compare it to a wine.

I don't like that kind of talk. I tend to describe wines very basically. Is there red fruit? black fruit? What is the weight like in the mouth. Heavy tannins or light? I've never had a gooseberry and I don't know anyone who has, but there it is apparently inside of every bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. I don't talk like that because the average wine drinker drinks the wine and gets discouraged because they don't taste "blackberry leaf."

After Katrina, my wife and I rebuilt a double. She got the bathroom and big walk-in closet and I got a wine cellar with a cork floor. In there, I'd say 60% is red and white Burgundy. I have a good chunk of Rhone wines, some Italian, some Germans, of course a few cases of Champagne. 2 cases of Sauterne, about the same of port. I hold some cases for some friends. All in all, I have about 400-500 bottles, but the capacity to keep around 1200.

One section of my cellar I like to call the "You don't have to ask me if you can open this wine." It is about 10 cases of everyday wines. And this is where the other wines from around the world are represented. Some great Spanish whites, these Greek white wines I really like, basic burgundies.

We eat out a lot, so I do pay attention to wine lists. Some that really impress me are Commander's Palace and Stella! The Windsor Court has really made some great strides. Sarah (Kavanaugh) has a very enviable wines by the glass program. And then of course Galatoire's.

When food is too spicy, it makes pairing wines incredibly difficult. And so being that much of New Orleans food is spicy, that can sometimes cause a problem. But in general, the food of New Orleans is based on the cuisines of the Old World where they have been drinking wine for thousands of years. I find that Rhone wines go very well with Cajun food. The wines of Southwest France also, which has similar use of one pot cooking and heavy use of sausages.

Seafood gumbo, I'd pair a pinot gris from Luxemburg because it has weight, fruit, and is not too sweet. With trout almondine, it has to be white burgundy. For grilllades and grits, a Vacqueryas or Gigondas, something from the Rhone valley, but lighter. Bread pudding is so sweet that I would want to pair it with something with a good bit of acid and lesser sweetness. So maybe a muscat based wine from the Languedoc or an Icewine.

Most people drink their whites too cold and their reds too warm. Stick that red in the fridge for 30 minutes before you open it and let it sit for 10 before you drink it. Take your whites out of the fridge 30 minutes before you want to drink it. You will notice a much better wine drinking experience. Also, remember you don't have to spend a lot of money to drink aged wines. Buy a case of simple Bourgogne
Rouge or Bourgogne Blanc at $15 a bottle or so, and just sit on it for 2-3 years. Wines like that really benefit from just a few years of aging. If you can commit to leaving stuff alone for a few years, you will always have a ready supply of fantastic wine to drink. One last tip, buy white wines in winter and reds in summer. It will sort of force you not to touch them for a while, and you can get better deals because merchants are looking to last seasons whites or reds from their inventory.

We typically figure out what we are cooking first, than we pull the wine. The other day I got some fresh speckled trout from a friend. So came home, made a courtbouillon, and opened a Sancerre that had a good bit of richness.

I love rose. And sure it is cool and trendy to be into rose, but I love them. They are good with food, but they are also good without food. So in summer I drink a lot of roses. I also like mineral driven crisp whites, wines from the Jura region of France, and the perhaps the best summer wine, basic Chablis.

Windows on the World by Kevin Zraly. The Wine Atlas by Robinson and Johnson. Adventures on the Wine Route by Kermit Lynch.

I'd like to see wineries stop reacting to market first rather than paying attention to their location second. 15 years ago Syrah was planted all over California, now you can't give it away. Look, France has had 1,000 years on us to figure out what grows best where. No reason California can't figure that out also. And I am completely over the "Super" thing. the other day someone tried to sell me a Super Sicilian. Look just because you add Cabernet, it doesn't make it super.

I'd like to see more blends from California or at least more transparency in the labeling as to what grapes are actually in that wine. I've drank far too many California Pinot Noirs that have Syrah in them. Italy had a huge scandal a few years ago with some unscrupulous vintners. Look, there are vintners in the Languedoc who choose to label as a vin de pays rather than AOC because the non-AOC wines just does better on their lands. There is nothing wrong with that. Grow, bottle, and sell what grows best where you are.

A restaurant is incredibly expensive to operate. If people knew how slim the margins are they wouldn't complain about the mark up on wine. And look, that cocktail you are drinking instead of wine? That is marked up much more than the wine. I tell people this all the time, when you go to a restaurant, order wines you like and know rather than taking a flyer. If you gamble and lose, that markup hurts a lot more.

After tasting wine all day, most of the time I just want a nice, cold beer.

One case of wine with money no object? Fine, but they all get to be magnums. First, I'd get one of those bottles of Veuve-Clicquot from the 1800's they just found at the bottom of the ocean. Then 1 each of the Grand Crus from Domaine de la Romanee Conti, let's say Romanee Conti, La Tache, and Romanee-St.-Vivant. A Raveneau Grand Cru Chablis from a really great year. One bottle of First Growth Bourdeaux pre-phylloxera. A German dessert wine selection from Crocker like a Trockenbeerenauslese. A '98 Beaucastel made from 100% Roussanne. An old bottle of Saumur-Champigny from Domaine Clos Rougeard. A bottle of '51 Y'Quem. My wife's favorite champagne is 96 Demiere Ansiot, so would need a bottle of that. Finally, a Musigny from Comte de Voguey from 1978, my birth year.

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.

First Look: Rue 127

Last year the most surprising meal of the year took place on the second to last night of the year at Le Foret. This year, it took place last weekend. Rue 127 opened about 6 weeks ago with Chef Ray Gruezke at the helm. Ray is an alum of the C.I.A. and cooked at Le Foret before branching out on his own. Pastry chef Joanna Palmer came along for the ride as well.

In full disclosure, Ray and I (and Peter) all graduated from Jesuit together in 2000. In fact, we may have even shared a bottle of Boone's Farm on a Dominican Neat 'n Sweet bus at one point. Regardless, we sat at the bar out of the sight of the kitchen of the main room. Also, when I went to the bathroom I didn't see Ray in the kitchen. Finally, no one takes us seriously, right?

I had heard many good things about Rue 127, but the concept of a New American Bistro kind of threw me for a loop. For one thing, I have no idea what that means. Secondly, it seems everyone is opening an upscale casual, farm to table, twists on classics, restaurant these days. I assumed it was a shaky concept. You know what they say about assuming. 

What we witnessed was a chef and kitchen that is taking no shortcuts. A risotto started things off - pure white, creamy, al dente, and well-seasoned with tender, pungent tufts of oyster mushrooms throughout. In fact, what struck me about this dish was just how well-seasoned it was. I'll put this risotto up against any in the city, including the ever changing version at Stella!

Then came golden crusted sweet scallop coins sitting on top of a mushroom fricassee with a sunburst yellow saffron sauce. The effect of the dish was stunning with golds, yellows, greens, and browns each contributing a different flavor and texture. There was thought and execution in this dish. Too often, chefs are focusing on simplicity. They will serve just a scallop, simply seared, with just a sprig of parsley. They become Carl Andre of the Kitchen (don't worry I had to google minimalist artists to find that name), devoted to purity, clean lines, and other such concepts. That can get very boring. Here was a composed dish where nothing extraneous was on the plate, but the plate wasn't a white canvas with three dollops of nothingness.

On to the entrees. A pork chop is one of life's great pleasures. Not to use hyperbole, but the pork chop at Rue 127 is a great pork chop. Why? The double cut beast arrives juicy and rosy on the inside. The exterior is crusty such that it reminds you of a summertime backyard barbecue. Underneath the chop, was a roasted corn coush coush that was savory and rich, if perhaps a tad too salty.

As you probably know, I am a roast chicken fanatic. Plus, there was mac 'n cheese prominently involved and roasted brussel sprouts, which is a vegetable. The half chicken came with the breast perfectly moist and a crisp skin. The leg and thigh however were a little drab and flabby; a quick run under the salamander would have helped. Contributing much to the meat was an au jus packing a well needed punch of rosemary. The brussel sprouts could have used a bit more roasting to bring out the caramelized flavors. That may be a personal preference though.

Cupcakes are all the rage and frying things never goes out of style. Enter the deep fried mini cupcake. Let me clarify - a ball of moist cake batter, filled with cream cheese icing and sprinkles is rolled in a light batter, fried, and then served with three dipping sauces: vanilla bean (the best), butterscotch, and chocolate. It is fun, it is weird, but most importantly, they are delicious.

Couple of cocktails, Kermit Lynch Cote du Rhone, and a glass of Basil Hayden's later and we left quite full, very surprised, and eager to return. Watching Rue 127 evolve will be one of the great pleasures of 2011 and beyond.

Rue 127 is located at 127 N. Carrollton across from Venezias and down the street from Jesuit. 483-1571 is their phone number. You may want to make a reservation as we had no choice but to sit at the bar. We prefer that every now and then.

Winesday: "There was Corkage, Jerry! Major Corkage"

"Corkage" is a fancy term for bringing your own bottle of wine into a restaurant. You may often hear the term "corkage fee." This refers to the amount a restaurant charges you wither per bottle or a lump sum to bring in your own wines and have them poured for you. Opinions on the issue of corkage fee are as varied as the wines they are subject to, but here is a generalized rough outline of the debate.

From the Restaurant Side

A restaurant, like any business, has to make money in order to continue to operate. After subtracting food costs, labor costs, rent, insurance, and other expenses, a typical restaurant's profit margin is around 5%.

Restaurants depend on wine and other beverage sales to help boost the bottom line. Ordering a bottle of wine is roughly the equivalent of adding an extra person to your table without the expense of cooking for that person. The more wine sold, the more revenue added.

Restaurants know this. They also know most people enjoy drinking wine or a cocktail or beer or iced tea with lunch or dinner. To maximize the jolt to the bottom line, they typically mark up alcohol by as much as 400% wholesale (iced tea is around 1000% - the lesson, as always, is drink up). So a bottle of wine they purchase from Republic for $8 is $32 on their list. That same wine may be $16 in a shop.

Restaurants have a vested interest, as they should, in having you order wine from their list. They know their food, the chefs seasonings, and the provenance of the wines on their list. A restaurant, if it is any good, puts time and effort into selecting wines to match their food. If you bring in a wine that doesn't mesh with their food, you may leave with a bad opinion of the restaurant.

The Diner Side

I've heard one or both of the above arguments from industry folks as to why they discourage, albeit lightly, customers bringing in their own wines. And for a while, I sort of believed it or at least their argument discouraged me from bringing wine to restaurants. But lately, I've gotten frisky and started bringing wine to restaurants for special occasions. Because I've spent considerable amounts of money acquiring wines, I want to drink them with great food. What's more, sometimes I want to do so without having to cook the dishes myself.

Discussing food, restaurants, and the vinification techniques of Spanish winemakers is the new "water cooler" talk. As our awareness of food and wine grows, it is important for restaurateurs to recognize that it is in fact a good thing when Joe Diner wants to bring in a very special bottle of wine. It is an affirmative statement by the diner that he trusts your chef, your wait staff, and your restaurant with his best wines.

Secondly, the markup on wines leads to a law of diminishing returns. Now, say we are just popping out for a few pizzas. There I don't mind paying $30 for a bottle of wine that may only be $15 in the store because the overall cost of the meal is much less. But what about when you dine big with apps in the high teens and entrees in enjoying their thirty-somethings? Paying $150 for a $70 bottle of wine just doesn't seem to be a good value on the expense to pleasure ratio.

Please note that typically the more expensive the wine, the lower the markup. And that not all fine dining experiences gouge you on wine prices. In fact, we ate at Stella! recently and noticed the wine list runs the gamut from very affordable bottles in the $30 range to a wallet busting $20,000 3L of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild. The latter has the Pope's name all over it.

So where are you on the corkage debate? My view is this, sometimes it is preferable to bring a great bottle of wine to a really good restaurant. But your opinion may and should differ. In the end, corkage will always be an interesting debate with varying viewpoints. With that in mind, here is a personal corkage policy - mostly pirated from elsewhere - that I try and follow.

1) Don't do it often. A Friday lunch at Mandina's, doesn't need that bottle of wine you got on closeout from Martin's. Just pay the tariff.

2) Call ahead. Always call the restaurant to make sure a) they allow outside wine b) what special conditions they have in regards to their corkage policy. If you don't like their answer to b), it is not their fault. Either suck it up or go elsewhere.

3) Never bring a bottle that is on the restaurant's list.

4) If you bring something like Yellow Tail into a restaurant, don't be surprised if you get kicked in the balls. Note: if the restaurant doesn't have a liquor license, feel free to bring something inexpensive. Again if it is Yellow Tail, you will get kicked in the balls.

5) Make sure the carpet matches the drapes. Have a great Napa cult cab that you bought on your honeymoon and are dying to taste again? Don't take it to a sushi restaurant.

6) Offer a taste to the waiter, sommelier, manager, etc... Just that simple gesture goes a long way. Also, you may find that any corkage fee will disappear if you order another bottle of wine or a cocktail/after dinner drink.

7) Don't be an asshole.

That wine in the upper right? A killer bottle of white burgundy that Lindsay and I brought to Meson 923 the other week. Opened with notes of crushed nuts and pastry cream (translation: tasted like wedding cake at first), then evolved into a stone fruit bonanza (translation: it was very good). The dishes the wine was able to dance with included a shrimp, ham, and melon appetizer, grilled quail with Jamaican sauce and chow chow, duck with corn and sweet potatoes, and scallops with asparagus.

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.

Short Order Review: Brigtsen's and Dine Out Tonight

Frank Brigtsen can cook. Brigtsen's cooking is not the refined technicality of Le Foret or the whimiscal creationism of Stella! You won't find any dishes celebrating the simplicity of a fig or crowned with a micro green emulsion. Brigtsen's cooking is a textbook example of what was haute cuisine fifteen years ago. I had originally held that against him and as a result never visited until two weeks ago. Boy, was that a mistake.

What I found was that the food coming out of his kitchen is some of the best in New Orleans. Brigtsen's cooking reaffirmed that dining out is supposed to be fun, enjoyable, and above all else, an experience. Where other restaurants may dial back the flavor or remove a component, Brigtsen adds to a dish.

Witness his shrimp remoulade with its perfectly poached shrimp resting on top of spice laden cold corn relish. A creamy and well-seasoned guacamole ties the the two elements together. And just to gild the lily, 5 deviled eggs ring the plate. A chef in a newer restaurant would have chopped that dish into 4 or more separate "tapas." At Brigtsen's it all gets served together and with a splendid result.

This is lusty, full on cooking with nothing held back. His sweetbreads, rich as they are, join forces with a leek and potato cake before being crowned with mushrooms. The accompanying sauce zings with enough acidity and complexity to make you hoard the plate. Or try the veal with its crisp crust loaded with spices and (more importantly) salt. It is served alongside grits laced with fontina cheese and an osso bucco sauce. I can't wait to come back here on a cold January night and eat heartily.

The tuna dish is a journey through the Caribbean, of which New Orleans is the crown jewel. Tuna pulled from the Gulf of Mexico is blackened in a nod to Brigtsen's mentor Paul Prudhomme and gets just rewards with a smoked corn sauce, red bean salsa, and fiery, pepper laced sour cream. It's cooking like this that makes sushi look lazy.

When you walk into the Brigtsen's cottage in the Riverbend, you immediately sense that you are dining at a friend's house. That friend removed all the furniture and crammed tables into every nook and cranny while employing every cook and nanny in the household to serve as staff. Drinks and wine arrive quickly; as do the fresh loaves of french bread. Service is relaxed but maybe a little informal given the price points. For instance, both with our appetizers and entrees, Lindsay's dish arrived about five minutes prior to mine. But with food this good, a bottle of Robert Foley Charbono, and a vibe this comforting, who cares?

Preliminary Assessment Only

Brigtsen's-Birdie on the Fine Dining 18th.

Dining Out For Life, Tonight

It's Thursday. For us, its pay day (for real jobs not this fake ass non-paying gig). You don't feel like cooking, do you? Besides no reason to make the temperature inside your house match that of the exterior. So go eat out tonight and support the NO/Aids Task Force. All you have to do is dine at one of the over 60 restaurants participating, and they will donate 25% of your check to the NO/Aids Task Force. For more info and a list of participating restaurants check out their website.

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?

Risotto Carbonara

"Success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan."
-Mickey Mouse

If Mickey Mouse is correct, then this dish has three fathers. The first padre is the spaghetti with guanciale and a fried poached egg from Herbsaint. The second father is the milk white, shrimp and pea risotto from Stella! Finally, the third pops comes from the pages of a recent Bon Appetit which had a cartoon depiction of how David Chang, a New York super chef, created one of his famous dishes: soft poached egg with caviar, onion soubisse, and purple sweet potato vinegar.

Eggs have recently become an obsession. The flavor, texture, and substance of an egg can be changed easily and drastically. The egg is as comfortable at breakfast time as she is at dinner. It truly is incredible.

So the mind started to race. I wanted to create a dish that would resemble those inspirations that I had tasted, while using a new technique. I had some risotto in the pantry and some fresh chicken stock, so went in that direction. It could have just as easily taken me to ordering take-out. Carbonara is classically, raw egg, some bacon, maybe a little cream, some parsley, black pepper, and loads of cheese tossed with hot pasta. Needless to say, carbonara makes other applications of bacon and eggs seem juvenile.

Risotto is a wonderful dish to cook. The rhythmic stirring, careful watching, and adjustment of liquid to rice should feel like second nature to anyone who has ever turned flour, oil, trinity, and stock into gumbo. Soft boiling an egg is pretty simple. A rolling boil, place egg in water, and cook. I did mine for about six minutes. Then toss in an ice bath and peel.

Risotto, some crisp bacon, a heavy dose of the King of Cheeses, a touch of cream, the egg, and some parsley. I also added a touch of truffle salt to the end of the dish because too much of a good thing is never enough. When cooked perfectly the yolk spills out, it mingles with the risotto for a moment before deciding to join the party. Then you get the pungent aroma of truffle, the comfort of the cream, a slight nuttiness from Parma, the bite of black pepper, a crunch of bacon, and the soulfulness of the pudding-like risotto. Serve it with a white burgundy to take it to the extreme.

Try it or you will become an orphan.

The 2009 Blackened Out State Dinner

Once or twice a year, the loyal denizens of this cyber dark alley gather at a predetermined spot to drink and nibble on victuals. These events are timed with the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience and Tales of the Cocktail.

Last year's First State Dinner was replete with delicious food, biodynamic wine (it means you get hungover), and a cougar! You can read about last year's juvenile delinquency here and there.

We also dominated the Tales of the Cocktail at Stella!. No embarassment was spared.

This year the 2009 Official Blackened Out State Dinner will take place at La Cote Brasserie on May 20, 2009. Here is the menu. We chose this location based on a variety of factors including but not limited to: GPS proximity to the Red Eye, the passed apps, Peter's ideal restaurant concept, and the ability of most of us to skateboard there from work.

Scheduled to appear are Peter, The Pope, Lindsay, BB Gunner, Palm Room Hostess, Donnie Boy Riguez (with Catfish Erin on the Accordion), and a host of other characters. But most importantly, you. If you would like to join us, just call over to La Cote at (504) 613-2350 and reserve your spot now. Put together your own table or just lurk from the corner, we don't care. Nor do we judge.

This is a really fun night. Plus, there is always the chance for it to turn into an early morning. And it is Peter's last trip to New Orleans until August 1. So catch him while you can.

Limos by A Confidential.

EDIT

LATE BREAKING NEWS: In a stunning announcement some have heralded as "quite dangerous" Legend will be in attendance at this year's State Dinner. Participants are encouraged to gird thy loins.

Soup and Broccoli for Lent

This soup was inspired by a soup served at both Stella! and Vizard's. If you omit the pork in both the soup and the broccoli, you have quite the Friday Lenten feast. Or if your palate is not constrained by the dictum of a global religious empire, than prepare as directed.

Take one butternut squash, half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds. Salt, pepper, olive oil. Place flesh side down on a baking sheet. Roast at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes or until flesh is soft. Scoop out flesh, place in blender, add warm water, or maybe some warmed cream; perhaps a nose of sweet butter. And puree until smooth. Taste, adjust seasonings. Place bread in oven.

Ladle into a warmed bowl, top with bacon, a drizzle of cream, parsley or chive, and a few splashes of cilantro oil. You can do this. Ohh, you don't have any cilantro oil? You Plebe!
Now at Stella! (their exclamation, not mine) they serve a version of this soup not only with bacon but with droplets of bittersweet chocolate. At Vizard's the soup is served in a shot glass. At Casa Blackened Out we serve this soup with some broccoli roasted with bacon, garlic, chili flakes, hot bread, and guilt. As Catholics, no meal is complete without the daily dose of guilt.
And since bacon is not from a hoofed animal, a vegetarian delight! That's right bacon is only found at the end of rainbows, so its safe for Lent, vegetarians, people of Hebrew faith, and your local Flat Earther.

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?

The Past is Half Empty

A few months ago, we chronicled our experience at the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Dinner at Stella!. What we alluded to was the utter prevalence of the grandiose, self-importance of the cocktail experts and aficionados and how this in a way soured the night. The New York Times has run a more interesting and better crafted piece exploring the same. Shocking, we know, but we might as well get upstaged by a dying newspaper.

This is my favorite part:

"Just when Manhattan’s most ambitious bartenders had started to resemble a troupe of historical re-enactors, sporting antique patterns of facial hair as they concoct 19th-century julep recipes, along comes Apotheke, with a host of drinks that Diamond Jim Brady wouldn’t recognize."

Following the Spirited Dinner, I had a discussion with a noted New Orleans food bloggist/lawyer/raconteur/seal clubber who dined at Iris. His response to the night can be summed up thusly, "I needed a fedora and some tight jeans to fit in."

Thankfully for all he does not own either, but perhaps he will grow a pencil thin mustache, the Boston Blackie kind.

A good cocktail has a certain magic and transporting quality, but let's not pretend it can replace the Flux Capacitor. And costume parties, especially those with some clever theme along the lines of "Ghosts Travel to Outer Space and Encounter the Elizabethan Period" or "Dirty Old Nuns and Catholic School Boys", provide hours of fun and endless opportunities for inappropriate statements. But there is no need to combine the two.

Drinks desire to be enjoyed and savoured. When you discuss and meticulously recreate a classic cocktail (down to using lake harvested ice), one crosses a dangerous line. The line between enjoyment and obsession. The only thing a well made drink should make you do is order another one.

In The Soul of a Chef and The Making of a Chef, Michael Ruhlman discusses the idea that one of the hallmarks of cooking is that a dish is a dish the world around. What he means by this is Sole Veronique, Kung Pao Chicken, or a hamburger have a defined and exact standard. There is but one true version of each dish. However, no two restaurants serve the same dishes; well, outside of McChain's Tapas Grill and Singles Bar. A Plato's Cave of dishes, if you will. In many ways there is a similar desire for an exact recipe for cocktails.

When bartenders begin messing with a Brandy Alexander they have done two fundamental things. First, they have created something new. Secondly, they have worn away at the protective enamel of what defines and distinguishes a Brandy Alexander. If the resulting drink is called a Champagne Alexander no harm done. However, usually the menu writers guild mandates that the drink be called a Brandy Alexander, with cute parenthesis.

Many restaurant menus have turned into paragraph long entries that require a thesaurus, atlas, and a lawyer. You know the types: "Holstein Farm's raised porcine shoulder over a caraway consomme wilted spinach fricassee, Mackinaw Island peach sorbetto, a reduction of 'mushroom juice', and artisan salami". Great now what the hell did I order.

The day may be fast approaching when cocktail menus exhibit similar phraseology. If so the tendency of people to explore cocktails and other handcrafted, expertly prepared goods may weaken. Sometimes its just easier to say "Budweiser". After all Bud is an import now.

Recognition of historical drinks must not become anchored by the constraints of the past. New products, flavors, and techniques can coexist with recognition that a Manhattan is a damn fine drink. But if you subsitute Rum for Rye and replace the cherry with guava, what do you get and so on and so forth...

So I guess the point of this rambling is, how do you enjoy and honor a virtue without it turning into a vice?

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.

Is there anything longer than a Friday afternoon?

Loads going on this weekend. Besides the relief of New Orleans being "spared," Lindsay and I will attempt to tackle the tasting menu at Stella! on Saturday! So what if I once made bold claims that tasting menus were "overrated" and "worthy to be put in quotation marks to indicate their clicheness." Bold times call for bold men. Bold men need to express themselves through challenges. Hercules, grant me strength.

Our hearts, sympathy, and homes go out to those in Baton Rouge and other areas, that were not as lucky as New Orleans. Allow us to return the hospitality you showed us following Katrina. Come to New Orleans; eat, drink, and be merry. Then go home and use power tools.

Saints open up at home in the Dome. The freezers of New Orleans should be emptied onto Weber grills, crawfish pots, and generator powered deep fryers. Tailgating food, and the tailgate experience itself, never ceases to amaze me. Blenders powered by weed eaters produce daquiris that would make any Camaro owner swoon. Turkeys are brined, smoked, battered and fried, slathered in hot sauce and butter, and served with blue cheese flavored ranch dressing. And who can forget the televisions, lawn chairs, inflatable Bobble Heads, and epithets to be hurled.

Party sandwiches are for the weak; platters from Wal Mart are not much better. Fry something for Christs sake! Stretch the limits of bad cholesterol. Remember the idea that the lifestyle choices of New Orleanians (and Southerners in a broader sense) contributes to heart disease, obesity, and diabetes is only a theory. Which means it must be given no greater weight (pun intended) then Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

Did I mention Fall is my favorite food season? Chilis, stews, Thanksgiving (the greatest holiday, no arguments accepted), drinking bourbon out of a plastic cup, and dips. Fall is a season embodied by dips: French Onion, 7 layer, Salsa and suspect shrimp dip. What a great way to eat for non-committal people. All it requires is one bite and you have tons of options.

Fall is coming. Time to headbutt someone/something. Full report coming on Stella!

If Tomorrow Never Comes

The Pope emailed me yesterday with this suggestion: "I think you and Rene should do a blog asking that if Monday was your last day on earth, where would you eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and maybe a snack in between), and what would you have."

But with Gustav in the Gulf and today being the 3rd anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina, I decided to take some literary license with this question. If today was your last day to eat out in New Orleans, where would you go? While we wait with baited breath for The Pope's final day of dining out, I will give you my list of last NOLA meals. Though I must say that if you asked me this question tomorrow, I might have completely different answers.

Breakfast - Cafe du Monde
Nothing like an order of beignets with a cup of coffee and chicory to start the day.

Lunch - Galatoire's
Why? Because nowhere else in the world can you have a remotely similar lunch experience. You can't go to Galatoire's for lunch and not have a great time.* Table of 8. Start with a Sazerac. Grand Goute, Oysters En Brochette, and Fried Eggplant & Pommes Soufflé Bearnaise to pass around with our cocktails. A nice piece of sauteed trout or redfish with either crawfish tails or crabmeat (whichever is in season). Dessert? How about a slice of chocolate pecan pie.

Snack - Drago's
Like a really need a mid-afternoon treat to hold me over. But if The Pope says that I can have one, I want it to be a dozen on the half shell.

Dinner - Stella!
Tasting menu, of course. With wine pairings. What would I get? Who knows. But if experience has taught me anything, Scott Boswell would not steer my wrong.

So there is my last day dining. Rene's and The Pope's are soon to come, but feel free to email us yours.

*Well, unless you are the judge's wife who was urinated on by some drunk college kid on Christmas Eve last year. But that's another story for another time.

A Most Spirited Dinner

Last Thursday our rowdy crew of Turks descended upon Stella! for the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Dinner. Stella! is an absolutely beautiful restaurant with brick and linen walls, exposed wood, candlelit, and my favorite breath mints in the bathroom. However the food has a definite modern twist and technique.

Peter and I arrived and began sampling the cocktails. The first drink was by far the gem of the evening. A St. Germain Redux combined Beefeater Gin, St. Germain Elderflower, Club Soda, and Champagne with a twist of grapefruit. Delightfully dry, and refreshing; causing more than one guest to remark, "This is like an upscale Gin Bucket."

A shrimp and veal gyoza dumpling with a jalepeno emulsion and coconut curry. It was very good. The heat of the jalepeno and the coolness of the coconut curry combined to enhance the shrimp in the dumpling. While none of us got much of a veal flavor, this amuse was certainly delicious.

First Course Cocktail arrived, groans came next. The Fresa Brava combined Jalepeno infused Tequila, Yellow Chartreuse, lemon juice, simple syrup, and strawberry. Tasted on its own, this drink was barely palatable. The jalepeno had to much force, leaving one with a tingly feeling reminscent of a Night Spent in Paris.

The First Course was Peanut Butter and Jelly Fish with a Summer Melon Kimchee. The heat advertised on the menu was absent, however that was a smart decision considering the drink more than adequately "brought the heat". Jellyfish if you are wondering, when battered in tempura and deep fried, tastes like deep fried tempura.

Second course cocktail was the "Ewwwwww Ewwwwwww Gypsy Woman": Tequila, Vermouth, Green Chartreuse, and Celery Bitters. Ehhh, good; but really anything was an upgrade over the Fresa Brava.

Accompanying the gypsies, tramps and thieves was a beautiful pink lobster roe agnolotti with edamame puree, crabmeat, and a cognac-soy creme. Boy was that good. An interesting note on this dish. To prepare the pasta dough, Chef Boswell uses raw lobster roe which is green. And as the pasta cook the pasta turns that rich pink/red that cooked lobster has. I thought this was cool. Of course I also loved Winds of Change by the Scorpions.

Next cocktail, The Chaplin, really hit a comfort zone. Combining Bourbon, Dry Sherry, Amaro, Cointreau, and Orange Bitters, this dish stood up to and complimented the accompanying course. The dish reminded one of those cold weather bourbon drinks (Old Fashioned's, Sazerac's, etc...) while also tasting totally distinctive.

Last savory course was a Surf and Turf. Tender filet topped with grilled shrimp, Sake glazed sweet potato, and Kabayaki butter. Kabayaki is a paste made of soy, sake, and carrots. It added a good amount of sweetness to the dish, which by the end came slightly overwheleming. All in all this dish had it all. The beef was incredible tender, the shrimp provided the grilled flavor and texture, the sweet potato and butter the sweetness, and the fried brocolli rabe the bitter.

Dessert cocktail was strong. And by strong I mean seeing stars, hair on chest, moonshine blindness strong. Cognac and Ginger Liqueur swirled with a cinnamon stick. Great drink , if it had been 20 degrees outside.

Dessert was interesting. A green tea ice cream with a forzen ginger and Grand Marnier Creme Brulee. Frozen Creme Brulee to me is not much different than ice cream, so I didnt quite get it (texturally). However, the flavors were interesting and the presentation very well thought out.

Finally a dessert amuse: homemade marshmallows and cinnamon meringues. I love that little touch. Peter, Pope, Lady and I are contemplating tackling the tasting menu at Stella!; anyone interested may join.

We had a wonderful evening. I have one observation though. If I told you you could go to a dinner with wine snobs or a dinner for cocktail afficionados, you would most likely opine that the cocktail dinner would be more fun. I suggest this is because wine seems so serious and and require special waiters with french titles, decanters, and special phrases; whereas cocktails are how you unwind at the end of a long day.

However, wine people are more fun. There is an inherent academic aspect to cocktail folks. They discuss the origins of a bitter just as serious as a wine maker talks about the varietal. Yet, somehow those discussions are more snobbish when concerning cocktails then wine. I am not sure why this is and perhaps I am wrong. But the difference can be summed up thusly. At the NOWFE Dinner, there was an aspect of group sharing and discovery of the wines that we all found enjoyable. At the Spirited Dinner, it was almost as if we were lucky to be let in on the secret of why this cocktail was over our heads.

But our thanks to the staff at Stella!, the Bar Chefs, and all who made this a great evening. See you next year.

Now if you will excuse me...

I'm going to go on an overnight drunk, and in 10 days I'm going to set out to find the shark that ate my friend and destroy it. Anyone who wants to tag along is more than welcome.

-Steve Zissou

Stella, prepare to be boarded.

Do not expect genius tomorrow, for you have already received your fair share. If you are lucky, we may have some incoherent ramblings, more so than usual.

Reasons why you should come to State Dinner, The Remix

If you are still on the fence as to whether or not you would like to join us on July 17th as we celebrate the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Dinner at Stella! allow this photo essay to sway or dissaude you. These photos were taken at the First State Dinner which took place at Vizards.

The night starts out tastfully enough. Good friends reconnecting and toasting the joys of life.

In this picture you can see in the background a painting of some Bluebloods lunching at Galatoire's. And they are exposing their breasts. This will be important later.

Girls! Girls! Girls!

If you get hungry, we have food.

You can eat very close to real live bloggers. Most people pay a fortune for an opportunity like this. Plus Rene will attempt to look like a Sumo wrestler and an Italian Mafia Don at the same time.

Everyone has a really good time laughing at Rene's jokes, which are always really funny. During this skit Rene was discussing why the last thing you ever want to do is be the last guy in a casino.

Peter takes his job as note taker extremely serious. He did not even blink an eye when Hammer stole his wine.

There is a very good chance a Cougar will volunteer to take your group's photo and the whole time be exposing her left breast. Then she will take a picture with you showing the same. And B Gunner will lick his lips.

Past results are no guarantee of future performance; but if you would like to join us please go here to buy your ticket.