Final Weekend of the Fest

BBQ Shrimp Po-Boy from Liuzza's by the Track.

The mercury is rapidly rising and soon hundreds of thousands will once again flood the Fair Grounds for the final four days of the Fest. Kudos to all of the parrot heads out there who are playing hooky today. Those of us stuck in our cubicles are jealous with envy.

No matter how much you indulge in the bounty of festival eats, chances are that you will be ravenous when you exit the gates. The next question then becomes, "Where's dinner?"  Although there are several restaurants in close proximity to the Fest, the odds of you scoring a table at one of them this weekend are less than Jonathan Vilma's chances at overturning his suspension on appeal. The outdoor dining areas at Cafe Degas, Nona Mia, and Santa Fe will likely be full with revelers rehydrating and refueling. And in case you didn't take Rene's advice last week about grabbing a bloody mary on your way into the Fest, lightning could strike with an opportunity for a roast beef po-boy at Liuzza's by the Track, which is the subject of our Eats Review in this month's issue of OffBeat Magazine.

If you venture out just beyond the immediate vicinity of the Fair Grounds, the odds of a you finding an open table dramatically increase. To wit, I have 2 suggestions, both of which are a short streetcar ride or an ambitious walk up Carrollton Avenue. Toups' Meatery is a new venture by Isaac Toups, whose most prominent position was chef at Cuvee. I stopped by there for lunch last week and started with a spicy pork and poblano sausage and finished with an excellent confit chicken thigh atop firm white beans. More on Toups' in the coming weeks. My second suggestion is Taqueria Guerrero Mexico, which is almost a 2 mile hike from Esplanade but worth the journey for a ginormous torta filled with barbacoa.

Have a great weekend and don't forget the sunscreen.

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.

Taqueria Guerrero

Thanks to Top Chef Masters and Rick Bayless's near flawless performance, I have set out to discover and explore the Mexican (and to a larger extent Latin American) offerings in Nuevo Orleans. First stop: Taqueria Guerrero.

The Canal-Carrollton intersection is perhaps the most diverse restaurant scene in New Orleans. A few Vietnamese spots, some Italian favorites, couple Mexican joints, New Orleans seafood, and Japanese seafood. One can travel the culinary globe in less than four blocks. Situated in that block right next to the Red Door Bar is Taqueria Guerrero. Incidentally, the Red Door Bar is where you buy any beers or adult drinks you wish to consume next door.

The mole poblano platter comes with a half of chicken smothered in a cinnamon infected, gritty sauce, some rice, and refried beans. Normally just a cast off, the refried beans were creamy and delicious. The mole poblano, while difficult to eat, was equally good. At times sweet, other times savory, always satisfying, poblano is a dish I wish we would see more of in these here parts.

A football-sized chimichanga also came to the table. Stuffed to the max with shredded, slow cooked chicken, sour cream, beans, lettuce, cheese, a 1972 January Playboy, and three international calling cards, this fried burrito had it all. Simply outstanding and an amazing value at about $9. One could feed a soccer team with this baby.

Now, dear readers, where else should I go to enjoy the flavors of South of the Border? Leave your comments below. Whoever's suggestion reaps the best meal, wins a free meal there. Excluded from suggestion Taqueria Corona, Not So Superior Grill, and Sorryano's.

Taqueria Guerrero- Birdie.

Mid-City Mexican

I have wanted to try Taqueria Guerrero Mexico for a while, but I could never convince anyone to go with me. Luckily, I caught The Folk Singer in an inebriated and hunger-stricken state on a recent evening, and the lure of freshly made Mexican was enough to push her to explore the unknown.

The ambience is minimal and a tad cheesy in a Mexican bordertown kind of way. Thankfully, during college I spent many a night in cheesy Mexican bordertown joints, so I felt right at home.* After complimentary chips and a duo of salsas, our entrees were quickly delivered.

Buried under that pile of lettuce and drizzle of sour cream were 6 freshly rolled chicken enchiladas in a traditional mole sauce. The mole tasted - and I could not come up with another word other than - "deep" but with no acidity whatsoever and minimal spice. There was no strong chocolate flavor either. Not that the sauce was bad, just not really vibrant or what I expected.

This trifecta of tacos cost all of $6, and I am not joking when I say there was close to 1/4lb of meat on each. As at most of the local authentic Latino eateries around town, you get your choice of a variety of meats. I had tongue, beef, and pork (they were out of chicharrón unfortunately). The tacos are simply dressed with a few onions and cilantro, but they also had the added bonus of being served on not one but TWO corn tortillas. So instead of 3 tacos chock full of meat, you could make 6 tacos which are easier eat.

Taqeuria Guerrero Mexico - Birdie.

*Maybe one day we will organize a BlackenedOut field trip to Ciudad Acuña to eat at Ma Crosby's and drink at the Corona Club. If we could only figure out a way to keep Legend away from the donkey show.