Everett Potter's Travel Report

Au Petit Tonneau

By Alexander Lobrano

Having lived there for many years, I observed that the 7th arrondissement is actually a mosaic of very different little neighborhoods. The chunk of the 7th between the boulevard Saint Germain and the Seine, for example, is aristocratic in tone but more worldly and cosmopolitan than the haughtier and most decidedly penny-pinching district bound by the rue du Bac, the boulevard Saint Germain, the rue de Sevres, and the boulevard des Invalides. Then on the other side of the Esplanade des Invalides, the 7th becomes livelier and almost friendly in the snug little neighborhood in and around the rue Saint Dominique that’s favored by young BCBG singles and couples. As chef Christian Constant has discovered, this turf is actually a good restaurant neighborhood, too, because the well-born execs in the neighborhood eat out a lot and there’s also a good tourist trade from all of the small hotels in the neighborhood.

White asparagus and shaved Parmesan

Raspberry tart

   Alexander Lobrano was Gourmet magazine’s European correspondent from 1999 until its recent closing. Lobrano has written for almost every major food and travel magazine since he became an American in Paris in 1986. He is the author of “Hungry for Paris”  (Random House), his personal selection of the city’s 102 best  restaurants, which Alice Waters has called “a wonderful guide to eating in Paris.” Lobrano’s Letter from Paris runs every month in Everett Potter’s Travel Report. Visit his website, Hungry for Paris.(Photo by Steven Rothfeld)

Chef Mark Fischer of The Pullman in Glenwood Springs, one of Esquire's Best New Restaurants in the US in 2011

By Amiee White Beazley

Colorado mountain cuisine is changing. Fading away are are the rustic, antler-chandeliered dining rooms serving up slabs of beef, bison and elk, making way for more modern menus influenced by everything from the Colorado craft brewing industry to the High Country’s developing Latino culture.

The Pullman, Glenwood Springs

The Pullman, Glenwood Springs

There was little gastronomic attention paid to Glenwood Springs until The Pullman opened its doors last year. This is the third restaurant crafted by celebrated Colorado chef, Mark Fischer. His first two – Six89 and Phat Thai (both in nearby Carbondale) – have long held the favor of regional foodies with his “random acts of cooking.” The Pullman is no exception. Fisher and chef de cuisine John Chad Little create a casual experience with changing menus that have diners eager to try lunch items like braised rabbit enchiladas with melted fontina cheese and dinner entrees such as bosc pear and bourbon “BBQ” Berkshire pork with chorizo, spaetzle and melted cabbage.  The innovation and energy at The Pullman has just about everyone taking notice, including Esquire magazine, which named The Pullman one of 2011’s Best New Restaurants in America.

Richard Sandoval of Cima in Beaver Creek

Cima, Beaver Creek

At the Westin Riverfront Resort & Spa in Beaver Creek there is Cima. It is latest concept by Chef Richard Sandoval who operates 30 restaurants in several states – four others in Colorado – and three foreign countries, including the award-winning Raya at The Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in California.

Cima’s dinner menu is dubbed “Latin” cuisine, but it’s not a traditional Latin menu. Yes, Sandoval often adds spices and moles typical of Latin food, but he uses these to accentuate, rather than overtly define the diner’s experience. What is surprising is the great Asian influence in his “Latin” dishes at Cima. In Central and South America, particularly in Peru, there is large and historic Asian population and thus epicurean influence. He uses this combination boldly, mixing in vinegars and Asian vegetables to make dishes that when served are often lighter and brighter than what one expects.

Block 16, Vail

Block 16, Vail

Block 16 demonstrates fine dining in the mountains at its best. Located at The Sebastian, a boutique hotel in Vail, Block 16 creates seasonal dishes with a Mediterranean influence. One of Chef Sergio Howland’s signature dishes is “Mar & Montańa,” features Maine lobster and braised veal cheeks with salsify purée and a merlot reduction. Interpreting a more traditional favorite, “Duck & Orange” features duck confit and pan seared breast with a Grand Marnier reduction, couscous and vanilla bean-carrot purée.

For those curious about the name, “block” refers to the specific lot of a vineyard sourcing the most pristine fruit, and the wine at Block 16 is an important part of this restaurant’s experience. The small but uniquely planned dining room features a beautiful 1,000-bottle wine silo central to the room. Featuring about 400 labels and 10,000 bottles in total, the wine list focuses strongly on varietals from California and France, with depth in White Burgundy and Bordeaux.

Amiee White Beazley is the editor of edibleASPEN, founding contributor of Aspen Peak magazine and food columnist for the Aspen Daily News. Her food and travel writing has been featured in Yankee Magazine, Coastal Living, 5280, Aspen Magazine and The Providence Journal among others. A mother of two, her first children’s book, Snowmastodon! Snow Day Adventure was published by People’s Press in 2011. www.awbeazley.com

Chef Romain Tischenko of Le Galopin

By Alexander Lobrano

I love the 10th arrondissement, because it still has a lot of real Parisian atmosphere and hasn’t yet become infested with Starbucks and Subways. Instead, this until recently rather forgotten corner of Paris is continuing to emerge as one of the city’s most interesting food neighborhoods, mainly because of the happy chicken-and-egg situation that low rents make it a great location for young chefs setting up shop on their own and the creative types who’ve been colonizing the quartier steadily for the last ten years provide them with an eager local audience.

Having lived most of my life in large cities, I’m fascinated by urban ecology, and walking to dinner at Le Galopin last night, I sensed that the east bank of the Canal Martin has reached that sort of perfect ripeness between renewal and decrepitude that usually presages a tipping point. The last time I was in the rue Saint Marthe, where this wonderful bistro is located, was when I went to La Tete dans Les Olives (which I reviewed on this site) a year ago, and this narrow cobbled street so Parisian it looks like it could be a Hollywood backlot had changed a lot. Many of the little houses here had brightly painted doors and had clearly been renovated and there were several fun-looking cafes and interesting new restaurants. To be sure, I still passed two drug dealers decked out in major rapper bling, but they’re part of the urban ecosystem, too, and they wouldn’t be around if demand wasn’t creating supply.

Le Galopin

Le Galopin occupies a corner space that was once a cafe, and it has a jaunty teal blue facade and big windows overlooking the street, which made it look both appealing and sort of Edward Hopper-esque when I spotted it from afar. Inside, though, the place was packed with a noticeably sexy looking young crowd and a table of three—Dorie, Michael and Molly, who were patiently awaiting this late-comer (I got out at Colonel Fabien Metro station and walked round this large traffic circle in a panic twice before finding the street that would lead me to dinner).

On a cool night, it was warm inside, and it smelled of good cooking. We sipped a really good white Cheverny, and the two very friendly waiters went to great pains to explain the haiku-like–it was just a list of ingredients really, 42 Euro prix-fixe menu before dinner started. We’d have two amuse-bouches, a starter, a fish, a meat and then two desserts. The first dish was a crunchy prawn from Madgascar with mustard leaves in an airy white foam of smoked mozzarella, and it made a terrific first impression of young chef Romain Tischenko’s cooking and immediately heightened our expectations (I found out about this place from a friend who lives a few doors down, and she told me that Tischenko had won on “Top Chef” in 2010, but since I don’t watch television, this wasn’t the bait that she intended it to be).

Inside Le Galopin

We crabbed a bit about the Republican primary candidates, which drew an appreciative grin from the handsome black guy sitting at the table next to us, and then our second course arrived–a clear and deeply ruddy guinea hen bouillon with sliced green onions, several slices of pretty crimson carrot–vegetables here come from Annie Bertin’s organic farm in Brittany or the fabulous company Terroirs d’Avenir that is supplying many of the best new small Paris restaurants with high-quality produce from small environmentally correct producers, tiny cubes of fowl and ‘groseille de Mer.’

I had absolutely no idea of what a sea gooseberry might be, and in case you don’t either (and only the marine biologists among you might), here’s a link that explains what they are:  http://www.microscopyuk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?

As far as I could make out, they were present more for their texture than taste, but one way or another the bouillion was excellent, and we learned something new.

Just two tiny courses into this meal, and I was already impressed by the generosity and the imagination of Romain Tischenko, who was working away like mad in the miniscule kitchen in the corner of the room. His creativity and evident respect for the produce he works with brought to mind two other places that I’ve been to recently and really love–Septime and Chatomat (both reviewed on this site).

Next up, a really delightful composition of white button mushrooms; watercress; nubbins of colored cauliflower; marigold petals, which were unexpected but added some potent autumnal punctuation to this dish; and foie gras cream. Crisply grilled brill on a bed of crushed potatoes with grains of lemon, shitaki mushrooms and griddled baby leeks followed, and then two of us had duckling and two of us veal, which came with parsnips puree, pea shoots, and slices of raw daikon and parsley root, a terrifically nuanced constellation of flavors and textures.

Tischenko’s desserts were brilliant, too. On the menu, they read rather enigmatically: Apple/Walnut/Chestnuts and Vodka/Grapes/Lovage. The first one turned out to be a financier made with ground walnuts, spelt flour and honey with a slice of pear, crushed candied and fresh chestnuts and some fresh chestnut cream, and the second was a textural game of crunchy bran and buckwheat ‘ashes’ with sliced red grapes, vodka-spiked cream and lovage. The first time I’d ever run into this particular idea–a sandy or ashy texture for food, was at Mugaritz in Spain six or seven years ago, and it’s interesting to see that it’s now crossed the Pyrenees and made its way to Paris.

Both desserts were excellent–refreshing, original and slightly mysterious, which is very good place at which for any chef to sign off. Walking along the Canal Saint Martin after dinner, I couldn’t help but thinking that Paris is currently being swept by a brilliant wave of talented young chefs and terrific new restaurants, and chatting with the delightful Adeline Grattard at Yam’Tcha this morning, she seconded my opinion:  “Gastronomically, Paris is more exciting than it’s been for a longtime,” she said.

She’s right, and Romain Tischenko at Le Galopin is very much at the center of this gastronomic excitement.

Le Galopin, 34 rue Sainte-Marthe, 10th, Tel. 01-42-06-05-03. Metro: Goncourt, Belleville & Colonel Fabien. Closed Sunday and Monday. Lunch menus 19-24 €, dinner tasting menu 42 €.

Alexander Lobrano was Gourmet magazine’s European correspondent from 1999 until its recent closing. Lobrano has written for almost every major food and travel magazine since he became an American in Paris in 1986. He is the author of “Hungry for Paris”  (Random House), his personal selection of the city’s 102 best  restaurants, which Alice Waters has called “a wonderful guide to eating in Paris.” Lobrano’s Letter from Paris runs every month in Everett Potter’s Travel Report. Visit his website, Hungry for Paris.(Photo by Steven Rothfeld)

Chef David Toutain of L'Agape Substance

By Alexander Lobrano

Since Saint Germain des Pres remains the world’s best-loved Paris neighborhood, the recent opening of the oddly named L’Agapé Substance is very good news. Now, at long last, I have a really excellent restaurant to recommend in response to the recurring request for a great place to eat that’s within walking distance of the Cafe de Flore. Occupying a tiny railroad-car like space in the rue Mazarine, talented chef David Toutain and Laurent Lapaire have created a chic new table with oustanding contemporary French cooking, and it also offers a relaxed but stylish good time.

This is an interesting restaurant, too, since it’s a successful cameo of so many major restaurant trends in France right now, among them, small-plate dining; the cryptic menu–at L’Agapé Substance, a menu is offered, but it’s just a list of ingredients with no explanation of how they’re prepared; a decidedly Asian aesthetic in terms of the way the food is presented; a starring role for vegetables and fresh herbs and shoots, including many obscure ones; tables d’hotes serving with stool seating; pedigreed produce–the names of the producers are supplied by your waiter with a certain reverence; a relaxed and friendly serving style; and the use of foams and oils instead of traditional sauces.

L'Agape Substance

Coming for dinner on a Friday night, the restaurant was packed–this rare summer opening has attracted a lot of attention, and we were seated at what’s described on the restaurant’s website as the ‘VIP table,’ which is a table for two in a niche directly across from the small, busy galley kitchen, a perch that provided a great show during our meal but not one that I would recommend on a warm night, since I would describe this restaurant as being nominally air-conditioned. From our first amuse bouche, though, I knew that we were in for a fascinating meal.

This edible miniature was not only beautiful, but it also provided the perfect preview to our meal, and a reason to use the dictionary when I got home., which is how I learned that the ‘berce’ in this composition of berce is hogweed, or an herb from the parsley family. The other ingredients were mandarin skin, a gelee of the Japanese citrus fruit yuzu, and a fragile crispy rice wafer. This dish also served as a resume of the thirty-year-old Toutain’s peripatetic career–prior to teaming up with Lapaire, Toutain, a native of Normandy, worked at L’Arpege, Marc Veyrat, Mugaritz in Spain and New York’s Corton, and he clearly learned his lessons well enough to have invented a distinctive cooking style of his own.

After skimming the good wine list, here on an Ipad, we decided to drink by the glass–a good decision, even though I normally prefer to stick with a wine or two during a meal, and to go with the carte blanche tasting menu at 99€, which is what I’d recommend. At noon, the other options are three dishes for 39€ or four for 51€, but I don’t think these shorter versions let you adequately discover the impressive culinary imagination of the chef.

Next, a sublime hen’s egg in a puddle of gentle new garlic cream with fresh almonds and lemon verbena foam, a composition that was angelic in its purity and modesty. It was also delicious. Tasting menus don’t work unless they’re served with a rhythm that leaves you enough time to ponder what you’re eating and then a brief pause, but the timing on this one was absolutely impeccable.

Tiny baby carrots followed, and if they were pleasant, they were eclipsed a few minutes later by a an exquisite dish of two cork-sized spoonfuls of impeccably dressed crab with grapefruit confit and a hauntingly good consommé of sweet gray North Sea shrimp. This delicate and perfectly balanced miniature was one of the best and most satisfying dishes I’ve eaten this year.

Still life with razor clams.

A truly beautiful edible still life of lightly griddled razor shell clams, squid and zucchini in lavender foam with yuzu cream and a scattering of dill flowers arrived a few minutes later, and it was simple, lucid, and shrewd, or just plain brilliant.  hen, just when I’d begun to wonder at a kitchen with such a restrained sensuality, it seemed nearly asexual, two courses followed that showed some quiet muscle. A creamy lotte filet came with epeautre, a foamy tonka bean sauce and a griddled baby green onion, and the tone of the meal gently shifted to an earthier appeal to the palate. The sweet tones of the fish were followed by a politely assertive chunk of tender veal clad in black tapenade and accompanied by a grilled gray shallot.

And now for a warning before dessert. Toutain changes his menu constantly, sometimes even twice daily, so there’s a very good likelihood that you’ll only be served a few of these identical dishes when you come to dine. With any luck at all, though, the cheese course will still be shavings of the magnificent two-year old Comte cheese that Laurent Lapaire’s father makes in the Jura, and the peach poached in lemon-verbena syrup will still be on the menu.  Oh, and since it will inevitably be difficult to get a reservation here, you may be wondering if you should go to one of the other L’Agape addresses–the original L’Agapé or L’Agapé Bistrot, both in the 17th arrondissement. My advice is that both of them are good, but that you should hold out for L’Agapé Substance, a truly remarkable little restaurant.

L’Agapé Substance, 66 rue Mazarine, 6th, tel. 01-43-29-33-83, Metro: Odeon, Open Tuesday to Saturday for lunch and dinner.

Alexander Lobrano was Gourmet magazine’s European correspondent from 1999 until its recent closing. Lobrano has written for almost every major food and travel magazine since he became an American in Paris in 1986. He is the author of “Hungry for Paris”  (Random House), his personal selection of the city’s 102 best  restaurants, which Alice Waters has called “a wonderful guide to eating in Paris.” Lobrano’s Letter from Paris runs every month in Everett Potter’s Travel Report. Visit his website, Hungry for Paris.(Photo by Steven Rothfeld)

Septime is "well worth the trip," says Alexander Lobrano.

It’s peony time in Paris, and we have a big vermillion bunch in the living room, and some ivory-colored ones in a smaller vase on the kitchen table. Everytime I trot out of my office to make a cup of tea or rustle up some lunch, these flowers swing a winsome punch of pleasure, too, and this is exactly what I experienced the other night over dinner at young chef Bertrand Grébaut’s new restaurant Septime in the 11th arrondissement. While established chefs sometimes rest on their oars, fledgling ones are often like puppies in their eagerness to play and please. To be sure, Grébaut is a considerably experienced cook, having worked in the kitchen at Alain Passard’s Arpege for two years, also at Joel Robuchon, and most recently at L’Agape, a pretentious and overpriced place in the 17th arrondissment that I never cottoned to, but his cooking still exhibits a delicious earnestness and a sincere desire to delight.

Bruno loved his coteaux (razon-shell clams) in a light vinagrette with a shower of fresh herbs, too, and they were perfectly cooked (sous-vide?) so that they remained tender and juicy. If I wasn’t wild about the aperitif wine, I loved the Serbian white (the sommelier explained that it’s produced by a French couple living there), the first wine I’ve ever had from that country and a polite but square-shouldered pour that went well with our main courses–chicken on a bed of lentil puree with grilled baby onions for me, and cod with green asparagus for Bruno, both dishes were cooked impeccably, beautifully garnished, but possibly in need of more assertive seasoning to temper their choir-boy sweetness.

Charmed by both the food and the atmosphere at this great new restaurant, Bruno and I shared a homey dessert–a financier like bar of cake with fresh strawberries, elderberry ice cream and strawberry sorbet. And so the meal ended as it had begun, with another delicious cameo of the irresistible sincerity of a young chef trying very hard to make his mark and very much succeeding. If you go for dinner instead of at noon when they serve a reasonably priced lunch menu, the prices at Septime are hefty just shy of expensive, and for anyone who’s ground-zero in Paris is Saint-Germain-des-Pres (mine isn’t, but old habits die hard), this location is decidedly outlying, but as someone once said, it’s well worth the trip.

Oscar Farinetti (left) watches Mario Batali takes a bite. On the right is partner Joe Bastianich (right) and Mayor Michael Bloomberg (far right)

Bobbie Leigh

Go hungry. In fact, go very hungry if you really want to have more than a taste of  Eataly, the sprawling Italian food mecca at Fifth Avenue and 23rd street in New York City.   Just don’t call it a food mall.

Owners Joe Bastianich, his mother Lidia Bastianich, Mario Batali, and  Eataly-founder Oscar Farinetti call their Italian outpost  in the Flatiron District  ” an artisanal food and wine marketplace.”   Farinetti opened the first  all-things Italian  food emporium  in Turin and another  in  Tokyo.

At 50,000 square-feet in the old Toy Building, Eataly is supposedly the biggest  food market in the world and well on its way to becoming a city landmark. The first thing that strikes you on entering at Fifth Avenue is that it sounds and smells like Italy.  People are speaking Italian and drinking tiny cups of espresso.  Instead, try a machiatto (steamed frothy milk and espresso) at Caffe Lavazza or a gelato (artisanal of course) before you start your explorations.

Recognizing that Eataly sprawls in all directions, the staff hands  out  a sheet labeled “How to Eat at Eataly.”   Helpful, but you will still need a strategy.  Explore first, then eat, and finally shop for a cucina Italiana meal  at home.  And  be patient,  lines can be long — even at checkout.

Pasta, pasta, pasta ...

Wander through the aisles and you will see hundreds of  brands of pasta, fresh and dried, endless rows of tomato sauces, honeys, jams,  and condiments. The pantry aisles are well stocked with an impressive number of olive oils and vinegar and rows  of gherkins of  all sizes. Italian chocolates were flying off the shelves during a recent visit.  Made without milk, cream, or butter, the brands to buy are Venchi dark chocolate and anything made by Giraudi.

If your weakness is household goods,  better go with a fat wallet as the Alessi and Guzzini brands of  kitchen equipment are irresistible, as are the exquisite copper pans and table linens. Rizzoli has its own little on-site bookstore with Bastianich & co books taking the lead.

Tastes better than butter.

The wow factor is the huge variety of canned and dried goods, dried meats, sausages, hams, prosciutto, pancetta, and  local and imported  cheese.  Beer is a standout, more brands than you can count, including such craft beers  as Menabrea, Moretti, and Birra Lurisia. La Birreria, Eataly’s  year-round  rooftop beer garden and microbrewery, is  scheduled  to open  this spring. Eataly Vino is a shop next to the 23rd Street entrance with roughly 1,000 bottles from various regions throughout Italy.  Here’s where you can find grappa by Montanaro and limoncello from Sorrento made by Convento.    Fresh fruits and veggies are pricey compared to the green market at Union Square at 14th Street, but you will find a better array of mushrooms — 14 at last visit —  than most places.

Pizza ovens.

Once you have the layout down pat, it’s time to eat. La Piazza is a stand-up food bar in a central rotunda where you are served little tastings of salami, cheese, and sea food from  the well-stocked raw bar. Some 70 wines are available  by the glass. Just find a spot and a waiter will give you a menu and take your order. Il Pesce  specializes in seafood prepared Italian style in antipasto and main course portions, You can eat while sitting at a table or seated at a counter. Near the books and fresh pasta, there’s a place to put your name on a list for “first-come-first served” seating. There are two other seated counters for eating: Le Verdure is the place to go for hot soup and bruschetta and Pizza and La Pasta for tagliatelle, lasagna, and ravioli. Skip the classic Neopolitan  pizza  made with a creamy mozzarella. It’s  good, but not as overwhelmingly good as the pasta dishes which are unbeatable.

For more formal white tablecloth dining, consider Manzo, (beef in Italian). With 16 tables and  20 seats at the bar  it is open for lunch and dinner daily and is the only restaurant here which takes reservations (212-229-2180).  A tasting menu is $90 person. The cooking is bold and sassy and the menu will encourage you to experiment with dishes like seared foie gras with crispy pigs tail, squash and aceto  traditional. You can’t miss with the porterhouse for two and souffle potatoes. Manzo’s specialtyis Piedmontese beef.  But keep in mind that you will be dining in a busy, noisy restaurant without walls, tucked up right next to the adjacent cooking school.  The staff is enthusiastic and well-schooled, but you still have to contend with a location that lacks character and charm.

Dinner to go.

Your final stop before heading home might be to buy dinner. At the rotisserie counter, the Rosticceria, you will find an excellent roast chicken and roasted potatoes  and every Friday, roasted boned breast of turkey stuffed with turkey sausage. At the meat market, count on 17 different cuts of veal while at the fishmonger, the standout is a whole bronzino ( European sea bass).  Among the daily baked breads,  one great favorite is the olive bread.  Desserts at the bakery are nothing less than sublime and even that old  standby, tiramisu, is a far cry from the cloyingly sweet version you get in most restaurants.  For a schedule of cooking classes at La Scuola di Eataly and for more information, visit Eataly.

Bobbie Leigh has written for many national publications including The Wall Street Journal, Travel & Leisure, and Departures. Currently she is a New York correspondent for Art & Antiques.

President Obama at Dooky Chase in New Orleans.

By Gerrie E. Summers

It’s odd when you come back from a trip and you’re exhausted from…wait for it…eating. I’m sure the accompanying spirits didn’t help, but New Orleans is one (I have to make up a word to accurately describe it) eatin’-est city.

It’s been five years since Hurricane Katrina ravaged this world-famous party town.  There are still homes boarded up in the Ninth Ward, the first and hardest hit by flooding and many fields grow where homes filled with memories once stood.  Although the French Quarter is nearly back to its rip roarin’ highly spirited (read: inebriated) self, there is a subtle difference. It’s almost like being struck by cancer.  You’re so shocked that it could happen to you—you, a beloved soul.  And even if the surgery and the chemotherapy have wiped out the cancer, the effects remain in the eyes, the mind, the heart and the soul.

But there’s good news for visitors: the appetite is back and the kitchens are open. The Greater New Orleans chapter of the Louisiana Restaurant Association even has a culinary movement called We Live to Eat, to support local restaurants.  You can’t quite hit all the great places in just three days, although I did try my best.  And one thing occurred to me—if a restaurant in New Orleans hasn’t been family-owned for generations or at least has a colorful history, it’s suspect.

More Than a Notion

Court of Two Sisters (613 Royal Street, 504-522-7261 ) wasn’t on  my itinerary, but since I had a few hours before I would meet up with the rest of my group, I took a walk over to Royal Street for the live jazz brunch buffet.

The restaurant is named for two Creole sisters Emma and Bertha Camors and the notions shop they owned on the site of what was known as Governor’s Row (the 600 block of Rue Royale), which catered to NOLA’s aristocratic women.  Court of Two Sisters is actually owned and operated by two brothers Joseph Fein, III and Jerome Fein.  Ownership of the property changed several times until it landed in the hands of Joe Fein, Jr. who opened a restaurant, retaining the old world courtyard with its original gaslights and flowing fountains.

The buffet makes it hard to decide what to eat—zesty Cajun pasta, sweet potato with andouille sausage, shrimp in spicy etouffee, crawfish Louise, shrimp and crawfish with remoulade sauce, Creole jambalaya, southern BBQ pork ribs, veal grillades and gravy (a local favorite), corn grits, homemade French vanilla ice cream with a choice of praline or chocolate sauce and the restaurant’s famous bread pudding with whiskey sauce.   You can do as I did, sample almost everything, and nearly pass out on Canal Street.

Classic Creole Cuisine

Arnaud’s (813 Bienville Street, 504-523-0611 ). A colorful French wine salesman named Arnaud Cazenave, opened a restaurant in 1918, serving classic Creole cuisine.   In 1978, Archie and Jane Casbarian purchased and restored the property.   Arnaud’s is now operated by Jane and fourth generation family members Katy and Archie Casbarian and continues to carry on the traditions of Arnaud Cazenave.

The Gumbo Trio plays Dixieland jazz nightly in the Jazz Bistro, which is where I had my first, and probably last taste of Sazerac, the famous New Orleans drink; a rye whiskey concoction touted as the first ever mixed drink.     More to my liking was French 75, (Courvoisier VS, sugar, lemon and Cordon Rouge).    Try the signature dish, Shrimp Arnaud,  (shrimp marinated in the Arnaud’s famous Creole remoulade sauce) as an appetizer, and for an entrée, try Pontchartrain, sautéed fillet topped with fresh Louisiana crabmeat.   After dessert, visit the Germaine Cazenave Wells Mardi Gras Museum on property, which is named for Arnaud’s daughter, who reportedly reigned as queen over 22 Mardi Gras balls from 1937-1968.  The collection includes more than two dozen Mardi costumes, carnival masks and vintage photos.

Brennan’s.

Breakfast At Brennan’s

Brennan’s (417 Royal Street, 504-525-9713 ) This is the place to go for breakfast.  The typical New Orleans breakfast starts with an eye opener (liquor) like Brandy Milk Punch or Creole Bloody Mary.  I tried Mr. Funk of New Orleans, which is named for the Cellar Master (Champagne, cranberry juice and peach schnapps).  Appetizers include such delights as New Orleans turtle soup, Maude’s Seafood okra gumbo and Southern baked apple with double cream.  For the entrée I narrowed it down to Eggs Hussarde (a Brennan’s original)—poached eggs atop Holland rusks, Canadian bacon and Marchand de vin sauce and topped with Hollandaise sauce or Eggs Portuguese—flaky pastry shells with freshly chopped tomatoes sautéed in butter with parsley and shallots, topped with poached eggs and covered with Hollandaise sauce.  I chose the latter.  It’s also traditional to have wine with breakfast.  I don’t know how one stays awake after a breakfast like this, but that wasn’t even the grand finale in which the Bananas Foster, a Brennan’s creation was prepared with flourish right before our eyes–bananas sautéed in butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and banana liqueur, flamed in rum and served over vanilla ice cream.  I could feel my arteries clogging, but you only live once, right?

OMG!

At Olivier’s (204 Decatur Street, 504-525-7734 ) the “G” stands for Gumbo. This family-run restaurant serves up authentic Creole dishes handed down through five generations.  Now headed by Chef Armand Olivier Jr., the menu is divided according to which member inspired each dish—Grandma Gaudet, Chef Armand’s great great grandmother, who passed on her recipes to daughter-in-law, Mama Jeanne (Gaudet) Doublet, and the tradition continued as recipes continued to be passed down to Mama Jeanne’s daughter-in-law, Audrey (La France) Gaudet and her daughter, Cheryl (Gaudet) Olivier, Chef Armand’s mother. You definitely want to try the gumbo here and add fodder to a long-time Olivier discussion—who makes the best gumbo?  There are three classic ways of making Louisiana gumbo –with a roux, with file (ground sassafras) or with okra.  Olivier’s makes all three and family members are constantly arguing over the merits of Armand’s Gumbo with roux, Papa Armand’s File gumbo and Mama Cheryl’s Okra Gumbo.  Armand Olivier Sr.’s recipe won the gumbo taste-off on the Food Network, but the debate is far from over.  Patrons can judge for themselves by trying the Gumbo Sampler.  Also try the Taster’s Platter of battered and fried Louisiana seafood (fish, shrimp, oysters, crab and salmon cake and Creole gumbo.)

Leah Chase.

Where Soul Food Is A Work of Art

As you enter Dooky Chase (2301 Orleans Avenue, 504-821-0600) you’ll probably notice a photo of President Barack Obama (as a presidential candidate) seated at a table, with a wide, satisfied grin.  You know you’re in for a treat.   Feisty chef Leah Chase, known as the Queen of Creole Cuisine, got after him for putting hot sauce in her gumbo.  He said, “But I always eat it like that!” Mrs. Chase recalls with a smile.

Dooky Chase began as a small shop owned by Leah’s in-laws, where Dooky Sr. sold lottery tickets and his wife sold homemade po’boy sandwiches.  Leah and husband musician Edgar “Dooky” Chase Jr. eventually took over the business, which by then had become a sit-down restaurant. Leah took over the kitchen, adding her family’s Creole recipes to the soul food menu.  The popular local spot became a gathering place during the Civil Rights Movement.  Leah has fed the likes of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesse Jackson, Duke Ellington, Thurgood Marshall and Ray Charles (who wrote “Early in the Morning” about it).

The restaurant suffered two feet of flooding and mold due to Hurricane Katrina and the Chases lived in a FEMA trailer outside the restaurant for over a year.   It reopened (mostly for takeout and special events) in 2007 thanks to a substantial donation by Starbucks and high profile fundraisers. They were also able to save the original African American art that grace the warm red walls of the main dining room.

Now diners can order from the a la carte menu or choose the buffet where you will find soul food and Creole dishes from red beans and rice, with andouille sausage, okra gumbo, yellow squash with shrimp, fried catfish fillets to peach cobbler.   Just don’t arrive late.  You think a hurricane does damage?  Leah’s customers can wipe out a buffet.

Sunday Brunch at House of Blues

House of Blues (225 Decatur Street, 504-310-4999 ) By Sunday morning, just a few hours before leaving for the airport, I didn’t think my body could take another morsel, but I tried my best at the Gospel Jazz Brunch at the House of Blues.  The buffet is typical; with breakfast fare like cheddar grits, pancakes, and omelets, as well cheese and fruit platters, meats like baked chicken with Jim Bean BBQ sauce, chicken jambalaya, Champagne mimosas, and white chocolate bread pudding with Bourbon sauce. After a trip to Brennan’s or Arnaud’s, a foodie might not be impressed.  House of Blues is definitely a tourist spot, but it’s worth a visit for the gospel/jazz music (though the sound level was too high) and to check out the illustrated walls and gaudy decor.

New York-based writer Gerrie Summers has been writing professionally for over 31 years in the areas of entertainment, beauty, lifestyle, travel and wellness. She has been the Travel Adventures columnist for
Today’s Black Woman and now writes the blogs Summers Retreat and The Tranquil Traveler.