Besh Steakhouse

[davebr]

Has anyone been to the Besh Steakhouse in Harraha's New Orleans? They are opening one up here in Shreveport in a few weeks. I can't say that I have ever actually planned a trip to a restaurant with the word "Steakhouse" in it. Will it be worth it? Should I go? I have been to August twice, but it didnt "live up" to me.

[Mayhaw Man]

The Steakhouse at Harrah's is a really nice place. Pretty much a typical steak place, good meat and good sides and a decent list of wines.

I don't know how it will work in Shreveport, but they make it very difficult for non gamblers to get a reservation (out of design, I think, rather than ineptness). The best way to get one is to go to the casino and get the reservation in person, unless you enjoy being transferred about 10 times before (maybe) getting the right person.

Brett Anderson, reviewer for the Picayune , had the same reservation issues but he still managed to like the place. It was a three bean, going on 4, review. I had the "oxtail marmalade" that he mentions and the stuff was great-but I am a sucker for that kind of dish.

Anyway here is my main thought on the place-

I still like the Original Ruth's Chris on Broad Street as my "go to" steakhouse, but that probably has as much to do with tradition as it does with the food (I do love those potatoes though), but Besh is probably running the best Steakhouse in town (and there are too many of them at this point, IMHO) and I would reccomend it to anybody who is downtown and doesn't have the time or the inclination for a ride to Mid City.

[davebr]

Some friends and I attended on the first night. The food was good. Very good for the area. I was hoping to get some of that great Besh stuff like oxtail, foie, french cheese all before the local hicks make him change the menu. But it seems Mr besh is one step ahead.

The menu features, besides steaks with your choice of 5 different sauces, fried catfish with greens, "couchon du lait", crab au gratin and roasted grouper.

We started with BBQ Shrimp, Fried oysters bordelaise, corn and crab soup, and a crawfish boil soup. All were very good, some minor mis-steps like the glass of champagne that fell in my friend's wifes lap (poor waiter, she has the largest morning show on the radio here and he got talked about) , or the luke warm soup. Where are the shrimp heads?

Then a fried green tomato salad with shrimp remoulade and a seafood stuffed picadillo peppers. Wow, micro greens on a $8 app, somebody has money to burn around here. Good dishes, very good for the city.

My wife had a 8ounce filet grilled over pecan wood. Hurray! Somebody with a steakhouse has ditched the 1500 degree gas broiler for a real wood grill. My buddy had grouper with shrimp and crab and the usual suspects--lemon, garlic, ect.. His wive had crab au gratin which was good just a little short on the crab. I had the couchin du lait. I liked it alot. Dirty rice with pulled pork shoulder and a crispy and smokey rectangle of pork belly. On top of that it was only $12! I dont think I have been anywhere that has linen and ever ordered a $12 entree.

The atmosphere?? Well its in a casino/horse track. Is there any better people watching? The wanna be Michelapagus paintings were cool, maybe I could afford one of those.

[davebr]

Well this past year my wife and I have been numerous times and we have always loved it. Unfortunatly, the corporate idiots at Harrahs are pulling John's name off at the end of the month. So I am sure his wonderfull cooks and their recipes will leave too, why stay? The food will suck and I will never go back.

[TAPrice]

Well this past year my wife and I have been numerous times and we have always loved it.  Unfortunatly, the corporate idiots at Harrahs are pulling John's name off at the end of the month.  So I am sure his wonderfull cooks and their recipes will leave too, why stay? The food will suck and I will never go back.

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Just curious where you heard this?

[Mayhaw Man]

Todd,

I heard the same thing the other night when I was at dinner with a few Northshore rest. people. I didn't actually believe them (they gossip like old ladies on washday-it's best to source this stuff yourself) but it's odd that Dave is in Shreveport and heard the same thing.

It would really be a shame. I have only been there a couple of times, but have really enjoyed it on all occasions-except that I can't get past the fact that I hate that big ass casino at the end of Canal.

[davebr]

I cant vouch for the one in New Orleans. But the one here is done by the end of next week. My waitress confirmed it last night. The cooks and sous chefs mentioned it last week. There goes another cool place in my adopted area due to ignorance. They barely gave it a year.

On a completly different note: I got another cool mention in a magazine. This time The current AAA Southern Travel magazine. It is an article on dining in Louisiana.

http://www.ouraaa.com/traveler/contents_south.html

[davebr]

Also, I understand that Mr Besh has bought out his partners at August. Maybe it is all related?

[TAPrice]

Also, I understand that Mr Besh has bought out his partners at August.  Maybe it is all related?

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Could be. He's said that the consulting gigs for the casinos and soup company were a way to raise funds to purchase August. He also brought over the manager of the NOLA Besh Steakhouse for August.

I'm checking on it and will let you know.

Edited April 22, 2005 by TAPrice (log)

[TAPrice]

Ok, here's the skinny. Besh still has a consulting relationship with the location in S'port. All is fine and dandy with the NOLA location. Same name, same relationship.

I got the info from Besh's PR rep.

[bavila]

Uh, Dave, wouldn't some of the "local hicks" be potential customers of yours?

[Mayhaw Man]

Uh, Dave, wouldn't some of the "local hicks" be potential customers of yours?

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Dave only serves diners of the highest caliber. Of course, in my part of the world, that would not rule out hicks. There are some very high caliber hicks down here. In fact, I probably qualify as one.

[docbrite]

Finally managed to unearth the Besh Steakhouse review I wrote in my blog last June. Contains language.

******

Normally it would take a great deal to make me even consider visiting a casino restaurant, and this one had the added baggage of being (at least nominally) run by Chef John Besh, whose grinning, ruggedly pretty mug is plastered on nearly as many New Orleans surfaces as Louis Armstrong's and whose overrated Restaurant August served me one of the most tantalizingly described, execrably prepared meals I've ever eaten. Still, the casino-restaurant concept has some relevance to my next book, and I had heard tales of a 45-day dry-aged New York strip topped with marrow; also of an appetizer of roasted marrowbones with oxtail marmalade. We ended up enjoying ourselves tremendously. The space was beautiful (though it would be a damn sight more so without the enormous Blue Dog paintings everywhere -- Christ, how I hate that thing), the service was exemplary, and though the marrowbone app had been removed from the menu (lagging sales due to Mad Cow hysteria, I bet), I convinced them to prepare it for me anyway, though the oxtail marmalade was unavailable. Lovely, lovely marrowbones. I think I alarmed the couple at the next table with the extent of the surgery I performed on them. Chris started with the lobster-tail gazpacho, which arrived at the table in a vast bowl that seemed to me to have about two tablespoons of soup in it, but he claimed to be happy.

The 45-day dry-aged New York strip was very good. Alas, it could not live up to the 45-day dry-aged bone-in ribeye I had at the Nana Grill in Dallas, which was the single best piece of beef I've ever eaten and is practically a character in PRIME. I'm reminded of a cooler-than-thou college radio station manager/Cure fan I once knew who said after listening to The Head on the Door, "I'd probably think this was a pretty good album if I'd never heard Pornography." Yes, she was a stupid bitch, but when I compared the two steaks, I kind of knew what she meant. The New York strip had a rich, almost livery flavor, but the Dallas ribeye's flavor was incredibly complex: first beefy, then almost cheesy, not unpleasantly so, but rather like a good Parmagiano-Reggiano when it starts to get old and grainy. There was some attempt to impart this complexity to the New York strip with a blue cheese butter, but it wasn't really happening. (Readers interested in hearing much, much more about the beef aging process should read Jeffrey Steingarten's essay on same in IT MUST HAVE BEEN SOMETHING I ATE.) Anyway, it was very good, but it didn't blow my mind like the Dallas steak did. I blame the lack of bone. Next time I'll try Besh's 28-day dry-aged bone-in ribeye and hope it's been sitting around a few extra days.

Chris had a Kobe beef filet with chevre mashed potatoes and piquillo peppers stuffed with shrimp and lobster -- accompaniments I would never have wished for in a million years, but he liked them -- and we finished by sharing a chocolate "cake" that intrigued me only because of the promised gold leaf. I'm a sucker for edible gold. It turned out to be a pyramid of hard chocolate filled with chocolate mousse, set atop a pool of nicely tart passionfruit syrup (not coulis, for a change), and crowned with a tiny speck of gold leaf. Not bad, especially for a chocolate skeptic like me, but if you're going to advertise gold on a dessert, I don't want a CRUMB of it -- I want the MAJOR BLING-BLING at my table.