Restaurant report

[Brad K.]

Paid a visit to N.O. a few days ago. Quarter and uptown are quiet. Life is starting to return and about 60% of restaurants seem open. Here is where I ate:

Mothers - Place has gone way downhill over the years (although I've always enjoyed breakfast there). Now the have a vey limited menu - about 12 items -just their basics. Had a bowl of jambalays. Must say it was awesome. One of the best I've ever had. Wow. Staff seemed entirely new too - pleasant in fact (miss those crusty ladies a bit though).

Restaurant August - Service was a bit week (excusable!), but food was was right on. Full menu too. I had a pumpkin tasting to start (pumpkin filled pasta, pumpkin risotto and crab/pumpkin soup) - great. Then had squab (pan roasted breat and confit leg, served with some gnocci). Fabulous meal.

Magazine St. Po-Boy Shop - long line at lunch but it moved. Had a great roast beef po-boy, lots of gravy, fully dressed. The shrimp po-boy was only OK - shrimp were tiny (frozen, imported probably).

Rue de la Course - Open on Magazine and just opened on Carrolton! Still has the best iced coffee on the planet.

Clancy's - Place was packed. Seems like every local uptown was there. Menu was a bit limited (no smoked pork or duck). Service was a bit too rushed and unfortunately I thought the food was only OK. Fried sweetbreads were not as good as they usually are - and the portion was miniscule and my smoked shrimp entree was nothing to write home about. Tried some pan seared scallops too - good, but no better than I could make.

Strange to be back there but worth the trip

[Dominicana]

Paid a visit to N.O. a few days ago.  Quarter and uptown are quiet.  Life is starting to return and about 60% of restaurants seem open.  Here is where I ate:

Mothers - Place has gone way downhill over the years (although I've always enjoyed breakfast there).  Now the have a vey limited menu - about 12 items  -just their basics.  Had a bowl of jambalays.  Must say it was awesome.  One of the best I've ever had.  Wow.  Staff seemed entirely new too  - pleasant in fact (miss those crusty ladies a bit though).

Restaurant August - Service was a bit week (excusable!), but food was was right on.  Full menu too.  I had a pumpkin tasting to start (pumpkin filled pasta, pumpkin risotto and crab/pumpkin soup) - great.  Then had squab (pan roasted breat and confit leg, served with some gnocci).  Fabulous meal.

Magazine St. Po-Boy Shop - long line at lunch but it moved.  Had a great roast beef po-boy, lots of gravy, fully dressed.  The shrimp po-boy was only OK -  shrimp were tiny (frozen, imported probably).

Rue de la Course - Open on Magazine and just opened on Carrolton!  Still has the best iced coffee on the planet.

Clancy's -  Place was packed.  Seems like every local uptown was there.  Menu was a bit limited (no smoked pork or duck).  Service was a bit too rushed and unfortunately I thought the food was only OK.  Fried sweetbreads were not as good as they usually are - and the portion was miniscule and my smoked shrimp entree was nothing to write home about.  Tried some pan seared scallops too - good, but no better than I could make.

Strange to be back there but worth the trip

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Nice, its awesome to see life goes on.

One of my major culinary regrets was my one and only trip to N.O was spent nursing a hangover from too many huricanes in the marriot. The only food I tasted was a shrimp po boy and a bowl of jambalaya from Mothers.

[Mayhaw Man]

If you think that Clancy's was packed, you should have been at Dick and Jennie's last night. Wall to wall. Uptown is like that. So few places are open downtown, many people are sticking pretty close to home, and places are generally keeping short serving hours, that the result has been full restaurants. Your 60% number, of course, only takes in a small portion of the city that's operating-big hunks of it don't exist in any meaningful way, right now, and it will be a long time before they do again.

I have to tell all of you that your fascination (and many others) with Mother's baffles me. Other than it's convenient location, I have never thought much of it. So many places (or there used to be) to get a sandwich that is far superior (this last week I ate and Parasol and R&O and had fabulous sandwiches at both places. Roast beef at R&O with red and brown gravy and a really, really good meal at Parasol complete with a roast beef po boy and gravy cheese fries which were killer-probably literally as opposed to figuratively over the long run).

And the squab that you ate (I am kind of assuming that you were there on Sat night, but I could be wrong) was really fabulous, I agree. I was at August for a good portion of Sat afternoon hanging around for something that I am working on and got to watch John Besh slice and dice the birds and set up a prep for confit. That guy is extremely good with a knife (very beautiful knives, I might add) I love those gnocchi. Yum.

I have had a couple of good meals lately at the Bourbon House, including some excellent oysters on Sat afternoon, a good meal at Redfish Grill, and one of the best meals that I have had in months on a front porch in Carrollton (hey, it's a tough reservation to get. You gotta know somebody. ) Snacked at K Pauls on Sat and had a bowl of EXCELLENT gumbo at Tujague's (based on a rec from someone I trust I ran over there for a bowl). It was seafood, and delicious, but homestyle seafood-meaning that it had very thin slices of sausage in it. If you are in town I would reccoment going by for a bowl and a drink at the cool bar as kind of an early app for your evening's dining plans.

Thanks for coming. Tell your friends. We'll leave the light on for you.

Well, we leave them on if they work and Entergy will hook up our box. Otherwise, you better bring a flashlight.

[camilleboudreaux]

tahnx for the info guys, i am about to move back to new orleans after 7 months in vermont at school (neci), and i am thinking of trying to do somekind of regular posting in a topic on this forum about post-katrina eats, any input on how to make it work or suggestions would be helpful.. thanx, born and raised, Camille

[Tremor]

I have to tell all of you that your fascination (and many others) with Mother's baffles me. Other than it's convenient location, I have never thought much of it.

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I always liked the debris, though, and I thought the Ferdi was a good sandwich.

From what I've been reading (various sources), the city is returning slower than I thought it would. I'm glad for what is coming back, but overall, it's rather depressing. I hope the people there feel differently.

Thanks, Brad, for the report.