PALACE CAFE – A GEM ON CANAL

PALACE CAFE –PART2

The first arrival was a loaf of fabulous French bread.

 

Root beer was the beverage of choice – remember, it’s bad to drink alcohol before during a flight – and it goes surprisingly well with classic creole flavors.

 

Our appetizer was met with a bit of suspicion. Crabmeat Cheesecake is it sweet, savory, gimmicky?

 

The answer is no, yes, no. 

 

The signature dish features a pecan crust, wild mushroom sauté and creole meuniere.

 

Rich, yes. 

 

Cloying, not at all.

 

My main was a generous bowl of seafood gumbo, the best I’d had during a week in the Crescent City.

 

My wife Heidi went with barbecued shrimp prepared with Abita Amber BBQ and lemon, rosemary.

 

The large, almost prawn size shrimp were served on toast made of the famed Leidenheimer local bread.

 

We had just ordered a double dark chocolate brownie -- covered with chocolate ganache and served with hot fudge, double cream, and toasted walnuts – when the executive waiter asked us if we had eaten Bananas Foster during our visit.

 

I explained that I’m not a big fan of bananas, so...so we gave into temptation and there we were with our waiter telling us the history of the Brenna’s original -- fresh bananas sautéed tableside in brown sugar and cinnamon, then flambéed with banana liqueur and rum, served over vanilla bean ice cream.

 

I ate my fair share of Bananas Foster and chocolate brownie.

 

Sated, we had the perfect Palace Café experience to salve leaving day with plots for our return to the culinary confections of this Mighty Mississippi River town.

http://www.palacecafe.com

PALACE CAFE – A GEM ON CANAL

PALACE CAFE –PART 1

 

Since the famed original Brennan’s closed more than a year ago, Palace Café may be the best of the many New Orleans restaurants operated by various permutations of the Brennan family.

 

Certainly, it is the grandest space.

 

Housed in the historic Werlein’s music building, Palace Café is one of the most beautiful adaptive reuses of an historic building in America.

 

The dining room is a perfect blend of high ceilings and a preserved grand staircase and modern accessibility.  An elevator serves wheelchair users well in this airy palace of creole dining.

 

Open since 1991, Palace Café has won a ton of major dining awards while witnessing the revival of Canal Street and the renaissance of the Central Business District as a Garden of Eden of new and old style New Orleans cookery.

 

Casual outdoor seating, during the cooler months, provides a front row seat to the restored Canal Street Streetcar line and all the pedestrian activity along the regenerated grand boulevard that borders both the CBD and French Quarter.

 

We stopped in right at 11:30 a.m. lunch opening because we wanted a fine meal in our bellies before we flew back home.

 

The bowtied and jacketed waiter understood our please for expedient service, so we could make to the hotel and taxi to the airport.

 

Nothing felt rushed, underdone, or hurried during our luncheon in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows on Canal.

 

605 CANAL STREET,  504.523.1661  http://www.palacecafe.com

• Lunch
  Monday - Saturday: 11:30 - 2:30
• Dinner
  Nightly, 5:30 - til
• Sunday Brunch
  10:30 - 2:30

ARNAUD’S – A FRENCH QUARTER TRADITION FOR NEARLY A CENTURY

ARNAUD’S –PART 2

Operated by the Casbarian family since 1979, Arnaud's fed as well.

Here’s what we had:

·         Arnaud's fabled cap bread, a warm loaf of French bread wrapped neatly in a cloth. Customers are encouraged to break the bread together and cover their table in crumbs.  We did so, till the loaf was gone.

·         A pair of French 75 cocktails – citrus, sugar and a lovely blend of champagne and cognac. Yum.

·         Shrimp bisque that would make founder and French wine salesman Arnaud Cazenave proud.

·         Oysters Kathryn -- artichoke hearts, garlic, fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano and extra-virgin olive oil (our favorite out of a good half dozen cooked oyster selections)

·         Soufflé Potatoes (we’re stealing the back story directly from the menu) Legend has it that Collinet, French King Louis Phillipe’s (reign 1830-1848) chef unintentionally created soufflé potatoes by plunging already fried potatoes into extremely hot oil to reheat them when the King arrived late for dinner one night. To the Chef’s surprise and the king’s delight, the potatoes puffed up like little balloons. We hope that you will be equally delighted. Served with Béarnaise Sauce.

·         Pontchartrain -- a sautéed fillet topped with fresh Louisiana crabmeat. The fin fish fillet depends on what was fresh caught. Drum was what the kitchen had during our visit and it was tasty.

·         Crème Brulee – to be fair, the low point of the meal.  The loaf of bread to open the experience was outstanding....worth blowing the diet for.  The pair of small crème brulees that came to our table could have come from a faraway kitchen that provides routine desserts.

·         Café Brûlot -- Coffee, lemon and orange rinds, cloves, cinnamon sticks and Orange Curacao. Flamed with Brandy and made tableside.   We’re usually not big on tableside productions, but this was worth it.  Our young wait person yielded to a graybeard to come over and perform the dangerous-looking creation of this concoction. Even with cloves, orange rinds and liquor, the Café Brûlot is surprisingly smooth.

 http://www.arnaudsrestaurant.com

 

ARNAUD’S – A FRENCH QUARTER TRADITION FOR NEARLY A CENTURY

ARNAUD’S –PART 1

 

Arnaud’s Restaurant is not a hipster foodie hangout.

You will not find truffle oil-infused, miso-crusted cod pork belly sliders on the menu.

You will find comfortable, traditional renditions of fresh fin fish and shellfish from the Gulf.

You will be served by an old school wait staff that predicts your every need, without being intrusive during that special anniversary meal.

You will have a choice of a jazz lounge, one of the best bars in America, private dining rooms, casual dining options and the main dining room, with high ceiling and windows out on the Quarter.

You will be asked to wear a sport coat if you are a gentleman dining in the main dining room.

You will be in comfy, quiet confines – no mean feat considering how close the Arnaud’s complex to the most boozy, touristy, noisy stretch of Bourbon Street.

You will enjoy outstanding wheelchair access from curb to table – not always a certainty in the ancient French Quarter buildings.  My wife is a wheelchair user and the wait staff accommodated us without making an embarrassing fuss over her wheelchair.

You will eat real creole food, not the bastardized stuff that comes out of so many allegedly authentic kitchens.

813 Bienville St   (504) 523-5433

Formal dining room open 6-10 p.m. 7 days.

www.arnaudsrestaurant.com

COLE'S RESTAURANT -- DOWNTOWN LA -- PART 2

ORIGINATORS OF THE FRENCH DIP

Cole's at dinner time -- they serve till 10 p.m. -- is best spent prepping for that big (5.5 ounces) French Dip with one of the classic cocktails.

An Old Fashioned has bourbon, angostura bitters, sugar cube, stirred with hand cut ice rock and luxardo cherry.

The Original Martinez features genever, dolin sweet vermouth, orange curacao, angostura bitters and luxardo cherry.

The Red Car Named Desire contains rye whiskey, cynar, luxardo and maurin liqueur.

The Red Car takes its name from the welcoming 40-foot mahogany Red Car Bar, preserved in the recent restoration of the cherished landmark.

The restoration received the Los Angeles Conservancy’s coveted Preservation Award recognizing outstanding achievement in the field of historic preservation.

Housed in the Pacific Electric building, Cole’s, features original glass lighting, penny tile floors and historic photos.

Cole's is at 118 E. 6th Street, the corner of Main and 6th.

Phone: 213.622.4090

http://213nightlife.com/colesfrenchdip

 

COLE'S RESTAURANT -- DOWNTOWN LA -- PART 1

ORIGINATORS OF THE FRENCH DIP

Since 1908, Cole's has been serving its famed French Dips to hungry Angelinos.

The Downtown LA favorite looks like a bar, because it is the city's oldest public house.

Dips come in pork, pastrami, beef, turkey and lamb.

All come with aus jus and an atomic pickle spear -- a dill drowned in wonderfully spicy red pepper flakes.

We highly recommend the pork dip with cheddar cheese.

You dip the meat and cheese on French Bread into the aus jus for two seconds.

Lift it out and the crusty bread is delightfully soggy, the cheese almost melted and the meat bathed in the salty, warm aus jus.

The French Fries, regular or spicy garlic, are to die for.

Lunches at Cole's go best with a pint of beer.

Coles review continues tomorrow November 6