bataille2's Profile
RESTAURANTS NEAR N WATER ST CHICAGO SHERATON
thanks for the link. she won't have a car which is why i asked about restaurants near the hotel. i didn't mention type of food or price because that isn't relevant. she'll eat most anything & her company is covering costs(for the most part).
again, thanks. the list on the link gives her a pretty wide range to choose from.
RESTAURANTS NEAR N WATER ST CHICAGO SHERATON
my wife will be attending her annual conference there in chicago beginning this weekend. she went to frontera last year(loved it & will go again)but wants some other suggestions. she LOVES hot dogs. she'll be there for 5 days.
thanks.
ONE NIGHT IN CHARLOTTE
hey, thanks for the great recs so far. i didn't mention where i was staying because i figured i'd be doing things elsewhere but i'm staying at the marriot courtyard arrowood. if that changes things in terms of eating rec, please let me know.
again, thanks
ONE NIGHT IN CHARLOTTE
i'll be staying in charlotte overnight this coming weekend. i'll be seeing malcolm holcombe at the evening muse in the NoDa arts district. i'm looking for a good dinner place for that night & then a breakfast & lunch place for the next day.
price is not a concern & i have no problem w/any kind of ethnic cuisine.
since this is the south, i'd like to try someplace that specializes in southern cuisine either classic or "new." i was born & raised in the south & lived there for 40 years.
thanks. dj
winston-salem & chapel hill/one week
hi. we'll be pulling into winston-salem on t'giving & staying for a week. we'll be heading to chapel hill for a day(eating at lantern)but we'll be doing side trips up to floyd va. looking for bbq recs & any other food recommendations ranging from high end to low end & any end in between. i'm from the south(living in cali now)& my partner was born in winston-salem(we're there to see her family).
any ideas are greatly appreciated.
thanks.
d. jones
The Best Thing You Ever Ate: New Orleans
the hand churned, made fresh daily butter at chef john besh's restaurant august.
where to get nigari(magnesium chloride)for tofu in east bay?
thanks for the replies. so far & for future reference: tokyo fish does NOT have it but yaoya-san does. thanks again.
where to get nigari(magnesium chloride)for tofu in east bay?
does anyone know anywhere in the east bay that carries nigari, the coagulant used for making tofu? ranch99 in richmond doesn't(at least that's what they said on the phone). i can order it from amazon but i'd rather buy it locally.
thanks. dj
SUNDAY BRUNCHES
hello new orleans, we'll be there for our semi-not annual trip june 10th & i'd like some interesting brunch suggestions. we're staying at the lamothe house. we have done commander's & mr b's many times. i'll actually be there for TWO sundays but my better half will only be there the first sunday. just looking for something different that i might be overlooking in my planning.
i've been to new orleans many many times. i'm not a newbie. however, not getting there several times a year(like i used to)& only once every two years or so means we're not up on the latest openings or hot spots. mainly, though, we just want great food(which is one reason we've been to commander's a number of times).
several places we're considering:
elizabeths
luke
ralph's on the park.
thanks.
Cochon
wow! i gotta hand it to you: that's an exceptionally BAD experience. i had a terrific meal there two years ago(the rabbit & dumplings were great)but chef link was IN the kitchen that night(as he was, luckily, in herbsaint's kitchen THIS year when we had another terrific meal). service at cochon struck me as probably something that would never "evolve" or "mature" but simply be adequate to good at best. we didn't get the hard-sell(to which i respond badly). i'm a hog for august myself. one of the great things about new orleans is that there are so many terrific restaurants a bad experience at one just shifts the attention to another.
i will say that i probably would have made more of a stink about the plastic(& maybe you did & you're just leaving that out of the story)(one more parenthetical: i NEVER leave this kind of thing up to the server. i ALWAYS make sure management SEES what the problem is) but i certainly don't blame you for not going back there ever or, at least, for a while.
Prix Fixe menus?
restaurant august. one of the best in the city as far as i'm concerned. we had the prix fixe dinner two summers ago & it was by far the best meal we had on that particular trip(& one of the best i've had in a long time).
Pravda
hi. tom fitzmorris' new orleans menu site has that info...somewhere. i've been trying to locate it but haven't found it. i know it's there somewhere because i read it w/some interest. it may have been in a section about good/great closed restaurants but that section doesn't seem to be there anymore. g&e was one of my favorite spots too.
Eater Comes to New Orleans
whew! what a funny & terrific read. i might not agree w/everything but it doesn't matter. this was just a great ride through the delicious chaos & revelry that IS new orleans, esp when you're an out-of-towner w/a terminal departure date. what's amazing to me is that we were there at the same time(tomato festival)& i probably sat next to you at the bar at buffa's. buffa's was a place i fell immediately in love w/& i read my morning paper there every morning for two weeks while drinking several abitas. a great local place w/very good burgers & their breakfasts were good too. thanks for the great report.
Peristyle is closing
as far as i understand, they'll be reopening very soon w/the emphasis on modern creole cooking. check out tom fitzmorris' website.
Best Beignet and other local foods
for a very lovely rememberance of chef buster, check this out:
http://www.gumbopages.com/food/buster.html
this is also just an excellent website, run by someone who loves the city of my dreams as much as i do.
Best Beignet and other local foods
mr hunt, buster holmes has been closed for decades at this point(it had nothing to do w/katrina). buster's soul food is NOT the same.
Best Brunch...
well, i've always been a firm believer in the brennan(the ella brennan branch of the family) aesthetic & their brunches came through for me on this last trip big time. i had brunch at commander's & mr. b's. & they were both excellent. the attention to detail is phenomenal & the food is always great to extraordinary. i expect a lot from the brennan's & they almost always deliver.
K Pauls or Irene's?
i agree that both should be experienced if you can swing it. i WILL say that i had a very very good(not great, tho it had it's great moments)meal at irene's late june. we had the oysters irene(just ok), creole tom/buffalo mozz salad(if that was buffalo mozzarela, I'M a buffalo), shrimp bisque(excellent). main courses: i had a HUGE double cut pork chop stuffed w/pecans, apples, chorizo & accompanied w/a sweet potato gratin & macque choux(this was excellent also: pork still juicy & flavorful & the stuffing & the sides all complimented the delicious piggy goodness of the chop). my partner had a very good beef filet. the high point was the special dessert: creole cream cheese cheese cake w/louisiana strawberries. wow! this was amazing, fluffy & creamy, the pecan crust perfectly holding up. i had one two nights later at commander's palace & it didn't come close to this. btw, the service was terrific & irene was there to greet & say goodbye when we were done.
whichever you pick, have fun.
K-Paul's or Palace Cafe
i have to agree. i had a great brunch on my last trip: gumbo ya-ya(still definitive, still fantastic), eggs w/pork debris(delicious but dangerously rich)& hot buttered pecan pie(this sounds better than it is: the butter is hot but the pie itself was cold). anyway, i've been eating here for years &, as w/most brennan's restaurants, it's been consistently good(if not, great)for all those years. certainly, when it first opened it was ground-breaking & very influential. they're upholding their solid tradition at this point quite well. as i mentioned in my earlier post, palace is NOT doing the same as far as i'm concerned(tho i still love the interior space of the restaurant...).
K-Paul's or Palace Cafe
i had lunch at palace cafe in late june. it was mediocre at best. the much lauded crabmeat cheesecake was more quiche-y & almost sponge-like(held too long under a heat lamp perhaps)than rich & creamy. i've had this before & it was good. not this time. there was a competent fried oyster salad(if a new orleans restaurant can't fry oysters properly it should just be closed, imo). the highlight WAS dessert: the white choc bread pudding was as good as i remember.
way back when, in another life, i worked 2 winters for k-paul's. they are a fundamentally sound restaurant(first & foremost)that still puts out very good to excellent food(depends on exactly what you order). i'd have to agree: k-pauls w/o hesitation.
Help me choose
mr hunt, i was just there in that gorgeous city of my dreams & had oysters at both places & then had the presence of mind to go in the bourbon house(right there where acme & felix's are). i have to say that THEY had the best oysters. & i did a test(sacrificing my poor self to the chowhound ethic)& ate oysters at each of these 3 places 3 times. bourbon house won out every time. they were plumper w/more delicious oyster liquer than the other two. & the oyster master had the good sense to mix sizes also. i was flabbergasted. i've been eating at acme for 40 years. i wrote it off to the time of the season(i was NOT there during peak oyster months)but i had an old buddy who worked in my restaurant way back when & now works as the breakfast & lunch chef at 7on fulton(& obviously lives there in n.o.) tell me that bourbon house consistently gets better oysters than acme & felix's. now, in my food world mythology, ella brennan parted the mississippi river & walked across & the brennan's can do NO wrong(i'm well aware of their history & do know they CAN do wrong...just going for some hyperbole here)but i think they've got a superior supplier(due to post-katrina circumstances, no doubt...).
i acknowledge that there is no better experience than standing at the oyster bar at acme & receiving freshly shucked-as-you-go oysters.
anyway, next time you're there try out the bourbon house oysters.
Help me choose
i had two great meals last year at cochon & restaurant august. i didn't eat at them this year(tho i did eat at chef link's other restaurant herbsaint), i was trying out other spots but i can say that something as simple as the BUTTER at restaurant august left us slackjawed(it's churned fresh every day). i had their tasting menu w/matching wines & it was terrific & thoughtful(i wrote about this last year...it's here somewhere i suspect). as for cochon, my vegetarian dinner partner had her favorite meal there which is incredible when you think about what the place is dedicated to(pig). but they cover all the bases & the vegetarian selections were(as in most really good southern cooking)excellent & tasty.
have fun.
Restaurants you wouldn't recommmend
no need to continue on my account. this IS what i was talking about tho: you're pretty thorough in your critiques. mainly, though, it makes clear your critical biases & that's important for readers too. i'm not entirely clear what "my opinions are based on what we think is great and not from the foods that we have tried" means but that sounds like you have pre-conceived notions that restaurants have to meet to satisfy you. that just seems to me to be a little limiting like saying anything that doesn't resemble rembrandt isn't art. you're missing out on quite a bit w/that perspective i think. for example, i had a great sandwich at the swizzle stick bar at cafe adelaide. they called it a bbq duck po'boy but it really was more a panini. i've been eating po'boys for nearly 40 years at this point from acy's & parasol to genes & have a pretty good idea what a po'boy is. i could have nit-picked & NOT enjoyed the "po-boy" but, well, it was really good.
btw, i agree about pascal manale's. they weren't particularly good when i ate there 30 years ago & had to stand in line for two hours to finally be seated at a bad table & be served(rudely)mediocre food at best. they never got any better over the course of a decade or so. they'd be on my list of "not recommended" if i bothered. like i said before, i just had fantastic meals in 8 of the places on your list. so it goes...
Restaurants you wouldn't recommmend
i have to say that i just had fantastic meals at eight(commanders, central, mothers, acme, felix's, galatoires, coops, irenes) restaurants on this list &, last year, had great meals at two(mosca's & palace) others. these were terrific experiences on almost ALL levels & i was VERY happy to pay whatever i paid for them. this kind of demonstrates the problem w/lists like these. some folks have one bad experience, take it personally, & see red whenever they hear a restaurant's name forevermore. or they go to acme OYSTER bar but don't like seafood & find their steak not done the way ruth's cris would do it. i usually put a restaurant on my "not recommended" list only after they've failed on some basic level of expectation(food, service, ambiance)three times. a place like tujaques is on there because they've failed a number of times in my experience. but i have to say that doesn't bring me any satisfaction putting them on it & announcing it. & just being deliberately provocative doesn't do anything for anybody, it seems to me. i'd rather hear about the good experiences we all have OR a detailed accounting of why the experience didn't work. & i still DRINK in the bar at tujaques. it's just a lovely space.
decent bar food/drinks?
i have to second this w/a slight variation. i had a great time at the swizzle stick bar which is the bar of cafe adelaide. we wandered in too late for lunch for the cafe but the bar had food(i had a teriffic duck po'boy w/delicious hand cut fries)& terrific drinks(a very good sazerac). we were there the day tiger woods won his fantastic open victory which was showing on the bar big screen tv & it seemed like everyone staying in the hotel, the staff, & casual passers-by were in there watching. highly recommended.
Does The Joint in Bywater taste as good as it looks on TV?
i had a great bbq lunch there in june. i have to first say i'm not a ribs kind of guy. i had the brisket sandwich & my friend had the pulled pork. both were excellent. the potato salad & mac & cheese were very good but at least try the smoked tomato/onion dressing salad. is this kc or memphis or north carolina? no. but it's fantastically good for a city that does not place ANY real emphasis on bbq.
Bistro at Maison de Ville
i first ate at the bistro several months after susan spicer had taken over. it was her first real solo shot & she definately hit it out of the park. i ate there many times over the next few years & dutifully followed her to bayona when she moved on. the rest(at least in terms of ms. spicer) is history. i hadn't eaten there in quite a while but spurred on by folks here & tom fitzmorris' daily blog, i had lunch there the last week of june. the place was pretty much the same in terms of ambiance. i have to say i was let down a bit by the food(the service was poor but i'm giving all the restaurants in new orleans a break about service...for the time being anyway): i had the soup of the day, the frogleg grillades & my friend had a salad. the soup was an odd lamb soup, heavy(beans & barley in lamb stock) & lukewarm but still out of place on a mid-summer menu, it seemed to me. that it was lukewarm probably stemmed from the servers spending as much time preening for themselves(a young man & young lady obviously in the first few weeks of a restaurant romance...ah youth)as getting food out to the tables. the froglegs would have been fine but one of them had an off taste(not all, just one)that wasn't very pleasant. i'd also say that the grits they were served over were lumpy which indicated they were being held in a water bath & not stirred properly upon plating. the salad was fine. the dessert was forgettable(i mean that literally. when i made notes later, neither of us could remember what the dessert was. i usually ALWAYS remember dessert). i'm not sure i'd return here but i might. however, i would say that i would not recommend it to someone(esp. to someone w/limited time there in the city).
mila
i ate at mila during my two week new orleans food blitzkrieg. of all the high-end places, it was the biggest disappointment(after all, she'd worked for alain ducasse, one of the three greatest living french chefs). i'll write more this week but the check was nearly $100 more than any other high-end place we ate. the food had it's inspired moments(the bbq lobster, for instance)but wasn't sustained throughout(the pasty, cold rice pudding for dessert, for instance). service was perfunctory. i didn't fall for the cleverness of the "deconstructed" oysters rockefellar(it didn't move the dish onto some higher food plane or "reveal" anything about the original that was either not know or taken for granted)& throwing a small amount of truffles into grits just didn't get me thinking, "wow! how extravagant! how decadent! how delicious!" i've had ducasse's truffled mac & cheese & knew where this dish was coming from & recognized it as a pale imitation.
i'd never pass a final judgment on a place like this(w/it's pedigree & aspirations)after just one meal but i'd have to say it would NOT be on a list of "must-do's" that i'd give to friends visiting new orleans.
