Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?
Yup, that’s where DH took me as a surprise. Most of my friends and clients guessed; I thought it might be but didn’t want to know for sure. But I’m here and I’m loving it.
I’ve always had a great relationship with this city; I’ve been coming here for 40 (gasp! has it been that long?) years now. Not regularly, but once in a while. I’ve been here as a kid with my family, with my first husband (and we were broke!), with my daughter to celebrate her 21st birthday, on business trips, with friends, even by myself. I’ve always had a great time here. But this is my first post-Katrina trip–and the city has changed.
How could it not? People are frustrated by how slowly recovery is happening. There are entire areas of the city that are still being cleaned up; large sections of it are nothing but debris and old concrete slabs where houses used to be. And that’s progress. People are living in trailers in their driveways. The population is down by 40%, and 1 out of every 25 people is homeless.
New Orleans is no longer “The city that care forgot.”
Yet, while there is a sense of frustration and impatience in the city, it’s still a great town. There’s history and culture and character and soul in New Orleans that simply doesn’t exist any place else. New Orleans is New Orleans, and you can’t mistake it for any other city.
There’s still cafe au lait and beignets at the Cafe du Monde–and it’s still almost impossible to get a seat there. There’s still buskers playing jazz on the street corners. Bourbon Street is still it’s slightly sleezy self, and there are still art galleries and antique stores on Royal. And then there’s the food.
The food is why we are here. DH has managed to get reservations at three of the four restaurants owned by John Besh, a celebrity chef, and one of my favorites. We ate/are eating at Restaurant August on Monday, Luke (for lunch) today and En Provance on Wednesday. We’re skipping Besh Steak at Harrah’s Casino in favor of one of my all time favorite restaurants ever, Commander’s Palace, which is where we’re going tonight.
So far, I’m not overly impressed with August or Luke. The food at August was so-so for the price, and the service spotty. Our server seemed to be too busy to keep on top of our table. They were unable to cook my husband’s steak to his specifications, and my entree (veal stuffed with shrimp) was not well balanced. I felt the shrimp overwhelmed the sweetness of the veal, not to mention the shrimp had not been well cleaned and were gritty. (Yes, I know about veal; I very rarely eat it–as in twice ever in my life. So don’t get on my case.) However the salads were fantastic.
Luke is more of a luncheon/bistro place than the upscale dining experience Besh is going for at August. (Luke actually has two dots about the “u” in the name, but I don’t have that option in WordPress.) The food there was better, at least for what the restaurant was trying to be, but the service was perfunctory. Adequate, but perfunctory.
It will be interesting to see how Commander’s Palace stacks up. I’ve eaten there five previous occasions, and every one of them has been fantastic. It was closed for a long time after Katrina; I wonder what it’s like now. I’ll let you know!
Tags: Besh, food, New Orleans, post-Katrina