EAT driNk
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FOrk + center Email Ian McNulty at mcnulty@cox.net
By Ian McNulty
putting everything on the table what
Fatoush
where
2372 St. Claude Ave., 371-5074; www.fatoushrestaurantnola.com
when
Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily
how much Inexpensive
reservations Accepted
what works
Halal meats, aromatic vegetable dishes
what doesn’t
The full menu is not always available
check please Traditional Turkish food in a nontraditional setting
PHOTO BY CHErYL GErBEr
By Ian McNulty
Instead of pita you get pide, formed either into crusty round rolls for dipping or as flatbread stuffed with lamb or vegetables — like a long, open-face calzone. Dolmas might be the usual stuffed grape leaves, or they might be stuffed bell peppers. And if the familiar Greek moussaka resembles lasagna, the Turkish version served at Fatoush is more like a casserole of thinly-sliced vegetables and ground beef baked under a tangy cap of bubbling kashkaval cheese. Perhaps the biggest surprise for first-time visitors is Fatoush’s setting inside the New Orleans Healing Center. This sprawling multipurpose complex is home to a grocery with a focus on organic products, a bookstore, a music club, a fitness center, wellness and self-improvement programs, a voodoo shop and even a police substation. With its multimodal design, its whitewashed open spaces and craft tables and art displays frequently spread throughout the atrium, the Healing Center seems like a student union plunked in the center of the gritty, but increasingly artsy, St. Claude Avenue commercial strip. Fatoush may be unique for New Orleans, but it fits in well at this location. Up front, there’s a sunny coffee shop with a sandwich
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Questions? Email winediva1@earthlink.net.
2008 Zilliken Butterfly Riesling Mosel, GerMany
menu and a case of pastries. The main restaurant is in back, under a drop ceiling partially camouflaged by a fleet of paper lanterns. There’s a circular flow to the Healing Center, so sit down with a plate of imam bayildi, an aromatic Turkish classic of pan-fried eggplant filled with peppers, tomatoes and onions, and watch as yoga students with neatly rolled mats cut through the dining room. There’s a juice bar in the works, but in New Orleans fashion, the restaurant’s service bar came first. The wines are undistinguished, but young servers pour them generously. Fatoush is the nickname of proprietress Fatma Aydin, a native of Turkey who has operated restaurants in New Orleans for almost 30 years. Chef Hakki Erce also is Turkish, and he runs the kitchen with a modern sensibility. Meats are sourced from local farmers, and Erce grinds beef and lamb for house-made gyro cones. The result, piled in crisp-edged slices on the crusty pide rolls, has a little more flavor than the standard, processed gyro, and it offers more satisfaction for people who track the origins of their meals. Fatoush is a new kind of restaurant for its neighborhood, though it seems in sync with the area’s momentum. The unaccustomed sight of twenty-somethings using laptops at cafe tables on the sidewalk of St. Claude Avenue could stop more traffic than the Press Street rail crossing. But change is everywhere around here, even on the gyro spit.
$20 retail
For the uninitiated, Butterfly is a good introduction to riesling. The grapes come from a 26-acre family-owned estate that dates back to 1742. Wines are fermented and matured in German oak in the winery’s cavernous and humid cellar. The result is a focused wine with a nice balance of off-dry sweetness and herbal notes. It offers complex aromas of white peach, apple and pink grapefruit, followed on the palate by flavors of stone fruit, orange with distinct minerality and acidity. Drink it with seafood dishes, sushi, foie gras, and Asian, Cajun and spicy cuisines. Buy it at: W.I.N.O. Drink it at: Apolline, Cafe Adelaide, Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse and Broussard’s. — BrENDA MAITLAND
Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > january 17 > 2012
Fatoush serves Turkish and Mediterranean cuisine.
Fatoush offers exotic flavors and locally sourced ingredients.
F
Organic vegetables and artisanal breads need little introduction these days, but when it comes to “natural wines” people tend to have questions. Fortunately, a collection of experts in the field will be in town Thursday (Jan. 19) for a unique wine-tasting event organized by Swirl Wine Bar & Market (3143 Ponce de Leon St., 304-0635; www.swirlinthecity. com) and hosted at the Green Goddess (307 Exchange Place, 301-3347; www.greengoddessnola.com). Generally, natural wines are produced using traditional techniques dating back many generations and following a set of guiding principles rooted more in Old World vineyard wisdom than modern vinification science and technology. The New York-based importer Louis/Dressner Selections specializes in these wines, and five winemakers from France and Italy represented in its portfolio will be on hand for the event. “When winemakers like this come to town, it’s usually just people in the business who get to meet them,” says Swirl proprietress Beth Riblett. “That’s great for us, but I thought how cool would it be for the public to have a chance to meet
WiNE OF THE week
Turkish delight
atoush serves a lot of hummus and falafel. But this casual, everyday eatery in the Faubourg Marigny is a Turkish restaurant, so diners who approach it like a typical kebab joint are in for a surprise.
Natural Wine; Multicultural Tapas
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