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interview ment the restaurant has generated in its neighborhood and among his staff, which includes many local restaurant business veterans. “The idea of opening an ambitious, well-grounded restaurant in the Bywater has really attracted a lot of great people to the project, so I’m confident we can open without the training wheels on,” he says. Maurepas Foods’ kitchen is open from 11 a.m. to midnight every day except Wednesday.
Dinner at Dooky Chase
Fine-Dining Off Frenchmen
The location of a one-time hookah cafe just off Frenchmen Street has been revamped into an ambitious new restaurant called Melange (2106 Chartres St., 309-7335; www.melangenola.com). The chef is Brady Broussard, who previously worked at Broussard’s Restaurant (819 Conti St., 581-3866; www. broussards.com) and the Camelot Club, a private club in Baton Rouge. His contemporary cuisine covers a range of dishes, with appetizers from tuna tartare to brisket sliders and entrees from wine-braised rabbit with pancetta to shrimp and grits. There’s also a shorter late-night menu available after 11 p.m., with fare including a brisket sandwich, a crab melt on brioche and a breakfastmeets-dinner platter of eggs, potato pancakes and grilled pork tenderloin. The restaurant is going for a vintage, supper club ambience, from the retro attire of its staff to its Speakeasy Bar, where
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ach week, Ashley Locklear buys hundreds of pounds of vegetables, pork and other ingredients for the Link Restaurant Group, chef Donald Link’s company that includes Herbsaint, Cochon (and the new Cochon in Lafayette), Cochon Butcher and the event hall Calcasieu. Locklear spends half of her time on the road, shuttling between farms, farmers markets and Link’s restaurants, making a loop from the city to a network of farms mostly on the Northshore and in the River Parishes area. She also works with suppliers so farmers will grow specific varieties Link and his chefs want on their menus. Locklear previously was an AmeriCorps volunteer at Hollygrove Market & Farm, where she first started developing contacts with local farmers and urban growers. Why does a restaurant group have a forager position? lOCklEAr: Chefs have limited time; they can’t be constantly checking in with farmers about what’s available and what will be coming in week to week. They’re on opposite schedules from the farmers anyway. But I’m out there talking with the farmers all the time. I’m visiting them, I might text back to the chefs about what they have, or send them pictures from the field of something that looks really good, see if they want to use it. You’ve been on the job for about a year and a half. Has your network of suppliers grown in that time? l: Yes. Everybody knows everybody in Louisiana, so when I meet someone now, they have already heard about me from so-and-so and we build on those relationships. We work with about 20 different farms now, including some seasonal growers doing blueberries or figs. The biggest farm we work with is about 13 to 15 acres. A lot of them are between five and 10 acres. We also work with urban growers, and now I’m trying to work with a seed-saving society in Lafayette that will start planting some of these older regional varieties. Has the job changed the way you eat? l: It’s definitely changed the way I cook and how I plan for my meals. I need to eat what’s growing so I can have those conversations about it with the farmers. Looking at magazine recipes now, I ask myself how much of the ingredients I can get locally and how I can plan when to get it all. — IAN MCNULTY
there’s a cocktail list, wines and local beers on tap. There’s live jazz Thursday through Sunday. Melange isn’t related to the restaurant of the same name that formerly operated at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. The hotel later turned that restaurant into M Bistro (921 Canal St., 524-1331; www.ritzcarlton.com). This new Melange serves dinner nightly and brunch on weekends.
J’anita’s Closes, Again One of the better purveyors of bar food in New Orleans has cooked its last redfish sandwich and sauteed duck grilled cheese. Craig Giesecke, who along with his wife Kimmie co-owned J’Anita’s at the Rendon Inn, closed their operation last week. Giesecke says financial issues and staffing problems for the late-night kitchen forced his hand. “At least for now, this will end J’Anita’s,” he says. The news marks the third time J’Anita’s has folded. Its first incarnation was in 2007 as a standalone restaurant serving an offbeat menu of breakfast, barbecue and sandwiches in the Lower Garden
District. After closing that restaurant in 2009, the Gieseckes were quickly invited to use the tiny kitchen at the Avenue Pub (1732 St. Charles Ave., 586-9243; www.theavenuepub.com), where they refined their menu to focus on creative, freshlyprepared bar food. J’Anita’s at the Avenue Pub lasted 18 months before the limitations of a galley kitchen and the Avenue Pub’s growth as a craft beer destination collided. The Gieseckes parted ways with Avenue Pub, and another bar quickly invited them to take over its kitchen. That brought them to the Rendon Inn (4501 Eve St., 8265605) in November 2010. In business since 1933, the Rendon Inn is a backstreet bar that was renovated after Katrina to include a large commercial kitchen. It’s location, however, meant those who weren’t Rendon Inn regulars had to make a determined effort to find the place, and there rarely seemed to be enough people eating around the bar. J’Anita’s previous moves may justify speculation that it will turn up again somewhere, though Giesecke says he’s looking for other opportunities at the moment.
Bourbon House 144 Bourbon St., 522-0111 www.bourbonhouse.com Smoked redfish rillettes are part of the “seafood boucherie” platter.
Cafe Carmo 527 Julia St., 875-4132 www.cafecarmo.com Smoked yellowfin tuna makes it into a unique gumbo.
Emeril’s Restaurant 800 Tchoupitoulas St., 528-9393 www.emerils.com Pastrami-style smoked salmon is served on a sea salt bagel at lunch.
K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen 416 Chartres St., 522-8880 www.chefpaul.com A frequent special features a thick slab of tuna, smoked and then seared.
MiLa 817 Common St., 412-2580 www.milaneworleans.com Hickory-smoked lemonfish salad is served with dill-mustard sauce.
WINE OF THE week Questions? email winediva1@earthlink.net.
2009 Gascon Malbec Reserva Mendoza, argentina $18-$28 retail
An elegant, richly textured wine, Gascon is a blend of 92 percent Malbec, 5 percent Petit Verdot and 3 percent Cabernet Franc. Aged 15 months in American and French oak, the medium- to full-bodied wine offers concentrated aromas of dark berries, toasty oak and spice. On the palate, taste cassis, plum, black cherry, blackberry and dark chocolate. Smooth tannins round out the velvety finish. Decant a few hours before serving for best results. Drink it with grilled chops, sausages, burgers, game, barbecue or roasted chicken, pizza and firm cheeses. Buy it at: Cork & Bottle, Dorignac’s, Acquistapace’s Covington Supermarket, Albertsons in Mandeville and some Rouses. Drink it at: GW Fins and Le Meritage. — Brenda MaiTLand
Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > january 31 > 2012
Dinner service is back at Dooky Chase Restaurant (2301 Orleans Ave., 821-0535), the 6th Ward culinary landmark and home base of chef Leah Chase. For now, hours are limited to Friday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. The restaurant serves lunch Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. “We’re looking to add more nights (for dinner) but we’re starting with Friday because that’s the day our customers told us they wanted,” says Stella Chase Reese, a restaurant manager and daughter of chef/ owner Chase. The restaurant likely will add Saturday evening hours next, she says. The dinner menu changes weekly, but always features Creole dishes from the Chase family canon. Look for Creole chicken, paneed veal with jambalaya and stuffed pork chops with candied yams, in addition to grilled seafood and other lighter dishes and some vegetarian options. “We’re preparing dishes that we’re known for but that we couldn’t do at lunch because they take a little longer,” Chase Reese says. Ravaged by post-Hurricane Katrina floodwaters, Dooky Chase reopened in 2007 serving lunch only. Today it offers both a buffet and a la carte options during its daytime hours.
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