Last day from highs to lows

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The last day of the trip had arrived. Today we would try to do some of thing things that were scheduled for other days, but didn’t happen as we ran out of time or things were closed. The day started as each day before had; get up, go get the coffee (an interesting discovery made at the end of the day about daily coffee), feed and pet Tarragon and get ready for the day.

Coffee Service

In an earlier post, I mentioned that there was no coffee service in the room. Well it turns out that in fact there is. Buried in the guest information book is one line about evening ice service and complimentary butler style coffee service in the morning. We discovered this the last night of our stay. So, as I write this the morning before we leave for home, we are enjoying our first complimentary coffee of the trip, with beignets from Café du Monde.

Emeril’s

Today’s lunch was at Emeril’s, I believe his first restaurant, before Delmonico and NOLA. It is in the old warehouse district which is of course now the Art Blocks. It is also close to the convention center and cruise terminal. We took our last ride on the historic St. Charles Streetcar to Julia street then walked the four blocks to Tocoupitoulas. Emeril’s is on the corner.

We had a 12:30 reservation, but they were not the busy so a reservation probably wasn’t actually required, but booked it on open table, so more points. We were initially seated at a table in the main restaurant along a wall, until I noticed they had seating at the counter looking into the kitchen. I asked if we could sit there instead. It was a great seat and perfect view of the kitchen operations. It wasn’t a busy lunch service so we had the opportunity to have short conversations with the line cooks.

Shortly after we were seated, another couple was also seated at the counter. They were clearly regulars; the kitchen staff knew their names and they knew all of the kitchen staff by name. Plus, they were treated like regulars should be with lots of little extras.

It was pretty hard to decided what to have, it all looked very good. Jerry changed his mind three times, from the three course (featuring a crab grilled cheese & tomato soup) to a pork sandwich, finally choosing the BBQ salmon with an andouille hash. I couldn’t decide between the chicken n waffles or the andouille crusted drum fish. I chose the fish, a very good choice indeed.

After we finally ordered, we enjoyed our ice tea and watched the show in the kitchen. It was a pretty smooth-running kitchen, but then again, they were not busy. The grill station was directly in front of us and to the left of that the fish station. We had a clear view of watching our meal being prepared. The amuse buse was a bite of chicken pizza with a white sauce. Tasty and just enough to get your appetite going. We also had a trio of bread, corn bread, jalapeno focaccia and wheat roll. All were warm and really good.

Jerry started with an Emeril Salad, I don’t have a menu so I can’t remember all that was on it, so the picture will have to suffice. I had creole marinated Calamari. Perfectly crispy and the creole sauce I liked, Jerry hated, too much vinegar and mayonnaise face.

As previously mentioned Jerry’s entrée was a BBQ salmon over andouille hash, topped with cornmeal crusted onion ring. The flavor combinations worked really well and I am not even a huge salmon fan. My fish was andouille crusted pan seared drum fish, with shoe string potatoes over sautéed summer squash. Both dishes were executed perfectly and the fish flakey and full of flavor.

We enjoyed our entrees and continued to watch the kitchen at work, transition from lunch service to dinner prep and preparing the staff lunch (spaghetti for them, use up the produce and meat nearing its shelf life.)

Next up was of course dessert. Nick, a co-worker had already been touting that Emeril’s banana cream pie was the best there was, so I had to have it. Now, my grandmother made the best banana cream pie, and it was the highlight of every childhood thanksgiving I can remember. Emeril’s was good, but it wasn’t grandmas. Jerry had key lime cheesecake. It was also really good, just could have used more key lime. The bottom layer was the key lime while the top layer was a really dense but yet light cheesecake.

This ends the High part of the day, it sort of went downhill from there, ending with (spoiler alert) the worst dining experience we have ever had.

Final French Quarter Walk

From Emeril’s we walked a couple of blocks to the waterfront streetcar and traveled back to the French Quarter. The first stop was the Hermann-Grim House, built in 1831. It was not open so didn’t get to tour, just a walk by. The rest of the day was walking by several houses, I don’t recall which order we did them. The only thing we went in was the Old US Mint, which housed the New Orleans Jazz Museum. It was interesting but a pretty small exhibit. The focus at the moment is on Women in Jazz and Pete Fontaine.

From the Mint we continued our walk, some of these houses may have been before the Mint, or after, they all run together at some point. Here are the highlights, none of which were open.

LaLauire House: Supposed haunted and the city’s most famous private residence, better to see at night than the day.

Preservation Hall: Noted jazz club

The House of Jean Pascal (Madams John’s Legacy). There is a debate on if this is the oldest building in the Mississippi Valley. Some believe it was built in 1726. It is a creole style house.

We also of course made a stop at Café du Mond and bought beignets for our final breakfast in New Orleans.

During our stroll, we walked by a small family, looked harmless, but in fact were a band of pick pockets. They would attempt to distract you with beads while picking your pocket. As we walked by a clear attempt was made at not only my pocket but our bag of beignets. They failed.

With that our last walking tour was complete and we headed back to the hotel to prepare for dinner. When we arrived back at the hotel at 5:30, they were just starting to clean our room (there is much to say about that, but going to let it go, this time). We went to the pool bar for a drink while we waited for our room to be finished. The room was never really fully serviced, and we were beginning to think that the maids may actually be afraid of Tarragon, after all he is a black cat and this is Voodoo central.

When we got back in the room, we relaxed, gave Tarragon his afternoon love and got ready for dinner. Last night we had a reservation at Brennan’s but changed it to tonight, because we were so full from our cooking class yesterday.

Brennan’s is one of the most famous restaurants in New Orleans, along with Antoine’s and Arnaud’s (we did have reservations at Arnaud’s but cancelled as it was right on the corner of Bourbon Street.) The Brennan family owns several restaurants in New Orleans and country wide, including Commander’s Palace. So, with all of that behind it, our expectation was pretty high, after all we had a great brunch at Commander’s Palace on Sunday. You already know what is coming. Expectations were not met and the only way the experience could have been worse is if they would have had undisclosed clams in something. (I am very allergic to clams).

Brennan’s

As is our tradition, the last night dinner is always at either a historic or very nice restaurant. Tonight, was supposed to be both. It turned out to just be historic, barely. We put on our jackets, as that was the preferred dress code, as usual, you get your yahoo’s and hipster that don’t know what dressy, business casual, etc. means. So, there were people in jeans and Hawaiian shirts, in case they hadn’t noticed we aren’t in Hawaii. Anyway, that aside, we arrived about 15 minutes early while the people ahead of us at the host stand had arrived 15 minutes late. They were treated with much more respect than us. The hostess, just had an attitude, she said we could wait in the bar or on the bench, we took a few seconds to think, then out of nowhere, she flips attitude, albeit with a southern accent, “well you are early so y’all can wait in the bar or on the bench.” We promptly went to the bar.

The bar was the best experience of the night. The bartender was very friendly, took the time to explain the history of a Sazerac, (official drink of New Orleans) even went as far to pour me a taste of one she over poured on. Jerry had the Sazerac, I am not a whiskey fan so had a glass of Rose. I will say the Sazerac smelled really nice and didn’t taste to bad, but I really couldn’t do an entire cocktail.

After about 10 minutes we were shown to our table. Nice four top, but right by the main entry, and so it began. They did use a black napkin for Jerry so the white lint would not get on his black pants (same as Commander’s Palace.) It just went downhill from there. It took 5 plus minutes to even get a glass of water. The waiter (all of 12 years old) introduced himself as our server for the night, then we never saw him again until he brought the bottle of wine.

We ordered two glasses of Argyle Sparkling Wine (a nice Oregon Sparkling). They did have an extensive wine list, actually to extensive it was 85 pages long. Who has time for that. A very good selection of Oregon Pinot’s but most French wines were not approachable. They did have a nice section of wines under $70. That is the most positive thing I can say, the wine was good, nothing else was.

After we ordered the Argyle (which took 10 minutes to arrive) we finally were unceremoniously presented our menus, no offer of nightly specials or highlights of menu items, or even letting us know what they might be out of. The menu was decent, but they clearly were trying too hard to keep up with the trends. This is supposed to be creole food, so you don’t need to be trendy, updated a bit yes, but really what the hell is a kalette. And why ruin perfectly good shrimp & grits with Tuscan Kale.

We reviewed the menu and made our choices. We started with the Smoked Steak Tartare Anastasia, beef tenderloin with Dijon mustard, French dressing and quail egg. Oh, hindsight I know they forgot the French dressing as my salad later had it, and it had a definite bite to it. The steak tartare had very little flavor, no salt and anchovies. Now we like anchovies, but when you’re not expecting it, and what if someone had allergies, there was zero mention of anchovies being in the dish. There was a lot left off in the description and the server just did a drop and run, no offer of ground pepper, no brief explanation of the dish. Nothing. And don’t look for a refill on the water that took 35 minutes.

The next course where our salads, Jerry had an Heirloom Tomato Corn Salad, tomatoes had no flavor so pretty sure they were not heirloom and he had to add salt and pepper, it was completely unseasoned. The green goddess dressing was good. I had the Jackson Salad, a Brennan’s Original, I wouldn’t shout to loud about that. It was frisee, and butter leaf lettucs, boiled quail eggs, bacon (two bites of it) valdeon blue cheese (at the bottom of the plate and very little) and a French dressing, the dressing saved the dish. Again, a drop and run, server didn’t know who was eating what and no offer of freshly ground pepper.

Now, I need to explain, that before we even started being served our meal, the ordering of the main was simply nightmarish. I had a tough time deciding, because one, I hate kale and eggplant and it was scattered throughout. Finally, I decided on the Duo of Lamb, a rack and empanada and requested that the eggplant be left off. Strike one, they were out, would have been nice to know that before I ordered. And they didn’t tell me that until after they took the menus and then came back.

I took a few minutes to look over the menu and decided to go with the Gulf Fish Amandine. This is a New Orleans classic and I had not yet had it. It is a version of fish meuniere. The difference being that the fish is encrusted with marcona almonds. Jerry had the Blackened Redfish (OMG Wait for this one). I had not yet ordered our wine for the entrées because getting through the bible was time consuming. This turned out to be a good thing. As we were eating our salad and enjoying the great French bread (it all comes from the same bakery no matter what restaurant you are eating at) the butter was sprinkled with fleur de sel and cayenne pepper. In hindsight it was the best part of the meal. So, about halfway through the salad the manager came to the table, this couldn’t be good. He apologized and said the chef just informed him that they were out of the Gulf Fish Amandine, Strike two. How are you out of the single most abundant fish in the city. So back came the menus. It was now down to a roasted pork tenderloin or a smoked & roasted duck breast. I went with the duck and just asked them to not put the kalettes (whatever that is) on the plate. We also ordered two sides, roasted fingerling potatoes and roasted Okra. Jerry specifically asked if the okra was crusted the server said an emphatic yes.

With the entrées finally fully ordered, I turned to the wine. We went with an Oregon Pinot. The choice was made because of Jerry’s blackened fish and my duck, it would pair nicely with both. We finished the salads, the dishes were cleared and the wait began. Of course, no refill on water was insight, no one checked on us to see if we wanted another drink, they basically ignored us

Brief aside: We were not the only table to have interesting experiences, a table behind Jerry, had ordered martini’s which they shake at the table. The server (clearly a newbie) was shaking not holding the lid and suddenly the martini was all over the customer. They were already drunk so they didn’t care, but I should have known then this was going to be a long night.

We are waiting for our entrées, for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, they come to change the place settings and began to clear the entire table, including our bread plates and bread, not even asking. The server must have seen my facial expression and as an afterthought she asked if we wanted more bread with our entrées, we said yes, but of course it never came.

Finally, the entrées arrived, and as they began the server, for the first time actually said what we were having, blackened fish for jerry, and what, what did you say, Fish Amandine for me. How can this be you are out of it? I looked at the server, and said “we were told you were out of this, so how am I getting it now.” Reply, “oh chef fixed it so you could have this.” What did he find a piece of fish on the floor? Jerry, was over it, we both said take it back, I ordered the duck, picked the wine based upon that entrée, don’t without prior warning bring me something you said you were out of. Our tempers were flaring. Strike Three, but it gets better, ok worse.

They took the dishes back, the manager comes back, Jerry takes over, Jerry recaps the entire nights experience and our extereme displeasure. You are out of the lamb, then you are out of the Amandine, then wait it suddently reappears. The manager tries to make amends, but the evening is ruined so it can’t be fixed. He does his best, and we assure him we do not hold him personally responsible, but the staff is clearly not trained on any level, and the kitchen is out of freaking control. The manager continues to apologize and says that he will take care of the check. Great, we don’t have to pay for things we basically didn’t get or like. That is well intentioned, but it doesn’t really give us our traditional last night meal back and ruined the evening. Hints of New Year’s Eve in London. At least the food was out of this world there.

While we are talking to the manger the correct entrées arrive. The manager leaves, I take my first bite, hmmm, cold duck, not even room temperature. I detest cold food. Jerry took a bite of the fish, oh it was blackened, try burnt. He commented that it just had a really bad taste and was not edible. We exchanged bites, he agreed duck was cold. The fish was also cold. I took a bite of the fish, it was in no way blackened it was simply burnt and not edible. I know it is not possible, but STRIKE FOUR YOUR OUT AND GAME OVER.

The server came to check on us, oh now you check, your taking your life in your hands at this point. Jerry just looked and said get me the guy in the tie, this is not acceptable. The manager came back, the explanations began. Oh, our version of blackened is different that the entire rest of the freaking world. It is cooked in ash, really, cooked in ash, that is your idea of blackened, that is called burnt and last I checked ash was neither a Cajun or creole spice. The explanation for food temperature, “the fish isn’t supposed to be piping out”, Jerry, “so it’s supposed to be cold”, “The duck should be hot,” Me, “it wasn’t event room temperature” 20 minutes of this went on. We did not eat our entrée, it just wasn’t ok. Was the Okra crusted, hell no, it was also cold, he brought haricot verts, they were hot, but no flavor. The fingerlings, cold.

The manager was visibly upset, he tried but there is nothing you can do at this point to make any quest feel better. Offering us dessert, really we want to attempt yet another bad food experience. The best offer was free breakfast the next day. Not in a million years, of all meals, breakfast is the one I give no mercy on it must be perfect, and I didn’t even want to attempt to go through a hollandaise debacle.

We finished our wine, at least it was good. Oregon can always be relied on for a great Pinot. The entire dining experience was an absolute bust from the moent we were seated to the moment we walked out. This is the absolute worst dining experience we have ever had on vacation or at home, including bad mediocre establishments in New York.

The walk home was entertaining, of course we had a sour taste in our mouth. We passed a woman so drunk she couldn’t even stand, people our age or older were staggering down the street, was it a full moon? We were just about back to our hotel and as we approached there was a Pedi-cab blocking the entire sidewalk, I could not hold it in, “it would be nice if your bike wasn’t blocking the entire fucking sidewalk”, “thank you” came the reply. Ok, don’t kill me with kindness at this point. We walked to the entrance of the hotel, I was talking to Jerry, just repeating what I said to the Pedi-cab driver, and from the doorman comes “watch your profanity gentlemen” OMG really, in New Orleans watch your profanity, who the hell do you think you are (no I didn’t say that) bit my tongue and went in the hotel. Smoke form the entire evening rolling out of our ears.

Safe back in the room, we finished the last of our wine we had in the room, compared the evening to other bad experience and agreed, Brennan’s was the worst and would not ever be returned too. No second chance here. How can a restaurant operated by the same family as Commander’s Palace be 180 in service and food? It took us about 45 minutes to clam down, Tarragon could feel the tension and stayed a safe distance, he can tell by our tones when we are in a bad state of mind.

With that we went to bed, ending on a sour note is never pleasant, but the rest of the trip was very enjoyable and we will return to New Orleans.

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Photos

Emeril Salad
All about the crouton

Madam John's Legacy
Creole Style House