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11/05/09
Sept. 25 was chef Bob Iacovone's last day in the kitchen at Restaurant Cuvee, where he’d been executive chef for the past seven years. Bob’s wife, Julianna, recently gave birth to the couple’s first child –– a son named Witt –– and he decided to forgo the long and difficult hours required of a chef to spend more time with his family. He’s also focusing more on Rambla, the tapas restaurant in the International House Hotel that he co-owns with Kenny LaCour and Kim Kringlie.
Cuvee has long been one of the most elegant restaurants in New Orleans, and that hasn’t changed. There’s also continuity in the front...
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10/29/09
I’m a sucker for good bread. It’s a detail that I never fail to notice in a fine-dining restaurant, and when I find good bread in a more casual place, it’s always a pleasant surprise. Here in New Orleans, of course, it’s harder to find bad bread than good just about anywhere you go, at least as long as you enjoy what we call “French bread.”
But there are some cuisines for which bread is a more integral part of the meal, and it’s there that subpar bread can be a problem. By and large, the restaurants in the area that fall under the rubric “Lebanese” tend to have pretty good pita bread. You’ll occasionally be served pita that’s a little stale, but that’s been the exception in my experience.
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10/22/09
Chefs Allison Vines-Rushing and Slade Rushing opened MiLa in the Renaissance Pere Marquette Hotel after Rene Bajeux’s eponymous Bistrot was shuttered by Katrina. The chefs, who are married, are from Mississippi (Slade) and Louisiana (Allison), and the restaurant’s name reflects both their union and the states from which they hail. They met while working at the now-closed Gerard’s Downtown and then spent several years in New York City, the last as co-chefs of Jack’s Luxury Oyster Bar. New York, however, is not the South. (At least, that’s what I’m told. I have to confess that I have no sense of direction or geography.) The chefs returned to the area to open the Longbranch in Abita Springs before coming to...
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10/15/09
This is my inaugural post for the Haute Plates blog, and I thought I’d take the opportunity to give you a sense of what you might expect. If you read New Orleans Magazine, you might be familiar with me from the Restaurant Insider column. It’s possible that you’re also familiar with my Web site, www.appetites.us. I expect this blog to be a happy medium between the more formal writing I do for the Insider and the fairly ridiculous things I write for Appetites.
This is a place where I can tell you about restaurants and dining news that you might find interesting, and to that end, I’d like to take...
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10/01/09
The Riverbend neighborhood has a pretty impressive collection of restaurants, spanning the price spectrum from fine dining to cheap college eats and spanning nationalities from Thailand to Main Street, USA. Part of this assortment is Pupuseria La Macarena, a family-owned Honduran joint whose bright, cheerful colors pop out on Hampson Street like a blue-and-gold macaw.
The specialties here are pupusas, flat round disks of cornmeal studded with tangy cheese and beans. They resonate on the comfort food level, and their earthy taste and fresh preparation are a huge part of their appeal. Traditional fillings include cheese, pork and beans, but they can be accessorized with a number off other additions, such as shrimp. If you can’t decide, try a sampler, which...
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09/24/09
Last weekend I had an all-around excellent meal at Bayona and upon leaving had to ask myself why I don’t go there more often. I was surprised to be reminded that it has been around for 18 years as even today it gets mentioned in the same breath as restaurants on the cutting edge.
The restaurant seems both old and new at the same time, partly because of the menu. The left side features the signature dishes, such as Susan Spicer’s Garlic Soup, and the right side gets changed out frequently with such new dishes as an andouille-stuffed rabbit roulade.
In addition, the patio’s charm is timeless, and going into fall, the appeal grows as the weather cools. The dining rooms have undergone renovations, including a cushion-like cladding on some walls...
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09/17/09
Food- and music-lovers get ready –– the Third Annual New Orleans Seafood Festival kicks off next Friday, Sept. 25. The three-day event features artists such as Amanda Shaw and Dumpstaphunk, along with cooking demos from great local chefs including Susan Spicer, Frank Brigtsen and John Besh. The event takes place at Harrah’s Fulton Square, and admission is free. Enjoy signature cuisine with a focus on seafood from restaurants such as Galatoire’s, Red Fish Grill, Drago’s and more. Young ones and those with a sweet tooth can grab a treat from New Orleans Sno-ball. As a plus, festival-goers can enjoy both the LSU and Saints games on plasma TVs, so sports-lovers will not be left out in the cold. For more...
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09/10/09
This Labor Day I spent the weekend with friends at their beach house on Dauphin Island in Alabama. On the menu were smoked ribs, seafood gumbo, boiled crabs and some excellent pimento cheese spread courtesy of our hostess Amanda. Their house is flanked by a bird sanctuary and fronts the beach, a location that easily captures a laid-back vibe. The scene was completed by views from the deck, from where we could see the white gallon jugs tethered to our crab traps bobbing in the surf.
It was a totally food-centric weekend, reinforced by rainy weather that redirected our energies into the kitchen. The rain didn’t keep us from setting our crab traps, but it did keep us from fishing, as my friend Teddy pointed out it would not be a good idea to be waving an 8-foot surf...
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09/02/09
Looking for some distinctive barbecue in a setting with enough local character to stand up to the dry rub on its ribs? If so, check out The Joint, a shaggy dog ‘cue shack nestled deep in the Bywater where Poland Avenue snugs up against Dauphine Street.
If the Saturn Bar opened up a barbecue destination, I imagine that it would look like this: a kitschy indoor/outdoor locale seemingly furnished with found furniture and a soundtrack courtesy of a great jukebox, all pulled together by the heady scent of wood smoke in the air. As a plus, the clientele is diverse enough to match the offbeat décor. On a recent Friday at high noon, the line was composed of neighborhood folk, service industry types, professionals and an Army...
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08/27/09
Liberty’s Kitchen
Lunch at Liberty’s Kitchen involves a special kind of lagniappe –– diners here don’t just get a good meal; they are also helping at-risk youth. A social enterprise dedicated to providing youths with training, education and marketable skills, Liberty’s Kitchen operates a coffee shop and a café open for breakfast and lunch. For breakfast, options include pastries made from scratch and baked fresh on site. Try the shortbread biscuit with jam. For lunch, a variety of plate specials and sandwiches are offered, including a great pulled pork on a kaiser roll with coleslaw and TABASCO barbecue sauce.
Students at Liberty’s Kitchen receive classroom instruction, on-the-job training, case...
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