House of the week: Camelback on 2nd Street

Sorry for the slack, but I am back with a new "house of the week" to wow you and make me cry in the corner like a chastened little girl. This week's stunner is located in one of my favorite neighborhoods, the Garden District.

Right off Magazine on 2nd Street lies this beautiful camelback house hidden in the foliage. Build in 1887, this home features 4216 square feet of living space, three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, high ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows and pocket doors. The property also includes a two-story guest house that has it's own, fabulous entryway.

The house is less than five blocks to St. Charles Avenue (a.k.a. parade route), only a couple of blocks away from Coquette or Stein's Deli and a short hike to Juan's Flying Burrito. It all could be mine. It's just a small matter of digging up $775,000.

Manning's sans sports

Admitting you're not a sports fan in New Orleans is akin to blasphemy, but there's really nothing I can do about it. Maybe it was the years growing up with my father who, firmly ensconced on the couch, would command silence when the game was on or the grating voices of the announcers rattling off plays every Saturday afternoon, drilling painfully into my brain even when faintly heard in my bedroom.

Regardless of the underlying traumatic cause, I just don't dig watching sports, so any place touting tons of flat-screened TVs (unless they're planning a Disney marathon) would likely only turn me off. Such was the case with recently opened Manning's.

When I first heard about it, all that really interested me was the knowledge that Chef Anthony Spizale was taking over the helm. After all, to me, it's really about the food.

Last week, John and I caught a cab downtown to the brand new, Fulton Street restaurant for lunch. It was later in the day, so there weren't a lot of people, but maybe it only seemed that way in relation to the gigantic dining room. It almost felt like Disney World or some mammoth Las Vegas resort and everything still had that "new car" smell. Unfortunately for John, I veered away from all the TVs and other distractions (I become invisible when there's a TV in the room) and chose a table on the patio.

We sat outside on that almost uncomfortably warm day, praising the umbrella's shade and sucking down ice cold drinks while we waited. First up, Cochon de Lait "Poutine" and a small, tasty bowl of Brisket Pulled Pork and Red Bean Chili. The mountainous pile of fries, pulled pork and cheese curds drizzled with pepper jelly sounded like an interesting twist on the original and, in all truth, I enjoyed the salty/sweet contrast in the first bite, but it didn't quite work for me on the second. The pork was delicious, as were the hand-cut fries and cheese, but I dreamt of it being smothered in a thick, white gravy made from pan drippings (excuse me while I drool on myself).

For his entree, John kept it simple with one of the lunch specials, an overstuffed fried shrimp po-boy, but I wanted something a little different. I opted for the Cast Iron Catfish, a huge, heavily seasoned filet lying atop a small pile of fried julienned vegetables in a pool of meunière. Although it was a touch salty, I still inhaled the whole dish, swabbing every last bite through the sauce.

For dessert, we slapped down a whopping $6.50 for the most expensive Hubig's Pie I'd ever eaten. A scoop of Kleinpeter vanilla ice cream topped a warm, apple Hubig's and was served with caramel sauce. Though the overall experience was pleasant, I couldn't help feeling like I was on vacation eating overpriced, local dishes in resort designed to mimic the feel of New Orleans...in New Orleans.

Great beginnings at Santa Fe Restaurant

Someone once told me that in order to taste the best a restaurant has to offer, you have to try the appetizers. These telltale "beginnings" often represent the true creativity lurking in the kitchen and hold the promise for a fabulous meal, but sometimes you might want it to be both a beginning and an end.

Last Sunday for Mother's Day, John and I took our good friend Dani (who is also a great mom) out to lunch at Santa Fe Restaurant. Well, we were expecting lunch, but when we arrived at 2PM, they were still serving brunch, and only brunch, instead of their usual menu. We decided to "go with the flow" and taste what was offered at this Southwestern-style restaurant for brunch.

While munching on some jalapeno cornbread muffins drizzled with honey, we selected two "salads" to share around as appetizers. If we had been aware of the size (and quality) we would have probably stopped there. First, there was their wonderful Santa Fe Ceviche with puppy drum, shrimp and calamari topped with a ton of sliced, fresh avocado and organic greens in a tangy lime and olive oil marinade. It was fabulous! The forks were flying, but it still took some time for this huge mound of ceviche to diminish, even under the strain of arduous eaters like us.

But that wasn't all...the other dish we shared was a Seared Tuna Tostada that was piled just as high as the ceviche, only loaded with strips of perfectly peppered and seared tuna, delectably-spiced black beans, shredded lettuce, creamy guacamole, corn relish, fresh pico de gallo, a gob of sour cream and pickled jalapenos all sitting on top of a crispy, corn tortilla. By the time we devoured both of these most excellent dishes, we really could have, and probably should have, stopped right there.

Unfortunately, I also decided to try my luck with a Santa Fe Seafood Omelet with shrimp, crawfish and cheddar and jack cheeses served with a roasted tomato Creole sauce. The resulting dish was nothing like I imagined, resembling a big, flat cheesy mess with tough bits of overcooked crawfish and shrimp as opposed to the fluffy, folded concoction it was meant to be. After the seafood splendor I had experienced with our two appetizers, I was really let down by such a dismal entree.

But, I was alone in my disappointment since my dining companions fared a lot better with their selections. John ordered the Steak & Eggs that featured a petite tenderloin filet topped with a wild mushroom poblano sauce and two, sunny-side eggs. The steak was tender and moist and the sauce had a rich, pepper flavor without a lot of heat. Dani's dish was (in my opinion) the best entree at the table. She chose the Roasted Pulled Pork Burrito that included roasted vegetable and potato hash, black beans and cheese. The meat was tender and well-spiced and the burrito was humongous, covering more than half of the large plate it was served upon.

Finally, for dessert we chose Chocolate Ganache Cake to share, though we were all stuffed to the gills and were unable to finish even half of our entrees. They brought out a huge slab of moist cake topped with fresh sliced strawberry and some of the best whipped cream I have ever tasted. Okay, so I fibbed a little...the end was pretty great, too.

*P.S. Sorry I was so late in posting this blog...everyone has funks now and then...right?

Caffeine clip: Redemption

An uplifting cappuccino experience at Redemption.