Monthly Archives: August 2011

Distilleries are on their way to New Orleans

Posted on by
4

Todd Price from the Times-Pic broke this story last week, but it appeared to just go almost unnoticed, even by us! So I figured news this big bears repeating or even shouting from the rooftops. We’re getting a new distillery (Old New Orleans Rum is currently distilled over on a part of Frenchman you never knew existed, across from what looks like to be a concrete plant). One of the really important parts of the story isn’t even in the story, but found in a place many people don’t dare to venture, the Nola.com comments. Typically a bastion for neither nice nor typically well informed things, Todd used the comment section to update his story to inform us that not one, but two distilleries are on their way here! I’ve yet to track down anything on the second distillery, but I’m working on it. I haven’t seen anything new out of Todd, but when I do I’ll pass that around here too.

As far as the first distillery (the one we know about), Ian Nygren is opening Soc Au Lait (sack of milk) Distillerie at 301 N. Claiborne, or at least he is as soon as the city lets him put a distillery in a commercial neighborhood. From the Distillerie’s twitter feed it looks like things are going as planned and they’ll actually be allowed to move forward. Started in the late fall of 2009, it looks like New Orleans have locally produced Vodka on the shelf in early 2012.

Soc Au Lait plans to make two products when up and running. Voo Doo Vodka, which will be a corn based vodka that is distilled 5 times. Unsure of vodka made from corn? Another small distillery that has been winning fans over left and right uses corn, Tito’s out of Austin. In addition to the unflavored vodka, Soc Au Lait is jumping full on to the current sweet tea flavored vodka craze with a grain mash vodka base, also distilled 5 times.

Voo Doo Vodka Seersucker Sweet Tea

Itching to track each of these products on Facebook? Voo Doo Vodka has its page here, and Seersucker is here.

Mid-City Irish Pub Crawl: Finn McCool’s

Posted on by
Reply

Mid-City is a great neighborhood for bars. In a little over a square mile, you’re looking at Twelve Mile Limit, Mid-City Yatch Club, Finn McCool’s, Mick’s, and the Bulldog, just to name some of the more popular bars. Of course, it wasn’t until I flipped through Kari Dequine’s piece for the Times-Pic that I realized there were so many Irish Pubs. Five Irish pubs, all in close walking distance (mostly). To tackle all these places in a single day sounded like a fine plan, but was it actually doable? To find out, we headed out with the mysterious Mid-City Sippers, a close-knit drinking club that doesn’t actually restrict its drinking to Mid-City.

The Sippers kicked their day off at Mid-City’s best known Irish Pub, Finn McCool’s. If you’re looking to catch (or possibly play) some soccer or enjoy a pint of Guinness, Finn’s is sure to be on the top of your list. Mondays also find Finn’s packed to the gills with trivia nerds for the weekly Pub Quiz night. Finally, Finn’s has recently rounded its offerings out with the addition of BooKoo BBQ in the back kitchen. BooKoo runs out the wide range of decent pub food, but this post is about drinking, so we’ll have to cover it later. Just one word of advice, BooKoo is cash only.

For a random Saturday day, Finn’s was pretty packed thanks to a Liverpool game. Even though Liverpool was up 3-nil at the 84 minute mark, red jersey clad patrons were glued to the flat screen TVs as if the Saints were driving, down 6 with less than 2 minutes to go. In addition to the Sippers, the crowd was diverse: A cougar on the prowl in her workout gear eyed potential targets from her perch at the bar, a group of people all looking fresh out college pushed together a number of tables effectively taking over a huge section of the back of the bar, all while a handful of regulars were practicing for the Tuesday night dart league.

Finn’s itself is a dark bar, which sort of neutralizes the joy of day drinking. Not only is there limited natural light in Finn’s, but the decor is dark and the lights are generally kept low (or at least it seems that way). But this darkness nicely compliments the Guinness, which flows at all hours of the day. Best of all, Finn’s does Guinness right. A time-consuming double pour ensures that your Guinness is as close to perfect as you can get. Just don’t expect to get it any time soon, as the process takes a while. Under official Guinness rules, the perfect pint should take just under two minutes to pour, Finn’s takes just a bit longer than that. Not to say that Finn’s is only Guinness, a full complement of Irish beers are available as are your typical beers and a full bar. Being a legitimate Irish bar, Finn’s definitely hasn’t gotten on board the non-smoking scene that is gaining steam in other corners of the city.

For the start of our pub crawl, Guinness was the order of the day. As pint after pint of creamy deliciousness was passed down the bar, I realized we were in deep and the day was just beginning. To learn a little bit more about the power of Finn’s and reflect on how far we’ve come over the past 6 years, check out the video below:

Around Town: Martini Madness (with special deal until noon today)

Posted on by
Reply

The Friends of City Park do a great job in helping to protect, preserve and overall better City Park. Given that we use City Park a lot, we’re happy to be card carrying members or Friends. One thing that the Friends do is put on some pretty kicking events. The best one by far, in my mind, is Martini Madness. Per Friends, Martini Madness is an “evening features an array of marvelous martinis and exquisite eats from top area restaurants with all proceeds dedicated to landscaping the area around the newly constructed Arbor Room at Popp Fountain.”

Last year, the restaurant’s dishing out food included Ralph’s on the Park, Red Fish Grill, Pigeon Caterers, and Slice, to nanme a few. This year, at a minimum includes Three Muses and Ralph’s on the Park. Free food from both of those places is worth the price of admission on it’s own. To wash down this food, you’ve got a number of specialty “martinis” made from gin and/or vodka spread all around the room. Not a bad deal for the $50 asking price ($45 if you’re a Friend of City Park, and you should be). To sweeten the pot, the Friends have offered a buy 2 for the price of 1 special until noon today, just enter “MMTD11″ as your promo code. Tickets can be ordered here.

Happy Friday all!

What’s Cooking: Chicken Eggplant Parmesan

Posted on by
Reply

One of the first things I was eager to make with our most recent bounty from Hollygrove Market was Eggplant Parmesan. However, $1.25 was a little touch and go on the thought of eating “just” eggplant and the eggplant we got was on the smaller side of things. So I decided to beef it up (er, should I say bird it up? Sorry, that’s horrible) with a few chicken breast cutlets. I also wanted to keep it light, so I didn’t bread the chicken or the eggplant, just gave them a little suntan in some olive oil before layering them together in a dish with some cheese and sauce and sending them off to the oven. When I sat down to write this post, I really thought I had done a great job on the photography this time, but I realized I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished product!! Oops! We were too excited to dig into it I guess! Continue reading →

New Opening: The Company Burger

Posted on by
Reply

If you’re tired of the Freret Street pieces in your local media, I’ve got some bad news for you.  I don’t think they’re going to slow down any time soon.  It seems like as soon as one restaurant finishes its grand opening, festivities for the next new restaurant start up. This week’s opening is the Company Burger at 4600 Freret Street, started by local boy Adam Biderman.  If you don’t happen to know Adam from his school boy days, you may be more familiar with his work at the 2011 Hogs for the Cause.  Adam and the Company Burger Team took 1st place overall in the Porkpourri category.

The first full day for the Company Burger is going to be Wednesday August 17th, but the buzz from the Sunday and Monday soft openings have been pretty stellar.  At Sunday’s industry night, the praise was not only high, but it came from some people who know a thing or two about food.  Chef Tariq Hannah (of Sucre) gushed about the burger, the Taceaux Loceaux folks were digging the pork belly corn dog, while others raved on the onion rings.

Hey, don’t want to believe them?  Good, check out the menu and see for yourself starting Wednesday at 11:00 a.m.!

Spot at the Bar: Speakeasy’s Lavender-Infused Gin

Posted on by
2

A few weeks ago we reviewed Speakeasy, which contains not only a bunch of great recipes and drink making tips, but also a bunch of recipes for homemade syrups, cordials, infusions and accompaniments. One big drawback of these recipes is that the directions are not nearly as precise or detailed as they are for the drinks. Which has led to some colossal failures, such as the spicy ginger beer, and some successes, the lime cordial and the lavender-infused gin.

The lavender gin is required to make one of the drinks in Speakeasy, but is also a nice change of pace in your normal gin cocktails. A Darren Sproles for your Pierre Thomas or Mark Ingram, if you will. Best of all, it is easy as can be to make, as the hardest part might be gathering the lavender. While the off-the-wall ingredients normally required for a Speakeasy recipe can usually be wrangled up at Whole Foods, not so with the Lavender. Instead, we stumbled across the last jar in the store at Williams-Sonoma. Other than that, you’ll need a bottle of Plymouth gin, which you can find at most liquor stores, but not most grocery stores, and a cheesecloth, available just about everywhere.
Continue reading →

Around Town: Fight Crime With a Fork

Posted on by
Reply

Today’s activity is pretty simple (although sorry for the late notice). Go out to eat dinner at one of twenty restaurants and help fight crime. Not a bad deal. And, unlike many charitable eating events, this one has participating restaurants for all budgets. You a high rolling fancy pants? Do your crime fighting at Restaurant August or Commander’s Palace. Not quite to that level? Zea’s and Acme Oyster House are there for you. Just a struggling college student, been decimated by the recent stock market shenanigans or watching the return of football to National TV (Seattle at San Diego at 7:00 pm on ESPN)? Bruno’s can meet your needs, just be sure to be nice to the bartenders.

For a list of all participating restaurants, click here. To look into what you’re money will be going to, check out the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation here. Want to see something bizarre and amazing, click here (don’t worry, it is SFW).

Around Town: Hollygrove Market Produce Box

Posted on by
1

Have you heard about Hollygrove Market yet? It’s an urban farm, produce market, and community garden in the heart of the city. I’ve been learning more about Community Supported Agriculture recently, and Hollygrove is doing a great job of bringing fresh local produce to New Orleanians every week. And I mean that literally. They bring it to your front door! Perhaps we’re late adopters on this, but $1.25 and I got our first produce box delivered to us from Hollygrove Market last week. Our box came with a great array of fruits and veggies for us to try, including bell peppers, eggplant, fresh herbs, tomatoes, limes, peaches, two different types of mushrooms, okra, and more! I think my favorite part of this may be the challenge of coming up with recipes to use everything up.

Hollygrove offers the produce boxes twice a week on Tuesdays and Saturdays (don’t be confused by their site, the Tuesday box really does come on Tuesday, not Wednesday). You can check their site for what that day’s box will contain before you order and either pick it up or, for a VERY reasonable service charge they will deliver it to you. Not a bad way to get a few more veggies in the house and in your menus if you ask me! Order up a box here.

Brewer’s Paradise: St. Tammany Parish?

Posted on by
Reply

The local beer scene is about to get a bit more crowded (Hooray!). Well maybe in a 6 months to a year. Word on the street is there are two new breweries coming to the Northshore. First is Pelican Brewing Company. Pelican is still waiting on finalization of permits and so forth, but is predicting a 1st Quarter of 2012 entrance on to the scene. They’ve taken the name as a nod to one of the first German breweries in New Orleans. Hopefully they’re beer will also be a nod to German styled suds. You can currently find them on Twitter, Facebook and the World Wide Web.

Possibly the Old Rail menu cover? (Image from RBC Design)

The second brewery underway on the Northshore is Old Rail Brewing Co. From what it looks like this will be a brew pub concept rather than a full on brewery. Initial research on the issue looks like this concept is being put forward by the same guy behind The Barley Oak, which is a pretty kick-ass little beer haven on the lakefront in Mandeville. The chatter I’ve been able to pick up so far indicates that Old Rail is further along in the process than Pelican and will open sooner. From the construction photos I’ve seen, perhaps a holiday opening?

Eat Safe Goes Live (probably)

Posted on by
Reply

Pick a restaurant in New Orleans, any restaurant. It is likely that pictures and, most likely, a review can be found within minutes. You’re able to get a feel for the decor, ambiance and food before you step in the door. But in most cases, your world view in limited to the dining room and bar. You may catch a glimpse of the kitchen as a server burst forth with someone’s food, the swinging door providing an oscillating view behind the scenes, but you’ll never really know what’s going on back there.

“You really don’t want to know what goes on in there.” Is definitely a line I’ve heard from a number of friends who have worked in some not-so-fine dining establishments. We’ve all heard countless horror stories, half-truths and urban legends from the finger in the chili to the super long black hair we found in our salsa this past week, but we still don’t know much about the state of the kitchen in the places where we eat. That’s all about to change, hopefully.

Before today, if you wanted to get a look at the grade for, say, Commander’s Palace, you’d have to go down to the local Sanatarian Services office and pay $0.25 a page to see the report. With the inspection reports being virtually inaccessible by the public, what incentive would a restaurant have to quickly address the issue? Under our current system, fines can’t kick in for months. And the public can’t vote with its wallet, because it is likely to never know of any violations. But that all changes this afternoon, as the Department of Health and Hospitals is attempting to roll out and online database of all restaurant inspections and grades called “Eat Safe.” (Edit: this software apparently hates a link that doesn’t exist. The web address when it goes live is http://www.eatsafe.la.gov) While we won’t have access to the full reports, a summary of a restaurant’s last three inspections and violations will be available.

Of course, we’ll have to see if the DHH can actually pull this off. Judging by their track record, I’m more than a little skeptical. DHH promised us an online system in 2005. After delays in launching, the system was overloaded the week it was unveiled and crapped out. Since then, numerous attempts at getting a system up and running have failed. We’ve been promised these issues have all been resolved. If Eat Safe does survive, it will be a welcome resource.