Snowy Homochitto State Park from 2009

He Said:

See ya later, civilization.

Today we make our annual pilgrimage to Clear Springs Recreation Area at Homochitto State Park in Mississippi for some ‘camping.’

For me, roughing it means no room service, so it was tough for She Said to convince me to give this a shot a few years back. True story: I was ‘asked to leave’ the cub scouts as a child because I didn’t want to learn to tie the stupid knots. I live in the city; what the hell was I ever going to tie other than shoes?

Daniel Boone I am not.

So tune in next week for word of our adventures on safari in Mississippi. But if you are in town, you should consider Sunday night’s Mixing Up Some Magic at Commander’s Palace, a four course benefit for Liberty’s Kitchen, a very worthy cause. The event is from 6:30 to 9:00, and tickets are $95, inclusive.

Enjoy the weekend!

New fine dining is in short supply in the Big Easy these days, but the well-travelled Dominique Macquet, formerly of the Bistro at Maison DeVille and eponymous restaurants in the French Quarter and (more recently) Uptown, has lately sprung up at the French-Vietnamese Tamarind, in the Hotel Modern.

The Modern is a new renovation in the former Hotel le Cirque at Lee Circle, a presumably enviable location which has in recent years never produced any lasting success. The new hotel appears to be going all-in to change that, pairing Macquet’s new restaurant with Bellocq, an uber high-end cocktail bar designed by the owners of Cure, the high church of craft cocktails on Freret. We stopped in Monday for a first look.

In keeping with the name of the hotel, the first floor restaurant and bar are spare and elegant. If you want to funkify your life, don’t come here. Tamarind oozes fine dining, a place to dress for dinner. The front seating area is the place to be, sporting a row of windows with a view of Lee Circle. This place screams date night, which for us it was.

Let’s get the bad out of the way first: Given the focus on mixed drinks, we decided to eschew our customary bottle of wine with dinner in favor of selections from the intriguing cocktail menu. Unfortunately, a service mishap resulted in our first round being brought to the table only after we’d been seated more than 45 minutes. Yikes. In fact, our shared appetizer was actually plated at the table for 20 minutes before the drinks arrived. We’ve seen a lot in restaurants, but we’ve never seen that before. On the scale of service screwups, that’s a pretty big one; people will forgive a lot if you furnish them with alchohol. However, to Tamarind’s credit, once the staff became aware of the issue they did comp the round of drinks (we did not ask them to), which was absolutely the right thing to do. You can’t be too hard on someone for an error if they make it right, and they did.

The cocktails themselves were for the most part outstanding and worth skipping the wine. In particular, Sheree’s kumquat-infused choice, accented with fresh cilantro, was a home run, reminding her of the drinks at The Slanted Door in San Francisco, which is her libation benchmark.

Our shared appetizer was the Sashimi Style Yellowfin Tuna with crispy pineapple soy ginger and grapeseed oil. It will be extremely difficult for me to return to Tamarind and not order this. Absolutely perfect: the tuna was of superior quality, the crisp pineapple was an inspired textural counterpoint, and the ginger enhanced without overpowering. If we do a memorable dishes of 2012 list, I have a feeling this will be on it.

For the main course, Sheree chose the sauteed local drum (normally flounder) with mushroom risotto Vietnamese coriander and citrus vinaigrette. The dish was well-prepared, and the risotto had the right consistency, but it was surprisingly bland, leaving her hankering for a salt shaker (this is not a salt-on-the-table kind of place).

I fared better with the Grilled Morgan Ranch Wagyu Beef Coulette with Asian ratatouille, a bok choy gratin, and root vegetables. This was really very good: a gorgeous piece of beef complemented by a scattering of ratatouille and root vegetables presented unexpectedly like a vegetable lasagne. The more I ate the better it got.

So what’s the verdict? Interesting, and well worth a visit. Obviously the service mishap was regrettable, but the staff was proactive in repairing the damage. While there were some uneven patches (not wholly surprising in a new restaurant) the highs were high indeed and the tuna is worth a visit all by itself. And the value is very good. No fine dining is cheap, but the prices at Tamarind represent a very good value relative to other NOLA places in the category. My Wagyu beef was $27, and I have routinely encountered similar entrees in the $35 or even $40+ range elsewhere in the city. Total before tip was $87 for dinner. Add in the comped round and you’re still only just over $100, which is extremely competitive. Put it on your list.

CC image courtesy Angie Garrett at Flickr

He and She Said:

According to a carefully chosen panel of experts, what’s the best King Cake in town?

Who the hell cares?

Experts? We don’t need no stinkin’ experts. We need you.

For the second year in a row, we are crowdsourcing the vote for the best King Cake in NOLA. If you’re a native, you’ve been eating them all your life, right? And if you’re a transplant, we know you remember the first time you were smacked upside the head with Carnival pastry goodness.

You know what good is, so come out and prove it.

Here’s the deal:

Place: Thursday, February 2nd, 7pm sharp at the fabulous Patrick’s Bar Vin in the French Quarter. Haven’t been there yet? Here’s your chance to check out the Quarter’s newest wine bar and meet bon vivant extraordinaire Patrick van Hoorebeek. Click on this link for more info about Bar Vin.

Price of admission: Your opinion.

Bill of fare: A murderer’s row of confectionery bliss including cakes from the defending champion Cake Cafe and Bakery, Sucre, La Divina Gelateria, Rouses, Maple Street Patisserie, La Dolce NOLA, and a few more as we work this week to complete the list of contenders. By the time you stumble out in a sugar-induced coma, you’ll have sampled the best the city has to offer and passed judgement upon them all.

Bar Vin will be complementing the cakes with everything they have to offer, including drink specials on bubbly by the glass and king cake flavored vodka.

That’s not a misprint: king. cake. vodka.

So mark your calendar and make plans to come out, meet your humble correspondents, and let your voice be heard next Thursday!

*Disclaimer: While no one has actually, like, died during the death match (so far) He Said/She Said NOLA and Patrick’s Bar Vin take no responsibility for the effects of ridiculous sugar intake upon your system. The gloves are off for this pastry cage match, so eat at your own risk.

The perfect view from our picnic spot

She Said:

Sundays when the weather is nice are just perfect in the French Quarter and last Saturday when I checked the forecast I knew we were destined for a treat. Ideas streamed through my head and I soon began the daunting process of elimination to figure out exactly what would be on the agenda. Every item added means something else misses the cut. Music is a must and Steve mentioned Cristina Perez would be playing a 7pm set at The Maison on Frenchman. That was perfect because we could go and still feel like responsible employees when Monday morning rolled around. Working backwards then: Because it is a Sunday, we should cook. And because we have a plethora of beef (my husband bought part of a cow..more to come on this), we considered stuffed peppers. Sold!

What’s next? Well this past Tuesday our new friends mentioned second lines on Sundays, and I have been to far too few in my day. So be it. What about lunch? With weather this gorgeous I have an itch to be outside as much as possible so we decided on a picnic. There was some stale bread lying around, so we needed to source a few ducks to dispose of it.

That was the plan. He Said made a delicious breakfast (his mad breakfast skills are one of my favorite things about him) and we gathered our things and headed out. We made a stop by Marie Laveau’s grave located on Basin Street at St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. Amazingly, neither of us had ever been there. Very much worth dodging the tourists to spend a little time in this old place. From here were very close to the Candlelight Lounge which was the starting point of the Undefeated Divas & Gents, Jr. Divas & Jr. Gents 10^th Anniversary ‘We’re Still Standing’ MLK Second Line. I imagine they tend to pick up folks along the route and we caught it at its inception, so it was smaller than expected, but still great fun. The women were beautiful, each in unique green suits adorned with various beautiful silver hats.

In a flash the parade was over and we headed to Armstrong Park back-pack full of food in tow. It couldn’t have been more convenient because we were a block from the Mahalia Jackson which is attached to the park. We cut through and settled in on a grassy patch of waterfront property. We fed the ducks (only 6 at this spot) and then ourselves before basking in the beautiful sun. It was perfect.

As we walked over the bridge toward the entrance of the park on Rampart we found a whole slew of hungry ducks and we were able to finish off our bread on this crew. Before it’s reopening about 6 months ago, I had never spent time in Armstrong Park. During the day it is one of New Orleans’ best kept secrets, tucked away along the side of the Quarter offering beautiful serenity in an otherwise jumping neighborhood. Since its reopening a sculpture garden has been added which pays homage to jazz icons who have been instrumental in the musical history of New Orleans.

Now onto dinner prep and a little work on Job #2- this blog. After a little writing and a bit of cooking once again we were off. This time to The Bombay Club for a little Sarah Quintana, a terrific local chanteuse. After one rather expensive round and most of the first set, we forged ahead to the much more cost-effective Maison  where we caught the second set of Cristina Perez. Drinks for $5 each, no cover and great music was just my style. Surprisingly the place was packed on a Sunday evening, something I absolutely love to see.

In one fine day we managed to see an iconic grave site, watch a second line, have a picnic, actually do some responsible things and finally cap off the weekend with some really great live music.

If I can make one suggestion to others, whether you are local or visiting our wonderfully culturally rich city, it would be to get outside of your comfort zone and do things. It doesn’t really matter which things, as long as you just go and do. Experience life. These experiences don’t have to cost a fortune,  as our Sunday adventure was incredibly inexpensive. The point is to just do something. My dad once said what was probably just as an ancillary comment for him but has affected my entire approach to life:

‘You will never look back and regret the things you did, only those you wish you would have done.’

And so I ask you once again:  Do you second line?

CC image courtesy of Dinner Series on Flickr

She Said:

We love to eat!

Yes, Steve and I do, but I am not talking about us specifically, but rather New Orleans as a whole. It is the only place I know where people sit around a dinner table and the topic of conversation is inevitably what they will be eating at their next meal. Definitely one of my favorite aspects of being NOLA-Bred. Indulgent- Absolutely! 

Last Tuesday evening we were dining at Dan Esses’ Three Muses Supper Club and enjoying conversation with new friends of ours who we met at that same venue three months prior. Within minutes of our first meeting, the conversation turned to food. Over our once-monthly courtship, we have managed to cover a lot of ground:  best dishes, best restaurants, great breakfast, best dive places, best neighborhood restaurants, under radar, new in 2011 , etc.  The list goes on and on.  Our dining companions and ourselves don’t always agree. Hell, He Said and I often don’t agree, and I think that makes conversation all the more interesting. If there is one thing New Orleanians are passionate about it is food. If you don’t believe me, ask any local who makes the best red beans and rice. I always welcome the opportunity for someone to open my eyes to a different approach and more importantly something I have yet to experience.

Early on in our dinner, we had an in-depth conversation about a recent post on Meauxbar (They happen to disagree with my opinion that it is grossly overpriced for the value. Steve was thrilled to remind them that was my post, not his!) Tonight however, after the communal food chat, we segued to best NOLA experiences.  It was a perfect opportunity to ask them for favorites:  the best music sets, bars and experiences they have had since they transplanted here post-Katrina. This of course amounted to new homework for the He Said She Said staff. Hi-Ho Lounge was mentioned.  Ironically we planned to go the previous week and I wimped out, but had promised He Said that this Thursday we were going to do it. I will have you know, I made good on my vow. Bud Rip’s, The Saturn Bar and Sunday Second Lines were others we discussed.

Fast forward to Thursday. Once again after working late I was absolutely famished. We ate a quick dinner at home and after contemplating coffee house vs. small, cozy bar, we headed to Bar Tonique for a round or two of cocktails. Tonique is quickly growing in my esteem and is perfect on a cold night. We had two rounds and planned our restaurant list for our upcoming Morocco trip. It was already 9:45 pm and once I realized that I was neither too tired nor too liquored I suggested the Hi Ho Lounge for The Stooges Brass Band. Yeah, I really twisted Steve’s arm (he will pretty much drop everything if a brass band is on the agenda).

In 15 minutes we were inside the legendary Hi- Ho and awaiting the band. I like this place a lot and can see why it has become a hipster hangout. It is just one block east of Elysian Fields on St. Claude at Marigny Street, right next door to the newly popular Siberia (another on our list to check out). The cover is $5, a bargain for the 10 piece Stooges who truly rocked the joint. I must admit that we were not blown away by them at French Quarter Fest 2011, but the intimate vibe and high ceilings in the Hi Ho were the perfect venue for these horns.  They hit the stage and delivered the first set without a single pause, and they were doing the same midway through the second when we called it a night. The crowd was significantly more local than The Candlelight Lounge on Wednesday evenings when Treme Brass Band takes the stage and was a cross section of urban NOLA. As we sat on our stools at the far end of the bar from the stage, I remarked how electric Hi Ho is on this beautiful Thursday evening. It was our first, but certainly not our last trip.

It’s a dangerous thing, this dining with friends. Great food, a glass or two of wine, nice conversation…before you know it a few idle comments make the ever expanding NOLA to-do list just that much longer. What a great problem to have.

Last month I visited Jacksonville.

It gets worse.

While there, I was dragged against my will to a Cheesecake Factory, where I encountered a menu only a little bit slimmer than a Manhattan phonebook. You remember phonebooks, don’t you? Strange artifacts, now extinct, of time when all of your contacts weren’t in your pocket 24/7.

But I couldn’t accuse the cheesecake guys of lying. ‘Factory,’ after all was part of their name, and a factory is exactly what this was. A suburban dining assembly line, resolutely stamping, riveting, pressing, and deploying every item on a Brobdingnagian bill of fare. I immediately made myself less popular among my co-workers by pointing out the rather obvious fact that no establishment can turn out credible representations of twenty different cuisines made-to-order out of one dining room.

It was not a good night.

Such was not the case, however, at the restaurant wrapped around an oven that is Ancora Pizzeria and Salumeria, where we made a long overdue visit last weekend.

Chef Jeff Talbot has partnered with Adolfo Garcia to add another quirky gem to Freret Street, and this is one of the more unusual restaurants in town. What makes Ancora so compelling is Talbot’s utterly single-minded focus.

The centerpiece of the venue is a massive pizza oven imported from Italy, capable of reaching temperatures of more than 900 degrees Fahrenheit. It is here that Talbot produces his Neapolitan pies, following a meticulous set of Pizza rules governing everything from size, constituents of dough, and anything else you can imagine, and culminating in a 45 to 90 second date with the handy inferno.

Salumi (just the Italian word for cured meats) is prepared completely in-house, but nearly all cooked items on the menu are prepared in the oven. A little reductionist and limiting, perhaps? That’s what I wondered, and I posed the question to Talbot as he was giving us the up-close look at The Incredible Hulk’s Easy Bake Oven.

He agreed. ‘I just wanted to do this one thing, really, really well,’ he said. ‘We might do some different things in the future, but not here.’

So this restaurant is like a little haiku, or a sonnet: A rigid, limiting, constricting external structure that demands focus and ensures that excessive quantity cannot be used to mask mediocre quality. The menu consists of the aforementioned pizzas, exacting and in a style you won’t find many places this side of Naples(Yes, the excellent Domenica also has very good pizza, but there are differences between the two. Most notably, Domenica’s ovens produce a crisper crust, while Ancora’s pies are specifically designed to be soft). There are about seven different iterations, including a variable pizza of the day. There is also of course Salumi, a salad, and whatever specials appear. On our visit, we sampled Brussels sprouts with bacon and capers and also medallions of eggplant.

All ingredients are either sourced locally or imported from Naples. There’s a little arty cocktail list with a predictably heavy focus on all things Italian, and a hyper-focused wine list containing only vintages from the region around Naples. Nice details for a restaurant with the explicit mission to reproduce a very narrow indigenous cuisine.

Service was outstanding. Our waiter was well-informed and enthusiastic, giving us the impression that he was passionate about the mission of the restaurant. He made sure to tell us to come back when the gnocchi was on the menu, and helped us navigate the esoteric wine list. A little buy-in from the wait staff goes a long way, a notion to which some places in town should really pay better attention.

How much reach does Ancora have? Not much, by its own admission. But depth? That’s another story entirely. Don’t come here as an alternative to ordering Domino’s, or if you have a big group hankering for something mainstream. Ancora is the antithesis of that. But if it is a faithful plunge into the Neapolitan culinary idiom that interests you (and it should) this is the place for you. Be sure to check out the oven; they love to show it off.

CC Image courtesy of Infrogmation on Flickr

He and She Said:

Thrills, festivities, and edge of your seat excitement. Fire breathers, dancing-girls, clowns in Volkswagens: anything can happen. Back by popular demand, we present the second annual He Said/She Said King Cake Death Match, where fan voting rules the day.

That’s right, no fancy-pants, nose-in-the-air celebrity voting here. Bring your appetite and your opinion and let your voice be heard.

This year’s event will be held Thursday, February 2nd, at 7:00pm at the fabulous Patrick’s Bar Vin in the French Quarter on Bienville Street. Admission is of course free and will include the opportunity to sample the best king cakes in town and take part in anointing the winner for 2012.

Cake Cafe took home the prize last year, and we expect them to make every effort to defend their title against a host of worthy challengers. More details coming soon on the pastry gauntlet, drink specials, and general merriment.

So, put it on your calendar and give the Super Bowl weekend an early kickoff with us at Bar Vin!

Welcome to the center of the universe.

The New Orleans Saints score like Lindsey Lohan on Meth, and it’s playoff time. That’s enough alone to make this a huge weekend, but add to it our invited victims guests the Detroit Lions, a franchise representing a city with more than a few parallels to the Big Easy, and it gets even better.

The silver and blue last made the playoffs in 1999, before you could even post smack about it on facebook, and they last won a playoff game in 1957, so expect to see a healthy contingent of Lions faithful in NOLA as well.

And there’s a pretty big college game on Monday you may have heard about. The Dome seems to be LSU’s made to order National Championship stomping grounds, as they closed the deal here in both 2003 and 2007. Facing the Tigers and the sea of purple and gold they’ll bring to downtown over the weekend are the Alabama Crimson Tide, who claim somewhere between 14 and 85 national championships (including a 1911-13 threepeat in the final polls at Cat Fancy, I think). The Tide’s overtime loss to the Tigers in Tuscaloosa this November still stings a little, and New Orleans is an easy drive from any point in Alabama, so expect the Houndstooth Nation to represent with a vengeance as well.

NOLA will be packed to the rafters this weekend, and finding a break from the crowds will take a little doing. So for the out-of-towners, here are some tips, a few places to try when the crowds at Pat O’s and Razzoo’s overwhelm you.

French Quarter:

Bar Tonique: Crazy-obsessive cocktails, terrific atmosphere, a bit off the beaten path on Rampart, and flights of whiskey, if you want them. This place is a gem.

Cosimo’s: Back side of the Quarter on Burgundy. Dog friendly neighborhood bar filled with locals and local color. Pool table in the back. A keeper.

Patrick’s Bar Vin: A perfect place if wine is your thing. Open less than a year in the the Saint Louis Hotel on Bienville and therefore slightly less likely to be mobbed.

Iris: Fine dining in the Bienville House Hotel on Decatur in the front side of the Quarter. Underrated and more under the radar than most. Woth taking a shot at a last minute reservation.

Sure to be overwhelmed: Port of Call, Deanie’s, Acme, Stanley, Coop’s, Irene’s

Other Thoughts:

Check out Freret, fast becoming a destination neighborhood, and grab a bite at either Ancora Pizzeria or Hi Hat Cafe, next door.

Frenchmen Street will be crowded as hell, but do it anyway. Just walking down the street will give you more great music than you get all year in most towns.

Lower Magazine: The excellent Coquette is another fine-dining choice where you might be able to score a reservation, and there’s plenty of bar- and casual restaurant-hopping to be had between Washington and Louisiana Avenues.

Riverbend: You can forget about getting into Boucherie or Brigsten’s, but try the very good Mat ‘n’ Naddie’s and the even better Dante’s instead. And there aren’t many better places to watch a game than Cooter Brown’s.

Breakfast: Prepare to wait for Cafe du Monde. A lot. Try the outstanding Cake Cafe or the eclectic Satsuma in the Marigny instead, and don’t miss Refuel in Riverbend if you’re on that side of town.

Those are just a few of our suggestions to help you navigate what should be one of the craziest weekends in recent memory, so good luck!

Oh, and did we mention that Carnival season started yesterday? What a town this is!

The only thing better than the food in New Orleans is the music. If you’ve travelled a bit you know that the list of cities where you can drop in on incredible musicians on a random Monday or Tuesday is a pretty short one (NYC, L.A., Austin…are we missing any?) Given that, we’re sure we could produce a list of the great sets we didn’t see a mile long. But, in no particular order, here’s a list of what we did see that rocked our world. With apologies to Spinal Tap, here are the eleven most memorable sets in a year filled, as always, with great sounds. Consider checking some of these musicians out in 2012:

Gal Holiday at Balcony Music Club: BMC at the corner of Decatur and Esplanade is one of our favorites. Live music every night of the week with no cover. Before she relocated to L.A. to chase bigger things, Vanessa Niemann and her band held down a Sunday night set here which became one of our favorite ways to wind down the weekend. Three guitars, including pedal-steel, Vanessa’s terrific vocals, and arrangements of very old-school country unlike what anyone else in town is doing.

Herlin Riley at Snug Harbor: The best set at Jazz Fest wasn’t at the Fairgrounds at all, but after hours at Snug Harbor, where we dropped in with a friend to be wowed by the virtuoso drummer and his equally talented ensemble, including Anat Cohen, Downbeat Magazine’s clarinetist of the year, who exited the crowd and joined them onstage. One of the very best sets we’ve ever seen at the best jazz club in New Orleans.

Trombone Shorty at French Quarter Fest: At the top of his game and worth fighting the crowds. If you’ve seen him recently, you know what we’re talking about. If you haven’t, move it to the top of your to-do list.

John Lisi and Delta Funk at French Quarter Fest: We stood in the sun at the new for 2011 stage on upper Decatur and were rewarded by Lisi absolutely tearing it up, accompanied by an amazing harmonica player. Lisi can really freaking play, and if you like Blues you need to check him out.

Kermit Ruffins at Bullet’s: We love Happy Talk, Kermit’s latest release, and he seems to have thankfully left behind some of the, ahem, disjointedness that could mar performances in the past. 2011 marked our first visit to Bullet’s…and our second. It just might be the best bar in the city.

Cristina Perez at Balcony Music Club & etc: We stumbled across Cristina at BMC last January, and we’ve caught her at several venues since as she’s played Three Muses, The Maison, and pretty regularly at Oak as well. Her voice breathes new life into old jazz arrangements, and we can’t resist when she tells us she’d like to shimmy like her sister Kate.

Glen David Andrews at Three Muses: Three Muses is the best thing to happen on Frenchmen in some time, and you can walk in whenever you like and be sure to see someone good, but our personal favorite was Glen David Andrews on a Friday night, rocking a packed house. If his set in this place doesn’t energize you, you might as well move to Cleveland.

John Boutte at d.b.a.: Boutte’s Saturday shows on Frenchmen are well-regarded for good reason. Digging deep into the R&B canon, one of the best sets of pipes in the Crescent City quieted the crowd in d.b.a., which is no small feat. We walked out in love with the power of a great vocalist.

Big Chief Monk Boudreau’s Won’t Bow Down CD Release Party at Tipitina’s: A big, boisterous set at Tips. Accompanied by guitarist Colin Lake, among many others, Boudreaux had us rocking ‘till the wee hours.

Lionel Ferbos at Palm Court: One of us caught Ferbos on the eve of his 100^th birthday. Let that sink in for a moment. What a pleasure to listen to someone whose performing career spans almost the entire history of the genre. A very special night.

Number 11: Anonymous at the Daquiri Shop on Bourbon: Without question the most surprising item on this list. We’re on record about Bourbon being a musical wasteland, so we were shocked to emerge from a Brassaholics set at Irvin Mayfield’s at 2:00am a couple of weekends ago and wander straight into a brass band playing in some random daiquiri shop on upper Bourbon and blowing away the set we’d just listened to. We still don’t know who they are, and probably never will, but they were the best brass we heard all year and deserve the final place on this list.

We want more and more in 2012, and we’ve got Thursday nights earmarked soon for both The Stooges at the Hi Ho Lounge and the Soul Rebels at Bon Ton on Magazine. What else needs to be on our list?

 Back by popular demand, here is 2011’s Top 10 Restaurants via Mock Draft. Somehow Mars convinced Venus last year that this might be a good way to rank our restaurants. Each December, His stream of consciousness is pretty much ‘blah, blah, football, football, blah, football, blah, lather, rinse repeat,’ and Hers is pretty much ‘dear God, when will the football end?’ So this represents a compromise of sorts, one that appears to have been well-received by our dozens of faithful readers.

 The rules: Only restaurants on the active roster need apply. Translation: We must have visited you in the past 12 months. We make every effort to get to the full spectrum of what we perceive to be the best of the best each year, but we sometimes fall a bit short. Better luck next year to those places we missed. Ladies first, as always:

Round 1: She Said: Commander’s Palace

Hands down the best meal of the year and perhaps in the top 5 of all time. We had the opportunity to do the chef’s table which included 12 courses of perfectly executed food. One of my biggest critiques of 2011 dining is that I often feel chefs don’t cook with passion and Tory McPhail and his team were certainly the exception on this night. The competition for the number one pick in the draft was over once Tory served us foie gras king cake accompanied by purple, green and gold sauce. 

Round 2: He Said: Herbsaint

Years ago, my first couple of visits here were underwhelming. That’s no longer the case, as each successive meal has improved, capped by a stunning dinner earlier this year made all the better that it was an expense account meal. Flawless service, inventive dishes, and less than half the price of the chef’s table at Commander’s. Easy choice.

Round 3: She Said: Restaurant August

After a few year stand-off with August, I decided to give it a whirl for my birthday extravaganza (otherwise referred to as dinner) and was not disappointed.  This time, it lived up to my every expectation and frankly exceeded a few. August earned my #3 for possessing the complete package in a dining experience. Yes, it’s expensive, but you feel pampered by the food, ambiance and service. Fabulous. One request: Could we please retire the little truffled egg and come up with a new amuse bouche?

Round 4: He Said: Gautreau’s

Best seafood dish of the year here, a marvelous Corvina. Bonus points for the lucky coincidence that Wine Spectator this December named the Kosta Browne we enjoyed over dinner wine of the year for 2011. Clubby, intimate, what Clancy’s wishes it could be. A remarkable restaurant.

Round 5: She Said: Lilette

Always a favorite on my short-list, Lilette’s bistro vibe coupled with fantastic fare is pretty hard to beat. It boasts the best bouillabaisse in the city and He Said still raves about the Wagyu Beef ribeye cap special we had several visits ago. I am looking forward to my 2012 visit here and hoping to see a slightly more diverse menu, which would be about the only opportunity for improvement.

Round 6: He Said: Boucherie

Surprised? Tom Brady was a 6^th round choice too, and he’s won three Superbowls. The guys in the little house onJeanette Street have been turning out terrific food since the day they opened, and none of it at more than $16 an item. Our last visit convinced me they belong in the Top 10. The prices make Boucherie the single restaurant in town you can’t afford to miss. You won’t get the white glove treatment you find at August, but the food is every bit as good.

Round 7: She Said: Bistro at Maison de’Ville

The Bistro encompasses both the highlights and the lowlights of 2011 as it closed in August with no warning. This is perhaps the biggest dining loss of the year. The French Quarter is full of restaurants, but short of great ones, and The Bistro was just that. Please come back!

Round 8: He Said: Cochon

Yep, that’s two for Donald Link on this list. Cochon is singular, without question the best restaurant to suggest for out-of-towners who genuinely want to understandSouth Louisianacooking. A place with a narrow focus and superb delivery. One of the two or three most irreplaceable venues on the city.

Round 9: She Said: MiLA

The husband and wife duo take their food seriously, sourcing many ingredients from Lujele Farm on the Northshore. They have made our top 5 previously, but this year fell slightly short in execution during the NOWFE Vintner Dinner. More recently however, we rekindled our romance over sweetbreads and the Deconstructed Oysters Rockefeller. Bonus too for the beautiful by-the-glass stemware!

Round 10: He Said: Patois

Our final draft pick, and worth having on anyone’s list. Patois’ service was puzzlingly uneven during our last visit, but the food is so exceptional that it still makes our list. Don’t miss the rabbit, the sweetbreads, or the pork belly and scallop.

So there you have it, our 2011 mock draft. To recap:

1 Commander’s Palace

2 Herbsaint

3 Restaurant August

4 Gautreau’s

5 Lilette

6 Boucherie

7 Bistro at Maison deVille

8 Cochon

9 MiLA

10 Patois

Just missed? Brigsten’s and Domenica

Non-qualifiers: Stella, Emeril’s,RioMar, and Iris to name a few (sorry we didn’t make it there this year)

Boucherie, The Bistro, Gautreau’s and Cochon were undrafted free-agents last year, but made the cut this time, and Commander’s was a new number 1.

Anybody you think we missed?