Eat The Menu: Let the Good Times Roll

For those of us who (rightly) consider New Orleans a primo party town, mark your calendars: Mardi Gras, when all the Carnival fun abruptly ends, comes on March 4 this season as somber repentance sets in. So, party on until the deadline.

But for those of us foodies short on airfare, feathered headwear and “throw” beads, there’s good news: We no longer have to head to Louisiana to savor that dining Mecca’s repertoire of beloved Creole dishes. Scoot, instead, to mid-town Lake Street’s Coliseum Building, where newly-launched Lagniappe offers a list of illustrious New Orleans cocktails and a menu to match.

The lofty room’s piney-green walls, hung in salon style with eclectic artworks and Scarlett-type fringed velvet curtains, is the site of Lagniappe, a café that opened mid-October. The name (say lawn- YAAP) translates as “a little surprise gift,” and, true to its promise, your server delivers a complimentary freshening vodka-strawberry pick-me-up to aid you in perusing the menu.

Later, I proceeded to a classic Vieux Carre, described as “an Old Fashioned’s French cousin,” and for my friend, a Sazerac. No regrets. (Wine and beer are available as well, of course.)

The kitchen’s chef, air-lifted from The Big Easy, has crafted a menu that reads like an almanac of classic Creole dishes. The list of apps (shareables rightly called For the Table, $10-18) makes it mighty easy to simply say “One of everything.” But sanity reared its ugly head and we narrowed our wish list down to two, starting with a platter of boudin balls.

You won’t find boudin balls in fancy restaurants, and that’s the joy of them. I’ve eaten my fill from a cooler inside a gas station. Here, the golf-ball-size spheres of sausage, crusty from a fling in the fryer, are fabricated from the customary hardscrabble leftover bits and pieces of pork and whatnot (here, chicken livers too and, for some unknown reason, cheese curds). They’re served with a tasty, bright remoulade.

Next, we summoned the fried green tomatoes, also served with remoulade. Thin-sliced and nicely tart, they wear an ever-so-thin veil of crumbs, not the too-often-customary heavy overcoat. Nice dish. Next time: the pimento cheese, served with pork cracklings (I should have warned you: This is not the place for health food), the mussels andouille, also served with cracklings, and the barbecued shrimp beside stone-ground grits. Oh, and the soups! Gumbo YaYa, rich with chicken, andouille sausage, shrimp, crab, the New Orleans trinity of onion, bell pepper and celery — and rice. A traditional turtle soup, complete with sherry, wins a place on the menu, too.

Choosing an entrée ($22-30) is like being forced to choose your favorite child. After an anguish of indecision, we went for the most classic among classics: the crawfish des Allemands and the jambalaya. The crawfish, curled into balls the size of a quarter, mined a hearty roux-based étouffée and arrived with a tender, sweet slab of quick-blackened catfish atop the rice-based presentation. Just fine.

Even better, the husky, dark and thick jambalaya, rich with chicken, andouille, smoked sausage, tiny shrimp and a toss of sweet and tasty mussels to pry from their ebony shells. Again, it’s based on the proverbial veggie trinity. Easy to like.

The menu continues with the same crawfish in a creamy pasta-ready sauce, a husky pork chop served with grits and barbecue sauce, redfish upon a bed of greens and more. Sides not to ignore (I did, to my eternal regret) include grits enriched with cream and butter, braised greens salted with bacon and tasso ham, and jalapeno-infused cornbread.

There are desserts, too, and just the two you’d yearn for if you were smart enough to leave room (we didn’t): bread pudding a la mode (Natch. New Orleans is not a city in which to count calories, or fat) and Bananas Foster, the dessert that made Commander’s Palace famous. It’s intended to serve two and priced accordingly (and out of my range) at $20 — constructed (and set aflame) tableside and served a la mode. If you’re still able to stumble to the door, you’ll be happy to remember that there’s a free parking lot right beside the building. A shout-out to Sinoun, our beyond-excellent server, too.

Laissez les bons temps rouler, y’all!

Lagniappe
Coliseum Building
2700 E. Lake St.
612-315-2366
www.lagniappeonlake.com