Red sauce and brown gravy, thick cuts of meat, deep stew and roux. This is the food of fall in New Orleans. We wait for it all year, and I’m not waiting any longer.
With Halloween behind us, my appetite tells me now is the time to dig in, no matter the ups and downs of the actual forecast.
Lately my cravings have been on a foliage tour of flavors, specifically dishes that speak to the season, and in restaurants that feel cozy too, just upping the comfort food factor.
Let’s start at Vincent’s Italian Cuisine. The one in Metairie is like visiting grandmother’s house (if maybe my Irish grandmother magically turned Italian in the kitchen). The Vincent’s on St. Charles Avenue is more of a bustling-cozy, with tightly-packed tables in dining rooms that evoke Billy Joel lyrics. At either, get the cannelloni, in a bed of Alfredo sauce with a baked, creamy texture that invites a hunk of bread.
Around the bend at Brigtsen’s Restaurant, they’re fond of saying that brown is the color of flavor. The roasted duck here is a tapestry of evidence for why that’s true.
The small connecting dining rooms within this sidehall shotgun tell you it was once a house. The hospitality and good feelings that fill them show you why many still consider it a home away from home.
Here’s a newer example downtown, Saint John, recently relocated from the French Quarter, now on the streetcar line. It’s a modern Creole restaurant with an old soul. You don’t see too many restaurants serving fricassee anything, and I can’t think of a better example than this rabbit fricassee rendition over tender gnocchi with browned edges. It’s listed as an appetizer but feeds you like a home cooked supper.
How about just a molten pot of cheese with a French accent? That’s the fondue at the Uptown bistro La Crepe Nanou, where the ambiance hits somewhere between comforting coziness and seductive romance, and maybe is a reminder those two feelings aren’t mutually exclusive.
