Boucherie
Grit Cracker with Almond Butter
Boudin Balls with a Garlic Aioli
Charcuterie Plate: Chicken Liver Mousse, Bourbon Cured Foie Gras, Fried Chicken Skins, & Blueberry Jam
Blackened Shrimp & Grit Cake with Warm House Cured Bacon Vinaigrette
Crispy Skinned Duck Confit with Candied Fennel Baklava, Roasted Beets, & Bleu Cheese Mousse
Thai Chili Chocolate Chess Pie
Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding
Another Uptown favorite, the romantically lit dining room with an outdoor patio along Carrollton Avenue ever popular for a constantly changing menu of modern Southern fare, it was just past Seven O’Clock that a reservation was made for the Saturday preceding Halloween, the streets filled with Ghosts and Skeletons plus the occasional Sexy Angel or Presidential Candidate riding the streetcar Northeast.
Themed after the traditional gatherings of earlier days, when families would get together at a great feast where butchered animals were offered up for all, Chef Nathanial Zimet actually began his career in New Orleans as the owner of a Food Truck before bringing his passion for curing, smoking and cooking to a brick and mortar storefront, a flare for all things local not particularly uncharacteristic for Southern Louisiana, but nonetheless noteworthy to locals and travelers who embrace such things.
Augmenting a menu that changes every month with daily specials, small plate appetizers to the left with mains center plus dessert and a $29 3-course Prixe Fixe, service at Boucherie seems highly dependent on how one orders and if they are a ‘regular,’ the table next to my tight two-top clearly VIPs while I struggled to even get someone to take an order, my only ‘bonus’ coming when a lumbering waiter apologized for stepping directly on one my feet.
Chuckling at the tiniest amuse ever witnessed, literally 3/4 a postage stamp of cracker topped with almond butter that essentially had no taste, it was in Charcuterie and three ‘small plates’ that the meal got started, price per ounce of creamy Chicken Liver with a Foie Gras core comparative to Las Vegas Strip standards with Chicken Skins that were too oily and “jam” that seemed to be juiced Blueberries plus Pectin and little more.
Assuming that someone championing Meats would have done more for their curing program, the meal nonetheless improved with delivery of plates two and three, the fried Boudin Balls creamy and complex beneath an oilless breading that complimented Garlic Aioli while the Blackened Shrimp atop Grit Cakes far outperformed Emeril Lagasse’s more famous version Barbeque beneath zesty Vinaigrette.
Amply impressed by the price, preparation and portion of confit Duck Leg next to an aromatic stack of Phyllo and Fennel that was sweet without being sugary, Beets and whipped Bleu Cheese provided a fortuitous transition to two desserts from which the ‘signature’ Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding failed to wow in any particular way, the better bites found in a textbook Chocolate Chess Pie lighting the palate with a slight burn of Thai spice.
