More than 20 years ago, Caf� Nola opened on colorful South Street. It immediately became a hit with the critics and the public.
It was always Mardi Gras at Caf� Nola. Owners Bill Curry and Judy DiVicaris spent constructive time in New Orleans, eating their way through Cajun and Creole restaurants. This was years before Emeril appeared before the cameras and shouted his first Bam!
Just when it seemed the New Orleans craze had come and gone, I spotted a newspaper ad for Bourbon Blue, located on Rector Street just off Main Street in Manayunk. It’s housed in a 154-year-old former mill. I was intrigued; I love to dine in old buildings.
So Edward, my mom Berthe and I hopped in the car and drove over to Manayunk. We entered the charmingly old building, which boasts looming ceilings, a friendly bar, high-top tables and booths, pretty black wrought iron railings and a separate dining room.
Several young men were at the bar drinking Yuengling Lager and rooting for Mickelson to win the golf tournament. Since we wanted to see who would win, we settled into a roomy booth that afforded a perfect view of the TV. Yuengling, in nearby Pottstown, is America’s oldest brewery. I sipped a pint from the tap ($3.18) while Edward opted for an oversized martini ($8.50).
Chef Brian Watson has put together a menu with a few New Orleans dishes along with New American bistro favorites. He uses fresh ingredients, often with interesting twists and combinations.
Fried oysters ($10.50) consisted of a quartet of plump beauties dredged in cornmeal, deep fried and served on the half shell topped with a light leek and anise cream sauce. Edward and I thought they could have been crispier. Mom’s Caesar salad ($6) was well prepared with homemade dressing mixed with shavings of tasty Pecorino-Romano cheese.
The gumbo of the day ($5) was made with tasso ham and gulf shrimp. Gumbo is the most famous dish in Creole cuisine. The perfect gumbo starts with a rich, dark roux. Any number of ingredients can go into the gumbo, which is a cross between a soup and a stew. My gumbo was perfection in a bowl. Onions and celery were added to the roux along with stock. Rice thickens gumbo naturally, and Watson added the right touch.
Tasso is hard to find outside of New Orleans, so Watson must have special-ordered it. It is a specialty of Cajun fare and adds a nice smoky flavor. We enjoyed a rich homemade, almost cake-like cornbread with whipped spicy butter with our appetizers.
We decided to share an order of tempura-fried calamari ($8) because I have always enjoyed this Asian batter in Japanese restaurants. The baby squid were crispy and free of grease. They arrived with lemon wedges, a spicy marinara and squiggles of Creole mayonnaise, which I really liked for dipping.
Catfish is a mainstay of New Orleans cooking. It is usually coated in cornmeal and quickly fried. Bourbon Blue’s version ($16) was an interesting twist. Watson grilled a good-sized filet of farm-raised catfish, topped it with a saut� of onions, celery and green peppers and set it on a portion of dirty rice, another New Orleans favorite. Dirty rice is prepared with bits of saut�ed chicken livers and is uncommonly good.
Mom never tried the now-classic pasta primavera ($14). It was prepared with farfalle — bow-tie pasta, which adds a nice texture. Enhancing the dish were saut�ed shiitake mushrooms, sweet red onions and red peppers — all creating a rainbow of eye appeal. We particularly liked the roasted garlic oil, which was blended into the pasta for a nice light sauce.
Twin boneless pork chops ($18) were really two hefty slices of tenderloin. They were grilled and smothered in too much blackberry demi-glace. Actually, it was a sauce; demi-glace is rich and thick from long hours of reduction on a very low fire.
Still, the pork was grilled to perfection, nice and pink inside. A mound of saut�ed shiitake mushrooms sat on the plate along with a larger mound of hot mashed potatoes, which were blended with roasted garlic and bits of green scallion. The menu states truffle is used, but I could not detect its rich aroma or taste. I could only finish one of the pork tenderloins; the other was packed to go and enjoyed for dinner the next evening.
Although pecan pie is a traditional dessert in New Orleans restaurants — Caf� Nola’s was one of the best in these parts — we decided to share the beignets ($5.50) with vanilla ice cream. According to the Food Lover’s Companion, a fine culinary dictionary, a beignet is "a traditional New Orleans yeast pastry that is deep fried and served hot with a generous dusting of confectioners’ sugar. The name comes from the French word for fritter."
We received a big soup bowl filled with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream, dollops of whipped cream and chocolate sauce. The beignets were fashioned into triangles, came out hot from the oven and were dusted lightly with confectioners’ sugar. They were more like a cake than a light yeast donut, but no matter. We polished them off with ease.
Service was excellent throughout dinner. Our waitress and another server took good care of us. This may sound like a small thing, but I was surprised to receive a steak knife before my pork entr�e arrived. Although the pork was tender, cutting it with a dull butter knife would have been a chore.
The noise level was perfect, even thought the three guys at the bar whooped it up when Mickelson did well on the links. Blues music was piped in and provided the perfect background for a fine meal.
Two-and-a-half tips of the toque to Bourbon Blue.
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Bourbon Blue
2 Rector St.
215-508-3360
Credit cards accepted
Several deep steps up into the restaurant
www.bourbonblue.com
