Category: dining

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Intertwangleism Meets Beautiful Eggs, And Seeing A Heart Through That Tough Exterior Over At The Auction

Peppered with Butch Anthony‘s intertwangleism paintings and filled downstairs with somber paint shades and deep shades for floors and furniture, Justin Devallier’s Balise in New Orleans has a certain dark (though smart) vibe.

The manager noticed me admiring the artwork and explained that Justin and Butch are big friends. He invited to take me upstairs so we could talk more about the art, which was such a generous thing to do. Like me, he wasn’t sure what these other works are downstairs, and at first I couldn’t decide if these were x-ray prints of botanicals and such, or tintypes.

Balise, New Orleans//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Back to the food, Shug wanted a cheeseburger with everything on the side, so voila
Cheeseburger, Balise, New Orleans//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Shugie and I each had the blue crab omelette ‘with fines herbes, english peas, pickled shallots, rye bread, and bernaise and ohmygosh that was the best omelette of my liiiiiiiife. Every omelette from now on will be judged against this one.
Blue Crab Omelette, Balise, New Orleans//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

The only thing that wasn’t just terrific was the sticky toffee pudding — the boys wanted the three of us to share a dessert, so we settled on this. I haven’t had sticky toffee pudding since Leslie and I went to Gordon Ramsay Steakhouse in Las Vegas last year, but this one was disappointing and the only miss.
Sticky Toffee Pudding, Balise, New Orleans//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

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Butch Anthony has been featured all over, but this slideshow from the NYT shows how gorgeous his aesthetic truly is. I’ve seen this trailer he brings to Kentuck.
Butch Anthony Trailer, Kentuck//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Besides Kentuck (these next two pics are from there), he sells his works on Etsy, and this is beyond fabulous.

His pirate ship, though, is kinda the best thing ever.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/175769600

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I’ve been out to Seale just a few times, on one trip there was this large painting on the porch at the Possum Trot Auction:

https://player.vimeo.com/video/206426718?color=ffffff&title=0&byline=0&portrait=0
Alabama’s Possum Trot Auction sells anything that’s legal, but it’s not about the stuff from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.

We visited it again this week
Possum Trot Auction, Seale AL//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

…bordered in…unconventional planters in retro colors. There’s avocado green, sunflower, Mamie pink. What’s missing: harvest gold and poppy.
Possum Trot Auction, Seale AL//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

and tire planters

Tough on the outside, tender on the inside

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And yes ten million times to Alabama’s Secret Sisters who filmed their ‘Tennessee River Runs Low’ music vid with BA (and at the end, there’s your Alabama Dia de los Muertos facepaint for this year)

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PoBoys And Dr Bob Be-Nice-Or-Leave Gallery, Plus The PoBoy Creation Legend Has A Problem

Dr Bob Art, Crabby Jack's, New Orleans//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Crabby Jack’s on Jefferson Highway is part Dr Bob gallery, part crazy-fab poboy emporium.
Dr. Bob Art at Crabby Jack's, New Orleans//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Dr Bob Art, Crabby Jack's, New Orleans//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

If you’re thinking of having a day of Jacques Leonardi places feeding you (which, let’s face it, would be a completely wonderful day), it’s going to be lunch here at Crabby Jack’s, and supper over at Jacques-Imo’s.
Crabby Jack's, New Orleans//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

This is maybe the best poboy in town. It’s between this and Bevi. Yes. Here, the fried shrimp, roast beef, fried green tomato with shrimp remoulade. Crazy-messy and luscious and hot, it’s all just right.
Poboys at Crabby Jack's, New Orleans//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

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Last month, nola.com ran If po-boys were invented in 1929, how was Louis Armstrong eating them a decade earlier? putting into question the poboy creation legend that they were given the name from the 1929 streetcar strike.

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LA Magazine — that’s Los Angeles, not Louisiana — writes that they’ve found the best poboy there, and it’s the ‘gumbo mumbo’:
Shrimp, chicken, ground sirloin, sliced beef hot links, onions, and bell peppers are tossed in a vinegary sauce and—through some miracle of physics or perhaps sheer force of will—held together by two firm hunks of house-baked bread. It’s less a sandwich and more a soulful stew precariously bound in starch, seeping harmonious notes of acid and heat.

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Herby K’s, Miss Eudora Loves The Jitney Jungle, And Joan Didion In The South

We finally made it to the Shreveport institution Herby K’s last summer —
Herby K's, Shreveport LA//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

When we were walking up, I knew it was family-friendly, but had momentary doubts as it sure looks like package store / bar on the outside
Herby K's, Shreveport LA//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

It was good — they had coloring sheets and crayons in cups to keep kids busy. And of course Av had their famous dish, the shrimp buster, which was pretty great

After leaving, we ran across a Shreveport Jitney Jungle which still has its signage. Every time I see one, I think of Eudora Welty and her almost daily trips to the Jitney #14 in the Belhaven neighborhood of Jackson, where mid-century, she was tipping the bagboys a dime, sometimes a quarter.

Jitney Jungle, Shreveport LA

Willie Morris first met Miss Eudora at the Jitney as a child when he went there with his great-aunt Maggie Harper, who lived across the street and treated the store as her own private pantry.

Jitney Jungle Sign

(I found this sign in 2005 in south Alabama)

That Belhaven Jitney is now a McDade’s, still with the tudor styling just like the Welty home, and is proudly local: when there last month, they had a nice display of Crechale’s comeback sauce by the registers.

Jitney Jungle Wrapping Paper, Woodville MS//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js
(found this Jitney butcher paper at an antique store in Woodville, Mississippi)

 We were in town for Beth Israel’s 50th anniversary celebration, and had a nice supper at Lou’s Full-Serv, next door to the McDade’s.
//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js
Lou's Full-Serv, Jackson MS//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js
Bonus: Shug made friends with one of the #catsofbelhaven outside the restaurant.

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The new Joan Didion book, South and West, is reviewed at Vogue, and mentions the passing of her opportunity to meet Eudora Welty:
But in the summer of 1970, Didion was in limbo, between books, following an idea she could not yet fully articulate, that for some years the South had been America’s true “psychic center.” She acts on the impulses of a traveler (searching for the grave of William Faulkner in Oxford, Mississippi); she has some of the curious dialogues with strangers that are a signature of her stories; she has some of the rarified experience that come with being Joan Didion (gin and tonics on a bayou during a thunderstorm with Walker Percy). She elects, though, not to go to meet Eudora Welty because that would mean going to Jackson, Mississippi, where there was an airport from which she could easily fly home to California…

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Nashville Arnold’s – And To Meringue, Or Not To Meringue? Plus: Put Half A Maraschino Cherry On That.

Thinking Nashville meat-and-three, Arnold’s is right on, tippy-top, must-do.

Arnold's Country Kitchen, Nashville TN//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

You know what to do. Read up on that menu because you don’t want to waste time when your tray makes that first stop!

Beginnings and endings: pie and salad.

I’m not even big on roast beef, but that’s what I got — and it was good.
Roast Beef, Arnold's Country Kitchen, Nashville TN//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Deep, dark, crusty, yummy fried green tomatoes.
Fried Green Tomatoes, Arnold's Country Kitchen, Nashville TN//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Av did chicken and dumplings, though we both believe more in biscuit-y dumplings.
Chicken & Dumplins, Arnold's Country Kitchen, Nashville TN//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

In my world, this is a hoecake, but I asked someone who worked at Arnold’s, and they just call this cornbread.
Hoecake, Arnold's Country Kitchen, Nashville TN//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Ever had chess pie with meringue? Don’t think it really needs it.
Chess Pie with Meringue, Arnold's Country Kitchen, Nashville TN//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Arnold’s was really good and a fun experience, but Niki’s West in Birmingham is still the top of my meat-and-three list. BTW, al.com did a survey of best M+3 in Alabama, and here are the winners.

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Garden and Gun did a piece by Jed Portman on the classic pear salad:

Like many Southern mid-century cooks, she garnished run-of-the-mill canned pears with mayonnaise and mild cheddar. “Those were the pears on the table growing up,” Burdett says. “You got pears out of a deviled egg tray with cheese and mayo or you didn’t get pears at all.”

My grandparents liked to go to the Morrison’s Cafeteria in the Gadsden Mall (I remember when apartment hunting for University of South Alabama, I noticed they had a Morrison’s and thought to myself: well, at least I can still get my greens and not starve to death — which is crazy because I was super-college-poor and lived on a mix of ramen, the Wendy’s dollar menu, and whatever I could scrounge at Taco Bell). I think the last Morrison’s on planet Earth is in Mobile, where the chain originated, even today. It’s actually owned by Picadilly, which bought the Morrison’s chain, but they let the name live on in there.

Anyway, though the Garden and Gun article makes no mention of it, I remember the cafeteria pear salads always sported a half a maraschino cherry on top. Sure enough, I went onto Flickr and found a pic I took a couple of years ago at Matthew’s Cafeteria in Tucker, Georgia. Voila:
Pear Salad at Matthews Cafeteria, Tucker GA//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

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Duncan Hines + James Beard Agree

Av’s been wanting to check more of the James Beard Classics winners off our list of restaurants to try (along with other JBF categories) so we gave the Beaumont Inn in Harrodsburg, Kentucky a try. It’s in a lovely building from 1845 that’s served as various educational institutions and has been run in its current function since 1919. With the outbuildings, there are 33 acres altogether.

The restaurant is housed inside the 1845 building, and it has several common areas for relaxing

Beaumont Inn, Harrodsburg KY//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Beaumont Inn, Harrodsburg KY//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Beaumont Inn, Harrodsburg KY//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Inside one case, their Duncan Hines award

From the JBF:

Founded by Glave Goddard and Annie Bell Goddard in 1917, the Beaumont, which opened for business in 1919, is still operated by their descendants. Set in a former women’s college built in 1845, the Beaumont main house is columned and formal. And the menu is deeply rooted in Kentucky. The Dedman family, now at the helm, serves Kentucky products with pride, including Weisenberger meal, Meacham hams, and bourbons from the best distillers in the state.

Recipes for dishes like corn pudding and fried chicken, handed down through five generations, form the core of the menu. As their forebears did, the Dedmans serve two-year-old country ham, which they bring to maturation in their own aging house. Little has changed since the days when the pioneering critic Duncan Hines was a regular. “Now write this down for the people in Kentucky,” he told a reporter back in 1949. “[Say] I’ll be happy to get home and eat two-year-old ham, cornbread, beaten biscuits, pound cake, yellow-leg fried chicken, and corn pudding. And you can say what I think is the best eating place in Kentucky: Beaumont Inn at Harrodsburg.”

Display from their James Beard Award in 2015
James Beard Award at Beaumont Inn, Harrodsburg KY//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Even the pats of butter are longing for the past: they’re from rose-shaped moulds.

The most classic dish on the menu: “yellow-legged” fried chicken and two-year-old Kentucky-cured country ham, green beans and corn pudding — all fabulous
Beaumont Inn, Harrodsburg KY//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

I had the *most* delicious fried chicken livers with cream gravy, whipped potatoes, and (curiously) grilled red onion
Fried Chicken Livers, Beaumont Inn, Harrodsburg KY//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Afterward, we went outside and played shuffleboard

…and Av decided this would be a great spot for a post-prandial nap

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Of the restaurants Duncan Hines recommended in his ‘Adventures in Good Eating’ books, one person has started a thread of those establishments still open. Of the 164 listed on the 1935 Christmas card list, it seems that perhaps 37 still exist, with the only one further south than Kentucky being Antoine’s (several, several more are still extant from the Duncan Hines books since that first list).

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I’ll Have What Eudora’s Having, And John Folse’s Seafood R’evolution

One evening, we were minus the boys and in Jackson, so Av decided to take me to the Fairview Inn to see if I’d like to stay there sometime in the future (we were staying at the Hilton on County Line Road that evening) — it’s a Bed and Breakfast. The idea was to drop in take a look at the grounds, and have a drink in the Library before having supper at Seafood R’evolution, the John Folse / Rick Tramonto restaurant in Ridgewood.

I told him we could give it a go in the future, but looking at the selection of rooms, I wasn’t especially excited about any of them. It’s not them…it’s me. It feels like one of my college best friend’s mother’s home. Very put together with a lot-lot of carpet, and framed prints, and dishes on walls.

Here, the library, which is appropriately all dark and wood and leather

The menu included drinks named after Mississippi authors including Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Richard Wright, Shelby Foote, John Grisham, Margaret Walker, Alice Walker, and Kathryn Stockett. I had the Eudora Welty ‘Belhaven’ which was Cathead vodka, cucumber, Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray, Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur

Av had the Willie Morris Old Fashioned, which was made with Maker’s Mark

I did think it was funny that among the non-alcoholic drinks was one named for Mildred Pierce (this was the period in which Faulkner worked on screenplays) as toward the end, Mildred — this is one of my favorite films in the whole world — lets everyone know things have gotten such a way with her that she’s learned to drink “straight”.
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We next had reservations at Seafood R’evolution in Ridgeland, which I’ve been wanting to go to since they opened. We especially enjoy John Folse and Rick Tramonto’s Restaurant R’evolution in the Quarter, so were interested to see what this concept would be like.

Beyond the host desk is the 13-foot raw bar

Seafood R'evolution, Jackson MS//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Love the buoy chandelier

Open kitchen

First, the bread service

*That biscuit* — yessss
Biscuit at Seafood R'evolution, Jackson MS//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Av had the shrimp and grits, which was pretty terrific
Shrimp and Grits, Seafood R'evolution, Jackson MS//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

This evening, I was more interested in the sides than the entrees, so I just ordered the brussels sprouts, roasted cauliflower with peanuts and capers, and cheese grits. So fab.
Grits and Brussels Sprouts and Roasted Cauliflower at Seafood R'evolution, Jackson MS//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js

Near our table, the glass wine cellar, which we were invited to walk into and take our time looking over

…and yesyesyes to the oyster-inspired tile flooring.
Seafood R'evolution, Jackson MS//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js
Makes me think of ihavethisthingwithtiles on IG.
Which in turn makes me think of the best/funniest thing I found on Tumblr (but this is the main site) all week.