A Decadent Food Weekend: Part 2, Dinner at Brigsten’s

 Although five hours, a thorough tour of the New Orleans Art Museum, and an hour nap separated our lunch at Café Degas from our dinner Brigsten’s, it was a gastronomic undertaking to eat this well, not to mention this much, in one day.  We almost felt heroic when the day was done.

There are so many good restaurants in New Orleans that it’s pretty rare if we dine at one more than once. But Brigsten’s (pronounced “Brightston’s”) is the kind of restaurant you want to return to.  In fact, this was my second visit to Brigsten's.

Brigsten’s is located at 723 Dante Street in uptown New Orleans.  Dante Street is a mostly residential street, and the restaurant is situated a few blocks from where South Carrollton meets the Mississippi River.  So it, like Café Degas, is in a quiet, accessible part of town.  We had the added benefit of being able to walk to Brigsten’s from our daughter’s apartment, and we needed to burn all the calories we could before and, especially, after our wonderful meal there.

The restaurant building is an older home, and inside it’s clear which room was the home’s former porch, parlor and dining room.  The walls and beadboard wainscoting are painted a soft yellow giving the restaurant a homey but elegant feeling.  Most of the relatively few tables (reservations are most necessary) were filled, many with families of parents and college-age children who were, no doubt, returning that weekend to one of New Orleans many universities.

Worth remembering if you visit New Orleans in August is that many restaurants participate in “Coolinary New Orleans” and offer prix fixe lunch and dinner menus at greatly reduced costs. Although we ordered from the regular menu, Brigsten’s Coolinary menu sounded appetizing and offered a nice variety of dishes for $35.

For his first course, my husband ordered “Veal Sweetbreads with Potato Leek Cake, Crimini Mushrooms, Capers, & Lemon Roasted Garlic Butter.”  We both agreed that the sweetbreads were cooked very nicely, but the butter sauce was slightly salty for our tastes.

My first course, a watermelon salad that is offered seasonally, was as beautiful as it was tasty.  Three cucumber slices were placed on a small bed of arugula, and each cucumber slice was topped with a small “cylinder” of seedless watermelon.  Each of the watermelon pieces were topped with a small ball of goat cheese that was rolled in toasted nuts.  A sprinkling of curry-flavored popcorn was an original touch.  My only suggestion would be that the watermelon towers, not just the arugula, be drizzled with a balsamic vinaigrette or reduction.

For his main course, my husband ordered the “Cochon de Lait with Cornbread Dressing, Natural Pan Gravy & Cracklins.”   For those not fluent in French or not from southern Louisiana, cochon de lait means suckling pig, and this “little baby” was exceedingly tender.  My husband commented that his entrée was almost like a full Christmas meal as it included a sweet potato puree and a broccoli soufflé or gratin.

I ordered the “Broiled Gulf Fish with Crabmeat Parmesan Crust, Mushrooms, & Lemon Mousselline.”  The fish of the day was a red snapper, and it was cooked to perfection.  I do have one small complaint about the way south Louisiana restaurants, especially Creole restaurants, serve fish and that is that the fish tends to be overly “accessorized.”   Here crabmeat AND mushrooms AND sauce was just a bit too much.

Even though we were now, like my fish, “stuffed to the gills,” we threw caution and calorie-counting to the wind and ordered dessert.  My husband ordered the pecan pie which our server told us was award-winning, and it only took each of us one bite to understand why.

Most pecan pies are made of pecan halves, and the pecans “float” on top of the rich filling.  Brigsten’s pie is made of pecan pieces which allows the pecans and the filling to be more integrated.  Our server told us that the restaurant doesn’t have a freezer, so the pie would be served on a pool of caramel sauce (the 2nd for the day!) and not with ice cream.  Believe me, we did not miss the ice cream!  (Click here to view Brigsten’s recipe for this marvelous pie.)

Lured by the way name of the dessert rolled off my tongue when I said it, I admit I was suffering under a couple of illusions when I ordered “Café Au Lait Crème Crème Brûlée.”  My first illusion pertained to size. Most crème brûlées are rather small and prepared in shallow ramekins.  This version was served in a full-sized coffee cup!

My second illusion concerned, for lack of a better word, “potency.”  Most coffee-shop café au laits are at least half milk which reduces the strength of the coffee, but this brûléed version seemed quite caffeinated. Don’t get me wrong, the dessert was superb, but my full stomach and buzzing head kept me awake for quite a while.

This was another wonderful dining experience, and if I sound slightly less-than-enthusiastic, it's because decadence can be quite demanding!