Coquette

One of the great benefits of having a daughter in college in New Orleans is that we have an excuse to drive there at the drop of a hat for meals, especially to celebrate her special days, such as her twenty-second birthday. 

For this occasion, we ate at Coquette at 2800 Magazine Street.  This is a restaurant I’ve been hearing about for a few years.  Chef Mike Stolzfus worked at Restaurant August before opening Coquette in December of 2008 and was nominated this year as a “People’s Best New Chef (Gulf Region)” by Food & Wine Magazine. 

Reservations at 1:30 on a Saturday were necessary, and we were seated in the filled-to-capacity front downstairs dining room that “ells” around the inviting bar.   Waiting to be seated, our daughter expressed our feelings about dining in the Crescent City when she said, “I love that in New Orleans you can get really ‘high end’ food in a comfortable setting.”  I couldn’t have put it better myself. 

Our first impression of Coquette was the wonderful cocktail menu which includes a solid wine list and both classic and original concoctions.  My husband chose the quintessential New Orleans cocktail, the Sazerac (with absinthe), while my daughter chose the restaurant’s Coquette Collins, an inventive twist on a Tom Collins.

Coquette also features drinks that contain “house infusions.”   When I asked our waiter about the bacon bourbon, not only did he explain the brewing process, but he brought us a small sample—which tasted like a wonderfully smoky single malt Scotch.

O.K. this has to be one of the fine dining bargains in New Orleans:  a three course lunch menu for $20! 

There were three choices per course, and our waiter told us that while some items are offered consistently, many change daily.   

The first course options included a gumbo and a salad with a crispy pig ear and soft-boiled egg, which my husband seriously considered as his choice.  Ultimately, we all picked the Roast Oysters which consisted of four generous roasted oysters nestled in rock salt and topped with a fennel and bacon ragout and horseradish cream.  Observing the number of plates of this appetizer that were whisked by us during our meal, this dish is deservedly a house favorite.

For our second course, we each selected a different entrée.  My husband chose the pork belly which was somewhat of an Asian dish.  The several slices of crispy sautéed pork belly were served to be wrapped in pieces of Bibb lettuce with pickled vegetables and dipped in a spiced yogurt sauce.   The small taste he allowed me was fantastic.

My daughter chose the Gulf Shrimp with grits, a classic presentation enhanced with cippolini onions and fennel.  The dish was generous and delicious. 

I chose the Ricotta Gnocchi.  Not only were the gnocchi feather-light, but the sweetness of the diced butternut squash played off the saltiness of the chopped  Benton’s country ham in the brown butter sauce nicely.

The dessert course found us two-against-one.  My husband and daughter chose the beignets.  These were four or five round and puffy beignet, sprinkled with powdered sugar.  There were two small dipping “pots,” one of a fluffy chocolate-coffee pot de crème and the other of a caramel sauce.  I chose the panna cotta which was topped with slices of blood orange and a small dice of candied fennel—an unusual, but refreshing combination.

In a “foodie” city like New Orleans, Coquette is definitely a serious, but accessible, contender.