One in the Riverbend

[LiveOak]

My wife and I went there last night.

We started with an appetizer of crabcakes with a cabbage/basil salad and a mustard vinaigrette. These were very good, but the term crabcake was misleading. Basically, there were three little mounds of lump crabmeat on the plate with the cabbage salad in the middle as if they had been served with a small ice cream scoop.

We both had a salad. I had a very good one with heirloom tomatoes, small balls of mozzarella, and all of this was on top of a crunchy disk of parmesan cheese that had been baked in the oven. This was a very colorful dish with tomatoes that I had not seen before ranging in color from blood red (really maroon) to yellow. My wife had an arugula and watermelon salad with candied pecans and goat cheese. The only thing she didn't like were the slices of pickled melon rind.

For dinner I had braised rabbit. This was a leg quarter on top of what I can best describe as rabbit debris. This had some fava beans mixed in. This was good, but it was an irritation picking through the bones in the debris. My wife had beef tenderloin on top of a rillette of beef shoulder. Again, the rillette was basically a beef debris formed into a cake and set under the beef tenderloin.

All in all, One was fairly good, but it didn't overwhelm me. The preparations for the salads and the appetizer were much more interesting than the entrees. I enjoyed my salad much more than I did the entree, and that seemed a little backwards to me. The atmosphere is nice, but a bit cramped being one big room. I did think the food bar was a cool feature.

In summary, we enjoyed ourselves but not enough to run back real soon.

[justagirl]

Was the mozzarella on your salad really good? Last time I had that salad there it knocked my socks off it was so good. Nor Joe's is where he said he got it and I went and picked up some the next day.

I've always had really good meals at One. I love sitting up at the food bar.

[LiveOak]

It was good. The mozzarella was in the form of little marble-sized balls (maybe five of them). I would actually say the salad was the best part of the meal. I'd love to know where I could find some of those tomatoes. Of all the variations on a caprese salad I've had this was at the top.

The food bar looks cool. I always like watching the chefs work.

[Cocktailtime]

I've always liked One. I find that I prefer a salad appetizer combination the best. I have sat at the food bar and found it to be interesting -love open kitchens. I also like the crab cakes, but they really aren't cakes which is fine with me.

[Suzy Wong]

Live Oak,
I have bought tomatoes like you described at Rouse's on Vets next to Stein Mart. They had a plastic container of small ones of various colors, one type even looked like a mini watermelon. And they had a pic on front naming each kind....

I am sure Whole Foods would have them also.....

[LiveOak]

Thanks, Suzy. I will definitely go today.

[Suzy Wong]

Rouse's had what I described 2, maybe 3, months ago...I have no sense of time. It could've been a seasonal item, I'm not sure.
If you go and don't see them, you can ask for the manager of the produce dept, and they may know more.

I'd hate to have you waste a trip....
I'll be going to WF's in the next day or 2 and check there....

[Yvette]

Went to One two weeks ago. Thought I wrote about it, maybe not. Don't feel like doing a search. I loved the heirloom tomato salad. Dinner was a type of seafood pasta, which was really good.

We are going back there next Tuesday night.

The one negative I can say, is I hate those small tables. If you go with four, it gets too crowded on the table with wine glasses, water glasses, bread basket, butter and your plates and silverware.

I say, go with just two or get a large party and sit at the round table.

On a side note, when we were parking I saw Xavier Laurentino working on his new restaurant to open soon where Cafe Volage used to be. We chatted a while. He said he should be opening in two weeks...but he says that every time I see him. Its going to be a Tapa restaurant. I saw his blue prints, the bar area is going to really cool.

I am supposed to get an email from his when he finally opens, will let ya'll know.

[LiveOak]

I didn't realize Cafe Volage was gone. I was never crazy about it but my parents loved it. Any idea why it closed?

[Yvette]

I didn't realize Cafe Volage was gone. I was never crazy about it but my parents loved it. Any idea why it closed?

Don't know why they closed. I THINK it was at least around the time of Katrina, don't know before or after, or even if Katrina had something to do with it.

Agree, went twice, it did not do anything for me.