Mr. B's

[bam bam]

We did the whole tourist thing last night. Pre-game poker at Harrah's. Mr. B's, jaunt down Bourbon St bought ridiculous baseball hats that say "French Quarter, New Orleans" on them. Hit Rick's. Smoked a couple of cigars, good night all around.

We arrived at Mr. B's sans reservation. We were seated immediately in the backroom, which would make an excellent cigar lounge, if we lived in the 1920s and listened to rag time and bought an insane amount of stocks on margin.

Our waiter was Dwayne. Rerun had the night off and Roge was working the front room. We walked through the kitchen but I didn't see Shirley anywhere. Maybe she changed restaurants. Anyway, Dwayne was outstanding. The service was low key but yet we didn't want for anything. He brought us water immediately, the walk from Harrah's to Mr. B's left us parched.

The wine list is loaded with excellent values. I was told not to go higher than 90 bucks and there were numerous drinkable wines in that price category. I went with the Morgan 12 Clones Pinot Noir, which was fairly priced at $70. We started out with the Crabcake appetizer. This was real good, although it was not made exclusiviley with jumbo lump crabmeat. Regardless, it was standard, nothing great served with an herbed TAR TAR sauce.

Since Mr. B's is known for its gumbo, we ordered one of each. I had the seafood. DC had the gumbo ya ya. I thought the roux was way too dark for seafood gumbo. However, it did come loaded with shrimp, oysters and crab meat. I still would have prefered a blonde roux. OTOH, the Gumbo Ya Ya was perfect. The stock used in gumbo really does make a difference. This was a rich dense chicken stock than infused the dish w/ a deep complexity. This may be the best gumbo in the city.

For my entree I went w/ the veal chop. DC went with the filet mignon. Veal chop was sensational. It was cooked a tad less than medium and covered with jumbo lump crabmeat. I have had various incarnations of this dish (I am talk to you VIncent's) where you get two specks of crabmeat. This is not the case here. The chop was literally covered in the stuff. The sauce was very delicate and yet rich. One minor complaint, it came accompanied by this green bean, mushroom, bow tie pasta thing that was a complete mess. DC pronounced the filet better than good.

We partook in dessert because we still had a half of a second bottle of wine left. We split the chocolate molten cake. Best dessert, I have had in New Orleans in a long time.

[HomeMadeCajun]

That 12 Clones is good wine!

[eltoro]

I'm glad you had a favorable experience; however, we have never been fond of the place. Not bad, just better alternatives in our opinion. We'll give it another try sometime.