Started the night with a happy hour Envie and cheese curds at Overpass Merchant. Really enjoy talking shop with the bar staff there. We share where we’ve been and where we’re going and what we think would or wouldn’t work in BR. I floated my idea of a Spanish place with lots of local seafood tapas and five different house sangrias and while they all agree it would be fun and people would go there, none of us thought it likely to happen. We were all excited for the upcoming opening of Bumsteers on Perkins where Crispy Catch was after Kean’s Dry Cleaning bugged out.
I really love the cheese curds at Merchant. They are flash fried with a crispy light batter that just warms the cheese through without turning it into dairy napalm. Said bye to everyone and caught an Uber downtown to Bengal Tap Room to continue the celebration of the end of the work week.
The tap room is a good place to aim your Uber downtown because they have a great draft lineup and are just enough outside the traffic snarl of downtown events to get you out of your Uber and on the streets as quick as possible. Don’t get me wrong, I really get into talking with Uber drivers and seeing how they’re doing and all. It’s funny, but the short window of an Uber ride seems to free up the conversation. Kind of like speed dating, but without even that much commitment. After a pint of Jucifer I headed down 3rd to Galvez Plaza to check out the Chris LeBlanc Band.
That’s an old friend from the service industry on drums, Joey Breland. The band rocked it, and it was a beautiful evening. I don’t know who came up with the Live After Five concept, I know I went to my first one down in Lafayette, but it is a very satisfying event. To see so many people outside, putting their cares aside, groovin’ to the music with a beer in hand and Jambalaya by Shake in their belly is just a good thing. The other thing about Live After Five is seeing all the kids playing on their phones, and in the little playground they set up behind the stage, and all the dogs and all the kids playing with the dogs. Not something you normally encounter watching live music indoors at a bar. And maybe that is the key to a festival atmosphere, whether it’s a state fair or a company crawfish boil, but events with all generations in attendance just seem to be a much fuller experience. Alas, it was over too soon so I headed back down 3rd to The Gregory in The Watermark Hotel.
Normally I don’t lead with a bathroom shot, but this is another instance of someone dropping some pretty serious coin to make you feel better about being in their place. Normal practice for upper end hotels, but so much more effective than billboards in my opinion. When you are trying to build clientele, I would think at a certain point you would turn most of your advertising budget to retention. Just seems like so much more bang for your buck, but that is just my opinion. The Gregory has all the upscale trappings, but since it’s a hotel bar, there’s no real dress code. Festival gear is fine at the bar. I got into another good conversation with a guy from New York passing through on business. We talked about Tiger in the Masters and I pointed him towards Soji and Elsie’s as great new Baton Rouge restaurants. We talked a bit about the different regional cuisines in the US. I had a conversation with the barkeep as well about Carmo on Julia Street in New Orleans where they don’t use simple syrup at all in their mojitos and she assured me she didn’t like overly sweet drinks either then served up this beauty.
The Watermark also has some very interesting art and a wine room that would probably be a great place for a rehearsal dinner if you know anyone that’s getting married anytime soon. It seems like it would also be a great place for the wedding party for an interstate marriage since there are so many churches downtown and both Capitol buildings, and the river is right there in walking distance which is very convenient for folks flying in from out of state.
I felt like I had one more stop left in me before I was done for the evening so I wandered over to Cocha on 6th St for another Envie and a late snack of Thai Curried Mussels made with “leek, fennel, lager, red curry, and coconut milk” and they were quite delicious.
The owner Enrique was at the bar since it wasn’t a very busy night due to Live After Five complicating traffic and pretty much keeping his clientele away. We talked about the underrated influence of Spanish cuisine on Louisiana culture and together sketched an idea for a jambalaya that would move closer to its paella roots. Maybe ham and shrimp and pork belly with a saffron base that was cooked much quicker than our jambalaya. You have to think that the original Cajun jambalaya was a slow cook because it was probably a way to use and stretch the old hens that had quit laying as well as the tougher meats of whatever else was available like squirrel and rabbit all of which do best low and slow. The Creole tomato based version is a lot closer to the Spanish paella than the country style. Enrique wanted to know how I knew about Cocha and I gave all the credit to a pair of sisters I know and love who stay gluten free and love Cocha not just because the food is very tasty, but also because it is mostly organic and locally sourced and dishes that are vegan and gluten free are easily identified on the menu. And of course it has become a place for me because they have original art and host poetry readings and art shows and I really enjoy having all the things I like under one roof.
