Dinner at Saint John

As the New Orleans Bourbon Festival approaches I have spent an irresponsible amount of time planning so many things to do and see I have realized that even as a local, there are just so many damn choices to make. Which seminar should I go to? Where will I eat three meals a day? What fun non-fest things should I do? Where should I take my friends who will have their own ideas of what they want to do while visiting from afar? For the record, anyone visiting that wants Cafe Du Monde Beignets always has a friend in me, but only the one in the quarter.

Sorting through all of the events and choices to make is difficult, and this isn’t even my first Bourbon Fest rodeo, but I was really thinking, how does someone make a decision on what to attend and what not to if they aren’t from here, or have never been to the Festival? First of all, there is no bad decision. I got most of my first choice seminars last year, and the ones that weren’t my initial preference still delivered some memorable experiences. A couple were happy mistakes that delighted me. I picked some things this year I might not have selected had it been my first time, because I wanted to trust chance and fate to show me something new. I’ll let you know how that goes in my festival recap, even though I suspect I’ll be just fine with my choices.

One of the things that was difficult for me was choosing a whiskey paired dinner event. There are some excellent choices on the list, but I have so much going on that Thursday night with friends from out of town that we have our own dinner plans and aren’t doing the ticketed dinners. Since FOMO is a real thing, my girl and I gassed up the Chrysler and visited Saint John for dinner last night to get a taste of what might be in store for you should you decide to purchase tickets to the Jackie Zykan hosted dinner.

Yay, salad pictures no one cares probably.

We started with a Caesar, which my girl adores, and is quite snobbish about. You know how you dissect every single note and flaw in a glass of bourbon? That’s my girl with a Caesar. She was delighted and quite happy with the dressing flavor, the wetness factor (wet, but not soggy),the ratio of fresh cheese, the crunch level of the croutons (5 out of 10 on crunchy scale, which is apparently perfect) and the amount of fresh cracked pepper,

It’s a salad, no one goes to a place FOR a salad but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t the perfect kick off for what was to come next.

Locals always say the best gumbo is their maw maw’s I have no maw maw that can make gumbo, so I rank this the second best in the city.

Gumbo is a hot topic here in New Orleans. Arguments abound about what qualifies as gumbo and what does not. Ask a group of locals if they put potato salad in their gumbo and watch some heads explode. Most locals will scoff at restaurant gumbo, because no one makes it like their grandmother. You think Bourbon has robust origin stories? Wait until you hear that just about everyone here has a long standing family recipe passed down from generation to generation and they aren’t lying.

Since I have no family recipe to wax nostalgic about, or compare to, I’ve been to an awful lot of places here in the city and I always try the gumbo. If it’s on the menu, bring me a cup please. What’s the verdict? I’ve had cups all over town, so I’ve got a list of favorites and Saint John’s has become #2 on the list supplanting the damn good gumbo at Cochon.

Hot Shrimp Remoulade over fried green tomatoes. This was “I need a hug from strangers” level of good. It made me weep, probably.

The next dish to come out was the hot Shrimp Remoulade over fried green tomatoes. My girl loves shrimp, but was skeptical about the hot remoulade, as she usually gets a cold version at some places that she loves. I pushed her to try something new, and was she ever glad that she did. Perfectly cooked shrimp with the buttery sauce you’d expect in the South. The fried green tomatoes as a base were unbelievable. I can eat shrimp, but it’s not really a favorite of mine so I rarely order it myself, but in this case we split the dish evenly it was so good. I would order this on my own in the future.

Red Snapper doesn’t look red when prepared like this…..

My girl had the Red Snapper, and it was a terrific buttery delicious mess. My girl doesn’t gently dive into a meal, she goes to work with both fists and everything gets displaced in the process. There were no survivors here, she crushed the dish. I don’t think she’d order it again, not because it wasn’t good, but because there was so much butter in the shrimp remoulade dish, it made for a very heavy combo and she would never skip ordering that shrimp/tomato appetizer on future visits.

Side of brown butter corn, slightly sweet, still savory, “oh I’ll just have one more…..”

Unpopular opinion here, but I hate collard greens. My girl loves them. I did try them, and they were better than most places. My girl thought they were perfection. She’s from the south. I’m not. You get to decide on who’s right. She is probably.

Mea culpa here, I forgot to take a picture of my Duck Popper dish. I know I know, if I don’t post a picture of it, it didn’t happen. Ahwell. What can you do?

Anyway, the meal was fabulous, everything was just right and they took great care of us. I have no idea what the paired menu will look like, but you can bet that some of these things will be available at the event, and since it’s hosted by Jackie Zykan of Hidden Barn, you can bet that there will be thoughtful pairings and conversations. If you pick this dinner, I doubt that you’ll go wrong. You can get your tickets here.

Bread pudding without the wretched raisins. IT DOESN’T NEED NATURES CRAPPY CANDY, it’s fine on it’s own. This was perfection.