After the meal last night, and the ridiculously late bedtime, we were a bit slow on the uptake this morning. But we had brunch plans at Delmonico's, so we hopped into a cab and off we went.
First, Delmonico's has been a New Orleans institution since 1895... it had slipped into disrepair when Emeril Lagasse bought the property in 1997 and revitalized it. FWIW, I don't much care for Emeril, but I have to give the man props for bringing cooking back to the American masses. I had heard that Delmonico's was the best of his spots, and a great brunch, and since we didn't want to do the Commanders Palace/Brennan's thing, this seemed like the obvious choice.
A round of mimosa's, bloody marys & kir royale's later, we were all feeling a bit more human and ready to be seated. We were lead upstairs to the absolutely GORGEOUS dining room. This is another of those amazingly expansive spaces, with 14+' ceilings, crown moulding, chandeliers to die for... simply stunning.
Our ridiculously charmant waiter, Sean, was the highlight of the trip.
C and I are still quoting some of his phrases - most notably, "Everyone who comes to N'awlins thinks he's 10' tall and 6' wide and tries to outdrink the locals. Bad idea."
Since there were 6 people at the table, I can't possibly explain everything we had, but I will attempt to highlight each dish that I can remember... and this time, I'm not organizing by person.
Starters:
- Oysters Rockefeller Soup (this was the soup of the day, and was AMAZING. Smoky, rich green goodness)
- New Orleans BBQ Shrimp (these were off the hook amazing. They were just the most carmelized, savory/sweet shrimp ever)
- Crab cakes (these were quite tasty, though slightly on the greasy side for my taste)
- Gravlax (why lie, I didn't even try this. I hate smoked salmon.)
Main Courses:
- Steak and Eggs (I think there were 3 orders of this on the table. It was REALLY good. It was actually a "broiled prime rib", which I think means it was a bone-in ribeye. Truffle butter with smoked tomato hollandaise and a poached egg. This was my favorite thing on the table)
- Chorizo & Roasted pepper omelette (this was superb. I'm generally not an omelette-person, but I found the chorizo to be truly the best I've had. The cheddar cheese hash browns were not hash browns at all, but finely diced potatoes. This was also a phenomenal accompaniment)
- Crabmeat & Leek quiche with chive crème fraîche (this was my dish, and I'm sorry to say it was the thing I liked least. The quiche just needed something to give it some "oomph", and while the crème fraîche helped, it was just too rich against the richness of the crabmeat in the quiche. This is the only thing on the whole menu that I don't recommend)
- Vanilla bean french toast (this was a lovely version of this dish, using nice thick pieces of bread. The homemade sausage was also nothing to sneeze at, although I only got the tiniest taste of that)
At this point, while were were all totally stuffed, Sean managed to talk us into a round of desserts (the additional rounds of cocktails may also have broked down our ability to say "no").
We ordered:
- Double-chocolate praline pie (sinful and decadent, though there was something in it that was an unexpected and not completely favorable flavor)
- Coconut cream pie (this was really good - C felt like he was home)
- Wild thyme-mascarpone cheesecake (a completely unexpected dessert, it was the only one that didn't get finished. The other flavors in the meal were so comforting that the 'nouveau' stylings of this dessert just didn't match).
I couldn't believe that we didn't order the bananas foster as it's prepared tableside, but it (along w/the crêpes suzette and baked alaska) was for 2 persons, and we coudn't have put it away. Fortunately, we got to watch Sean take care of another table, and here are a few pics of that:
Brunch for six, before tax & tip was around $380. While it was definitely a "splurge" type of brunch, we did eat a lot, and nearly everything was absolutely fabulous.