Bayona Restaurant
430 Dauphine Street
New Orleans, LA
August 3, 2017
French Quarter
2 PM New Orleans, LA
Some days pass by in linear order, others organic with a hit of synchronicity. In the French Quarter, bet on synchronicity, which is how this traveler ended up eating at Bayona on this night. I happily dine in places like Déjà Vu, comfort food New Orleans style, so my interest in reading the Bayona menu across the street from my hotel was more out of curiosity than intent...or so I thought.
“There’s a full menu of tonight’s dishes just inside the door, consider having dinner here tonight.” The woman with a distinct presence, a green tilak painted on her forehead, is on her way inside. I don’t often eat at high-end restaurants, but there’s something direct in that invitation. She means it.
8:30 PM
A thunderstorm is raging. I really want to head to The Rock 'n Bowl for a great dance. Walking from my hotel on Dauphine Street to Canal Street and waiting for the streetcar to take me 13.2 miles to the end of the line on Carrollton Avenue then quarter mile walk to the Rock 'n Bowl is beyond crazy.
That invitation from the concierge at the Bayona Restaurant is a downright rational option. Laurie recognizes me with a smile. A minute later, she’s seated me at a finely set table for four.
The interior is low-key elegant with burgundy painted walls, white trim around windows and moldings and recessed lighting, and wall sconces that give off a glow inviting and intimate - let's call in an aura. The mirror on the wall next to me makes the room appear larger, capturing the warmth of the burgundy walls. Understated elegance soon followed by attentive but not overbearing service. One look out the window and I'm ready to settle down for a long meal.
A couple of families and their daughters are celebrating a birthday at a nearby table. The chatter is indistinct, white noise, sort of like the persistent sound of waves lapping onto the beach.
“What do you like on the menu tonight?” says I as my waiter approaches.
“The Berkshire Lamb Chop with smothered greens and a French Creole sauce.” says my waiter. “There’s usually some variation on a pork dish on the menu, tonight's is an exceptionally good one.”
“That’s the one for me,” says I. Of note - no bread or rolls served before dinner.
Sometimes I hesitate before digging in because the presentation is so carefully laid out. Then the aroma takes over and so does my knife. The first cut through the nearly 2-inch chop needs no pressure and reveals a pink, moist chop. The sauce…that’s when I begin to consider the thunderstorm and the chance meeting with Laurie as a sign from above.
Those smothered collard greens and Creole sauce are made from smoked onion, Crystal Worcestershire sauce, bay leaf, reduced game stock, Creole mustard, Dijon mustard, cream, I learn from my waiter… “I make it all the time at home!” says my born and raised New Orleans friend Rubia. This city is quite possibly the sauce capital of the world.
Serendipity, synchronicity...however I got here feels right. Maybe this aura business began the moment Laurie invited me to the restaurant this afternoon. And it seeps into mine as I leave. "You were a teacher? A noble and underpaid profession. Several members of my family were teachers." Her mother taught at the grammar school across the street from Louis Armstrong Park. My grandmother was the first Italian American to teach public school in my hometown.
Born and raised in the Tremé, Laurie reminds me that it is the oldest community of free people of color in the country. The Candlelight Lounge on North Robertson deep in the Tremé, not far from Armstrong Park, is always one of my first stops on any visit to New Orleans.The Wednesday night residency of the world famous Tremé Brass Band is not to be missed.
"Do you like poetry?" she asks, and says that her poet grandfather was the first to use the term ‘beatnik’ and spent most of his life around San Francisco. Next thing you know and we're talking about The City Lights Bookstore.
This is getting pretty amazing. It has a tendency to happen in New Orleans with frequency. And one of the only upsides of big time thunderstorms, at least on this night.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
Comments