A Night in the Riverbend, part 1

For about 4 years now, I have made the very difficult decision to be a pescetarian. It has been a very good practice for me considering that if I ate meat, my meals would consist of the fast food restaurants across the street from the school where I work. (This is not the only reason why I am a pescetarian, pigs are smart and I feel bad causing them physical harm.) Practicing pescetarianism is a fairly easy practice in New Orleans. The gulf coast region loves its seafood, shellfish, and crustaceans. Luckily enough, so do I. I can often go to any type of restaurant in the city and trust that if it is a mainly carnivorous restaurant, there will be a seafood option.

Farm to Table Hollygrove!

Last night, we ventured to Boucherie, a boutique restaurant that prides itself on providing contemporary, Southern cuisine.  Let me repeat that: Southern cuisine. In any language, Southern cuisine typically involves pig and duck fat and lots and lots of bacon. (I am now waiting for all my meat eating friends to say, "mmmmm.....bacon!") I enjoyed this little restaurants atmosphere. It is nestled into an old house - one of my favorites - and the staff is really friendly. If you visit this lovely establishment, make sure you make reservations because the place is so small that you may be standing next to a couple at their table enjoying the food that you really want and are waiting for. (No worries, we made reservations.) We ordered collard greens and grit fries, blackened shrimp with a grit cake, and I ordered salmon while my boyfriend enjoyed lamb ribs. During each small plate, he would stir through the sauce, look up at me and say, "baby, you just ate meat," "you just ate bacon," and my personal favorite, "he didn't say crab, he said cracklin!" Oh no. Here comes the belly ache. Needless to say, I went to visit with Lou a couple of times during our dinner. My belly wasn't quite ready for that.

Boucherie is a bit of a tight squeeze. The wait staff has a difficult time walking through the patrons, tables, and people waiting on a table. So, the bathroom tries its best to do with what it has. There is nothing special in this dark grey tinted room, but it is stylish and clean. It features a new low flow toilet where you have the options to push two different buttons when you are finished. Boucherie buys a lot of it's produce from the local Hollygrove Farm and Market, so there are advertisements for their event, "From Farm to Table" in the restaurant. And if you are considering whether or not you should like the restaurant, they have a copy of their Zagat rating hanging up as well. I will be honest, I was not super impressed with this restroom, but enjoyed that they were working with their small space. They even have a little shelf just for your towels and make up for their lackluster by having two different foam soap dispensers!