Café Adelaide & the Swizzle Stick Bar
Dishing Up a Playful Take on Creole Cuisine
Story by
Debra Kronowitz
Located in the Lowes New Orleans Hotel, Café Adelaide & the
Swizzle Stick Bar is the latest restaurant opened by the
infamous Brennan family. Inspired by the playful, creative
spirit of the Brennan’s beloved Aunt Adelaide – who embraced the
joie de vivre
and the spirit of the 1950s and 1960s cocktail culture.
Everything about
Café
Adelaide & the Swizzle Stick Bar
is centered around Adelaide’s charming pursuit of the good life,
from high-falutin’ to low-down, with great New Orleans food.
Executive Chef Chris Lusk joined the
kitchen in May 2008. Named one of six chefs to watch, Lusk most
recently served as executive chef at Vin Bistro in
Austin, TX.
He also served as a sous chef at Mario Batali’s Otto Enoteca in New York, Commander’s
Palace in New Orleans
and
Star Canyon
in Dallas.
With his flair for Southern and contemporary
Louisiana
specialties, Lusk has a keen interest in sharing the “foodie”
experience with patrons. “I want people to eat the way we eat,”
he said. “To order more dishes and share – take a bite and pass
it to the left.”
The Menu
Lusk’s kitchen consistently turns out dishes that resonate with
robust flavor. Organized into
Little Tastes,
Taste and Share,
Soups and Salads and
Entrée sections, the
menu is a combination of creative
New Orleans favorites and Creole
bistro-style dishes. The restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and
dinner; menu items have a tendency to change frequently.
The
Power Lunch gets playful, too, with
25¢
martinis.
Breakfast offers a variety of egg dishes, breads, pancakes and
waffles, and a number of sides. At lunch or dinner, be sure to
try the
Louisiana
shrimp and okra gumbo or the turtle soup. Lusk created an
instant classic for the
Little Tastes section with his
Tea Smoked Duck “BLT,”
made with Luzianne
tea-smoked duck bacon, fried green tomatoes and baby arugula
with Evangeline goat cheese aioli. His spinach and absinthe
dip offered in the
Taste and Share section has also been well received. |
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Photos courtesy of Café Adelaide &
the Swizzle Stick Bar |
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Other Taste and
Share items that
will tantalize the mouth include the
Shrimp and Tasso
Corndogs with five-pepper jelly, pickled okra, chicory
greens and crystal hot sauce butter; Des
Allemands Blue Crab Lollypops made of blue crab
calas, pickled red beets, saffron caramelized onions with brie
and Bocage honey fondue; and
Camembert-Yukon Gold
Potato Gratin with toasted cauliflower soubise and
brioche dust.
From the entrée
list, consider the House Cabernet Marinated Hanger Steak
with black-eyed peas and sweet potatoes
al ajillo, crunchy
parsnips with green peppercorn red wine reduction;
Corn Crusted Red
Grouper & Blue Crab with truffled Louisiana blue
crab, olive oil poached artichokes, grape tomato raisins and
grilled thyme-verjus aioli; and the
“Smashed” Muscovy Duck
with crispy red cabbage choucroute, brabant
potatoes and Steen’s molasses infused au jus.
Save room for desset. The rich menu includes
Creole cream cheesecake
with bruleed turbinado sugar and dark chocolate
toffee; milk and
house-made cookies served with brandy milk punch ice
cream; Bourbon
chocolate pecan pie; vanilla bean crème brulee;
and
buttermilk biscuit pudding with chicory coffee
creme anglaise and candied pecans.
Part of Adelaide Café, the Swizzle Stick Bar is popular
with the locals. It serves its own menu and a variety of
signature drinks, including the
Swizzle Stick
Cocktail, a playful
drink made of New
Orleans
silver rum, bitters and a “special ingredient” and the
Trouble Tree, a metal
holder containing various shots of everything.
The restaurant, located at 300 Poydras St., is open for
breakfast Sunday through Saturday, 7 to 10 am; lunch, Monday
through Friday, 11 am to 2:30 pm; dinner, Monday through
Saturday, 6 to 9:30 pm. The Swizzle Stick Bar is open seven days
a week from 11:30 am to 11 pm. For reservations, call 504.595.3305.
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