Hello, and welcome to the free weekly version of the CulinaryWoman newsletter.
Thank you to the readers who’ve recently upgraded their subscriptions! I’m so pleased that CulinaryWoman is growing and I can bring you even more journalism.
If you’re enjoying my weekly reports, think about joining them. You’ll get even more value that way, from advance word of what’s in each week’s newsletter to eligibility for our giveaways.
Just click this button, and thank you for your support of all things CulinaryWoman.
The Road Trip Concludes
My road trip is finished, and I’m now surrounded by boxes in New Orleans. People have been asking if I’m going to Jazz Fest, and while I’m tempted, I think I’d rather wait until 2023 when I can enjoy the music without wondering, “where did the movers put that?”
Before I left, I made a list of places I wanted to eat, both on the road and when I arrived. As I told you last week, I had wonderful meals in Chicago at Dear Margaret and Galit.
On my way here, I stopped in Oxford, Mississippi and finally met Vishwesh Bhatt, chef at Snackbar, one of the restaurants in the group led by legendary proprietor John Currence.
I wrote about Vish for Forbes a few years ago when he received his much-deserved James Beard Award. We became fast friends via social media and it was delightful to see him and his wife Terri in person.
My dinner was wonderful, but the company was even better. I already look forward to my next trip there. Vish’s cookbook, “I Am From Here” will be out in August. You can pre-order it now, and I’ll give you the rundown on it when the publication date draws closer.
A Flurry of New Restaurants
Along with the places where I expected to eat, I’ll have to add some more names to the list. Three of my restaurant friends are developing new places, with plans to open this year and next.
One will be a steakhouse from Barry Sorkin, Al Sherman, Mike McDermott and Chris Hendrickson, the founders of Smoque BBQ in Chicago. (They have an additional partner, Dylan Lipe, for this project.)
Another will be an upscale Italian restaurant from Michael Gulotta, the owner of Maypop and MoPho in New Orleans.
And Culinary Newsletter friend Jacqueline Blanchard, co-founder of the Coutelier kitchen gear shops in New Orleans and Nashville, is going to open a Japanese-inspired spot here, something she has wanted to do for years.
I love watching chefs go through build outs (it’s probably a lot more fun to observe from the outside than it is to experience on the inside). I’m fascinated that these three chefs and owners are each taking the gamble at this moment in time.
A common thread: successful entrepreneurs
Besides being smart, fun people, all these folks have something in common: they have demonstrated that they can successfully run businesses, and they have recognizable brands.
Smoque recently celebrated its 15th anniversary, a true accomplishment in an industry where four of five places close within five years of opening. In fact, it was a hit within weeks of opening.
It has made numerous lists of the best barbecue spots in the country and was awarded a Michelin Bibendum, signifying great food that is a good value. Barry joked that when the Michelin stencil showed up on the sidewalk outside Smoque, he thought someone had tagged it with graffiti.
As you might expect, Smoque has received many offers to franchise. It has been extremely judicious about expanding; there is a Smoque booth in the Revival Food Hall, and it sold food for a time at White Sox games. But beyond that, its expansion has mainly been on the catering side. That was a blessing when the pandemic came about, because Smoque had takeout in its DNA.
In New Orleans, Michael has launched MoPho, a casual Asian-inspired noodle place, and Maypop, a more-upscale but still comfortable fusion place. I actually met him when he was executive chef at August, the elegant restaurant originally launched by John Besh,
Jackie worked at August as well, and went off to start Coutelier, a shop that specializes in knives, kitchen accessories, books and gourmet foods (I highly recommend the artisanal ponzu sauce from Suehiro, which is an upgrade from the grocery store kind.)
Like me, Jackie has made frequent trips to Japan, and you see Japanese items throughout Coutelier’s inventory. It expanded to a second shop in Nashville and has a successful mail order business.
None of these chefs need to be taught how to read a balance sheet or juggle the unpredictable supply chain. They all survived the worst of the pandemic, through ingenuity, patience and in Michael’s case, determination that his cherished restaurants would not go under.
A vision beyond the original dream
In my book, Satisfaction Guaranteed, I talk about visioning, one of the underlying principles at Zingerman’s businesses. Visioning involves painting a picture of where you see yourself or your business a few years hence.
I wrote a vision for myself in the middle of the pandemic. In it, I wrote that I had provided Maxine with comfort in her final years, that I was able to move to New Orleans and that my book would lead to more writing projects. The last piece will still play out, but I’m pleased that the first two came true.
Barry, Michael and Jackie all have wanted to make these transitions for quite a while. I heard through the grapevine that Barry and his partners had a project in the works. I figured it would be meat based and a hunch told me it would be a steakhouse.
The steakhouse idea came to life when Smoque was sent a carton of strip loins by mistake. “We cut them into steaks then seasoned, smoked to medium-rare, and seared them.,” Barry explained. “The rich, smokey flavor elevated the steak eating experience. It was tender, juicy, perfectly medium-rare. We knew we had to find a way to serve these steaks to people.”
For Michael, Italian seems to be a natural extension of what he does best at Maypop. I’ve had pasta dishes there that were so good they could compete with any pasta-focused restaurant, and next year, diners will be able to go in specifically for them,
Tana, the new restaurant, is named for a regular pop up that Gulotta and his partners operated inside a bar called Treo. The name comes from his great-grandmother, Geotana, and the recipes will pay homage to his Sicilian roots.
Despite its French heritage, New Orleans was a huge destination for Sicilian immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and Mediterranean influence is evident across many types of cuisine here.
If you’re intrigued, I definitely recommend the book, Creole Italian: Sicilian Immigrants and the Shaping of New Orleans Food Culture, by Justin Nystrom. Sicilians dominated New Orleans’ produce business, and there was such a demand for workers that an immigration office was set up in Palermo to bring them here.
Jackie’s new restaurant has been her dream for years. We had a conversation about it a while back and she swore me to secrecy about it, so I couldn’t be happier to see it taking shape. Her place will be called Sukeban, and it’s her idea of an izakaya, a small and welcoming Japanese inn.
Sukeban means “boss lady” and refers to the leaders of Tokyo’s notorious all-female gangs of the 1970s. Today, the term refers to rule breakers, which can be a detrimental concept in Japan’s conformist society. But as Katharine Hepburn said, “If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.”
I’ll have more on all these places as they come to life. I’ve always been fascinated by restaurant build outs — although I admit they’re more fun to watch from the outside than to pull off from the inside.
In the meantime, congratulations to all these talented people for reaching for the stars.
Surcharges Pop Up on Restaurant Bills
If you’ve dined out lately, you might have spotted some unexpected charges when you looked at your bill. A number of restaurants added fees the past few years, but soaring expenses are causing more restaurants to pass along costs to diners.
I encountered this at Galit, where there is an optional five percent surcharge to cover employees’ health care premiums, of which Galit pays a significant portion. The fee is to “ensure that they are able to pay an affordable amount and receive excellent coverage,” according to a notice on the menu.
In Monroe, Louisiana, restaurants are adding charges to cover their expenses for processing credit card purchases, which has prompted some diners to run get cash to cover their bills.
Uber Eats has instituted a fuel surcharge, and two-thirds of restaurants say they are being hurt by rising gasoline prices. (I saw unleaded routinely selling for $5 a gallon in Chicago; the cheapest I saw in as I drove south was $3.79 in Mississippi.)
One reason restaurants want to pass on the cost is that they are still struggling to hire. Inflation is essentially a pay cut for workers across the industry, and the last thing a place needs is to train a promising employee and then see them leave.
Stanley Tucci Returns This Sunday
Just a reminder that Searching For Italy is back on CNN this Sunday. He’s an enormous favorite with food lovers and people who like to travel, as well as those who admire his acting.
Maxine was particularly a fan of his show. When I was in high school, I went to Italy with her and my mother on a trip sponsored by our church. We got a private tour of the recently restored Sistine Chapel and an audience with the Pope.
I was fascinated to see whether the show would trigger her memories, and to my delight, they did. We spent happy evenings talking about the places where we had visited and dined. Undoubtedly, his show has become a way for families to bond over happy times.
Keeping Up With Culinary Woman
Last week, I wrote about my impressions of Chicago’s Magnificent Mile in my column for the Washington Post. It’s sad to see such a beautiful avenue dotted with “For Lease” signs, especially at the corner that once housed Marshall Field’s and subsequently Macy’s.
I’ll still be writing for the Post here in New Orleans, as well as for The Takeout, and I’d love to pick up some more assignments. Of course, I’m available to talk about the book and other topics.
You can reach me at culinarywoman at gmail dot come. Be sure to follow my new Instagram account, @micki_in_nola as well as my regular account, @michelinemaynard.
The CulinaryWoman podcast will return soon, and you also can find me on Twitter @culinarywoman.
Stay healthy, get your booster if you are eligible, and see you next week!
Dare I say your writing today sounds lighter. Even happy. Methinks you are enjoying the move to your new environs while anticipating even more good things to come.