Old man stuff

Who orders before-dinner cocktails? Old people, that's who.



That one there on the right is the Sazerac I ordered last night at Boucherie. I know. Shut up. The Sazerac, like many New Orleans cultural adornments, is only the latest in a long string of classics to have been imbued with new life as a hipster icon. Although it's difficult to disentangle this fascination from the larger designer cocktail trend currently darkening the land. At least it's no "Cransithe" but give it a few more seasons of being flung about on Treme and soon enough it will serve the same status broadcasting purpose. But who cares about any of that crap when it's your birthday? I figure I'm old enough now to pull off a geezer cocktail before dinner regardless of what the damn kids are doing. The kids may be idiots but this was a nice drink anyway.

As was everything else at Boucherie which, most people already know, does for southern, and I guess barbecue, style cuisine what Cochon has been doing for southern and Cajun. It elevates country kitchen and picnic table dishes to fine restaurant fare in a way that manages to be just creative enough without insulting anybody. For example it turns out that you really can steam mussels over collared greens. And after last night, we recommend that you do this as often as possible. Similarly, muddled cucumber and pickled green tomatoes over scallops and pilau? Yep.



Like I said, the theme here is southern and barbecue centered so nearly everything on the menu is either smoked or pickled in some way. There's a bottle of tangy house garlic vinegar on every table that added the proper accent to the deep smokey flakes of the beef brisket Menckles ordered.

But what makes Boucherie really special (and this is a particular advantage it has over Cochon) is its pricing. Nothing on the menu costs more than $15 which is great if you want to try a bunch of different stuff. We split three "small" and two "large" plates along with two deserts and a bottle of Malbec for what we would have paid for one entree and maybe a spoonful of grease or something at Stella. Oh and, of course, this leaves room for the old man cocktails which actually go for $9 a pop and is probably where they're making their money here. But after I got to the bottom of the glass, I didn't mind that so much either.

Update: Somehow I completely missed this interview with Chef Nathaniel Zimet which ran on Blackened Out earlier this month.