More than you care to chew

From the opening press event announcing Restaurant R'evolution, something seemed wr'ong. Two celebrity chefs put their "brands" on a sprawling baroque concept for a hotel restaurant in the middle of the Quarter.  It was clear the object was to gather the attention of the mega-Super Gras Bowl dining bonanza (which, incidentally, wasn't as big as advertised). Certainly it didn't seem like the sort of thing meant to sustain a consistent local customer base, anyway.

What I take form  this Blackened Out "R'ant" is they're probably just looking to coast on their branding, location, and volume.

We are well past the days where one expects to see a chef owner in the kitchen. Usually a chef with other concerns leaves a lieutenant or two to watch over and to make sure his or her vision is executed.  I left unclear as to what the vision at R'evolution even is. Is it fresh spins on classic Creole and Cajun cooking? A high end steakhouse? A time capsule of two men's cooking careers? What are they trying to do?

Or worse, maybe the whole thing really is just meant as a temporary installment. I wouldn't be surprised to learn it was a garish, unwieldy catering spread intended to impress the Super Bowl crowd before striking the set. 

The other day, on a parallel internet, Lunanola (who often publishes here) had a thought about this.

A few years back a friend of mine suggested that a surprisingly high number of bad restaurants survive in New Orleans (ones that offer not particularly well-prepared clichéd "local" fare coupled with bad service). She suggested that because they draw tourists day after day, it doesn't matter if they're capable of drawing repeat business when there's an endless supply of first-and-only-timers.

I'm wondering if this endless stream of events hosted by our city is a like a row of bad restaurants and the event attendees are the one-time visitors. And I wonder if we're turning off the repeat visitors who would like to enjoy our city for what it is instead of what it hosts

If this is the model for dining in the Quarter, I won't be surprised if we see some scaling down of R'evolution's concept sometime after Jazzfest.... unless they want to hang in there until Wrestlemania shows up.

Meanwhile, this is a slightly different situation but I wonder if a similar problem might be facing this place.

The latest salvo in the city’s burger boom, however, is pulling out all the stops. Charcoal’s Gourmet Burger Bar is a two-story restaurant with a build-your-own format, a huge menu and a catalog of bells and whistles big enough for any two or three concepts.

Things get started with 10 types of patties, so if the “house beef blend,” the veggie burger or even the shrimp burger gets old you can try out venison, bison, elk or antelope burgers. Next you pick your bun (four options), but you’re nowhere near done because the various toppings range from aged goat cheese and gorgonzola piccante to fresh herbs, tasso and four types of bacon (conventional, boar, turkey or praline).

Oh dear.   The thing about Charcoal is they're actually not "the latest salvo in the city's burger boom." It's more accurate to call them a much delayed salvo for a host of complicated reasons. Here's an Uptown Messenger report from two years ago.

Charcoal’s Gourmet Burger Bar is a proposed two-story hamburger restaurant with diner-style counter service on the ground floor and full table service upstairs designed by the owners of Somethin’ Else cafe in the French Quarter, said architect Kimberly Finney. The project was originally proposed several years ago, but troubles with the contractor stalled the project until its permission from the city to build expired.



Charcoal’s requires a conditional use to build on the Magazine Street site because its two-story floor plan is larger than the 5,000 square feet normally allowed by its zoning. It has six on-site parking spaces, and will also require a waiver for the other 10 spaces that its size would technically require. Finney said that she did not anticipate parking to be a major hurdle because the area, especially during dinner hours, has a substantial amount of on-street parking available.

The application received votes in favor from all but one commissioner, Craig Mitchell. Charcoal’s has signed a good-neighbor agreement with the neighboring Irish Channel and Garden District neighborhood associations, but that agreement was not included in the materials compiled by the planning staff. Mitchell said his vote was merely to signify his frustration with the incomplete information.

“I don’t know what I’m signing off on,” Mitchell said. “It (the no vote) was more principle than anything.”

Charcoal’s lot is very near where Vera Smith died during Hurricane Katrina, and the memorial marking the former site of her makeshift grave will be reconfigured by artist Simon Haldeveld once construction begins in the next several weeks.

There's actually even more backstory, but the point is, when this restaurant was proposed, the gourmet burger craze hadn't even really hit New Orleans yet.  Now they are opening at a point when it has reached a saturation point.  In a way it's fitting that their elaborate menu reflects the decadence of the possibly played out fad.  One wonders, though, whether they can sustain such a thing.  Personally, I'm still recovering from the dietary decadence of Carnival season. I'll give them a try some time after Lent.