Roast Beef Po' Boy at Domilise's In New Orleans

Spend three minutes online looking into the iconic food joints of New Orleans and Domilise's will show up at the top of your browser. The Uptown po' boy shop is a NOLA institution. We were torn between the fried shrimp, hot sausage, and roast beef, but settled on roast beef after flashingback to our plane ride with the trumpet player; remembering he had said something about "100 napkins" in regard to the sandwich.

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Pearl & Ash and the Two Stars from Mars

[ed lefkowicz for the times] cappiello at workPearl & Ash has been a much buzzed about restaurant since it opened four months ago on Bowery. The combination of Patrick Cappiello's extensive wine knowledge and Richard Kuo's eclectic plates there quickly garnered rave reviews.

Cappiello was a sommelier at Gilt previously, and he worked with the wine lists at Veritas and Tribeca Grill before that. Kuo was born in Taiwan, lived in Australia, and cooked with Fredrik Berselius at the short-lived Nordic pop-up Frej in Williamsburg before it closed and morphed into Aska.

"First things first," Wells starts his two-star review of Pearl & Ash in today's Times. "Going to Pearl & Ash without opening a bottle or two is like buying a chocolate bar and not unwrapping it." Cappiello has a thing for low markups. His competitive pricing affords wine enthusiasts and casual diners alike the ability to drink from his near-300 bottle list, one where high-end Bordeaux is balanced by an abundance of affordable new world selections.

"Mr. Kuo studied the modernist tool kits at WD-50 and Corton," Wells writes of the chef's background. "Some people who’ve gone to Pearl & Ash seem confused about what kind of restaurant it is," he continues. "The menu is heavy on small plates, but then the dishes under the meat and fish headings can also be prepared in main-course sizes. You can cover the table with a carnival of little dishes, or start with an appetizer and proceed to an entree. Whatever. Let’s just call it a very high-functioning wine bar that offers one of the best values in the city, and move on."

Jordana Rothman filed on Pearl & Ash for Time Out last week. Her review mentions Cappiello was "sporting a Joy Division tee" during her visit. Wells notes a "Black Flag T-shirt under an untucked, unsnapped cowboy shirt." At Pearl & Ash, Cappiello has abandoned the suits and showmanship of uptown and opted for a more casual, downtown approach. But it's one he executes with an equaled sense of passion and professionalism. The band shirts could be a nod to what was once New York's most iconic venue two blocks north, but maybe they're a sign that wine is the new food is the new rock. [NYTimes]

Show Me a Sign: Dinosaur Barbecue in Park Slope

Dinosaur Barbecue gets one step closer to opening with new signage that went up last week. It hangs off a steal frame on the east side of the building in a way that looks like it's been there for years. Windows have also been delivered and installed where plywood used to keep passersby from peeking in. Their old, wooden frames synch up with the rugged, honky tonk aesthetic the space is going for. The restaurant is slated to open next month.

Scenes and Bites from the 43rd Annual Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans

The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is massive. During its ten-day run, over 100 bands play on one of the dozen stages setup inside the track at the Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots on Gentilly Boulevard. For eight hours straight, from 11am to 7pm, it's nonstop music, food, booze, dancing, parades, charades, and all around muddy tom foolery. Yesterday was the end of this year's festival. We were there a week earlier and got caught in a bit of rain, but it was nothing the sprawling Blues Tent couldn't misdirect.

There were two main stretches where you could get food, but more than 70 vendors were setup around the fairgrounds. On the flight down, a native New Orleans man, who traveled with a trumpet and nothing else, sat next to us and hinted at the crawfish options we'd find inside the muddy grounds. "Oh yea, you can get crawfish anyway you dream," he said. "If you dream of crawfish." One such way was Crawfish Monica, a sort of Cajun twist on pasta alla vodka with lumps of sweet, spiced crawfish mixed into a creamy, tomato-based sauce. It was damn good, but it wasn't our favorite thing we had. That's reserved for the Cochon de Lait po' boy from Love at First Bite. Click ahead for that and everything else we ate at Jazz Fest on April 28th, 2013. 

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Eat the Week; April 29th - May 3rd

We got back from New Orleans and put a map together of where we ate while there | Pete Wells weighs in on Saison in San Francisco; his second review for the new "Critic on the Road" column | Our visit to Willie Mae's Scotch House in New Orleans | Backyard preview party at The Pines | Donde Dinner? - 13 Doyers Street

Donde Dinner? - 13 Doyers Street

Donde Dinner? wants to make your next dining experience an adventure. So, every Friday, we pick a restaurant and post its address for you. The catch is, that's all the information you get. No name, no type of cuisine, and no Googling. But first, here's last week's address:

5 Front Street = Gran Electrica

This week's restaurant follows typical Donde Dinner? fashion. Price, quality, and accessibility have all been taken into account. You won't be waiting at the bar for two hours with $15 cocktails and you never have to worry about a dress code. Just hop on the train, or your feet, or your bike, and head to:

13 Doyers Street (map)

Backyard Party at The Pines

Chef Angelo Romano and co. hosted a party in the place beyond backyard at The Pines last night. The event was a preview of what's to come when the space opens to the public Saturday, May 18th. There were five different ciders being poured to go along with a number of wood-fired dishes Romano was cooking on his new ten-foot grill.

Among the food were carrots with quark and caraway, octopus with ramps and chicken skin with dashi (both pictured above), and cabbage with lamb neck and cucumber. The final menu is still being developed, but The Pines website has a teaser up, which lists dishes like grilled halumi with ramps and celery mostarda and half lobsters with lardo and lemon butter. The backyard will be open Thursday - Sunday from 3pm - 10pm.

Willie Mae's Scotch House in New Orleans

Treme is about 15 miles east of Kenner, where Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport is. U.S. Route 61 will get you there from the airport, but taking I-10 East will shave a few minutes if you're in a hurry. Though if you are, you're in the wrong city. We took U.S. Route 61. Our windows were down and the radio was tuned to WWOZ, which was broadcasting brass band music that we played at a level just loud enough to rival our excitable voices clamoring in the warm breeze. We were on our way to St Ann Street, where Willie Mae's Scotch House serves "America's Best Fried Chicken."

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