Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/164544
Crescent City Cravings PHOTO COURTESY OF COCHON BUTCHER RESTAURANTS THAT MATTER THE EATING IS BETTER THAN EVER IN FOOD-OBESSESSED NEW ORLEANS by Merrill Shindler PHOTO COURTESY OF RALPH BRENNAN RESTAURANT GROUP I n my experience, people in New Orleans wake up in the morning thinking about where to have breakfast. And while they're having breakfast, they think about where to go for a mid-morning snack. During which they consider the best venue for lunch. And while they're having lunch—well, you get the drill. In New Orleans, locals think about where to eat—a lot. This is one of the most food-obsessed—if not the most food-obsessed—cities in America. And it's a city where the cooking goes well beyond legendary eateries like Galatoire's and Arnaud's, and chicory coffee and beignet at the Café du Monde. There's much else, built around bayou and gulf seafood and the rich fields of Louisiana. PHOTO COURTESY OF COCHON BUTCHER The three-cheese mac 'n cheese at café b. Cochon Butcher is a butcher shop, a restaurant and a wine bar. It's so ingredientobsessed, a page of its website is dedicated to a listing of the farms that supply its ingredients—and it's a long list. There's an easy going menu of sweet & spicy brisket sliders, duck pastrami sliders, pancetta mac 'n cheese and pork belly with mint and cucumber. The meats are cured in-house—including The boudin at Cochon Butcher. the Zaunbrecher deer sausage, the bramberger and the Kurobuta bacon. It's a cousin restaurant to such sharp-edged New Orleans names as Herbsaint, Calcasieu, Pêche and the adjacent Cochon (where the extensive cocktail list includes includes a libation called The Swinekiller: Citadelle Gin, 66 / the tasting panel / september 2013 TP0913_063-103.indd 66 8/22/13 9:23 PM