A Toast to Cava

The dinner hour is approaching at Cava, Lakeview’s hottest new restaurant, and its superb service staff is anticipating your arrival. Waiters and managers step lively around the empty, softly lit dining room. The final touches are applied, glasses and silverware polished to a shine, everything in its place.

Backstage in the kitchen, the pre-dinner prep work is rocketing full speed ahead with every station occupied by line, fry, and prep cooks. Additional back-of-house team members are also engaged, supporting the chefs’ meticulous efforts to produce food that is of the highest caliber.

The bustling pre-dinner activities are winding down while the characteristic high-energy dinner music ratchets up—Sinatra and strings wailing with gusto, resonating throughout the sleek, open, two-story space. As the dinner hour looms, Cava’s crackerjack crew eagerly braces for the dinner crush. It’s “showtime!”

The exquisitely executed production appears to come together seamlessly; but in this case, every night is “opening night.” The director and proprietor of this culinary showcase, Danny Millan, the maestro of mealtime merriment, arrived in the U.S. from his native Mexico in the late 1980s, working as a busboy at the Sazerac during the restaurant’s glory days.

He worked his way up the culinary hierarchy, taking positions at Le Meridien’s Henri, Jimmy Moran’s Riverside, Freeport-McMoran’s executive dining room, Irene’s, Brennan’s, August, Luke, La Provence, and finally LeForet. At LeForet, where he was a partner and general manager, Millan was instrumental in the new restaurant’s design and eventual position as one of the city’s top dining establishments.

In fact, it was a customer—a physician and real estate broker, who followed Millan from Brennan’s to August and then to LeForet—who floated the idea of a new dining establishment at the former seafood restaurant on Harrison Avenue, which had stood vacant since Katrina.

“He handed me the keys and said, ‘Go check it out,’” said Millan. “I fell in love with the building.”

Together with a longtime associate and now business partner, Millan carried out the redesign and contracting phase of the building. But through most of the effort, he kept his “day-to-night job” at LeForet, only leaving the position this past January.

Millan assembled his team, finding Executive Chef Adam Asher and Chef de Cuisine Donovan Tullier Sr. through recommendations from other chefs he knew. Front-of-house reservationist-hostess and managerial assistant Demi DiMaggio had worked with Millan for the previous four years at LeForet. “She really helped me put this all together,” Millan said.

He also bragged about Bar Manager Camille Hurley, who tends the exquisite mirrored bar at Cava’s entrance. Hurley has created a number of specialty cocktails while also operating a full bar to meet customers’ every request. Of course, a handful of cavas (a type of Spanish sparkling wine) are on the by-the-glass program as well as appearing on the three-hundred-plus excellent wine list Millan conceived, another of his hospitality specialties.

Asher, a Texas native, has been cooking since boyhood. A veteran of Emeril’s, Bombay Club, and Sainte Marie, Asher cites Emeril’s Chef David Slater and former Emeril’s and Bombay Club Chef Ricky Cheramie as colleagues who had the biggest influence on him.

“I love to cook,” said Asher, who describes his style as contemporary New Orleans cuisine, “and both of these guys set wonderful examples on how to be a chef in this industry. They instilled so much knowledge and taught me how to manage a kitchen.”

Tullier, a Morgan City native, raised on the bayou, noted he came from a family that cooked for and entertained guests at least five nights a week. A graduate of Chef John Folse Culinary Institute at Nicholls State University, Tullier said, “I came to New Orleans during culinary school, and I never left.”

Tullier has worked at just about every kitchen station over his thirteen-year career at Emeril’s, New Orleans Country Club, Cypress Bayou Casino, and Bombay Club. He describes his style as Southern contemporary with strong influences of Cajun, classical French, German, and Caribbean cooking.

Both chefs are mindful of the freshness that seasonal items can bring to the table. “We source all of our vegetables, fruits, herbs, and many other homegrown or raised items from local farms and other nearby purveyors,” said Asher. “All the seafood served is wild caught from Louisiana and Gulf waters,” he added. Though, of course, some non-local items, such as salmon and scallops, have to be flown in.

“We have no freezer or microwave, no large walk-in cooler—just a small area cooler,” Millan said.

Millan explained that the chefs designed the menu together to come up with wonderful, inspired dishes, adding, “Since opening four months ago, the menu is in sync with the seasonal offerings, changing six times already.”

Among the current soups and salads, choices are an excellent chicken and andouille gumbo; deep fried kale and oyster salad with Parmesan, radicchio, and Piri Piri sauce; caprese salad with marinated crab claws; and pork belly with spiced pecans, chevre, jalapeños, spring mix, and citrus gastrique.

An attractive array of appetizers is comprised of a crab cake trio with Crystal sabayon; strawberry beer-steamed mussels with pommes frites, fresh berries and aged balsamic; sautéed shrimp with island sauce and pineapple mango salsa; and braised rabbit rémoulade with fried green tomatoes, bacon lardons, and seasonal berry gastrique.

Among the entrées, a recent menu featured a thick, moist amberjack steak as the fish du jour nestled atop a slab of rich polenta with haricots verts and panzanella salad. The combination of tastes and textures made for a most satisfying and delicious dish.

Glazed barbecue salmon with Southern slaw and onion strings is another entrée earning customer raves.

A terrific Southern-fried, well-seasoned, slightly flattened-out boneless chicken breast is a particularly flavorful treat—crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside—resting on a wedge of truffled mac and cheese.

Seared fresh sea scallops mingle with shiitake mushrooms, artichoke hash, and parsnip purée for a sensational dish. Mushrooms appear again in a divine lobster and wild mushroom risotto. A crusty, fried, Jean Lafitte soft shell crab is served with corn maque choux, watercress salad, and watermelon jelly.

Creole glazed pork chops go all the way, accompanied by Southern greens and sweet potato mash. Herb-roasted lamb chops and fingerling potatoes make for a wonderful duo along with sautéed spinach and pomegranate reduction.

Mixing it up, the kitchen’s crawfish and pork meatballs are accompanied by squid ink pasta, tomato confit, herb oil, and queso fresca sprinkles. Although all the dishes are carefully balanced in flavor, texture, and visual presentation, this dish merits special mention for its harmonious ingredients.

A grilled New York Strip makes a perfect surf ‘n turf with sautéed crabmeat and roasted red potatoes. The eight-ounce filet mignon with Béarnaise arrives with truffled mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus.

Dessert offerings displayed the kitchen’s pastry talents with chocolate truffle cake, both blueberry and praline cheesecakes, and bread pudding.

“We have truly been blessed,” said Millan. “From the day it opened, Cava has never had a single slow night. We usually have three or four turns an evening, with many customers coming in three times a week to just sit at the bar and dine,” he said.

With this latest success, it seems that Millan and his talented dream team of performers are hitting all the high notes. 

Related recipes: Confit Duck Wings; Endive Salad; Southern Boneless Fried Chicken Breast with Truffle Macaroniv

Details. Details. Details.

Cava

789 Harrison Ave

New Orleans, La.

(504) 304-9034

Hours: Monday–Saturday, 5 pm–10 pm