Photos by Brei Olivier
In need of some comfort? Turns out it’s closer than you’d think, a state of mind and indulgence called the Truck Farm Tavern.
Following the Mississippi upriver from New Orleans, the hubbub of the city falls away, replaced by rural countryside. Once past Riverbend and busy Oak Street at Uptown’s edge, cyclists have the best views on the path that crowns the levee along the serpentine river. Look to the left, and you might see a behemoth barge loaded with containers shipped from far-flung ports. To the right, a hodge-podge of ramshackle cottages, the occasional horse stable and chicken coop keeping company with the shuttered Colonial Country Club in Harahan. Travel on, and the sounds of planes signal close proximity to the airport in Kenner. Ride five miles further, and you’re in the sleepy burg of St. Rose, a working class town of less than seven thousand people, according to the latest census figures.
This is where comfort awaits. In case there were any doubt, the word is spelled out in two-foot-high neon on an overhead arrow pointing to the latest restaurant from Brack May, the downhome chef/owner of the glorious Cowbell eatery at the bendiest part of Riverbend. May opened Truck Farm Tavern in September 2015 with customer-turned-partner Tommy Coleman on the site of the former St. Rose Tavern in St. Charles Parish, a longtime restaurant tenant that relocated six miles upriver in New Sarpy.
May wasn’t looking for a place in St. Rose. But when a deal he’d been working on in Central City fell through, the chef was open to suggestions. Coleman, a huge fan of Cowbell, proposed the alliance, and the idea resonated.The restaurant’s name is a throwback to the family farm-to-table sales model that preceded the fancified farmers markets common today. Until the popularization of the supermarket in the 50s, farmers hauled their crops of fruits and vegetables in the back of pick-up trucks, seeking out customers at town squares, shipyards, or train stations.
Although the Tavern retains a roadhouse vibe, its redesign includes an expanded kitchen, large outdoor space for communal dining and events, and an impressive array of whimsical farmstead-inspired local and outsider art drawn from Coleman’s private collection. A trio of metal carrots against a backdrop of burlap adorns one wall; on another, found bits of fabric and painted wood come together in a farmhouse scene complete with a little girl sitting on the floor with her chickens. A painted cornstalk under a shower of iridescent rain grows up a beadboard wall facing a happy pig and two oversized chicks. The overall effect is downright endearing.
The message is clear: Chef May is serious about where he gets his food, and his philosophy is rooted in the history of Southern foodways. California born, May’s family roots face south on his mother’s side and towards Hawaii on his dad’s, developing his global sense of gastronomy from an early age. But his commitment to the kitchen came a little later in life.
May, 49, left a career in film cutting and editing to go to the culinary school at age 29. He worked in a slew of restaurants on both coasts and in the Carolinas, cooking alongside James Beard-winning chefs like Oliver Saucy and Sanford D‘Amato. Like so many people, he vacationed to New Orleans for Jazz Fest and then stayed to eat. “People here love their chefs. It’s like a cult,” said May. He took a job with Susan Spicer, first at Bayona and later Cobalt, and moved to New Orleans with his wife, Krista, in 2001. “I really appreciate Susan’s style of cooking. She’s respectful of Creole traditions but also is rooted in French and Italian cooking, which is how I like to cook too.” In late 2004, May became owner and executive chef of Green Tomato Productions, a catering and consulting company, and has helped in the build-out of restaurants in Florida, Louisiana, and South America. He and his wife opened Cowbell, a sassy burger joint by the levee on Oak Street in 2011, just a twenty-minute ride from Truck Farm Tavern.
“At this point, I’m just an old cook,” he said. “I’m not about trying to make a name for myself; I just want to do good work and play with a lot of different ethnicities in my food.” That béarnaise on the grilled bone-in rib eye at Truck Farm is the real deal; same goes for the velouté that binds the decadent mac-and-cheese, with its smoky notes of roasted poblano pepper served atop a foundation of debris. But despite his culinary chops, at both Cowbell and Truck Farm Tavern, May is committed to simple comfort food done well.
His menu includes small plates like a farmers market vegetable tart with overnight tomato jam and local goat cheese or the oyster pan roast complete with smoky cracklin “toast.” Plump breast of chicken embraces a boudin stuffing with duck fat-fried potatoes and sautéed escarole on the side. A rotating Southern Pride pit barbecue, big enough to fit two 110-pound hogs, smokes meat low and slow for dishes like the cochon de lait poboy with brie and hot peppers and a thick-cut pork chop served with creamy sweet pea grits, charred corn relish, and plenty of red eye gravy. Every Wednesday and Saturday, there’s savory brisket served with potato salad, green beans, and white bread.
Pastry chef James Leslie’s crusty bread provides the canvas for a selection of sandwiches, ranging from Chef May’s spin on a muffaletta (with grilled tuna, lemon basil aioli, and olive salad) to hunter’s banh mi (house made rabbit terrine, duck liver mousse, and lemongrass pork). The traditional grilled Tavern burger arrives with farmhouse cheddar, a heap of smoked bacon and crispy onions, and Tavern steak sauce atop a buttered potato roll—another Leslie creation. The pastry chef stays busy, offering a full array of ice creams, roulade cakes, and fruit and custard pies.
At the comfy bar, the beverage program is just as creative, with a handful of interesting wines-by-the-glass keeping company with local craft beer alongside PBRs and Buds. An equally inventive cocktail menu lives up to the farm-to-bar moniker, with local honey sweetening the gin-based Bee’s Knees and housemade bacon garnishing the Smoked Bloody.
“We wanted the kind of place we like to discover when we’re traveling,” said May, who now lives in Central City with his wife and four dogs rescued after Katrina. Six months in, the restaurant is slowly finding its audience, busy at lunch and still working to attract locals and a younger crowd in the evening. “Every restaurant has its own heartbeat,” said May. “I’m all about making good, clean, hearty food. That’s really all I want to do.”
11760 River Road St. Rose, La. (504) 699-0099 truckfarmtavern.com
