(See Chef Tony Monroe's recipe for Pan Seared Gulf Grouper. And find our Test Kitchen here)
“I’d bring my mother to eat here.”
Let me put these words in context to give you a sense of just what high praise they are.
They came from the lips of my good friend and frequent dining companion Alex Falcone. Note the last name. He’s from a family that is about as Italian as it gets—a family that assigns extraordinary value to a great meal. That sets a high bar of expectation for any restaurant into which Alex sets foot. His mother’s bar is even higher.
For this lunch we shared on a quiet Saturday, chef Tony Monroe cleared the bar with several inches to spare. And he did so with simple, superbly crafted fare, presented in the serene environs of his WaterStreet Bistro, overlooking the sail boats moored on the lovely Tchefuncte River just across the street, as it runs through the particularly charming Louisiana community of Madisonville.
It will be eight years in March that Monroe has owned this spot, housed in an 1840s era cottage that, like many of the old homes in this nautically oriented community, once belonged to a boat captain.
Monroe started his culinary career at the legendary Café Sbisa in New Orleans, then went to Colorado for a while before returning to the place he was born and raised.
As the first course of our meal arrived, I was particularly glad he’d come home.
We started with crab claws in a golden sauce which, like everything we ate for this meal, transformed a few simple ingredients into a great dish.
“We take garlic, parsley and white wine, and reduce it down,” says Monroe. Then at the last moment butter is added and allowed to melt into the sauce. Fortunately there were big hunks of warm Leidenheimer French bread on hand to make sure that no sauce went unappreciated after the crab claws were gone.
The perfectly grilled red fish that followed had its own memorable sauce, this time a reduction of Madeira wine and smoked tomatoes. “When Creole tomatoes were in season we smoked them and put them in that same sauce,” notes Monroe while bemoaning the fact that this year’s season for the local favorite was unusually short. All of the sauces are made to order for each dish. Nothing on the menu is ever frozen.
Inspired perhaps by the waterside view, we chose all seafood for this lunch, which also included a lightly breaded, flash fried soft shell crab; and grilled shrimp sautéed in extra virgin olive oil, then tossed with sundried tomatoes, Kalamata olives, garlic, capers, artichoke hearts, leeks, and red onion, and served on a bed of baby spinach, topped with feta cheese, and pine nuts.
We could alternatively have chosen to have our shrimp sautéed in wine, with garlic, basil, zucchini, yellow squash, carrots, green beans, and shiitake mushrooms, finished with sweet butter and served over linguine pasta; or lightly breaded in thyme seasoned flour and deep fried.
Non-seafood menu choices included panéed veal, roast pork, grilled chicken served with a creamy rosemary, shiitake mushroom, and sundried tomato risotto—even a burger. Each sounded as appealing as the choices we made.
The dessert menu included all the local favorites, like bread pudding and crème brûlée. We ordered strawberries in crème Anglaise—mostly I think because I just like saying crème Anglaise.
The dinner menu adds additional choices like rack of lamb, oven roasted with a coat of French Dijon mustard & seasoned breadcrumbs, then drizzled with balsamic rosemary infused olive oil. Or half a roast duck with a fig port wine reduction sauce and creamed sweet potatoes.
There’s a Sunday champagne brunch that offers many of the regular menu items supplemented by brunch staples like veal grillades and grits, pecan amaretto French toast, and a trio of Egg Benedicts: classic, crab cake, and grilled duck sausage.
With the coming change of season, the menu will change as well notes Monroe, “When winter comes we do game—pheasant, boar, rabbit—heartier fare.”
The airy dining room features white clothed tables and warm hued bentwood chairs, surrounded by an eclectic mix of local artwork on the walls. You can expect all of those tables to be filled when Madisonville holds its phenomenally popular Wooden Boat Festival on October 23 and 24.
But I for one was glad to have visited on a more typically quiet Saturday, when after lunch we wandered over to the nearby Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum to admire the fascinating Confederate submarine housed there, then did a little antiquing at the newly opened Madisonville Marketplace, and just wandered along the waterfront marveling at the boats moored there that are the play things of those with more wealth than I will ever know.
But now that I think about it, this afternoon spent on the banks of a lovely river, after a fine meal with good friends, made me feel quite wealthy indeed.
Details. Details. Details.
WaterStreet Bistro
804 Water Street
Madisonville, La
(985) 845-3855
waterstreetbistro.com
Lunch:
Wednesday—Saturday, 11 am– 2 pm
Dinner:
Wednesday & Thursday 5 pm–9 pm
Friday & Saturday 5 pm–10 pm
Sunday Brunch from 11 am–3 pm
