Jean-David Groff-Daudet is no longer at the stoves of Marche Bacchus. Jean Paul Labadie is the restaurant’s new Executive Chef.* Labadie previously worked in various Emeril (Has He Jumped The Shark Yet?) Lagasse’s restaurants — including Emeril’s (New Orleans), Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House (MGM Grand) and most recently, Table 10 (Palazzo).
Continue reading “He Was A Great Chef As Chefs Go, And As Chefs Go, He Went”
Jeremy ain’t exactly ELV’s cup of tea, but plenty o’ ladies think he melts the ice in their drink. More flaming by far are the mighty cool cocktails he conjures nightly at the uber-fashionable cocktail bar at Restaurant Charlie.
To celebrate October 15th, The Official Birthday of The Official Number Two Son of ELV, he gave us a preview of his appropriately Autumnal libations. One of them, “Pumpkin,” tasted just like liquified pie, and his “Autumn” cocktail with housemade chai soy milk, Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum and fresh grated Chinese cardamom is so good it could make even this gal rethink her politics.
ELV isn’t really down with the whole tiki-tiki, Polynesian-pukka thing, perhaps because we read an article years ago by Roy Blount Jr. ridiculing the whole Hawaiian-vacation-thing. (“…and then, we went to a luau..with hula dancers…and they gave us a lei!”)
Yeah, we’ve never had a burning desire to go there and probably never will. Whenever someone suggests an Hawaiian vacation to us or our staff, we always find a reason (and a way) to hightail it to France, Spain, China or Italy. And it’s a good bet we’ll hit Japan before Hawaii, the next time we head west to the Far East.
The way you hit Aloha Specialties is by snaking your way through the smoke and the horrifically -dressed people (many of them from our 50th State), to the second floor of the California Hotel — where you’ll invariably find a line of those folks standing under the “Aloha Specialties” sign. Another sign right inside the place announces “cash only,” so bring a little (you won’t need much), if you want to get a taste of Island living right here in the High Mojave Desert.