Frugal Splurges: Restaurant August for $20.11

Here is an update of our meal at Restaurant August, second installment of a conscious decision to be a LITTLE LESS OBSESSIVELY FRUGAL. We don't eat in restaurants all that much, primarily because I like my own cooking better than what we get in most restaurants; also because it is for us an easy way to save money for the big stuff. A while back (a long while, now that I think of it) we had some truly bad meals at New Orleans restaurants, the worst at NOLA, part of Emeril's empire. This was really embarrassing because we were being treated by relatives. Otherwise, we would have sent the food back--all of it.

Anyway, the COOLINARY prices--$20.00 or less for lunch--seemed a good occasion to dip our toes back in. It was a good experience. The food was good, the staff nice. Customers were a blend of upscale New Orleans types (a power party of people in power suits, including seersucker with Panama hat, Hermes ties in pink and baby blue on both men of the party), tourists, and regular old people. The power types ordered a la carte and the regular people ordered the COOLINARY selection.

Everyone got an amuse-bouche of what looked like a soft-boiled egg in shell. Turned out it was a layered fish mousse topped with local caviar, truffle oil, and a toasted brioche crouton. John Besh himself was there, having his picture taken with various patrons.

You really want to see the pictures, right? We had peach salads and pate to start; we had all three main courses, and the three desserts. We are a sharing family, so all was fair.