Giving a Hoot
Angeli's food is all good, all the time.
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ANGELI CO-OWNERS AYSE ABBOTT (MIDDLE) AND VICTOR MORAN (RIGHT) - WITH WAITER
TYLER CHADWICK - MOVED FROM UPTOWN TO THE QUARTER AND PROMPTLY TURNED THEIR
RESTAURANT INTO AN ALL-NIGHT DELIGHT.
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WHAT: Angeli
CUISINE: Eclectic
WHEN: Open 24 hours
WHERE: 1141 Decatur St., 566-0077
CARDS: Major
New Orleans is a city of night owls. And yet, we have very few decent all-night
restaurants. Go figure.
Many night owls, suffering from pangs of hunger after doing the
clubs in the Quarter, Faubourg Marigny or Uptown, resort to places like the
Hummingbird Grill and other such swivel-stool, offbeat diners for late-night
eggs. Although this colorful, cultural outpost near Lee Circle is a camp New
Orleans icon, the clientele largely includes transients looking for a cheap
square, and bleary-eyed youth and other folks on a budget trying to be hip
while soaking in the local subculture. For those of us who demand good coffee,
good bathrooms and less grease, what we do when famished in the Quarter at 2
a.m.?
There's a new 24-hour place on Decatur Street that offers good food
and a diverse menu, excellent Turkish coffee and superior cappuccino -- and it
shows old movies that are projected onto a wall each evening. This is my kind
of late-night place: inexpensive food, great coffee, perhaps a little Bogart,
no booze, cool people. Angeli, the newest kid on the block, is a hip dining
haven (without a liquor license yet) offering everything from burgers to
fettuccine and portobello mushroom entrees, pita rolls to pasta, and
all-American breakfast items served 24 hours a day (complemented by such
flourishes as fresh berries added to Belgian waffles). Some of the food is
reminiscent of the Mediterranean, other dishes are nouvelle American, and the
rest is just plain good.
To start, I recommend ordering the sampler appetizer, which
includes humus as smooth as velvet with a garlicky edge, roasted peppers and
feta with pita triangles, and delicious flat bread embellished with an earthy,
sun-dried tomato pesto and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. Not to be missed is
the Divine Portobello appetizer, which I enjoyed one day for lunch as an entree
(I'll admit, I'm a big portobello fan). The succulent mushrooms were served on
a bed of fresh sauteed spinach, topped with a tender grilled chicken breast and
laced with a tangy red pepper sauce ($5.25). Enjoy this with a small Caesar
salad ($3.50) topped with fresh croutons and a rather rich but satisfying
dressing, and you'll have a meal fit for a king for under 10 bucks.
There are several good salads, including the tangy pasta salad
tossed with sun-dried tomatoes, red onions, kalamata olives, mushrooms and
crisp bell peppers, plus first-rate burgers with extras like jalapenos and
roasted peppers. The pita rolls are generously apportioned; the vegetarian is
my personal favorite, mostly because I like the humus here, especially when it
is blended with roasted garlic and caramelized onions ($4.75). If you are a fan
of goat cheese, a must-try specialty pizza is the Virtuous Angel, designed with
plenty of pungent goat cheese, a light glossing of garlic herb sauce, several
artichoke hearts, spinach, fresh tomatoes and succulent mushrooms ($9.25 small;
$13.50 large).
Most of the breakfast items are quite good, but we're not talking
Brennan's here. You can get everything from eggs Benedict (the hollandaise
needs a little work) to fried eggs with toast, butter and jelly to pretty good
steak with eggs, plus big, fluffy omelettes. And of course, there is always
excellent coffee, which can be ordered with various flavorings.
Some of you may recognize Angeli as a transplant from Uptown. The
original Cafe Angeli closed recently on Magazine Street. Still owned by Ayse
Abbott and Fatma Nayir with new partner Victor Moran, Angeli is located in the
place that formerly housed Vera Cruz near the flea market.
"We start showing old movies around 5 p.m., and we show them until
around 6 a.m." says Moran. "We are planning to introduce a special movie night.
We really get a diverse group of people here, from businessmen to goths. Nearly
80 percent of them are local. Our heaviest traffic is between midnight and 4
a.m."
Before leaving Angeli, be sure to order Gabriel's Wake-Up Call, a
cold coffee concoction made with espresso, coffee ice cream and Coca-Cola. It
will really get your heart pumping, day or night, and it makes a wonderful
dessert, or just a nice treat in the middle of a hot day. The service is
accommodating enough, although various staff members are still learning the
tricks. But all good things come to those who wait. For now, it sure beats
places like the Hummingbird and other all-night diners doing big fries. Free
delivery is offered to homes and businesses in the area.
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