Beyond the Traditional
MAT & NADDIE'S eclectic Creole menu is filled with tasty little
surprises.
By Sara Roahen
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MAT & NADDIE'S owner Michael Schramel (left) and chef Steve Schwarz toast
their restaurant's funky-friendly atmosphere and savory dishes.
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WHAT: Mat & Naddie's
CUISNE: Eclectic Creole
WHEN:Lunch and dinner Tuesday through Friday, dinner Saturday
WHERE: 937 Leonidas St., 861-9600
CARDS: Major
If you haven't eaten at Mat & Naddie's, you probably have wondered about
it. Its location -- "where Freret meets the river," as the menu boasts -- and
bright yellow exterior make it difficult to miss. You might even have seen
smoke from the outdoor grill manned rain or shine by owner Michael Schramel.
Or, you might have heard the boisterous, word-of-mouth clientele that gets as
eclectic as the food. One peek at the homey decor of folk art, batik-like
curtains and family photos of the Schramel children (Nat, 9, and Maddie, 13 --
get it?), and you won't turn back.
In 1983, Schramel and his wife, Paula, launched Michael's Catering
on the site after completely gutting and renovating the 150-year-old building.
They opened the restaurant there four years ago. Today, both restaurant and
catering crews manage to function in a harmony of strategic juggling from 8
a.m. to midnight five days a week in an alarmingly small kitchen. Reservations
are a must for weekend dinners at the restaurant, although on most nights,
outdoor seating is available for walk-in customers.
Steve Schwarz, the chef at Mat & Naddie's for the past three
years, moved from upstate New York to teach mechanical engineering at Tulane,
but changed careers five years ago. Schwarz harbors a deep appreciation for
classic Creole cuisine, the traditional techniques and ingredients of which are
the undercurrent of Schwarz's eclectic Creole fare.
While Mat & Naddie's is typically New Orleans in its
funky-friendly atmosphere, the consistent train whistles, powerlines and broad
expanse of green across the street create a sensation of someplace else.
Similarly, Schwarz creates a sense of something beyond the traditional, with
menu items like thick polenta fries, chipotle barbecue sauce and basmati sticky
rice.
After complimentary warm bread and Abita Springs water, our
appetizers included the Belgian endive salad. Braised in red wine, the chilled
endive was served with Stilton cheese, unforgettable crunchy candied pecans,
and a drizzle of reduced balsamic vinegar. It is common to see wildly bitter
chicories like endive paired with rich ingredients in composed salads. Braising
the endive, however, brought originality to the composition and slightly
mellowed its bitterness. The salad perfectly balanced texture and taste.
We also ordered the soup du jour (a shrimp bisque too spicy for my
taste) and a housemade country pate. When the server returned with news that
the kitchen was out of pate, I took her educated and emphatic suggestion to
order the oysters Rockefeller pizza. The pan-fried crusty dough stood up
strongly to ingredients that would render most pizzas a soggy mess. Its
Herbsaint-tasso creamed spinach was smoky and rife with anise flavor. The
oysters, just cooked, maintained a moist freshness.
Mat & Naddie's has both a full bar and a selective wine list.
Our first choice of wines, a relatively rare Cabernet Franc, was out of stock.
This surprised our server, but again she recovered in hospitable form, offering
tastes from two bottles similar in flavor and price. In his literary and witty
wine list, Schwarz describes our resultant choice, a Chilean red, as "fruity,
spicy and smooth." He was right.
I chose the vegetarian entree, often a menu's weak spot in
nonvegetarian restaurants. In this case, it was a grilled vegetable Napoleon
(which, upon request, becomes a vegan dish), served atop a chipotle-porcini
marinara sauce and a red pepper coulis. The stacked vegetables were cooked
delicately and provided plenty to eat. I was even more impressed by the lunch
version of this dish, wherein a layer of tart goat cheese played a friendly
contrast to the sweet coulis, and a garlicky potato galette replaced the few
shoestring potatoes that topped the dinner entree. A light drizzle of truffle
oil added sophistication to the lunch plate as well.
We gladly ate the sassy dish of medium-rare venison medallions atop
red cabbage and a sauce deep with layers of nutty caraway and sour cherry
flavor. The black drum special, however, stole the show. The meaty fish matched
well with buttery mashed potatoes below, and lemony caramelized onions and
sweet bell peppers on top. A few added Gulf shrimp were cooked to perfect
tenderness.
Ordering desserts after such an ample meal was difficult but worth
it. Coconut made the sun-dried cherry bread pudding even more exotic, while its
white-chocolate whiskey sauce provided needed sweetness. The burnt sugar crust
on the classic creme brulee was appropriately thin and crunchy. Its custard was
thick but creamy with a smooth vanilla flavor. The creme brulee ice cream, on
the other hand, was a disappointment, containing not a hint of burnt sugar
flavor and falling flat in vanilla taste.
But that is a mere quibble compared to the quality of the rest of
our meal at Mat & Naddie's. Now you know another Uptown secret: a mom 'n'
pop success story and an engineer-turned-chef whose cuisine teeters between the
traditional and the eclectic.
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