Gourmet-to-Go
The NEW HARVEST MARKET carves out its turf for ready-made, high-end delights
in Uptown.
By Sara Roahen
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Mike Uddo gives you a caseful of reasons to stay home and eat in -- after a
trip to Uptown's NEW HARVEST MARKET, that is.
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WHAT: New Harvest Market
CUISNE: Gourmet take-out and grocery
WHEN: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday
WHERE: 7457 St. Charles Ave., 314-9400
CARDS: Major
Sometimes, going out doesn't cut it. Spoiling oneself at home is so much
naughtier. That's what the hot tub on the deck is all about, the large screen
television and VCR, the massage chair, and the microwave movie popcorn with
butter. Oh, and New Harvest Market. It's Uptown's answer to Metairie's Foodies
Kitchen, only a little more boutique. If Burger King and Delmonico were
speeding head-on toward each other, New Harvest Market is where they would
collide, in an explosion of gourmet goodies neatly packaged to go.
Market mastermind Michael Uddo's vision is a one-stop deluxe
grocery shop, a Crescent City-sized Dean & Deluca. Sprees might begin and
end drooling over the back deli case, with its impeccably arranged array of
prepared foods in hand-painted ceramic bowls, but in between there are
chocolate turtles at the Maurice bakery counter, gourmet potato chips at the
sandwich bar, summer squash in the basket-lined produce corner, coffee
Haagen-Dazs in the freezer, and antacids at the check-out.
Uddo clearly doesn't want you to have to go anyplace else (organic
pet foods and designer toilet paper might be the only missing luxury
necessities).
I confess to indulging in a few binges at New Harvest since its
opening March 1. During one trip, I hit a wall of roasting garlic so stinging
strong that the luscious smell left with me and lingered in my car for days.
After another round, I couldn't wait the mile home to tear into a
jalapeno-orange glazed turkey breast sandwich. Again my car suffered the
result: a drip here of candied orange and roasted tomato juices, the oozings
there of melted brie cheese. It was worth the mess. And although I easily could
have split it with a friend for a moderate lunch, I didn't.
The design-your-own burritos also get gold stars. Grilled chicken
or crumbled tofu roll up enormously with combinations of black beans, brown
rice, cheddar, fresh cilantro, roasted bell peppers and avocado for $6.25.
The deli case is jeweled with sundry vegetable salads, half
chickens glistening with sweet barbecue sauce, pesto-coated orzo, osso bucco by
the pound, and super-sized stuffed artichokes. New Harvest even preps you for a
kitschy date at home. The refreshing retro salad (half a head of iceberg
dressed with razor-thin red onions and bleu cheese dressing) is made to be
split with a wedge of their bland-as-Kraft macaroni and cheese while tuned into
re-runs of Happy Days.
When someone gets control of the over-eager pepper grinder, the
market's gourmet grub will have few competitors. Currently, however, watch out
for throat-rasping macro flakes of black pepper. They sneak up everywhere.
My biggest gripe with New Harvest is sporadic pricing. When you're
makin' groceries, for example, look for great prices on California heirloom
tomatoes and cheeses from remote corners, but take heed as you near the deli. A
pound of shrimp remoulade sold for $12.99 (quite reasonable considering the
price of $10.99/pound for similarly-sized crustaceans at an Uptown
supermarket), while a pound of jicama and mango salad spiced with cumin sold
for a hefty $7.99 on the same day (currently mangoes at Sav-A-Center are
2/$1, and a jicama at Whole Foods Market runs $1.49/pound). Was this an
oversight, or was I paying for exotic allure?
Then again, if the sucker in you (like the sucker in me) does fall
for the eye appeal of gourmet packaging, you're done for. I go weak in the
knees at the sight of gigantic Nutella jars, rows of shimmering olive oil from
the first pressing, and fancy crackers imported direct from the Queen. Faced
with a cooler of novelty soft drinks and bubbly water from France, exotic
allure often overtakes my more practical side. Maybe if I misplaced my budget
at the deli counter like I so easily do browsing New Market's hip, art deco
grocery shelving, I might not be so bitter at the register.
I submit that what sets Uddo's concept market apart from Foodies
and the recently defunct Spice Inc. (two local gourmet-to-go marts) is the
serious pampering factor. With no tables, chairs or counter space for eating,
it is set up strictly for fit-your-needs specialty shopping, a to-go experience
with the full emphasis on go home and treat yourself.
Uddo is primed to help you succeed in your pleasure mission. He
will attempt to track down any special seafood request and cuts prime aged beef
(nearly impossible to find retailed) to order, be it a 2-oz. New York strip or
a 2-lb. ribeye. Attention to local products means that even most of the
fresh-cut flowers come from Petal Farms in nearby Ponchatoula.
Soon, almost any wine, a pivotal ingredient in gastronomic
spoiling, will be available at the click of a mouse onto New Harvest's wine
database. Heritage House Wines will break any case for Uddo, and he will have
it waiting within 24 hours.
This Cordon Bleu-trained New Orleans native has spent years in this
city's kitchens researching what foodies like him desire most. One wonders if
there is a deal that Uddo won't make to aid us in self-pampering. I hope not.
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