Oh La La, both a name and an exclamation
After two months of darkness, there's a flicker of light. Governor Sisolak has declared that restaurants and other small businesses can reopen to limited capacity. While the Strip remains closed, Las Vegans can finally get back to the business of business, and support those that have managed to not close altogether. This weekend, I had the chance to see a restaurant in the before and after phases.
I've been meaning to visit Oh La La French Bistro for a while. John Curtas included it in his latest restaurant guide, and I had the pleasure of meeting chef/owner Richard Terzaghi at Mr. C's book event. Each of those warranted a trip.
Oh La La has remained open doing delivery and take-out. While that deprives one the full experience of a restaurant, it gives me the ability to take the food home and enjoy it while watching MST3K or wrestling or whatever. And in Oh La La's case, with less overhead brought on by having to pay a staff, Terzaghi has been able to reduce the prices on his regular items that made it to his more limited current menu. The one downside is that it's quite a distance between my home and this restaurant, so there's the risk of losing freshness. And maybe that's not an issue for burgers, tacos, or Chinese as much as French cuisine, especially as the temperature is getting into the 90s. Plus the fact that I take the bus, which remains free rides (the driver needs to be socially distanced) for now.
Particularly, on this first trip were two dishes topped with cheese. This is how Terzaghi does French onion soup to go, in an aluminum rectangular tray rather than circular ceramic bowls. Baguette slices topped the flavorful soup, which was, as is tradition, topped by Gruyere. And here's the problem, as the cheese will get dry and rubbery instead of nice and gooey after an hour and a half on public transit. And you can't put foil in the microwave, so one has to figure out how to properly reheat it in the oven.
Same with the hachis parmentier, a shepherd's pie where the cheese covers a pile of mashed potatoes which cover ground beef and carrots. And aside from that issue, this was a good, hearty dish, more rustic than pretty but it did its job.
But the one thing that held up the best was the one I'd been most concerned about, the chocolate mousse desert. Here I took the photo at the bus stop while it was still fresh, and put it in the fridge as soon as I got home. And yet, it didn't lose a thing. Nice chocolate topped with whipped cream (which I thought had a hint of coconut) and dusted with cocoa powder; I should have taken a pic of the clear plastic bowl so you could see the layers. It strikes me that the issue here isn't with the food in general, or anything involving the current situation, just the cheese covering everything dishes. And that's not Terzaghi's fault.
So now let's look at Day 2.
Escargots. Alas, the melted butter managed to leak out, leaving me with snails, garlic, and shallots Still, not too shabby, at the risk of the escargots getting rubbery.
Most bistros might call this steak frites, but here it's bavette a l'echalotte, flank steak with red wine and shallot sauce, and shoestring fries. The beef travelled all right, nice and medium rare, but the fries got touch. Perhaps thicker would've been better there.
I wish I could tell you that I liked Oh La La more, but we're under strange circumstances here. The issues are not with Chef Terzaghi, I believe, but with social distancing and my attempts to comply with it. Before too long, dining rooms should be accessable and the food I eat will be fresher. I hope.
I've been meaning to visit Oh La La French Bistro for a while. John Curtas included it in his latest restaurant guide, and I had the pleasure of meeting chef/owner Richard Terzaghi at Mr. C's book event. Each of those warranted a trip.
Oh La La has remained open doing delivery and take-out. While that deprives one the full experience of a restaurant, it gives me the ability to take the food home and enjoy it while watching MST3K or wrestling or whatever. And in Oh La La's case, with less overhead brought on by having to pay a staff, Terzaghi has been able to reduce the prices on his regular items that made it to his more limited current menu. The one downside is that it's quite a distance between my home and this restaurant, so there's the risk of losing freshness. And maybe that's not an issue for burgers, tacos, or Chinese as much as French cuisine, especially as the temperature is getting into the 90s. Plus the fact that I take the bus, which remains free rides (the driver needs to be socially distanced) for now.
Particularly, on this first trip were two dishes topped with cheese. This is how Terzaghi does French onion soup to go, in an aluminum rectangular tray rather than circular ceramic bowls. Baguette slices topped the flavorful soup, which was, as is tradition, topped by Gruyere. And here's the problem, as the cheese will get dry and rubbery instead of nice and gooey after an hour and a half on public transit. And you can't put foil in the microwave, so one has to figure out how to properly reheat it in the oven.
Same with the hachis parmentier, a shepherd's pie where the cheese covers a pile of mashed potatoes which cover ground beef and carrots. And aside from that issue, this was a good, hearty dish, more rustic than pretty but it did its job.
But the one thing that held up the best was the one I'd been most concerned about, the chocolate mousse desert. Here I took the photo at the bus stop while it was still fresh, and put it in the fridge as soon as I got home. And yet, it didn't lose a thing. Nice chocolate topped with whipped cream (which I thought had a hint of coconut) and dusted with cocoa powder; I should have taken a pic of the clear plastic bowl so you could see the layers. It strikes me that the issue here isn't with the food in general, or anything involving the current situation, just the cheese covering everything dishes. And that's not Terzaghi's fault.
So now let's look at Day 2.
Escargots. Alas, the melted butter managed to leak out, leaving me with snails, garlic, and shallots Still, not too shabby, at the risk of the escargots getting rubbery.
Most bistros might call this steak frites, but here it's bavette a l'echalotte, flank steak with red wine and shallot sauce, and shoestring fries. The beef travelled all right, nice and medium rare, but the fries got touch. Perhaps thicker would've been better there.
I wish I could tell you that I liked Oh La La more, but we're under strange circumstances here. The issues are not with Chef Terzaghi, I believe, but with social distancing and my attempts to comply with it. Before too long, dining rooms should be accessable and the food I eat will be fresher. I hope.