04 Sep Tivoli & Lee New Orleans
There really is no shortage of good food in New Orleans. Every year that I go to Tales of the Cocktail, the list of restaurants to try is endless. This year, Tales of the Cocktail created Tales Restaurant Week where restaurants around the city offered a special price-fixed tasting menu, along with a recommended spirit cocktail, but of course.
Our restaurant week choice was Tivoli & Lee, a modern Southern bistro at the Hotel Modern, next to the bar Bellocq, in the central business district of New Orleans.
The pre-fixe menu included 3 courses. But, as there were three of us at dinner, we managed to order everything on the menu, plus a few other items were sent out by the chef.
To start, the chef sent us Lamb Fries which were fried to perfection with tender meat inside. We were afraid to ask which cut of meat we were eating and decided to ask after we finished the plate. Good thing, as we learned that lamb fries are fried lamb balls. Now that I have eaten them, I won’t hesitate to order them again in the future.
The chef also sent us Duck Cracklin, perfectly fried duck skin. This dish just supports my argument that in New Orleans, they know how to fry food like nobody’s business!
We then moved into the 3 course pre-fixe menu.
First course:
Fettuccine w turtle, squid ink, grape tomatoes, pickled quail eggs, sherried red beans
Ravioli with duck confit, smoked onion broth, pork belly marmalade, pepper jelly
Second course:
Crispy pig ear salad with arugula, cherry tomatoes and a bone marrow vinaigrette
Deviled eggs with smoked gulf fish and crispy capers
Third course:
Poke salad with tuna, blue crab, shrimp, radishes, green tomatoes, radishes, mint, basil, cilantro, carrots and avocados
Smoked ham hock with Mac and cheese, chow chow and a watermelon BBQ sauce
After all of the heavy and fried food, the blueberries, basil and lemonade sorbet was a perfect dessert.
And the dessert was paired with the cocktail Soho Brunch in Tulum with El Silencio Mezcal, Yellow Chartreuse, Blueberries, Orgeat, Orange Bitters, Strawberry Kombucha.
You know you are in New Orleans when you can say that you ate lamb balls, cracklin, turtle, pig ears and red beans…..and that is just in one meal!
Tivoli & Lee at the Hotel Modern
2 Lee Circle, New Orleans, LA 70130