re: TulaneLSU's Photo Challenge 4: Can you name this restaurant?

Friends,

We have a winner, a winner who was no doubt a regular at this restaurant, honoring us with his 18th post in 11 years.

There was a time in the 1990s when three of New Orleans' best five restaurants were in a tight triangle in Metairie, with points at 4506 Shores Dr, 3400 16th St, and 3216 W. Esplanade. Stella!, when it opened in 2001, immediately became #1, knocking La Riviera out of my Top 5, as I read my notes from 2001. Today, the restaurant is closed, having succumbed to the waters of Katrina. By that time Chef Goffredo Fraccaro, who always greeted me with a slap on the back and a broad smile, saying, "Tall skinny boy, you want my ravioli?" His wife, Maria, was always kind to me as well. Like the Croziers down the street, the Fraccaros were a restaurant power duo. Fraccaro actually sold the restaurant to his nephew in 2000, which may have had as much to do with its fall from the Top 5 as the opening of Stella!

Today, the building, unceremoniously, houses a spa. It's tough for a lover of restaurants to see these former places of greatness become nondescript dentist offices and spas. It's not as tough on my soul as when I see a house of Christian worship convert to a home or restaurant, but it is close. But alas, I feel I must move on before I begin a Phil Johnson-esque monologue on the crumbling of society.





Chef Fraccaro was born in 1925 in Genoa, and as best I know, he is still alive at 95. He learned to cook from his mother, like most good chefs, and at the age of 17 entered the Italian Navy, which fought on the side with Nazi Germany. He never shot a gun during the War, but he did become head chef of his ship.

Baton Rouge rarely plays a role in the dining story of New Orleans, but La Riviera gives us one example where it does. A less than virtuous Vince Distefano was running a gambling operation in Baton Rouge, where his wife would make meals for the sad degenerates throwing away their money in false hope. Grandfather was known to say, "The gamblers threw their dice and held their cards while real American men gave their lives in Europe and the Pacific."

By the 50s, Distefano had moved his operation east, just outside city limits and opened The Village, which became well known as a restaurant in the 60s. In 1961, Fraccaro, was working as a cruiseliner's chef. I wish I knew how the courting happened, but it was at this time Distefano recruited Fraccaro to man The Village's kitchen. Fraccaro, from 1961 through 1969, gave Baton Rouge a reason to eat out. When Chalet Brandt opened in 1973, there was again reason. But apart from those two restaurants, Baton Rouge has never had any other noteworthy restaurants.



Fraccaro did what any wise man would when given the opportunity: he left Baton Rouge and moved to New Orleans. In 1969, he opened Ristorante Tre Fontane where the Pelican Club is. With the wealth of New Orleans moving to Metairie, he shifted back west in 1972, opening the famed La Riviera on Shores Drive.





Ten or so years ago, while shopping through the Adler's on Canal, in a time when the better of the two Adler's was at Lakeside Shopping Center, Uncle and I simultaneously came across a set of Ljungberg bowls. The bowls were not particularly fetching in appearance or materials, and they were quite small. A set of four cost about $100. But the words on one of the bowls caught both of our eyes and we had to have a set. Yes, it was the recipe for La Riviera's famous crabmeat ravioli, which won award after award, but was never on the restaurant's menu. Funny how Metairie restaurants often leave off the best menu items from the menu. Perhaps In N Out Burger copied this naturally Metairie tradition. Anyway, Uncle bought the set, but unfortunately, dinner guests have absconded with several of them, leaving me only this one.



Tune in next time for more TulaneLSU Photo Challenges!

Yours,
TulaneLSU