Red Beans and Rice Review: Part 5 Mr. Ed's 1001 Live Oak St. Bucktown This week took me to Bucktown, the neighborhood right past the 17th St. Canal in Metairie. Mr. Ed's is a bit off the normal beaten path for Bucktown restaurants which are pretty much clustered on Hammond Hwy. and Lake Avenue. It's back on Live Oak (the first east-west street off of the lake). The location used to be the Triple Crown po-boy place when I was growing up. Mr. Ed's took it over a couple of years back. The decor improved greatly, but they kept the menu the same--basic New Orleans neighborhood fare. The interior of Mr. Ed's is nice, pastel colors, white ceiling fans, everything well-kept. There are ten or so tables and the bar in the front room, and an adjoining dining room off to the side. The beans were exceptional, nice and creamy, without being watery. The smoked sausage was good ol' Frey, and there's nothing wrong with that. In spite of the fact that red beans and rice are the Monday special at Mr. Ed's, I suspect that the sausage waas grilled to order, and possibly the rice was boiled up to order as well. I believe this because the delay from ordering to when the plate was set in front of me was unusually long (about 15 min.) In most places, they're moving so many plates of red beans and rice out that the rice is boiled up in big pots and ready to be served immediately. The beans are nice and hot in a pot, so there's no problem if the rice loses heat. The sausage is constantly being fried up to keep up with the orders. I don't think as many people order the beans at Mr. Ed's, else everything would have been ready. When someone at the next table gets an oyster po-boy served before me, and they ordered after me, either they don't cook up their seafood to order, or they had to boil some rice for me. My Barq's was a fountain drink, a refreshing change of pace from bottles and cans. The beans were served on a classic three-part plate. The big section was beans, one small section was a lettuce salad (Italian dressing), and the third was a decent-sized piece of toasted Italian bread. No butter, but a couple of pats of that 'country crock' stuff. The jury's still out on whether that was a bad thing. Tabasco is their hot sauce, another disappointment. Service was, how shall I say, awful. The young lady looked like she had too much Carnival the two days prior to yesterday, and was feeling the after effects. At least I hope her slowness wasn't a permanent condition. She was polite, just not very attentive. Overall, this was one of those meals where the happenings around me (delay in being served, inattentive service) were more of a distraction than normal. Combine this with the noise from the video poker machines (which were located right in front of the restaurant, by the door), and it wasn't the most pleasant meal I've had. This would have been a good place to order take-out from. Price of the meal was right at $6, and I left the girl a $1 tip. I'll be back, but I think I'll stick to a po-boy next time. That might speed up the delivery from the kitchen.
New Orleans, LA