A Foodie Farewell...

This morning Daniela spoke via Skype to her brother in Belarus. He recommended that we have brunch at Slim Goodies...a diner located in the Garden District. We were game, but my in-laws hesitated a bit. Daniela pressed the issue, and we were on our way at noon.

We parked on Magazine Street, and walked a block...passing flocks of hungover twenty-somethings at a pizzeria and a Mexican restaurant. A local couple and a crowd of grunge-artsy types hovered around the entrance to Slim Goodies. Green and Pink hair comingled with sterling silver piercings and vintage eyewear. I asked the non-pierced locals about the wait. "An hour," they answered without a care and a smile. So we left our name and a cell phone number with the hostess/owner and took a walk. A block away, we saw the six-foot high wall fountain at the The Bulldog Pub's beer garden.
Distracted by the scenic displays, time quietly slipped away. We received the call and returned to the diner. While waiting outside for a few more moments, my father-in-law's hunger boiled over into impatience, but the owner flirted with him and he blushed. "I'll get your table ready right now. You're such a handsome man. How do you keep the ladies off of him...." Her charm disarmed my father-in-law's concerns about the wait. (This woman had the skills of an FBI hostage negotiator combined with the allure of a 1940's pin-up girl.) Moments later we were seated next to a table full of tattooed women. Bruce Springsteen's Thunder Road blared from the jukebox, and coffee flowed as we eyed the menus.
I ordered the "Jewish Coonass" breakfast platter: two potato latkes, topped with grilled spinach, two eggs and crawfish étouffée. Daniela had the "Creole Slammer" breakfast platter: two eggs under a pile of hash browns and crawfish étouffée. The wait was worth it, and the flavorful impressions will last as long as those tattoos that brunched alongside our table. As we finished up, the owner/hostess came by once more and told us that she was picking up the tab for my in-law's meals...a jazzy display of class.

We walked off most of the calories strolling along in Audobon Park. As we passed the pond and other passersby, Gabriela found her tree and perched for a while, thinking of anything but....our trip home tomorrow.