Rambles Along the EDGE

When I travel on business I usually eat alone. When I do, I eat at the counter if there is one. It allows me the opportunity to watch people.

One place that I really enjoy eating at the bar is the Empire Bistro in Norfolk, VA. It is part of the Little Bar Bistro chain in that area. Normally, I avoid chain restaurants. The larger the chain, the less chance there is of finding exceptional food. The Little Bar Bistro chain consists of four locations, all in the Hampton Roads area. Of the four, I have only been to the Empire Bistro on Granby Street, but I get the impression that each is similar in concept with slight variations in execution.

To begin with, the Empire Bistro is a bar. There is no denying it. It opens at 5pm daily and remains open until 2am. The dominant feature is the bar itself, which runs along one wall. Four 4-top tables line the opposite wall with a 5th at the front window overlooking the busy street. Another 16 seats are at the bar. The amount of alcohol is impressive. In addition to rows of neatly arranged bottles along the counter, I count in the neighborhood of 70 gravity feed bottles containing single malt scotches, rye whiskeys and the like . This is in addition to an wide assortment of beer, both bottled and draft. There is a nice assortment of local microbrews. I like the wine list though. Everything is available by the glass.

But I don’t go here for the wine, the beer or the single malt scotch. I go for the food. Instead of the usual bar food consisting of burgers, wings or other snacks of variable consistency, the food here is absolutely fantastic. This is a tapas restaurant.

Located in the redeveloped downtown district, I have only been in during the early evening. When I leave my business meetings, I can make the drive for dinner prior to returning to my hotel. The atmosphere probably changes as the patrons change from diners to drinkers over the course of the evening. I can picture the place filling as professionals working in the downtown area stop in on their way home each evening. Then later, theater crowds and late evening shoppers from the nearby mall would be replaced by locals from the many upscale apartments in the area stopping in for a late night drink. I can see the appeal to everyone. The place is non-smoking until 9pm and I would not hesitate taking my wife or anyone else.

A tapa, which comes from a word meaning ‘to cover’, is a small snack originally from the Andalusia region of Spain. Originally, it was a slice of bread or meat served in taverns to prevent fruit flies from getting to the sherry. It was soon discovered that alcohol sales were increased by these covers, (It couldn’t have been because the meat, ham or chorizo, was salty!) and tavern owners began adding other items and creating small dishes for their patrons.

Now, hundreds of years later, many restaurants have such an extensive tapas menu that you can literally make a meal by mixing and matching these appetizer sized portions. It’s a fun way to dine. It’s also a great way to try various foods without breaking the budget.

I have been to many restaurants featuring tapas. Most seem to be a simple expansion on the original tapas idea, combining olives or a bit of olive salad with a small piece of bread or meat. Tasty, but gone in two or three bites. The Empire Bistro takes the tapas idea and expands it to the level of fine dining. Each portion is about the size of a side dish. Two or three portions make an entire meal. This is not a new concept, but here it is done extremely well.

I’ve been in several times and have yet to experience a bad dish. The menu is halved with hot and cold items to make selection easier. (I’m not sure that works!) Selections such as the Cranberry BBQ Duck Leg Confit w/ Brown Sugar Baby Carrots  or the Roasted Pumpkin Hummus w/ Baked Pita make those decisions difficult. It would take weeks of dining here each day to run through the entire menu. The real treat though is the daily specials. A chalk board over the kitchen area at the end of the bar usually lists a soup, about three dishes, and a desert or two which isn’t on the menu. I strongly recommend ordering at least one of those items. Almost everything is made in house. The ingredients match those used in a high end restaurant. Many of the dishes would not be out of place on the menu of those same restaurants.  The chefs take care plating the food, so that each item is a visual experience in addition to being a delight to the palate. Each trip is a wonderful dining experience. It’s no wonder I keep going back.

The menu states that for an additional $10, most items can be served as an entree sized portion with bread and a salad. I don’t see the appeal of that, although there have been times that a particular dish was gone much too quickly. I can easily select items which fulfill any need for vegetables, fruits or bread.

One of the joys of dining out is trying different dishes. The Empire Bistro is certainly capable of meeting that need. The fact that everything seems to be of consistently high quality adds to the appeal. If you find yourself in Norfolk, please give them a try.

Zane Melder EDGE Books Kentwood, LA

In November 2004, after a four month open voting process on the website of The National Arbor Day Foundation, Congress passed legislation designating the Oak as the National Tree of America.

Oak, the most widespread of America’s hardwoods, has more than 60 species. One of those, the Southern Live Oak tree goes by many names. I think most commonly it is just called Live Oak by people who live where it grows. And it grows commonly from Texas to Carolinas, although it can be found in other areas. As a representative of the Oak, the Southern Live Oak is a tree to be proud of.

The tree is described by some as being an evergreen. That isn’t exactly true. The live oak is a deciduous tree. It does maintain it’s leaves throughout the winter, but sheds and quickly regrows them over just a few short weeks in the spring. It would certainly seem evergreen unless you were watching carefully.

Today, the tree is mostly thought of as a landscape or street tree. But, during colonial times it was ideal for use in shipbuilding. It has the highest density of any North American hardwood. Because of this, it was used in the construction of “Old Ironsides”, the US ship famous for being so tough that the cannon balls from British war ships literally bounced off. The massive branches of the live oak was used for the curved ribs of ships. A cousin, the white oak, was actually used for the planking on the USS Constitution because shipbuilders of the time didn’t have the skill to bend or steam the tougher live oak wood into shape. That same toughness makes the live oak ideal for use as fuel or charcoal cooking.

Live oak forms a broad and massive tree, often wider than high at maturity. In the Deep South it is often festooned with Spanish moss dangling from its branches. It is indeed an image associated with the South. Think of plantations and images of live oaks and Spanish moss automatically come to mind.

Those trees used to be far more common. Today, although there are isolated trees and groves, it is far easier to find scenic live oaks in parks and landmarks. Several plantations boast hundreds of yards of tree lined roadways. Imagine miles or even hundreds of miles of tree lined roadways.

The wide neutral ground of Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans was lined with live oak trees, and it’s public green space served as a center of congregation of the area’s residents. That ended in the late 1960’s, when Interstate 10 was constructed above the oldest section of Claiborne Avenue and down came the trees.

As a WPA project, Highway 190 was extended across the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to Brady, Texas in the 1930’s. Live oaks were planted along it’s length. I vaguely remember seeing those trees when I first traveled that roadway from Opelousas to Baton Rouge in the late 60s.
A fungus deadly to the live oak was first identified in 1942 Wisconsin had already reached Louisiana by that time. Combined with road expansion and other man-made disasters, that fungus has now virtually eliminated much of the beauty of that drive. That fungus is now common in 22 states.

Although many trees along the Louisiana and Mississippi were destroyed by recent hurricanes, the live oak, as a general rule, is very resistant to weather. A very large portion of those trees were destroyed, not by hurricane force winds, but by having their root systems immersed in salt water for days and weeks. The Seven Sisters Oak was the largest certified Southern Live Oak tree. It is located a few miles from my home in Mandeville, Louisiana. It is estimated to be at least 1000 years old, possibly as old as 1500 years. In 2005, the Seven Sisters Oak survived a near direct hit from Hurricane Katrina. I say was because in the spring of 2008 the Village Sentinel in Waycross, Georgia was remeasured and found to have grown enough to surpass my local tree.

But, I don’t mind. My local tree is still there. It’s still massive. It still serves as a symbol. It’s a symbol of American history. It’s a symbol of strength. It’s a symbol of hope. Thousands of live oak trees are being planted across Louisiana, both to replace those lost in recent hurricanes and to slow coastal erosion and protect our coastline.

Since I purchased my property north of New Orleans I have planned a tree-lined drive. Leyland Cyprus was my tree of choice. I am beginning to rethink that choice. Not only would I be helping preserve a true southern native, the Southern Live Oak is much more fitting for this ‘Southern Gentleman’. I would certainly like to think that my grandchildren remembered the landscape when they remembered visiting their grandparents.

Zane Melder EDGE Books Kentwood, LA

Etiquette is important!

Manners, or etiquette, are a single, basic code shared by all, making life simpler and more pleasant by removing many chances for misunderstandings and by creating opportunities for courtesy and mutual respect. Those codes have been developed and passed down for thousands of years.  The problem arises in the fact that the sense and sensibility of Ancient Egypt differed from that of Ancient Greece which differed from that of the American colonies and from that of the culture of the 21st century Internet.

Each generation has to develop an etiquette suitable for their circumstances. Emily Post, a popular novelist, did it for her generation. In 1922, she authored an engaging read simply titled Etiquette. She took the manners she was taught as a child and added those things which fit into her view of the world. Was it right? Of course! Millions of copies of the book were sold. Suddenly, a wide segment of the population had a set of rules to follow. Did it all make sense? Does it matter which fork is used if you only have one fork? Probably not. But it became a standard to strive toward.

The title phrase is from the cartoon strip Alphonse and Gaston, which featured a bumbling pair of Frenchmen with a penchant for politeness. The strip ran irregularly from 1901 until the cartoonist’s death in 1937.  The premise of their strip was that they were both extremely polite, constantly bowing to each other and deferring to each other. Neither could ever do anything or go anywhere because each insisted on letting the other precede him.

Manners and etiquette carried to an extreme or inappropriately applied can become immobilizing.

A question I posed online was ” When being seated in a restaurant, who leads the way to the table, the man or the woman.”

Jo replied that the man always leads the way. That makes sense. It’s what she was taught.  Chivalry, right? In fact, it’s not proper etiquette.

The correct response to my question is that, as far as ‘proper’ etiquette is concerned, a gentleman leads the lady if they are being seated by a hostess. The lady leads with the gentleman trailing if they are being seated by a host.

The reason for this is that a hostess is presumed to not be as chivalrous as a host. She would seat the lady willy nilly. When a couple goes to a restaurant and are to be seated by a Maitre d,’ the woman follows the Maitre d’ to the table as the Maitre d’ is obviously schooled in the art of etiquette and dining and certainly would have the table and chairs of the restaurant in perfect order, the chair is clean and that the lady has the best possible place at the table before she is seated. With a hostess, that responsibility falls to the male half of the couple. However, in today’s restaurants, tables are often jammed into place to provide for the most seating. Even when following a host, it can be an obstacle course, let alone a trying to keep up with a host who is anxious to get you to your table and hurry back to his station to seat another party. By the time a couple shifts positioning to allow the lady to follow their host, he is already halfway across the restaurant. The gentleman must take charge and lead his date though that maze, following their host as best he may.

Do those same rules of etiquette apply today? Some do and some don’t.  So much of what we call manners is merely custom. Times change. Our customs change. Each generation has had to decide for itself which of their forebear’s customs continued to apply. A well-mannered gentleman offers a lady his seat. When doing so, he should engage the lady in a brief moment of conversation before allowing her to sit. This would allow her seat time to cool. Them’s manners! However, is it really polite, in today’s society, to think about a lady’s bottom needing cooling?

I’m a newlywed. Not only is Jo a few years younger than I, but she was raised under different circumstances. I open doors for her and seat her at a restaurant. She likes that. I always lead the way in a restaurant. She expects it. I’m learning not to base my decisions upon her previously stated preferences. I’m changing my customs.  I answer her questions with “Yes, ma’am” and “No, ma’am”.

It drives her crazy!  <gryn>

Zane Melder EDGE Books Kentwood, LA