Shandy Pockets | An online travel magazine
  • Front
  • Features
    • Travel Features
    • Interviews
    • Photo Features
    • Travel Archives
  • Reviews
    • Hotel Reviews
    • Eat & Drink Reviews
    • Attraction Reviews
    • Product Reviews
  • About
    • Media Kit

Review: Johnny Sanchez, New Orleans

24/11/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
“Wait, what?”

“No, I’m serious. It really is.”

“This is a Mexican restaurant…by…John Besh? How is that even possible and why would we want to go there?”

I’m trying to cut some slack given my friend’s cynicism here. I don’t think many people in the city realise that the first half of this year-old restaurant’s name comes from its most revered gastronomic son. Chef Besh has so marinated his own reputation in the local flavours of Louisiana that there’s an understandable leap of faith involved here.

“It’s not just him. The Sanchez part is Aaron Sanchez. He’s kind of an expert.”

“Oh.”

“He’s on TV.”

“OH. OK. Well, I’m intrigued.”

Headway made, not that I default to describing chefs by their televisual credits, but Sanchez’s appearances on Chopped and more don’t hurt. I guess we’re going to give these two hugely acclaimed, panoramically-skilled chefs a chance, then.

New Orleans isn’t a town built on great Mexican food. Sure, there are a couple of cheerful burrito-mongers for quick fixes but nobody has really donned a glittery mask and wrestled with some of the more technical regional intricacies before this Besh-Sanchez tag team hopped into the ring.

The dining room is cavernous and colourful, all Day of the Dead iconography and modernist chandeliers. It strikes an immediate balance between formal and fiesta, and is big enough to provide some much-needed breathing space between the post-convention business drones and the cocktail-slurping bachelorette parties.

Not that we’re averse to cocktails, the mezcals and tamarinds of the drinks menu luring us in from the get-go. I’ve always been fond of the assured friendliness of the servers and staff at Besh joints, and even though the formality here is a notch lower, their sincerity and knowledge are equally reassuring.

It goes without saying that guacamole and chips are ordered as we look at the menu. The weird silence as this happens turns out to be a serious allergy to avocado on the part of my dining companion so that turns into a side order of EpiPens and an instruction to keep the bowl well onto my side of the table.

Even a quick look at the menu sees the culinary sparring and trading of ideas that has taken place between Johnny and Sanchez. Blue crab and shrimp come out punching from Louisiana, landing perfectly on the tostadas and tomatillos respectively.

We take on a haul of tacos, also representing both sides well, with crispy P&J oysters as well as barbecued beef and a carne asada with some delightful pickled jalapenos.

There are some nice home touches – a signature Besh move but taken up by Sanchez in his Mama’s epazote rice and we order the street corn as it was a dish that my date’s father would make when she was young. No restaurant food ever occupies the same emotional space as family-made versions, but it passes muster for her and I’m totally sold.

A notably quirky quesadilla with wild mushrooms and chicken enchiladas that remain memorable for the right reasons due to the meat being slow-cooked round off our food choices, as much as we could eat losing out very slightly to as much as we wanted to eat. 
More news on a rematch in the near future, I’m hoping.

A couple of glasses of sparkling rose give us a fighting chance of sharing dessert, the only real contender for both of us being the dulce de leche and coconut flan, dispatched with aplomb as we made more server friends and talked about plans to visit another of Besh’s collaborators, Chef Alon Shaya (in his new restaurant, Shaya), as soon as was logistically possible.

We left a dining room that exuded acceptably raucous bonhomie, a feat for its size. This guy Johnny Sanchez knows his Mexican onions alright, and he definitely sounds more of an expert than Aaron Besh.
 
 Johnny Sanchez website 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    January 2018
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013

    Categories

    All
    Air Travel
    Americas
    Asia
    Books
    Celebrities
    Cities
    Competitions
    Eco Travel
    Europe
    Food/Drink
    Gadgets
    Guides
    Hacks
    Hotel Guests
    Hotels
    Humour
    Infographic
    Interviews
    Luxury
    Magazine Content
    Maps
    New Orleans
    News
    Passengers
    Photos
    Podcast
    Products
    Restaurants
    Reviews
    Surveys
    Technology
    Trains
    Travel Writing
    Trivia
    UK
    USA
    Video
    Weird

    RSS Feed

Copyright © Shandypockets and the individual authors, 2013, 2014 and 2015. All rights reserved. Online travel magazine, travel features, travel reviews, travel interviews, travel funnies, hotel reviews, product reviews, travel photos


In the course of writing features, we will sometimes be hosted. Where appropriate, we will indicate this within the article. For all queries regarding Shandy Pockets, see the CONTACT page, above.
Photos used under Creative Commons from Ewan-M, Chrissy Olson, Powershift2012, Mr Thinktank, jennicatpink, nafra cendrers, eastmidtown, ST33VO, PYONKO, shaman2477, Upupa4me, Infrogmation, jikatu, Janitors, Robert S. Donovan, JD Hancock, beltz6, beggs, brownpau, sierragoddess, badgreeb RECORDS, mikedarnell1974, °Simo°, Daquella manera, Alex Schwab, ST33VO, MMartin Photography, Numinosity (Gary J Wood), Coco Mault, dying regime, DonkeyHotey, LoFish23, Aero Icarus, Bob Jagendorf, Matt @ PEK, travel.executive