Blue Orleans: A Bite of the Crescent City

By Bruce Collier June 16 2005 Issue

2260 W. Cty Hwy 30A
Blue Mountain Beach
622-1909

Hours: Open daily, 7 a.m. - 2 p.m.
Reservations: Not accepted
Children’s Menu: Yes
Major Credit Cards Accepted
Dress: Casual

Atmosphere:
Food Quality:
Service:
Overall Quality: 3/4

I lived, and ate, in New Orleans, for ten years, and I came to appreciate the city’s easy, indulgent way with food. The big difference between the way people eat in New Orleans and the way they eat elsewhere is that everyone eats too much, but New Orleanians are the only ones that aren’t ashamed of it. Fried fish? Good. Fried fish with butter sauce? Better. Fried fish with butter sauce, bread, and a side of fried potatoes? Best, as long there’s bread pudding for dessert.

They don’t go quite that far at Blue Orleans. You don’t see any butter sauce, and, so far, no bread pudding. Even so, they do have po’ boys, gumbo, red beans and rice, and beignets buried in powdered sugar. That’s some of the lunch items. For breakfast, you can get four kinds of omelet, steak and eggs, pancakes and french toast, or eggs any style. They have fruit and even salads, but they come topped with fried seafood or grilled chicken. In other words, you can eat sparingly, but why?

We ate at Blue Orleans on a sunny weekday. We arrived at around 11:30 a.m., and by noon the place was full. The restaurant seems to be a favorite with emergency services personnel. Such people generally favor substantial meals, quick to prepare and easily boxed to go when duty calls. The kitchen sounded busy.

It’s a compact place, with seven tables inside and two on the patio. There’s also a bar with stools for single diners or small groups. The walls are hung with posters of Louisiania, emphasizing the state’s chief attractions, music and food. Beer is served, including three from the excellent Abita line, brewed near New Orleans in Abita Springs. You can also get wine, lemonade, and iced tea. Service was competent, but a little absent-minded at times.

The menu is printed on both sides, offering breakfast from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., and lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. There are no appetizers as such, but you can make a lunch of the gumbo of the day, jambalaya, or sausage and red beans. For the rest, there are sandwiches, entree salads, and weekday blue plate specials including pork chops, meatloaf, barbecue, and fried seafood.

For breakfast, Blue Orleans offers a vegetable omelet, cajun omelet of andouille sausage and crawfish, southwestern omelet with sausage, onions and mushrooms, and a potato and onion omelet. French toast and pancakes come with patty or link sausage, bacon, fruit, and rosemary-seasoned potato wedges. You can also get a BLT, and breakfast sandwiches with eggs, bacon, sausage and cheese.

I ordered one of my favorite things in all the world, a fried oyster po’ boy. There are also po’ boys of crawfish, shrimp, grouper, roast beef, and chicken and sausage. My breakfast-loving friend ordered a plate of three eggs with bacon and fruit. We knew there wouldn’t be room, but we ordered beignets in advance for dessert.

My po’boy came dressed (Louisiana-speak for tomato, lettuce, onions, pickles) with tangy cocktail sauce, on crisp french bread. It’s a tall sandwich, thick and stacked high, sliced in two for easier eating. Instead of fries, Blue Orleans serves red beans and sausage with rice on the side. The oysters were fairly small, but crisp, hot, and flavorful. I’m not the world’s biggest fan of red beans, but the sausage was plentiful and smoky, giving the dish an earthy, satisfying texture and flavor.

My friend’s eggs came fried pretty close to what she ordered. She enjoyed the bacon as well as a good-sized portion of fruit, including some sweet and tasty strawberries. Blue Orleans serves Louisiana’s well-known Community brand coffee.

The beignets came in a pile of about six or seven. A New Orleans breakfast perennial, beignets are wedge-shaped dough, fried crisp and served hot, covered with fluffy powdered sugar. Some places overdo it and drizzle syrup or honey, but that is unnecessary. Without the sugar, beignets are only mildly sweet, but few desserts are as simple and fulfilling.

Before we left, we stepped out onto the patio for my friend to have a smoke. Inside, on a postage stamp of a bandstand, a man fired up an electric keyboard and cut loose with some lively blues and New Orleans standards. Not many places jump at high noon, but Blue Orleans seemed to be on the way. Judging from the customers, many of whom were greeted as old friends, the jumping will continue for some time.

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