Underground Gourmet review of Crescent City Steakhouse, 1970

in tribute to the late Dr. Richard Collin, "The Underground Gourmet," I'm going to add the occasional review from his seminal book on New Orleans dining from 1970. Here's the first installment, just ahead of my review of Crescent City.

Crescent City Steak House
Mid City
1001 N. Broad Ave (1 1/2 miles)
Tel 482-9140
Open every day, noon to midnight. Bar.

***

The Crescent City is without peer in the preparation and serving of steaks in New Orleans. Crescent City uses only prime Midwestern beef, but unlike many of its competitors it has akitchen that knows how to cook a steak. The typed menu is small and offers a choice of sirloin strip, T-bone, filet, and rib eye all at $6.00. The T-bone (highly recommended) is large and beautiful and comes, as do all Crescent City steaks, swimming in a grand butter sauce, cooked to the exact degree of doneness. The strip sirloin (highly recommended) is as perfect a steak as one might wish, tender, juicy, but with a chewy texture that makes it a first-rate example of the best of American cooking.

Crescent City does everything well. The au gratin potatoes (a platonic dish) are extraordinary and should not be missed. The salads are good and the bar is competent. Even the cafe au lait is very good, which is indeed unusual for a steak house. The restaurant itself is plain but has the charm of many old places in the mid-city area of New Orleans, with tile floors, curtained booths which are in effect private rooms, and a jukebox with, one suspects, the original Al Jolson songs. Service at the Crescent City is attentive and friendly. The Crescent City is a prime instance of a restaurant with a limited menu that does what it promises to do to perfection.

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