The Flame, Flying Carp or Mesa Grill?




You wonder if the NYTimes restaurant reviewer Frank Bruni is a bit spoiled by the surrounding 18,000-(actual number) some eating establishments of New York when he decides to take to task Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill

for "three slivers of chicken in the appetizer tacos...among the most shriveled, desiccated pieces of meat I've seen outside of a bodega buffet at 3 a.m.  No measure of nifty peanut-thickened, chili-spiked barbecue sauce with them could save the day."  Or "a cauliflower gratin...wetter than bisque on a first try, nearly as dry as gravel on a second one."  Bruni goes on to labor on the point that some celebrity chef restaurants can be run well and with continued high quality with the celebrity absent, but that

Mesa, since its opening in the Flatiron District in 1991 has clearly lost some of its festive zest

as Flay has spread himself thin over more and more cookbook ventures, nine and counting food TV shows and other restaurants branding his name in Vegas, the Bahamas, and Atlantic City.  I'm betting that when we are there for our first night in NYC that even though the place will be way too loud, the food – despite a bad sliver of chicken here or there – will be at such a high level of quality compared to what we are used to, it will be awesome.

In the last week, we had a chance to eat out twice here in La Crosse – Pogreba's on the north side

of town and Buzzard Billy's downtown.  We were reminded of how lucky we are to have these two places here in town.  One brief look at the outside of Pogreba's on Clinton street, and you'd never know that this is very possibly the most cozily stylish restaurant in town.  Stain glass windows compliment the bold flame in the center of the restaurant, rounded off by a neat dark balcony above and bar below offering taps of craft beer like Left Hand's Milk Stout Nitro (Nitro for nitrogenation, like the foam on Guinness, not glycerin, like blow up in your mouth).

Jan's Grouper as well as my seafood trio were all well done and not so over-seasoned you feel like you might break out in hives somewhere.  It's quiet and low profile.  Not so quiet, but similarly unique is the by now familiar but still cutting edge Buzzard Billy's.

They have managed to make the same great Jamaican jerk chicken sandwich, hushpuppy and jambalaya

recipes as when they opened and brought then what many thought the freshest (Cajun) concept to an otherwise mostly midwest cuisine town.  We're lucky to have these two places. Along with maybe a handful of other really authentic quality restaurants in the Coulee Region, I hope they stick around for a long time.  But I'm going out on a cactus limb – and hope to review in NY – that the gripes from Frank on Mesa are relative ones. If a Mesa was here in town, it might serve as more than fair competition to the Flame and Flying Carp.