After Katrina, the restaurant business in New Orleans was closely watched by outsiders as a sign of things returning to – well, the new normal. Surprisingly, the opening, but not until last spring, that provided us with cheer-up-we're-getting-there was not one of the great old Quarter divas or an out-of-the-way seafood dive. It was the Camellia Grill.
Lots of visitors don't know about the Camellia. But if you take a ride on the St. Charles Avenue streetcar, and you certainly should, where the car makes a 90-degree right turn as it goes far uptown, is the neighborhood known as Riverbend, and there's the Camellia, right across the street from the stop. The white-pillared facade is the entrance to a diner with a maitre'd and linen napkins. The napkins are real, the guy in the golf shirt merely keeps order and shows folks which counter seats to take. Yes, it's counter service and carry-out only, complete with patter from servers like Melvin, who handled our peninsula of stools.
There's often a line, with a mixture of locals and tourists, who spin yarns to amuse their groups about visits when they were young and ate here as part of a night (or day) of bar-hopping. Behind us in line on this school holiday morning were a mother and teenaged daughter, daughter wearing a plaid skirt and a white blouse with an embroidered badge. And saddle shoes, the real thing. After a while, Ann said with a grin, “So, tell me about the shoes. Uniform code or your idea?”
“Uniform code,” replied the girl, “and they have to be polished just so. They're real strict about it.” So a chat began about school uniforms after Ann said that lots of kids in St. Louis have them, too. The line moved, and we continued the chat while as we sat on the banquettes inside, among the we'll-be-seated-next. And at some point Mom said, “Oh, down here the high school is a big thing. Grown people say to each other 'Where did you go to high school?'”
So take comfort. St. Louis is not the only place in the world where that's a standard inquiry. .
Melvin (that's him on the lower left hand corner of the website – which, we'd add, is not complete) served us what the menu calls the M. Shwartz chili omelet. They've just added hash browns as an option, and we went that way rather than the usual fries that come with it. Huge, fluffy omelet, a tasty version of this favorite, with hash browns that are shredded, but just right for soaking up chili. And then he brought forth one of the house specialties, the pecan waffle, and some bacon. The choice of syrup was either maple or cane, which is made from sugar cane, another very Louisiana product. No question about what to choose here; the cane is simple and sweet, a good match for the pecans.
The coffee is good for diner coffee, but the one thing that is mandatory for Ann on every trip to the Camellia is a chocolate freeze. Maybe not traditional for breakfast but absolutely necessary.
The line moves surprisingly quickly, as do the cooks. And despite the always-gloppy waffle iron, a trip to the rear offered a view of a prep kitchen that absolutely gleamed.
Friday and Saturday nights until 2 a.m.; other nights until midnight
Camellia Grill
626 S. Carrollton Ave., New Orleans
504-309-2679
Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner daily
Credit cards: Yes
Wheelchair access: Difficult
Smoking: No
Comments