Review: New Chef Brings New Orleans Flavors to Veranda on Highland

2220 Highland Ave., 939-5551, www.verandaonhighland.com

By Deborah Lockridge 

Thomas Robey is the new kid in town. The 39-year-old executive chef has completely re-envisioned the menu at Veranda on Highland after coming to Birmingham from the famous Commander's Palace restaurant in New Orleans two months ago.

The charming, historic building that houses Veranda is a perfect backdrop for Robey's New Orleans-influenced fare, with Caribbean accents and a focus on fresh local food. The beautifully renovated Southern home dates back to the 1920s and has been home to a number of restaurants over the years. You can have dinner or lunch in one of nine separate dining rooms, or in Papa's Bar, which offers both the full dinner menu and more casual bar fare.

We were shown upstairs to the front room, which was nice and cool on a warm, humid summer day. Dark green walls, plantation shutters, iron chandeliers and white tablecloths provided a relaxed atmosphere. Because the old house is divided up into a number of smaller rooms, the atmosphere is a little quieter and more intimate than many of the area's more popular restaurants, which all seem to compete to see how bustling and noisy they can be. We could easily converse – although we also could easily hear the large party of older folks at the next table, talking about bandages, ovaries, and someone who "flopped over on his chair dead."

Our server was enthusiastic – his first day, he informed us. He wasn't able to answer a question about a particular wine on the list, but promptly offered to bring a taste – although that taste was slow to arrive. He was, however, enthusiastic about the menu and had tried nearly everything on it.

We started out with an appetizer of jumbo lump crabmeat with local red and yellow watermelon, cucumber ribbons, vine ripe tomatoes, mind and parsley oil, tossed with a Pimm's Cup vinaigrette ($12.75). Our server told us it had been a special, but was so popular they added it to the regular menu for the summer. It was easy to see why. This was a plate of Alabama summertime, the sweet lump crabmeat complemented by the colorful and flavorful fruits and vegetables. A cup of the soup du jour, which was gumbo ($5.25), needed a bit of salt and a bit more spice for our taste.

Other appetizer choices that tempted us included the buttermilk-fried alligator tossed in a Crystal hot sauce buerre blanc; julienne of beef with tasso, smoked crimini mushrooms, and slivered green onions in a green peppercorn cream sauce, served on roasted garlic croustade; and softshell crawfish with lemon butter.

We next chose to split a salad. There were three to choose from, and we went with the most seasonal option, an Alabama Peach Salad, with roasted peaches, local goat cheese, shaved sweet onions, candied pecans and torn limestone lettuce with a Southern Comfort vinaigrette ($6.75). This was a big disappointment. You would think something labeled "Peach Salad" would have an abundance of peaches, but there were only a few small slivers of largely tasteless roasted peach, about two each when we split it. The lettuce was a very nice butter-type variety, but it had not been dried well, turning the vinaigrette watery.

Other salad options were the Veranda Caesar (which we almost ordered because it's garnished with Spanish white anchovies, a favorite), and the Veranda house salad, with strawberries, orange segments, honey roasted almonds and raspberry vinaigrette.

The next disappointment was the wine. We each ordered a glass of zinfandel. When it finally arrived, it was warm -- much warmer than the comfortably cool room temperature where we were sitting. We flagged down the hostess and told her about it. "We can't afford a wine humidor," she told us. We asked for, and received, larger red-wine glasses, and after the wine finally cooled down to room temperature, it was fine.
 
Our entrees were much better. We ordered bourbon-glazed lamb chops with mint julep syrup ($26), but asked that instead of the sweet potato Lyonnaise that came with it, to substitute the Boulangere potatoes that normally come with the New York Sirloin. (We had enjoyed candied yams for lunch at Eagles soul food restaurant, and sweet potatoes for one meal a day is enough for us.) Three double-cut lamb rack chops were cooked to the requested medium-rare and were tender and flavorful.

Our other entrée was the Veranda's take on shrimp and grits. New Orleans jumbo white barbecued shrimp ($19.75) were served with Anson Mills organic yellow grits and spun vegetables. The "traditional rosemary, black pepper and butter sauce" was dark and had much more pepper flavor than rosemary, but was delicious. The grits were a treat, managing to be both coarse and creamy at the same time. The shrimp were perfectly cooked.

A couple other tempting entrée choices were Pecan Gulf Fish with red bean grilled onion rice, seasoned pecans, and Creole Meuniere; and pepper crusted filet mignon with Creole smashed new potatoes, caramelized onions, roasted crimini mushrooms and natural jus.

For dessert, we split an order of banana bread pudding with whiskey sour sauce, which was quite good -- sort of a cross between traditional Southern banana pudding and classic bread pudding. Other dessert choices, all made in-house, included key lime pie, New York cheesecake, and a chocolate cake/ chocolate mousse/ espresso concoction.

The upper deck was not set for diners this evening because there was rain in the forecast, but we asked if we could have our dessert out there and they were happy to oblige. It's a lovely outdoor dining area, and if you happened to be driving by one Friday night in July and saw a couple out there dancing all alone, it was us, dancing to the Andrews Sisters. You could hear the background music, a mix of jazz and old standards, better out on the deck than in the restaurant. There's another outdoor dining area on the ground level in front of the restaurant, but it's surrounded by a wooden fence so you don't get the view like you do on the top deck.

Entrée prices were quite reasonable for this type of establishment, starting at $16 for a chicken entrée and toping out at $26 for the lamb. You could start off with a bowl of soup or a salad for $6.75. Appetizers were a little higher, in the $10 to $15 range, but we have to note they included some ingredients that tend to be pricier, such as shellfish.

We did not get a chance to meet Robey, but did chat a bit on our way out with Stanley Reynolds, dining room manager, who also came from Commander's Palace. We told him about the warm wine, and he showed us where the wine was stored, in a charming alcove on the first floor. But we'd rather the wine was stored somewhere less picturesque and a little closer to cellar temperature.

Our overall impression is that Veranda has a lot of potential, but needs some fine-tuning. That's to be expected when a restaurant is this new – Robey had been at the helm maybe a month when we had our meal. In an interview with the Birmingham News' Jo Ellen O'Hara, Thomas Robey said that when he is sitting around on his couch at home, he is constantly absorbed with ideas for new dishes he will develop for the menu. We'll likely be back to see what he comes up with.

(Review published August 2007)