Farewell To Drago.
Drago Cvitanovich, the founder of the famous New Orleans seafood restaurant that bears his name, departed us over the weekend. He was ninety-four, and had been ailing for several years.
The last time he thought deeply about his restaurant, he must have come to many happy conclusions. Under the management of his wife Klara and his sons Tommy and Gerry, Drago’s was a tremendous success. Not just according to the number of customers who dine there every day, but also because of the happiness his establishment brought to so many people.
Following through in that direction was not easy. One only has to recall 1994, when after twenty-five years Drago’s Restaurant was still struggling, like a new restaurant. It had a good following, a reputation for serving superior oysters, and a large menu of other local seafood. It also was unique in serving a fascinating array of Croatian (and , as they called it in the early days, Yugoslavian) cookery.
Klara and Drago Cvitanovich.
The restaurant was among the first to open in what would shortly become the hottest area outside the French Quarter for restaurants, shops, bars and music clubs. It was a block away from the most popular upscale shopping mall in the entire metropolitan area.
On the other hand, no small number of people wondered what kind of name “Drago” was. When they met Drago, they found a very friendly man who spoke in a thick accent. This put some people off, but something about him was engaging.
Actually, Croatian restaurateurs were a major presence in New Orleans since the 1920s. Bozo’s, Chris Steak House, Uglesich’s, Mandich’s, and Gentilich’s were the best known, but there were many more. Croatian restaurateurs were plugged into a network of Croatian fishermen, who supplied unusually fine seafood to thir fellow countrymen.
These were not the first forces that caused Croatians to move to America. The Nazis and the Communists figured into the story. Nor was it easy to pick up and move across the ocean. Drago wandered around the country before winding up first in Canada then Louisiana. He was lucky enough to have relatives who were already here. The Batinich family gave him his first restaurant job, in New Orleans. . And, when Drago’s Restaurant went through a rough period, cousins in Biloxi who owned Mary Mahoney’s stepped in. A mural on the wall of Drago’s new dining room is an appreciation of that essential contribution.
Back to the oysters. With Drago’s talented hands doing the shucking, the oysters at his restaurant were the best. But even with such excellent food, in 1994 Drago’s was barely afloat. Their son Tommy–who had taken over management of the restaurant some ten years before–knew that the moment of truth was at hand. They decided to give the business everything they had for one more year. Then, unless things didn’t pick up, Drago’s would close.
But it didn’t. A single, simple recipe changed everything. It involved oysters, of course. Five ingredients. One cooking step.
It didn’t even have a name at first. “Char-broiled oysters” more describes than names it, and not even accurately. (They’re actually grilled.) Suddenly, every New Orleanian with a taste for oysters was at Drago’s, devouring dozen after dozen char-broiled oysters. Drago’s was saved!
But other stuff happened that would prove even more salubrious. During the war in the Balkans, Klara and the rest of the Drago’s family undertook a major effort in supplying emergency necessities and medical supplies to the millions of people who were affected in Bosnia and elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia. The bar at Drago’s was piled high with the material.
From that, Drago and his family saw what would become their mission. When Hurricane Katrina wiped out civilization in the New Orleans area, Drago’s stepped in with box lunches. The price: free. Customers: anyone who could make it to Drago’s, no questions asked.
By the time Drago’s ended this program, it had given away 77,000 free lunches. This from a one-unit, family-owned restaurant! Incredible! But standard procedure for the Cvitanoviches.
This surely is what Drago had to be proud of in his last years. What a credential at the pearly gates! Not that he thought about it that way. He and his family are there not just to put out a memorable plate of food, but to be a real part of the community. And the community pays him back by making Drago’s the essential seafood restaurant in the New Orleans area and beyond. We will not again see his like. Or his smile, his eyebrows, or his unmistakable friendliness.[DIVIDER TYPE=””]
Drago’s Char-Broiled Oysters
Drago Cvitanovich was been the oyster king of New Orleans for decades, and that’s saying something. Like most other people in the oyster business, he was a Croatian immigrant. When he opened his restaurant in 1969, he kept his ties with his countrymen down the river, and as a result always had the best oysters available.
Drago’s son Tommy, who now runs the restaurant, created this dish in the early 1990s. It became wildly popular, and restaurants all over town now copy the dish. It’s simple enough. The only tough part is obtaining oysters of Drago’s quality (sometimes you can get them directly from the restaurant), and then opening them. Don’t attempt this without freshly-shucked oysters and an outdoor grill.
This is the perfect dish for those who want to enjoy oysters in their unadorned form, but can’t or won’t eat raw. Once you start eating these, you won’t be able to stop. My personal best is four and a half dozen.
By the way, this recipe is the real McCoy. Tommy Cvitanovich has never kept it a secret, for this reason: “You can have the right recipe, but you don’t have my oysters.”
The famous oysters before they go for a walk across the grill.
2 lb. butter, softened
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh garlic
1 Tbs. black pepper
1 tsp. dried Italian seasoning
6 dozen oysters on the half shell
1 cup grated Parmesan and Romano cheeses, mixed
3 Tbs. chopped parsley
1. Mix butter with the garlic, pepper, and Italian seasoning.
2. Heat a gas or charcoal grill and put oysters on the half shell right over the hottest part. Spoon the seasoned butter over the oysters enough so that some of it will overflow into the fire and flame up a bit.
3. The oysters are ready when they puff up and get curly on the sides. Sprinkle the grated Parmesan and Romano and the parsley on top. Serve on the shells immediately with hot French bread.
Serves eight to twelve normal people, or two serious oyster fanatics.
A dozen char-broiled oysters from Drago’s. This will get your appetitte going for another dozen or two.
Chili Paneer @ Taj Mahal
Paneer is a light, fresh cow’s-milk cheese made in house by all self-respecting Indian restaurants. It’s like a drier, firmer version of Creole cream cheese. For this and other dishes, it’s cut into cubes, then seared in the tandoor until lightly browned at the edges. It’s served with a very hot sauce of red chili peppers. It makes a great appetizer, especially if your taste runs to very hot dishes. The cheese helps the peppers go down and eases the attack on your system. Somewhat. This is a dish for those who really love a good pepper burn from their exotic food. I’m there.
Dining room at Nirvana.
Taj Mahal. Old Metairie: 923-C Metairie Rd. 504-836-6859.
This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
February 6, 2017
Days Until. . .
Mardi Gras–21
Valentine’s Day–8
Today’s Flavor
Raw oysters.
This is National Raw Oyster Day. It’s the shank of the oyster season right now along the Gulf Coast, with water temperatures cool enough to make the oysters pump a lot of water through their bodies to filter out nutrients. This makes them fat, with big meaty “eyes,” (the adductor muscles) and more complex, briny flavors. Assuming you have no health problems that would prevent you from doing so, you should have a dozen or two today and see how good oysters can be. I think they’re the finest seafood we produce in our part of the world, and by far the best buy.
All that is true despite the damage done to the Louisiana oil beds indirectly because of the BP oil spill. Few beds of any size were touched by the oil, but fresh water sent from the river through the bays where oysters grow killed them. It was estimated that it would take three years to return to full production. It’s still much lower than before the spill, but you can once again get Louisiana oysters everywhere you once did. At higher prices, however.
The oysters we enjoy in New Orleans are all of the species crassostrea virginica. These are also the oysters of the entire Atlantic Coast, including those of the Chesapeake Bay and the formerly rich oyster beds of New York City. But there are many other species, although they only occasionally appear in this market. Reason: the quality and low cost of the local oysters, which are as fine a blessing as a habitat ever bestowed on its interlopers.
Edible Dictionary
oysters Rockefeller, n.–A baked oyster dish, usually served as an appetizer, of a thick sauce of very finely chopped pureed greens with a slight tinge of anise in the aroma and flavor. It’s usually served atop an oyster on a shell, usually three to six at a time. The most common recipe for oysters Rockefeller uses spinach as the main component, and gets the anise flavor from Pernod, Herbsaint, or a similar liqueur. The original recipe, created at Antoine’s in 1899 and still served there, is made with celery, fennel (the source of the anise flavor), parsley, and green onions. All that is combined with a light roux and bread crumbs to thicken the sauce. The dish is named for John D. Rockefeller, the richest man in the world at the time of the dish’s creation. The richness and green color of the sauce suggested the name to Jules Alciatore, whose idea the dish was. The story is that he needed a quick appetizer for a party, and saw a line of picked-over relish plates in the kitchen. He told the cook to grind their contents and make it into a sauce for oysters. For many years, if you ordered oysters Rockefeller at Antoine’s, you’d get a card saying how many orders of it had been served in history, including yours.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Oyster Creek runs twenty-six miles through a twisting course into the Gulf Of Mexico near Freeport, Texas, sixty miles south of Houston. The creek is a distributary of the Brazos River, and about 7,000 years ago it was the Brazos. Now it is more a tidal stream than a running waterway, allowing oysters to move in as the salt water takes over. Along the creek is the town of Oyster Creek, with its 1200 residents. Niko’s Grill is right in the middle of the town, and probably has oysters on the menu.
Deft Dining Rule #670:
No recipe for cooking oysters will ever equal the goodness of the same oysters, freshly shucked, eaten raw.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez:
The best way to shuck oysters is to find somebody who really knows how and get him to do it for you in exchange for beer.
Food Games
Today in 1935, the board game Monopoly was sold for the first time. Now you can find custom versions of the game for many cities and special interests. But I don’t think I’ve seen one with restaurants as the theme. Let’s see. . . in New Orleans, the inexpensive properties just past GO would be Domilese’s and Dong Phuong. Around the first turn you’d have the opportunity to buy Mandina’s and Liuzza’s. Just past Free Parking you’d have Mr. B’s and Clancy’s and Brigtsen’s. The green properties would be Galatoire’s, Arnaud’s, and Antoine’s. But which would be the ones where Boardwalk and Park Place? August? Commander’s Palace? Square Root?
Annals Of Bottled Water
Today in 1985, Perrier rolled out the first of its flavored bubbly waters. It was the first time the French company bottled anything but its famous spring water. They recently added Pink Grapefruit to Lemon, Lime, and Citron (the latter, conceived in a flash of creative brilliance, is lemon and lime together).
Annals Of Food Writing
This is the birthday of Michael Pollan, the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, a great book about the food we eat, where it comes from, and how growing it the way we do is creating enormous problems. It’s a book well worth reading, one full of surprising facts.
Mardi Gras 1951
Today is the sixty-sixth anniversary of the last time Mardi Gras fell on this date. Reason I know: I was born that day. Carnival will not fall on my birthday until 2035. I hope I live so long. I share the day with Ronald Reagan, Aaron Burr, Babe Ruth, Tom Brokaw, Zsa Zsa Gabor, and my late radio colleague Bill Calder.
Also born today (in 1914) was Thurl Ravenscroft. A voice actor with the deepest imaginable bass, he appeared in thousands of records, movies and commercials. His most famous gig was as Tony the Tiger saying, about Sugar Frosted Flakes, “They’re great!” He was a good singer, too, easily able to hit a low C without sounding unnatural. You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch was his best-known song.
Back Of The Butcher Shop
Today in 1865, a banquet at the Grand Hotel in Paris featured horsemeat in almost every course. Horsemeat soup, sausages, ragout, and steak were served, among many other dishes. Horsemeat goes in and out of popularity in Europe. During the mad cow scare of a decade ago, it had a brief renaissance. Eating horsemeat has not caught in in the United States. I have never seen it on a menu or in a store, even though I have encountered just about every other edible mammal. Not even T. Pittari’s ever offered it.
The Saints
It’s the feast day of St. Amand of France, a monk of the seventh century. He is the patron saint of bartenders, brewers, and winemakers. He’s also a patron saint of the Boy Scouts, strangely enough.
Food Namesakes
Ebenezer Brewer, the writer of The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, was born today in 1897. . . Film music composer and conductor Maurice Le Roux was born in 1923 on this date. . . Sir Charles Wheatstone, a British physicist who invented a device for measuring electrical resistance, was born today in 1802. . . Eric Partridge, who wrote about the English language as used in New Zealand, was born today in 1894.
Words To Eat By
“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy, and to make plans.”–Ernest Hemingway.
Words To Drink By
“Here’s to alcohol, the rose colored glasses of life.”―F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned.
Do Beans, Gumbo, And Many Other Dishes Get Better A Day Later?
That is taken as an article of of truth by a lot of people, cooks and eaters alike. But does it really get better?
Click here for the cartoon.