Table 52, Heaven, and Hell

So last night, Jester and I went with Tradd and Kara to Table 52, which is a restaurant owned by Art Smith, Oprah's old chef. It must be pretty popular because Tradd made reservations about a month ago, and a Sunday 5 p.m. reservation last night was the first thing available. I would describe the menu as upscale Southern.

I don't go to expensive restaurants all that often, mostly because I usually don't find that the meal I spend $75 on is any better (or proportionally better) than the meal I spend $25-$40 on. I also find maître d's to be creepy.

The service at Table 52 was very good. "Pardon my reach." Indeed, I will. I was pleasantly surprised when our waitress brought us out complimentary deviled eggs. Perhaps Art knew I was coming. Of course, we only received four, so he probably didn't. We were later brought some sort of complimentary biscuit with cheese in it, which was also good. And even later, we were brought some bite sized samples of some sort of cake, but I was out of commission at that point.

Drinks are predictably expensive. They have a couple house cocktails. I went with the Pirate Punch ($15), expecting it to come in a fish bowl or at least a tiki glass. Sadly, it came in a standard cocktail glass. It was pretty good and I definitely felt like I was at Trader Vic's, but I should have just gone with one of their 3 Floyd's selections for $8 each instead.

For an appetizer, Tradd and I both ordered a "jumbo" crab cake ($16). While delicious and potentially the best crab cake I've ever had (were I to keep track of such things), I wouldn't refer to it as "jumbo," nor would I say that it was worth $16. Jester had some sort of coconut and curry soup with mushrooms that didn't appeal to me. Kara had the Southern pickle "salad" ($11), which looked pretty good and came with a small jar of a spread comprised of pulled duck in duck fat.

For my entrée, I went with the jambalaya ($28), which was good, full of seafood, and spicy. The house specialty is fried chicken ($24), which is only made on Sundays and Mondays. Jessie and Tradd both had that, and Kara went with the fish special, which was grouper with pretzel spaetzle. I probably should have going with one of those as well. The jambalaya ran through me like Jim Brown in his prime. I barely made it home in time. And to top it off, my stomach was in knots well into this morning.

For dessert, Jester and I split the lemon pound cake ($9), which was fantastic, even though I was very full and could feel a tsunami brewing in my stomach. Kara also went with the lemon cake. Tradd went with the hummingbird cake ($12), which is a banana and pineapple cake with cream cheese frosting. One piece looks to be almost a fourth of a cake. It was huge, and very good.

All in all, Table 52 was good, but it wasn't as good as I was expecting. Maybe my experience was tainted by the gastrointestinal issues, but when I spend $90+ on a meal, I expect to walk out of the restaurant feeling wowed, not praying that I don't shit on the L. The fried chicken was excellent, though. I just had some of Jester's leftovers.

To make matters worse, when I returned home, I learned that metal legend Ronnie James Dio died at the age of 67 from stomach cancer. Rock music owes an indelible debt to Dio because he was the man who first brought devil horns to music. The best part is that it was borrowed from his Italian grandmother, who used it to ward off the malocchio (or the "evil eye"). Here's a clip of Dio explaining:

In addition, from everything I've heard or seen about him, he was one of the nicest guys in rock and roll. He will definitely be missed.