Restaurant Cuvée Restaurant History.

And for locals, it's a lively culinary sport to rate among friends city specialties. From Uptown to the West Bank, eaters are forever debating whose andouille sausage, barbequed shrimp, fried oysters, and pralines are the best.From vendors at the Jazz Fest to legendary dining rooms, untold numbers boast that Louisiana fare is some of the best in the country.

Despite this gastronomic pride, a number of beloved local specialties have not appeared on the rating game for many years. Crispy Mirliton with Shrimp or a Flageolet Cassoulet dish shared the lime light as top picks ordered on any given night at five neighborhood restaurants as well as dinner tables in homes of two distinct ethnic backgrounds, French and Spanish. These dishes used to be a fundamental part of New Orleans food life, yet as years past these dishes became so basic and slipped below the city's gastronomic radar.

In this festive, brick-walled dining hall - you can get Beef Carpaccio with Sweet Corn-New Potato Salad and a splash of Watercress, Creamy Horseradish and Sweet Pepper Jelly; Adobo Seared Filet of Beef with a Garlic Wild-Mushroom Andouille Paella Cake, Grilled Asparagus and Crisp Parsnip with a Roasted Garlic Bordelaise sauce; and a Croquette of Fresh Shellfish served with a Sweet Corn Succotash and finished with a Red Pepper Coulis and Crispy Leeks. The menu reminds us though we are in the year 2000, and when you apply a glass of California wine to complement the dishes, you understand why.

It comes as no surprise to epicures who know New Orleans food history that these culinary versions from French and Spanish cultures on the menu at Cuvée Restaurant serves as the city's best depiction of true New Orleans cuisine. Here we are reminded through an eruption of flavors and distinctive looks that Veal

Liver with Carmelized Onions, Wild Mushrooms, Baby Carrots, Brabant Potato and a Crispy Parsnip Thistle or Pan Roasted Bouillabaise with a Classic Tomato-Saffron Broth and Garlic Mashed Potatoes, laced with Red Pepper Rouille is what Grandma describes. Seasonal herbs and spices, huge pink shrimp, plump sweet crabmeat, glistening sections of chicken in a luminous pool of wine and butter is so rich and aromatic it is delightfully dizzying.

No one will be able to contain their exclamations of pleasure as they work their way through memory lane of a magnificent meal. "Perfect!" Cuvée Restaurant allows locals to revisit a culinary tradition and gives visitors a chance to wake up from their savory dreams to taste true New Orleans classics. Now we can say
that there is no place like the present.