Month of Salads #3: Oscar's Ice Cream & Pizza Joint

Oscar's Ice Cream & Pizza Joint's Chef's Salad

It doesn't take science to figure out what you should go to Oscar's for. Oscar's has some creative and beyond delicious pizzas, a decent craft beer selection, and homemade ice cream; that's all you need right? Wrong--they're also home to great starters and hearty salads. I tried the Chef's Salad, a gorgeous mound of baby spinach, romaine, tomato, cucumber, mozzarella cheese, pepperoncini peppers, red onion, kalamata olives, grilled chicken, and ham. I'm a big guy, but I can dig on some salad and the best part of this plate was the heaping helping of chicken and ham that overtook this salad. You will not go hungry at Oscar's if you choose something a little more green!

Ruffino's Oscar Night Wine Dinner

Ruffino's has an annual tradition of rolling out their own red carpet to host an Oscar Night Wine Dinner.  I received an invitation to join in on this evening of Hollywood cheer and to watch the Academy Awards in style.  Naturally, I couldn't pass that up!  We were treated to fantastic wine, a sensational dinner, and a wait staff (as well as Ruffin Rodrique himself) dressed up as a cast of characters from the movies.  I knew right away that this would be an evening worth blogging about!

Ruffin Rodrigue did his best "King's Speech" Impression

The meal began with the "Mad Hatter's Tea Party".  This round of walking the carpet, clinking glasses, and finger foods got the night at Ruffino's kicked off before the Academy Awards began.  All guests were served plenty of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc to go with the hors d'oeuvres.  The mild and fruity New Zealand wine proved to be an excellent choice to start the dinner and pair with the Tea Party courses.

The "Caterpillar's Mushrooms" combined crawfish and cheese to brilliantly stuff a mushroom cap.  These bite-sized appetizers delivered plenty of flavor that paired nicely with the wine.  Also served with the Tea Party were some crab meat stuffed, deep fried artichoke hearts.  Being served above by a character from "The Fighter", the stuffed artichokes were my favorite of the appetizers. Finally, the red carpet came to a close with some Tea Party sandwiches of smoked salmon and cucumber.  As inventive and interesting as they were, the sandwiches were my least favorite of the starters.  The red carpet had wrapped up and we were on to the Oscars.  My taste buds readied themselves for the rest of the show.

The formal dinner part of the evening began with a "King's Speech" inspired dish: King Salmon with the Crown Jewels.  The plate featured a pair of New Zealand King Salmon Roulade cooked in the trendy sous-vide style.  For those unaware of this method of cooking, in French it literally translates to "under vacuum."  The meat (or salmon in this case) is enclosed in a vacuum sealed bag then cooked in water that maintains a certain temperature.  This constant heat at a regulated and typically lower temperature than traditional cooking is said to maintain the integrity of the ingredients.  The King Salmon rolls were then placed atop Beluga lentils with roasted chicken jus and parsley puree.  The salmon turned out rich and flavorful.  The lentils underneath had plenty of texture to them, which I really liked compared to overly cooked down lentils.  Overall, this dish exceeded expectations and left a smile on my face... as did the accompanying wine.  The King's Salmon came paired with a 2007 Simi Chardonnay.  This California white wine featured some tropical fruit with oak flavors.  My first taste had notes of grapefruit and pear... but what do I know?  I can definitely say that it did not come across as an overly sweet Chardonnay, which I certainly like.  It worked for me, but I quickly prepared myself for the upcoming glasses of my preferred red wine varietals.        

"True Grit" made an appearance at the Oscars as well as at the Ruffino's Wine Dinner.  The above plate represents the Rooster Cockburn Cacciatore with True Grits.  The free range organic chicken thighs were stewed in a San Marzano tomato, red wine, and porcini mushroom sauce and served over creamy Mascarpone polenta.  Poured along side the dish was a 2007 Wild Horse Pinot Noir from Santa Barbara.  I loved the idea of pairing chicken and polenta with red wine. The thigh itself had a great flavor but ended up just a little dry in the middle.  With the chicken being stewed I certainly wasn't expecting to be even the slightest amount dry.  Still, the moistness of the sauce and polenta made up for it and the dish as a whole worked very well.  It certainly seems a little risky to serve bone-in chicken thighs in a fine dining setting, but I'd say that the Chef Peter Sclafani managed to pull it off.  As I said earlier, I really liked the bold pairing of red wine with chicken and polenta.  The Wild House Pinot had a bold and spicy profile that I felt worked really well with the dish.  I certainly would not have been shy about going back for more if there wasn't another course already on the way.

Wrapping up the entree portion of the menu, Ruffino's turned to "The Fighter".  The dish, titled "Black and Blue" Steak, onion "rings", "3 rounds" of zucchini, paired with a Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Robert Mondavi in Napa.  Though typical, I love beef and cab.  It is hard to go wrong.  Bold with bold.  Bring it.  Winning.  The blackened Sterling Silver filet mignon was cooked to an ideal medium rare and topped with a blue cheese glacage.  Some buttermilk battered crispy onion strings complimented the sauteed zucchini slices.  The spice rub on the steak intrigued me on first bite.  I went back for another.  I couldn't quite wrap my tongue around it.  While delicious, the blacken seasonings and blue cheese took away from the superiority of the beef.  I took another bite.  It grew on me.  I didn't love it, but I certainly wasn't opposed to it either.  Fork to mouth once again.  Well, why stop now, I thought.  Sip of wine.  Insert delicious zucchini round.  Back to the steak.  The dish fought me.  I fought back.  The spice rub may have been a bit much, and blue cheese glacage may have been over the top, but dammit, I ate every bit.  I won.  KO.  Fourth round. Ding ding ding.

Oh, and then there was dessert.  "Black Swan" delivered the final course: swan shaped profiteroles filled with white and dark chocolate mousse, raspberry sauce, and mixed berries.  Creative, delicious, and well played.  The wine dinner managed to successfully incorporate a handful of the year's best movies into the themes of their dishes.  The swan profiteroles may have been the most direct and obvious, but there's nothing wrong with that.  The dessert came with a glass of Magnificat by Fransiscan.  The Magnificat is a red wine blend from Napa that is mostly Merlot and Cab.  While not a true dessert wine like what I would expect with a final course, the Magnificat stood tall against the swans and continued to be my beverage of choice until the Oscars went off the air.  

"King's Speech" won best picture while "The Social Network" racked up its fair share of awards as well.  I'm really glad that Natalie Portman won for Best Actress.  Anybody that watched "Black Swan" and thinks somebody else should have won, please explain yourself!  I'd like to thank Ruffino's for having me as a guest at their Oscar Night Wine Dinner.  Ruffin and his crew put on a great show in the front of the house and Chef Peter provided an amazing feast to go with the entertainment.  What a night on the red carpet!

Oscar's Pizza & Ice Cream Joint

A new restaurant recently emerged on Perkins Road in Baton Rouge, so Eusebio and I decided to give it a try.  Oscar's Ice Cream and Pizza Joint combines an original pizza place with Louisiana flair and a ice cream parlor that serves home made frozen goodness.  It is a combination that can hardly go wrong!

Oscar's Ice Cream & Pizza Joint

Once inside Oscar's, Eusebio and I had a seat at the bar where we took a glimpse of their booze selection.  Oscar's offers several beers on tap and a number of wines by the glass or bottle.  The bartender alerted us to a deal, so we obliged.

At the Bar in Oscar's

I'm not usually a big Heineken fan, but it is hard to argue when they are two for one, so we each ordered a pint, took a sip, and let out a sigh of appreciation for the cold, refreshing brew.

Two for One Heineken

The chef at Oscar's kindly brought us a couple cups of their duck and sausage gumbo to sample.  The soupy cajun concauction came served with rice and topped with green onions.  The roux was dark and rich, flavoring the gumbo well as the duck and andouille sausage also added to the terrific taste.  I scarfed down my cup of gumbo and readied myself for some fresh and unique pies.

Duck and Sauage Gumbo

Eusebio and I knew we couldn't eat it all, but it only made sense to order two large pizzas.  The price point is much more favorable when ordering the large, though overall these pizzas aren't cheap.  We wanted to try at least two varieties, so ordering only one pizza was not an option.  Our choice were made before the chef brought us out some gumbo, but I don't think it would have changed our mind since the gumbo was fantastic.  Our pizza decision: "D and A Gumbo" and "Perkins Pesto."

Large D and A Gumbo Pizza

The D and A Gumbo Pizza (Duck and Andouille, much like the actual cup of gumbo) screamed originality and declared its Louisiana flair.  This is the first time that I've ever seen or heard of a gumbo-flavored pizza, and it did not disappoint.  The pie began with a home made, hand tossed dough that baked to a soft and chewy crust on the outside while leaving a thin layer under the toppings on the inside.  Generously layered on the crust sat the smoked duck, alligator sausage, andouille sausage, and green onions with a roux based tomato gravy as the sauce.  The pizza had great, non-traditional flavor and added the right amount of Louisiana flair to an ordinarily Italian dish.

Perkins Pesto Pizza

Eusebio and I chose the Perkins Pesto as pie number two.  Strewn all-over the hand-tossed crust with a pesto base were plentiful portions of shrimp, sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese, and toasted pecans.  This pizza offered a true medley of flavors that came together on one tantalizing bite after another.  If the D and A Pizza tasted great, the the Perkins Pesto tasted triumphantly amazing.  The pizza contained every bit as much pizazz and flair as the first one while providing just as interesting of an array of toppings.  Every shrimp gave a seafood kick, the sun-dried tomatoes provided a hint of sweetness, and the goat cheese changed things up a bit while the toasted pecans provided a clever texture that I had never experienced on a pizza before.  Unique and delicious... hard to go wrong!

Assorted Ice Creams

We couldn't go to "Pizza and Ice Cream Joint" without trying delightful frozen desserts.  Every cream that Oscar's serves is churned in house with quality ingredients to make even the pickiest ice cream critic happy.  The chef brought out three flavors of ice cream for Eusebio and I to try out, so try them we did!  Our ice cream assortment consisted of cookies and cream, buttered pecan, and banana nut.  Up front is Oscar's version of cookies and cream.  The flavor of the cream stood out, but there was a lack of cookies mixed in, especially when compared to the mixes of the other ice creams we ate.  On the top right is the banana nut ice cream that had a great banana-pudding-like flavor and came loaded with large pieces of walnuts.  Being a big fan of banana pudding and banana nut bread, this ice cream hit the spot.  Finally, in the top left we have the buttered pecan.  Buttered might have been and understatement.  This ice cream exploded with a buttery taste and was loaded with pecans in every bite.

All in all Oscar's won me over with both their pizza and ice cream.  The pizzas strayed away from traditional toppings with their mixture of specialty pizzas which made my mouth water just from reading about them on the menu.  There were plenty more to choose from, so there's no doubt I'll be back soon!