Baton Rouge, LA
225.361.0372
http://www.lucysretiredsurfers.com
New to the downtown area is Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar and Restaurant. An offshoot of the New Orleans location, they occupy the renovated space formerly held by D’Agostino’s Italian restaurant. The décor and theme are almost overwhelmingly surfer related, with everything from pictures to posters and a full sized surfboard above the bar. The surfing DVD playing in a constant loop over the TVs is somewhat annoying, especially on return visits when you have already seen it.
The menu is very much in line with the theme, featuring lots of seafood and “California” type items. They do feature a full bar, and several specialty drinks that are tropical in nature and pack quite a punch. One that stood out to me is the “Da Killer Blue Whale”, a mixture of lemonade, vodka, curacao, and Everclear. Another unique drink item offered is the Bloody Mary shot. A spice-rimmed shot glass is filled with vodka that they have infused with peppers and spices, and the drink is served with a cherry tomato. They’ve deemed it the world’s fastest Bloody Mary.
Over the course of several visits, I sampled a couple of the appetizer items with mixed results. The Jamaican Jerk Chicken was great. Four grilled pieces of chicken breast seasoned with jerk spices are served with an accompanying sweet and sour sauce deemed “Pali sauce”. The chicken was cooked perfectly, with great grill flavor but not dried out. The sauce matched well with the spiciness of the chicken, and the portion was adequate for an appetizer. On another visit, I tried the pulled pork sliders, which were decent in flavor and taste, but lacked an accompanying side item. According to the menu, they were served with sweet potato fries, but I’m unable to report on those based on the fact that I never saw them.
Ordering that item uncovered an unfortunately very negative aspect of the restaurant, the service. The bartender seemed to be completely unaware of the menu, and when asked about the dish, couldn’t seem to decipher what was going on. Granted, I was seated at the bar, but I would suspect that the bartender should at least be familiar with appetizers on the menu, the items often ordered by patrons at the bar.
The entrée I tried was pretty good, a nice piece of fish crusted with ground tortillas. In a move obvious to be a play to the Baton Rouge locals, they take tortilla chips, both standard color and purple, and crust each side of the fish with these, then its fried, and served with mashed potatoes.
Lucy’s is open daily from 11AM to 10PM, and feature several specials. Happy hour is Mon-Thurs, 4PM – 7PM featuring $5 well drinks, $18 buckets, and 2 for 1 margaritas, along with free chips and salsa. Tuesdays are “Taco Tuesdays” with $1 beef tacos, $2 steak or chicken tacos, and $3 shrimp tacos.
Despite some service issues that may be corrected in time, Lucy’s is a very welcome addition to the downtown scene, and a great alternative to the standard fare. Hopefully once some of the bugs are ironed out, they can focus on more specials so that they can take better advantage of the downtown lunch business.
No comments:
Post a Comment