NOLADrinks Show – 6-22-17 – Meauxbar and Sourcing Local

On this edition of the NOLADrinks Show with Bryan Dias, we spend time at Meauxbar located in the French Quarter. This New Orleans bistro emphasizes sourcing local and collaboration between the bar and kitchen programs resulting in great food and drink served up with a big dose of NOLA hospitality.

Pictured above from left – Bryan Dias of NOLADrinks along with Gillian White, John Bel and Robért LeBlanc of Meauxbar.

NOLADrinks Show 6-22-17 – Meauxbar and Sourcing Local

We kick things off talking about how you should have your headlights on when your windshield wipers are on (our PSA for the day!) We then talk about this weekend’s NOLA Caribbean Festival, the New Orleans Cajun Zydeco Festival, and Pontchartrain Vineyard’s Jazz’n the Vines spring concert season finale featuring Charmaine Neville this Saturday.

From there, we get to our featured segments taped on location at Meauxbar. This terrific French Quarter New Orleans bistro serves up great food, drink, and hospitality on the northwestern edge of the Quarter. They are located on North Rampart St. just across from historic Armstrong Park.

We start off with proprietor, Robért LeBlanc, of LeBlanc+Smith restaurant group. They also operate three other excellent spots in town – Sylvain, Cavan, and Barrel Proof. He’s a frequent guest on the show and, as we do often, we chat about the state of the restaurant business in New Orleans, including a chat about the recent spate of closures taking place recently and the current dynamic here in town as we move into the summer.

Please note – at one point during the conversation, we discuss the idea of the “Stockdale Paradox” (not “Stockdale Syndrome.”) It refers to James Stockdale who was a POW during Vietnam. Just to clarify…

Robért and I are then joined by Meauxbar’s Executive Chef, John Bel. We talk about his background and experience with coming up within the LeBlanc+Smith family. We discuss his approach to cooking and hospitality.

Gillian White, Bar Director, and Bradley Vecchiolla, Assistant Manager and Sommelier (pictured at left), then chat with us about the beverage program. We talk about how they manage things, their cocktails, and the wine list.

John and Robért then join back into the conversation along with Gillian and me. We discuss their approach and philosophy of sourcing local. We highlight their locavore, farm-to-table “Summer Harvest Diner” taking place next Wednesday where every ingredient – food and drink – will be sourced from a 200-mile radius of the restaurant.

We chat about the event and some of the collaboration taking place between the kitchen and bar for the dinner, sourcing local and how these are concepts they emphasize all the time at Meauxbar. It’s a great way of doing things that represents a responsible approach, is good business, and results in a terrific presentation.

We close things out with a couple of thoughts on things including our recent visit to Ascension Parish and Baton Rouge. More to come on that front in future shows!

Below the map the shows the location of Meauxbar in New Orleans, you can subscribe to, stream, and download the NOLADrinks Show with Bryan Dias podcast!

Cheers, You All

~ Bryan