Sylvain is named after the first opera done in New Orleans which was a raucous comedy and they wanted to emulate that in their atmosphere. Located just off Jackson Square it is in a late 1700’s carriage house in the French Quarter. It has one long dining room that ends in windows to the street out front and some patio seating in the back. Inside there is a long bar where guests can eat and/or drink. Small bare wood tables are set with a variety of chairs and the distressed concrete walls are decorated with art. The lighting is lowered, there is music in the background and the floor is very old wood. They specialize in southern style food and lots of cocktails. It was a lively crowd but service was a bit slow. We started with Sazeracs which were well made but took a while to get to the table. In fact they didn’t get to the table before we started to order including wine and almost cancelled their order because the timing was off for the meal but they did arrive and everything moved forward at a leisurely pace.
We split Grilled Gulf Shrimp were served with a caramelized Nuoc Nam etouffee and crispy grit cake. These were very good shrimp in a fun sauce with scallions and topped with fried onions. The crispy grit cake was terrific. It was a nice combination with lots of flavor in the sauce. There were only 3 shrimp in the dish but they were good sized and perfectly cooked. Thumbs up, but I could have eaten it myself.
Pork Shoulder Benedict was served with Adluh stone ground grits, braised greens, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. The pork in the dish was almost ground being worked into tiny bits. The greens on top of the pork were excellent and tasted like they had barbecue sauce on them. The eggs were cooked a perfect soft poached and added a good richness along with the hollandaise. The grits were fine. What made this dish was talking with the server who offered some house made hot sauce. It was just the edge that it needed to make the dish a winner. It really brought it to another level.
Beef Cheeks and Grits were served with a sunny side up egg, onion gravy and mushrooms. The beef was totally tender and tasty, almost gelatinous. This dish had a bit of spice on its own but was also helped with a bit of the house hot sauce. It was a good one too.
The server recommended the Chocolate Pot de Creme for dessert but we were too full to try it.
