Review: Coach Lamp Restaurant

Chef Richard Lowe’s crawfish etouffe is a thing of beauty. It shimmers like a brown-red moon poking over the horizon on a hot summer night. Lowe is the best sort of Cajun cook, a fellow who knows that the deepest flavors are discovered at the edge of disaster. His roux is so dark that even another second over the fire would turn it into a burnt waste. Instead, the meticulously judged concoction of flour and oil houses multitudes of flavor: the Cajun Holy Trinity – onions, celery, bell peppers; garlic, basil, thyme, paprika, crimson chunks of succulent crawfish, and just enough cayenne to supply a slow, sustained burn so addictive that you’ll wish you could eat it forever ($21).

Lowe grew up on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, and built a career in the restaurants of New Orleans. Five years ago, driven north by the winds of Hurricane Katrina, he arrived in Louisville. Since then he and owners Gail and Bill Darling have been gradually transforming the Coach Lamp Restaurant & Pub into one of Louisville’s premier restaurants. That’s no easy task. The Coach Lamp isn’t situated on a prominent restaurant row. It’s located in a building that’s about 140 years old. And though it’s a grand old building, it’s taken a lot of courage and imagination to turn what was once a slightly shabby spot that featured blue plate specials and a pool table into a restaurant with service and atmosphere perfectly suitable for special occasion dining (or for a casual lunchtime bowl of red beans and rice, $7.95).

A long, old-fashioned bar dominates the right half of the place, but a wheelchair-friendly ramp descends into a dining room of whitewashed brick walls, bright hardwood floors, and tables done up with white tablecloths, black napkins, and glimmering place settings. Service is smart, enthusiastic, and energetic.

And the food is superb. The menu isn’t entirely given over to Lowe’s Creole and Cajun specialties. It includes worthy, well-executed items like sautéed baby calf’s liver ($22), Wiener schnitzel, served with potato pancakes and red cabbage ($24), prime rib ($20), and chicken piccata ($19).

From the appetizer list, Lowe’s approach to Angels on Horseback (market priced, $12.95 on a recent visit), is wonderfully diabolical: first be wraps oysters in bacon, the coats them in cornmeal and fries them until they’re golden globes filled with a smoky, molten core. His iceberg wedge ($6) fills a platter with bright red cherry tomatoes, cool, crisp lettuce, and chunks of bacon, all sluiced with chunky, mellow blue cheese dressing.

The entire menu is masterfully done, but it’s the Cajun and Creole cuisine that really sets the Coach Lamp apart. Besides the etouffe, Lowe offers roasted pork loin rubbed with Cajun spices and dressed in a mustard cream sauce ($20); chicken or shrimp jambalaya ($19); an oyster pan roast that sounds like a cardiologist’s retirement plan: oysters poached in a rosemary and bacon cream sauce, broiled with bread crumbs and parmesan (Lowe has dubbed this dish the Cajun Hot Brown, market price).

A bowl of gumbo ($7) was gently piquant, with a slightly sweet accent; studded with thin slices of sausage, tender cylinders of bright green okra, and sprinkles of fresh parsley and green onion, it was ample for a light meal. In fact, that glorious etouffe would easily have served two (the split plate charge is $5).

Lowe’s menu is mostly executed in house, with one noteworthy exception. He imports one of Louisiana’s official state foods: Natchitoches Meat Pie. Somewhere a purist is complaining that he doesn’t make these from scratch, but Lowe says that if he did, he wouldn’t have time to do anything else. As it is, he’s imports 20 cases at a time, and can barely keep up with the demand. Why? Because these fried crescents filled with beef, pork, onion, peppers, and garlic pack so much flavor into every bite that the spicy pink sauce he serves alongside is superfluous; at lunchtime, a pair of pies will set you back $5.95. They’re not listed as a separate item on the dinner menu (they’re included with the jambalaya), but you can – and should - order one on the side for $3.95. After that, you may not need dessert, but if you do, a serving of moist, piping hot bread pudding will satisfy a table of four ($8.95). (By the way, on Tuesday March 8, Mardi Gras, the Coach Lamp is offering a New Orleans-style buffet from 11-9, $19.95).