Commentary: Mr. John's excels recreating northern Italian steak,

New Orleans CityBusiness, May 29, 2006 by Tom Fitzmorris

In New York, where they invented the steakhouse as we know it, an early proponent of the genre was the original Palm. Its name is a mispronunciation of Parma. The guys who opened it in 1926 thought of it as an Italian restaurant, not a steakhouse. And to this day, Palm has an extensive Italian menu in addition to the steaks.

The Palm's steaks were not an accommodation of American tastes. In Northern Italy, particularly around Florence, steaks loom large on menus. So it makes sense.

New Orleans has its first Italian steakhouse in Mr. John's. It isn't a new restaurant - Mr. John's Ristorante opened some seven years ago in the Avenue Plaza Hotel on St. Charles Avenue, near The Pontchartrain hotel. From the first day, it's served steaks whose pedigree and excellence take a back seat to no one's. The old menu was fleshed out with a standard New Orleans seafood selection.

The chef the last couple of years, however, is Christian Rossit, a native of Venice. When they reopened a month ago, they reworked the menu along northern Italian lines.

That was not a stretch for the eponymous John Santopadre. He owned Cafe Giovanni until he sold it to Chef Duke Locicero in 2004 and has a taste for Italian restaurants. The idea of having the menu a Venetian chef would create intrigued him. The food of Venice has never been seen in New Orleans in a big way save for the occasional fegato (liver) Veneziana at Andrea's and a few other places. The old Venezia restaurant in Mid-City had nothing resembling the food of Venice.

The big story at Mr. John's remains the steaks. They are USDA prime across the spectrum of cuts, including the filet mignon. Even steakhouses staking their reputations on prime beef usually do not have prime filet mignons. They are broiled perfectly and sent out with the sizzling butter that was the hallmark of a great New Orleans steak long before Ruth's Chris.

Mr. John's has always been one of the contenders for best steakhouse in town. My most recent sampling was a thick sirloin strip, crusty on the outside, juicy within. It had a flavor and tenderness found only in the best steaks of that cut, which tends to be chewy.

That one, though, was prepared in the Italian way. Instead of butter, the chef made a dense brown peppercorn sauce. It came out with grilled fat asparagus and roasted potatoes usually seen only at Mosca's and in Greek restaurants. Totally satisfying.

Chef Christian has two other Italian approaches to beef. One sends a filet forth with portobello mushrooms and a sauce made with reduced Barolo and herbs. The other has polenta (the signature of Northern Italian cookery) and Gorgonzola cheese. As an appetizer, they sear prime tenderloin, slice it thin, scatter some flakes of Parmigiano Reggiano over it, drizzle olive oil and serve it chilled for a classic carpaccio appetizer.

I can't say these match a bubbling-butter prime strip but they are certainly first class.

Except for standard sides like creamed spinach mushrooms and asparagus, that ends the steakhouse menu. The rest is classic northern Italian.

A great example is the tortellino in brodo. The tortellini float around in a chicken broth with the intensity of consomme. Add a little pepper, and you have a soup of startling deliciousness.

The tortellini also appears in an appetizer with a rich cream sauce riddled with peas and slices of prosciutto. That's good, as are the mussels in the classic wine-and-garlic sauce and the shrimp scampi, bubbling out of the oven.

The pasta section includes lasagna and eggplant parmigiana. Don't order those. Try the gnocchi with Italian sausage made in the style of Friuli just north of Venice. It has a little tomato but the sauce is mostly of olive oil, and it's good even though the texture of the gnocchi could use some lightening.

A friend who considers himself an expert on spaghetti Bolognese (with a meat sauce) says this one is fine.

Aside from Italian steak entrees, there's also a great pork chop with a creamy mushroom sauce and panneed veal with penne pasta, crabmeat and asparagus.

Among the fish dishes, the caciucco - ancestor of cioppino and cousin of bouillabaisse - looks appealing with red snapper, clams, mussels and shrimp. The chicken dish also looks good with artichokes and pancetta, the Italian bacon.

Glaringly absent is fegato Veneziana. A Venice chef who doesn't serve his city's most famous dish? He says too few people like liver.

Desserts include a great creme brulee, tiramisu and cheesecake. The wine list serves reasonably well.

I have only one reservation about Mr. John's. The restaurant seems stark but they're clearly trying to make it genteel. I think they'd be better off turning the lights up, putting big aprons on the waiters and going for that Charlie's or Palm raffishness.

Prices are a bargain. None of the standard steaks hits $30. Most Italian entrees are in the teens - the low teens in the case of the pastas. The service staff is chummy and conversational.