Bourbon Street Bar & Grill

"The point of the pie should be toward the customer and when you serve tea, it would be nice to have a spoon around which I could wrap the tea bag string." I followed my playful chide of the waiter with a quick, "And because you're such a handsome young man, all that really doesn't matter." You can get away with that when you're old enough to be the person's grandmother.

It's the teacher, mother, controller of all things mentality that sometimes comes to the fore when I can't resist my tendency to correct someone. That's what happened last Friday after writing class when Scott and I decided to try the new restaurant in town, Bourbon Street Bar & Grill.

We found the experience delightful. There was no one in the bar initially which did cause some question about whether we should try the place or not, but it was our timing in mid-afternoon, not the quality of the food, ambiance, or service - really.

The restaurant which was once a gas station has only been open three months. It's located next to Safeway on Meridian and diagonally situated from Pioneer Park. It took a year according to the owner who came to ask us what we thought of our experience, to get through the permit and building process. But things are going well. Scott enjoyed a blackened rib eye steak, something he would never get at home and I had the crab cakes appetizer with pecan pie as a chaser. Oh, and the tea of course. We were also asked to try a puff pastry dusted with powdered sugar that will soon be on the menu. The restaurant serves Cajun dishes that for my less informed pallet weren't too spicy. With soft jazz playing in the background, the experience was relaxing.

The owner, Mike de Alvis, is from Sri Lanka, off the southern coast of India, but spent twenty years in Louisiana where he owned another Cajun restaurant. His son Jehan, our young waiter, is studying Culinary Arts, and Mike encouraged me to provide feedback on the service - which I did, of course.

There are very few Cajun restaurants in the Puget Sound area, a couple in Seattle and perhaps one other in Tacoma, so if you want to try your hand at critiquing service, visit the Bourbon Street Bar and Grill, where they've already been corrected to the point of perfection. I'm sure your pie will be pointing perfectly.