THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Gamay

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Gamay Restaurant Review:

The pink-and-yellow décor has been likened to that of a debutante’s boudoir, and table spacing is hardly ideal. Gamay still seduces, though, thanks to chef Greg Sonnier’s extraordinary talent for creating food that is always imaginative yet filled with the robust goodness of south Louisiana gastronomy. A chilled soup of avocado, swirled with a melon salsa, is hard to forget. Roasted chicken redolent of its balsamic-vinegar-vanilla marinade is awesomely flavorful, even beside luxurious crab meat in a New Orleans-style bordelaise. Baked oysters on the half shell, sporting a scrumptiously seasoned, gratinéed cream sauce, redefine this old Creole dish. Owners Greg and Mary Sonnier also have brought over a few mainstays of their original restaurant, Gabrielle---the stunningly good barbecue-shrimp pie, the heartwarming slow-roasted duck in orange-sherry sauce, and Mary’s collection of sterling desserts, led by the sinfully good apple bread pudding, berry shortcakes and home-style ice creams. The wines on the modest-sized list, mostly French and Californian, are chosen to complement the food. The restaurant’s location on the ground floor of the Bienville House hotel makes the bar scene much livelier than that at Gabrielle, and noise sometimes approaches locker-room levels. Gamay’s lusty dishes, though, easily overcome those minor annoyances.