NEW ORLEANS – King Brasserie & Bar, the modern French brasserie located at Kimpton Hotel Fontenot, has just launched their new Tour d’Azur summer tasting menu with a focus on the Basque region, available every evening for dinner service July through September. Additionally, new menu items both bright and refreshing as well as decadent desserts make their debut on the summer a la carte menu.
With each season, the culinary team at King Brasserie shift their focus to a new region in their ongoing tour around the Côte d’Azur, bringing a new, unique and flavorful experience for the public to explore. Starting with a focus on the flavors and ingredients celebrating Provence this spring, King Brasserie is now introducing patrons to the French Basque region.
“While Basque is distinctly Spanish, the French Basque Country cuisine aligns seasonally with what’s available and delicious during summer months in Louisiana, presenting a great opportunity that we couldn’t pass up,” says Executive Chef Samuel Peery. The special Tour d’Azur: Basque tasting menu consists of three courses offering a choice between options for each course.
First Course
Arugula & Anchovy with Ossau-Iraty cheese, garlic breadcrumbs, and lemon-caper
Or, Gazpacho with Louisiana blue crab, gold tomato, cucumber, jalapeno
Second Course
Gulf Fish with Covey Rise Farms beans, sweet pepper & tomato stew
Or, Seared Scallops with chorizo & potato croquette, grilled corn velouté
Or, Steak Frites with a 12oz grass-fed New York strip and pink peppercorn au poivre
Third Course
Sweet Corn Crème Brûlée with blueberry, basil, mint, yuzu
Or, Basque Cheesecake with stone fruit compote, pistachio, honey
Each dish and their ingredients were chosen to showcase some of the best of the Basque region as well as Louisiana. Summertime in the state brings an abundance of heirloom tomato and pepper varieties, which is also synonymous with the Basque region. The Gulf Fish is a dish regularly found on the menu at King, but both the fish featured and the other ingredients of the dish evolve seasonally. Now, different varieties of red snapper take center stage, with the season in full swing. And as the temperatures rise, so do the cooler and more refreshing dishes. With this menu, King Brasserie is spotlighting some of the state’s beautiful seafood, as in the Gazpacho with blue crab from Cajun Crab Connection from Des Allemands, Louisiana.
“Even though Gazpacho’s origin is Southern Spain, we couldn’t resist putting it on the summer menu and adding our own touches to this classic dish. The richness of the blue crab pairs excellently with the sweet and umami rich flavor of the gazpacho,” says Chef Peery.
For Chef Peery and the culinary team, sourcing the freshest and most flavorful ingredients locally whenever possible is among their highest priorities. “It’s a major part of our mission at King Brasserie to honor and support our local purveyors. Our relationships with them are vital and something that’s in the very DNA of our restaurant. I try to make trips out to visit the communities, the farms and fishermen we rely on whenever I can, not only to see where our ingredients are coming from firsthand, but also to spend time getting to know the people who make our dishes possible,” says Chef Peery.
Among the summer menu stand-outs is a dessert created by Pastry Chef Lanna Talley, the Sweet Corn Crème Brûlée with blueberries, mint, basil, roasted corn and yuzu juice on the Basque tasting menu. “This dessert is inspired by my childhood flavors of summer. My grandpa, ‘Bobo,’ had a corn field in Crossville, Tennessee. And turning one of my favorite savory dishes into a dessert has been so fun! It’s rich, silky and the sugar brûlée gives it the perfect sweet crunch,” says Chef Talley.
More of Chef Talley’s delights include the Paris-Brest, inspired by the Louisiana flavors of pecans and bananas; Black Forest Charlotte with lady finger, dark chocolate crémeux and Luxardo cherry; and Basque Cheesecake (also on the Basque tasting menu). “I use orange zest, vanilla bean and honey to give the cheesecake depths of flavor and top it with toasted Spanish pistachios. We also make a stone fruit compote using whatever we can get in locally like peaches, apricots, plums, or nectarines,” says Chef Talley.
In addition to dinner service and the Tour d’Azur, King Brasserie also offers a daily Brunch service, including a special Queen’s Brunch on Saturdays and Sundays that includes a unique beverage menu inspired by female distillers and wine makers, plus live jazz performances every Saturday from 11am-1pm. And every Monday, the restaurant hosts Service Industry Night from 5 to 9 p.m. with food and drink specials. The upscale casual restaurant with welcoming, neighborly hospitality has seating for 125 in the interior dining room, at the spacious bar, and on the outside patio along Tchoupitoulas Street, which is also a great place to bring your K9 companions.
King is open for brunch daily, 7 a.m. – 1 p.m. Dinner is served Sunday through Thursday, 5 – 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 5 – 10 p.m. Happy hour is daily, 5 – 7 p.m. For more information and to place a reservation, head to kingbrasserieandbar.com. You can also follow King on Instagram at @kingbrasserienola for cooking tips and recipes to daily specials and exclusive tasting events and to stay tuned on what the team is mixing up.
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