Who invented this fine dining idea? Guess there is more to life than Sonic and dry cereal (my cooking disability always gets in the way)? Last night, yours truly, hubby’s 2 “old” (evil laugh inserted here) Army buddies and their better halves rocked La Provence in Lacombe. Who wouldtahunk there would be such an amazing restaurant somewhere between Pelican Park in Mandeville and Slidell? After all, Lacombe, is one of those towns that if you sneeze while you are driving, you miss the whole town. Hey, why am I writing this review anyways? If I tell you all about this treasure, there might not be room for our group, who last night, made it our permanent once a month dining spot!!!

We even closed the place down as Murray Starkle (hubby’s old buddy) hit the piano. A few glasses of wine and some lalas to fill in for missing words, Murray entertained us with every song he knew (at least partially). Next time we are bringing sheet music with the words.

If you can’t afford the fine dining and still want to enjoy the atmosphere (who the heck really can),you can always have something at their beautiful bar where Deborah make a mean Cosmo, there are tons of fabulous wines and every flavor of Abita Beer is stocked (my favorite)!

Let’s talk food now. Seriously y’all (ala Britney tone), how can I write about a restaurant when I don’t even really care for food? I eat it, I either like it or don’t, but I would rather spend $50 on a nice pair of pants than an appetizer and an entree (I’m wierd I know). But, it is the dining experience, the presentation, the atmosphere and a place that sparks certain emotions (sounds sappy doesn’t that?) in you that makes it appealing (or at least good writing), the food “to me” is secondary. This place, hands down, had everything you and I could want for an evening of fine dining on the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain! One of the couples even dared to cross the Causeway in the Northbound direction (more people need to do that on occasion & no- you do not need no stinkin passport).

What I ate:
1. salad of beets, grilled market tomato, watercress Plough Farm feta timbale, hazelnut vinaigarette (not normally a beet person – I felt drawn to this salad and am now hooked on it).
2. swordfish au poivre Parpadelle, rattouille (like the movie – less the cute rodents) and
3. something rich and chocolate for dessert with strawberries!

Big kudos to all the staff who made us fall in love with this little slice of heaven in Lacombe: Melissa our server (what is the PC word for that these days?), Deborah, Chris, Mike, Joyce and of course our chef, Rene’ Bajeux and an extra warm fuzzy to our new “old” friends who we will meet again for dinner next month!

I leave you with something else Frech for a little laugh. Don’t forget that this post can be read at both NOLA.com & my personal blog which has lots of extra goodies!

French Learning English – Watch the top videos of the week here