Power Lunch
Never underestimate the ladies who lunch at Chez Fonfon.
By Jan Walsh
Chez Fonfon is a favorite lunch spot for both business and pleasure. And today I am here for some of both with a biz friend. We catch up, sharing the latest happenings in Birmingham’s restaurant scene and best practices of driving internet traffic to restaurant clients. We catch up, sharing the latest happenings in Birmingham’s restaurant scene and best practices of driving internet traffic to restaurant clients.
On my last lunch here, I enjoyed crawfish tartine and Friday’s dujour special of Riveria seafood salad. So, I suggest the crawfish tartine to share. And the kitchen graciously sends us orders of fried oysters and grilled jumbo asparagus. So, we take our time nibbling over these three delicious starters. The tartine is piled high with a scrumptious mix of crawfish, sweet peas, and avocado. The oysters are amazing—golden and crisp on the outside and fresh, tender, briny bites of the Gulf on the inside. And the grilled asparagus is accompanied by farm egg, capers and fennel. All three are lovely and light enough to whet our appetites for entrees.
We order the shrimp and avocado salad and today’s (Wednesday) special, scallops from New Bedford. Not many can achieve what Frank Stitt’s kitchens do with chilled shrimp—from Highland’s shrimp cocktail to the shrimp remoulade in this salad—the quality, firmness, texture, and taste are perfection again and again.
And I have never had better scallops than today’s delicate, buttery delights. They are golden on the top, white and milky on the inside, and bursting with freshness. Today’s set is rice pilaf with crawfish and sweet peas, which accent the scallops beautifully.
We order a dessert that I have not been able to stop craving since I was recently in the kitchen at Highlands for a chef demo, with award winning pastry chef, Dolester Miles—the chocolate nut tart. There I watched her top off a whole tray of chocolate tarts with this sweet, crunchy nut mix and then remove the rings that held each in place. And I wanted to eat the whole pan… But today I restrain myself and share one with Rosie. Highly recommended!
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