Cochon Butcher, New Orleans
You know a place is good when you’re visiting your favorite food city and the first meal you have is at a repeat restaurant. After last year’s Cochon meat miracle, I pretty much ran off the plane straight to Cochon Butcher for lunch. Butcher is Cochon’s next door, more casual sandwich shop/meat deli, but at the off hour of 3 o’clock in the afternoon on a Tuesday, the restaurant’s 10 or so tables were all full.
“Are you ready for a little snack?” the waiter asked when he set my plate down. Clearly he knows my bottomless pit stomach stretches even further down through my legs and into my feet here. Let me introduce you to the Carolina-style pulled pork sandwich with the most delicious smoky sweet barbecue sauce these lips have ever made out with. Topped with a heap of coleslaw, and sided with classic potato salad and spicy pickles. This in no way is my typical order, but from the moment I walk in the door, Cochon turns me in to a carnivorous maniac! I ate that whole sandwich in a couple minutes flat. And secretly wanted another one.
Drink and food go hand in hand in New Orleans, so of course I welcomed myself to the city with a tequila cocktail (yes, Butcher has a full bar) (and no, I do not feel awkward about drinking tequila alone at lunch). The Alcatraz was refreshing and simple (tequila, fresh lime, Steen’s syrup).
On the way out I spotted some unassuming wrapped cookies. One was called something like the Chocolate Chubby, and with a name like that I had to stock up for my hotel room (never mind that I just ate a quarter of a pig). On my walk back, I couldn’t resist having a little bite. It was then that I discovered the Chocolate Chubby is a liquidy brownie disguised as a cookie. There is no photographic evidence. The whole darn thing was gone just a few steps outside of the restaurant. People siting on sidewalk patios watched in horror as I licked the Saran Wrap for any remaining flavor.
Congrats Cochon enterprise, you’ve officially sealed your fate as my favorite restaurant in New Orleans.
