Summerguide 2019 | view pdf

Louisiana meets Portland on Exchange Street.

By Colin W. Sargent

The Étouffée at Portland’s Eaux.

First, a Sazerac. It’s whisked to us icy cold (without the ice). Perfect.

We nibble on the intriguing Farro Salad ($13), a blend of shrimp, pecans, green tomatoes, mint, rhubarb, and the ancient grain that really works.

On to Gumbo Yaya ($28), which means “everybody talks at once.” Nightly seafood depends on the market. This evening, it’s a satisfying bowl of mussels, shrimp, and hake with chicken and generous slices of andouille sausage mixed with toothsome Louisiana rice, sassafras, and green onions sliced into thin confetti streamers. Spiced, not spicy, and deeply flavored.

Tonight’s special is the Étouffée ($22), a lovely presentation with the fiddleheads curled in a fragrant base. But it’s the gorgeous golden-fried soft-shell crab resting atop the bowl that takes center stage. There’s no lobster analogy for the soft-shell crab, and it’s a brilliant pairing with the fiddleheads, whose season also is fleeting—almost a bump of the supernatural. A glass of Legado del Moncayo Garnacha ($9) from Spain seems a bit sweet at first, but we find we love the way it blends with the rich flavors here. There’s also a strong beer menu, including blackboard specials.

The restaurant/bar is filling up, and on weekends, the party rages till 1 a.m. We were early enough to score the people-watching seat in the window that faces Exchange Street. Not that we’re even a bit hungry, but we ask anyway about the only dessert on tonight’s menu: Bananas Foster ($10), not served flambé. A pity, as this famous dish would be a marvelous way to use the fabulous picture window to draw in Exchange Street flâneurs with a little night theater. Our cheerful server quips that the chef doesn’t trust her with fire…

On first blush, Cajun food in the Old Port seems counterintuitive, but the Cajuns are still haunted by their earlier selves, the Acadians. Led by Longfellow’s fictional Evangeline during Le Grand Dérangement, the Acadians followed a tearful trail in the 1740s from their home in the northeast Maritimes down to New Orleans to become the Cajuns. Our server tells us, “Evan Richardson, our owner and head chef, met his wife, Genevieve, who’s [originally] from Portland, in New Orleans, so she’s the inspiration for his coming here.” Evangeline reunited with her lover, nearly three centuries later? 

Eaux, 90 Exchange St., Portland. Mon.–Thurs. 11:30 a.m.–11 p.m.; Fri.–Sat. 11:30 a.m.–1 a.m.; Sun. 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Closed Tues.