The Parish Café
60A Mill St.
Healdsburg
(707) 431-8474
New Orleans Cuisine
Breakfast/Lunch Wed.-Sun.
Entrées: $11-$20
Wine and beer
When New Orleans native Rob Lippincott opened The Parish Café in 2012, his aim was to provide a neighborhood gathering place where people could enjoy authentic New Orleans-style cooking—and he nailed it. The place itself even looks like a Southern home. Built in the 1860s, it features refurbished wood furnishings and flooring, an open-beamed ceiling as well as tables on the veranda and front patio. There’s eye-catching artwork on the walls and each table has a bottle of the house made Honkey Donkey “haut” sauce, a mixture of habanero, jalapeño, serrano, cayenne, vinegar and salt (it’s so delicious we got some to take home, too).
The breakfast menu (served until 10:30 a.m.) offers fresh orange juice mimosas (yum) and a variety of pure French Quarter dishes. We went for eggs Sardou, which is two perfectly poached eggs atop artichoke hearts, with a bed of rich, creamed spinach underneath, topped with Hollandaise sauce. A toasted slice of French baguette bread sopped everything up just fine. The Houma hash is fried eggs served on a bed of cheese grits with crisp bell peppers, cubed potatoes and bite-sized Andouille sausage. Both dishes were well presented and served hot with lots of flavor, texture and color—even a sprinkle of cayenne for a kick.
From the lunch menu, we simply had to try the gumbo. Its rich, flavorful brown broth was filled with okra, celery, chicken and sausage with a scoop of white rice and sprinkled with green onions. It had a wonderful, building heat and was absolutely perfect.
For sides, we went for fried okra, which was lightly battered and very easy to eat (like popcorn almost), with a mustard-based, savory remoulade for dipping. The hush puppies (cornmeal dumplings) were also lightly fried, but denser in texture and quite filling.
The shrimp remoulade salad had four large, blackened shrimp (well spiced, very fresh) served with iceberg lettuce, lemon, and topped with remoulade (which has a steady heat).
There are a lot of po-boy sandwiches to choose from, and we went for the fried shrimp (there’s also ham and cheese, fried oyster, catfish, green tomato and others). It was served on a traditional-style, fresh baked roll (crisp outer edge, soft inside), cut in two and filled with shredded lettuce, tomato, pickles and hot, golden fried shrimp. Delicious.
For dessert, we went for café au lait (chicory coffee with milk—very smooth) and beignets (lightly fried French pastry, kind of like a fritter but more airy inside). There were three large, golden fried pillows, served hot and topped with a blanket of powdered sugar.
Top the entire meal with friendly service and we have a winner for sure. Oh, and get there early—the joint is jumpin’ and they don’t take reservations.
