I met Mark Benfatti years ago at Arabi Diner. It wasn't under the best of circumstances. I was punched from behind in the middle of his dining room by my ex-wife. Being ever the diplomatic, gracious host he simply said, "Blake, you know I can't have that in here." I apologized by putting at least $300 in his joker poker machine. We wouldn't cross paths again for another 10 years.
In 2007, I heard that Mark was reopening N'tini's in Mandeville. N'tini's was an up and coming restaurant venture of his that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. At the time I was at Dakota's in Covington. I felt like I wanted and needed to be around fellow St. Bernard Parish people since I hadn't in so long. Also, I thought that I might be able to lend some assistance to him in opening. What was supposed to be another one of my three month professional pit stops turned into an award winning three year stint as the Northshore's best overall restaurant (Sophisticated Woman - 2008, 2009, 2010.)
Mark and I were and are a lot alike in many ways and personal histories. Sometimes that can lead to a passionate, volatile relationship. Needless to say we have had our ups and downs. Ultimately I think that those years together yielded both of us many benefits and rewards.
Mark gave me free reign to prepare whatever I could dream up without being an overbearing presence in the kitchen (unless I was yelling at someone.) I feel that I truly found myself as a Chef under his banner. The dishes we were putting out at N'tini's were unparalleled. He and I staffed the kitchen with some of the finest chefs I have ever worked with. His commitment to his customers is unsurpassed and demands my respect. To this day, I am most proud of N'tini's and my legacy there (I've honestly been trying to get Mark to take me back!)
I was led away from N'tini's by promises of fame and fortune at a high profile spot in New Orleans. As is usually the case, the grass is never greener on the other side. It's yet another professional life lesson that all Chefs go through at one point or another.
I pass N'tini's everyday coming and going in my daily travels and can't help but try to catch a glance at the parking lot and the building that had become my true home. I smile every time I pass reflecting on my time there.
I adamantly recommend a visit to N'tini's. It won't take long for Mark, Donna, and the rest of the N'tini's family to draw you in and make you feel like one of the family. I'm sure you will get a sense of how I felt back then. If I never said it before, "Thank you Mark and Donna for the best years of my professional life and hope to come home one day!"
Wednesday, September 22. Eat Club At N'Tini's. Mark Benfatti is one of the most naturally gifted restaurant owners I've ever met. His Mandeville restaurant N'Tini's breaks all kinds of rules. I could write paragraphs about ways in which the place could be better. Some of the issues involve astonishing lapses of taste and occasionally surprising prices on the high side.
But when the whole package is presented to the public, it proves to be the perfect thing for the restaurant's clientele. Benfatti understands them and they love his restaurant. N'Tini's is rare among North Shore establishments in having a crowd filling the place almost every night--not merely on weekends. On weekends, the customers spill into the newly-added private dining room and even out onto the sidewalk as they wait for tables.
The dinner N'Tini's chef Blake Acosta created for us was laughably over the top. Far too much food--but I expected that. The way in which it was too much was an act of creativity unto itself. Here's the chef's description of the night's first food, a pass-around appetizer we ate while milling around:
Fried soft shell crab, cucumber, baby greens, garlic parmesan risotto, ahi tuna, in a grilled garlic herb tortilla wrap topped with jumbo lump crab salad, with soy syrup, wasabi aioli, and mirin infused pink sauce.
This was a reinvented sushi roll, if the words are causing visualization problems. All that stuff wrapped up into finger food. The entire menu went that way. When I got up to introduce the dinner, I challenged the sixty diners to name two foods that were not in this meal.
The first course at the table was the favorite of the night for a lot of people. This was a solid idea: chunks of lobster tail meat enclosed in tempura batter with coconut, with pineapple chutney smoked up with some tasso as a dipping sauce. Complex but harmonious enough. I also liked the trio of little salads, each giving two or three crisp bites, ranging from corn to a mirliton-jicama slaw (probably the first in the history of the universe).
Next came a pair of good little lamb chops with a sweet-savory complement of no fewer than nine ingredients--and those were just the ones they told us about. This was followed by a filet mignon. Its sauce was a sort of demi-glace made from smoked ham hocks. The braised greens underneath sort of held it all together. I thought that a fish would have created a better balance in the meal than either either the lamb or the beef, but the ruling principle for the chef was to get as many of his most popular specials as possible into one dinner. If the classical menu order had to be sacrificed, then that's how it would be.
The dessert was absurd, but nobody was complaining. An Oreo cooked in pancake batter? With a milk shake on the side? Bourbon fudge? Candied pecans? Drunken cherries? It could not be said that we didn't get a taste of N'Tini's in this dinner.
A lot of the people who joined us were N'Tini's regular customers. Many of them came to the North Shore from Chalmette, as did Benfatti himself. He operated a succession of restaurants there, including the first N'Tini's, until Katrina wiped out everything. He relocated and found many of his old customers there. They came in, then brought their new neighbors. At N'Tini's they all found familiar comforts. Benfatti nailed that. Few restaurateurs know their customers' tastes and desires better than he does. Or responds to them as well.
N'Tini's. Mandeville: 2891 US 190. 985-626-5566.
