TR SNIPPET ORLEANS JACK'S OYSTER HOUSE

At the end of my visit I have $10 from Young at Heart and $10 from the booking, both food comps. I decide to go to Al's Oyster House and use them up. I do end spending $26 for crab cakes with salad and the oyster stew.

The oyster stew is not on menu because when they had it there, folks would order it and half of them complain that without potatoes or vegetables this was not a stew.

The dish is just oysters in a most deli caious cream sauce.

So I go in and order oyster chowder.

And it goes like this with Jose, my chef server:

“We don't have oyster chowder.”

“I know it is on the menu, but I've had it before. They just make it up to order.”

“No, there is no chowder.”

I pause perplexed. And then Jose decides to share something with me.

“We do have oyster stew.”

I too expect this will not be in a mild sauce and have potato and vegetable. Jose does not say that it is very close to a chowder. He does not explain the ingredients.

“Well, I am going to have that. How much is it?

“I don't know. It is not on the menu. The computer knows the price and I get is when you order.”

“Well, could you could you just check the price. I'm trying to use up some comps. It was eleven dollars the last time.”

Jose is not happy that he has to go and swipe a card and read the price. But he does it.

“fourteen dollars,” he says.

“Okay, I'll have the crab cakes the stew.”

I'm sitting there thinking that this guy is the biggest jerk I've seen in Vegas.

I know that I am tipping just 15% and on the $10 reduced price.

Then along comes Ron. He is the exact opposite. I ask him the difference between stew and chowder and he says it is very confusing, depends on the part of the country we live in, tells me the history of this dish, explains to me the difference in the rue used for this (chicken) rather than the one they use for chowders, tells me there is a lobster dish also that is not on the menu because the name confuses people as well.

It is a grand conversation. He likes talking about what he does and the food and everything. He is as friendly as Jose is surly.

So, the tip goes up.

The crab cakes were good but not wonderful. The salad was very good. The stew chowder soup was wonderful. What a treat to get all this for the tip.