Bombast at Balliceaux

Not having outdoor seating doesn't eliminate a restaurant from consideration for lunch on a beautiful Friday if there are extenuating circumstances.

Like if the front is all windows which can be moved, leaving the entire front of the restaurant open to the weather, which is the case at Balliceaux.

So I walked over to Stuart Circle to meet my friend at his office and then retraced my steps back to Lombardy with him.

We chose the table nearest the front so as to enjoy the glorious weather.

It was my friend's first time at Balliceaux, so we began with the grand tour so he could ooh and ahh.

The next 20 minutes were spent with the menu, trying to decide what to eat because it was all new to him.

Since I'd been there before, it was easier for me to at least eliminate the things I'd already tried.

I decided to get the hot house-made pastrami/choucroute/sourdough with potato salad, but only after asking the waitress if the pastrami really was made in house.

My friend ordered the fried oyster baguette/butter lettuce/remoulade with truffle fries without asking any annoying questions of her.

The pastrami shredded perfectly with each bite and the fatty, seasoned crust was heavenly.

The only problem was its enormous size, so I only ate half and gave the other half to my friend for dinner, although he admitted that, in all likelihood, it would turn out to be a mid-afternoon office snack.

He ate all of his po' boy except the last third of the baguette, but that may have had something to do with the truffle fries being so irresistible.

He insisted we share the chocolate coconut tart for dessert and it was denser and firmer even than fudge.

Midway through enjoying it, he broke a crown, took it out of his mouth and laid it on the table.

He didn't seem to be too bothered about it, so I wasn't either, and we went back to eating.

The funny part was, when our poker-faced waitress came over to see if we were finished and collect our dessert plate, he told her she could take the plate but to leave the tooth, which was right next to the plate.

"Okay," she said, without so much as a a smile or question.

Could it possibly be so commonplace for a customer to have a tooth on the table when she comes to clear? Based on her lack of reaction, we had to assume so.

The best laughs of the lunch came with a discussion of Tears for Fears' bombast and "Do Me" as a column name.

Fortunately, we were practically sitting outside, so it didn't matter how much we carried on...or how loudly.