A long, hot Audubon Zoo excursion worked up an appetite desperate and elephantine. Worse, the seven depleted adults lost the brain function to find a place to eat. Thankfully, the place to eat found us (before the buzzards did), and a cowboy waved us into the cool, beer and brine air .

To call this a bar is a common misapprehension. Cooter Brown’s Tavern is a public house in the proud old tradition, infused with Orleanian hosts’ ethic and dressed for every occasion. Brown’s welcomes Tulane, Loyola, pre-parties, after-parties, former hippies, yuppies, yats, sportsfans, beer snobs and zoo refugees adrift in the Riverbend. The bar with its 150+ beer selection, serves them all competently, but the kitchen stands out: preparing elevated pub grub, or haute grille.

Abstaining from anything stronger than cold Barq’s, we settled at a long table near the oyster shucker. It would’ve been painful to choose just one sandwich from the menu wall, so we worked it out.  Half the menu was soon realized in front of us. Our “Killer” onion rings were truly killer and the meat pies, boudin, phillies, &c. were mercifully rich in calories, flavor and wonderful cheese.

We were long satisfied by time my wife asked for help finishing her oyster poboy, and not prepared to be astonished by it. These oysters were succulent, freshly shucked and perfectly done in the lightest fry coat, nestled delicately into mayo-painted loaf. No diet was worth missing this.

As my Grandma used to say, it was an excellent sufficiency, anything more would’ve been a superfluous inadequacy. Although I did allow myself a final indulgence – known to many locals to compliment a good meal, but rarely talked about – the effervescent Barq’s root beer burp. Ah, contented.

Author’s Note: Please feel free to share your favorite Barq’s burp pairings by commenting below. Example: 1982 Sid Mar’s roast beef dressed, fries. Barq’s served with chilled short beer glass.

Tags: Audubon Zoo, Barq's, Cooter Brown's, Oysters, poboy