There’s a spooky ghost sign on the back brick wall at Ina Mae Tavern & Packaged Goods, a faded Dixie Beer logo that figuratively booms “Welcome to the Big Easy” in the overdrawn yat of a voice actor in a New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation promo.
Those oysters make the menu at Ina Mae, which is named for Jupiter’s great-grandmother. They’re broad bivalves smothered in molten cayenne-tarragon compound butter, and while you’ll never taste their terroir, they’re hot, gooey gobs of slippery goodness just the same.
Advancing a similar agenda is a seven-story doberge cake, a classic always served cold that alternates layers of vanilla sponge with chocolate pudding. Chocolate buttercream and fondant jacket the exterior, while whipped cream and pickled strawberries laser through the richness. The spot-on beignets—warm, pillowy pleasures of fried choux pastry snowed over with confectioner’s sugar—make those cranked out for the tourists at Café du Monde seem like tennis balls.
1415 N. Wood 773-360-8320 inamaetavern.com
