"I do hope your interesting times are to your satisfaction," Yrael remarks quite sincerely. It doesn't sound like the man will get a second shot at making it so.

But that is all he says, for the moment, because the door to the kitchens is opening again, and servers are returning with their main courses: Yrael's pompano, grilled and served with local (but extraneous, for Yrael's purposes) vegetation; Jim's traditional New Orleans jambalaya full of shrimp, crayfish, and anduille sausage, with cajun-spiced rice and freshly-baked, crusty bread; and Hannibal's grilled pancetta-wrapped mullet, served with blood oranges, capers, and local heirloom tomatoes. Each plate is accompanied by a smaller plate, upon which are light salads of roasted beets of deep red, orange, and golden yellow, and roasted heirloom carrots of orange, purple, yellow, and white, on a bed of baby greens. The greens have been drizzled with a lightly-tart muscadine vinaigrette, and each plate is accented with a thin slice of fried green tomato. The cool salad is meant to provide a nice counterpoint to the fragrantly-steaming hot dishes.