Costera Restaurant and Bar Costera Restaurant and Bar has opened in the space that for many years was occupied by La Thai. Chef Brian Burns’ menu is “coastal Spanish,” and it’s extensive. Both Burns and Reno De Ranieri, who oversees…
NOCHI Café by Gracious The New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute (NOCHI) has finally opened, and there’s a café on the ground floor operated by the folks at Gracious Bakery. Full disclosure: they’re friends and Jay Forman writes for this…
The weather recently has been beautiful for everything but respiration, which functions best in a low-pollen environment. According to an area tv meteorologist, this weekend will be a bit warmer and also more humid. Ordinarily I would not vote…
Two new restaurants open in the Big Easy
I have a soft spot for New Orleans neighborhood restaurants. When I was a kid, my parents took us to Liuzza’s for dinner now and then, and we patronized multiple restaurants in Bucktown. When I was a little older and…
Sometimes I think that I should make clear I write these pieces in advance. I don’t know why I think that. None of you are under the impression that I am now writing the words you are reading. That…
Zasu Chef Sue Zemanick had been out of the kitchen for a while, but in January that changed when she opened Zasu, the first restaurant at which she is both owner and chef. Diners familiar with Zemanick’s direct, precise…
It is Carnival in New Orleans and many of us are feeling very well, thank you for asking! So far it’s been a hit or miss affair where the weather is concerned, but we’ve seen worse. We’ll put on…
I’m not particularly “into” Valentine’s Day, but I’m aware that I’m in the minority on this issue and I don’t begrudge people who want to take a night to celebrate love. Because love, with a little help from inertia,…
I did not watch the State of the Union address the other night because I have been avoiding politics with some success for the last 20 or so years. I don’t care which side of the aisle a politician…
I will be 50 this year. This news will shock some of you who think I can’t be a day over 48, but it’s true. I am aging, and I wonder the extent to which my senescence is coloring…
There are places where on New Year’s Eve they drop a ball, and there are places where a symbolic baby is hoisted aloft wearing a sash that bears the number of the new year, while commensurately an ancient man whose…
And I Am Not Performing With the Rolling Stones
Last week, my wife gave me an American Girl Doll catalog that had arrived for one of our two daughters and SPOILER ALERT PEOPLE SPOILER ALERT HERE RIGHT NOW DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER UNLESS YOU WANT TO KNOW…
Molly’s Rise and Shine Molly’s Rise and Shine is the second restaurant by the folks who opened Turkey and the Wolf in 2016. The focus is on breakfast, which you may have gathered from the name, but it’s breakfast through…
Early this year I made some predictions. I will share with you my assessment of the result and a judgment on the overall accuracy. I hereby waive the inherent conflict of interest involved in judging my own predictions. My…
I admit that recently I learned I have been using a standard can opener incorrectly, or at least not optimally. This video made me briefly question my sanity. If I have been laboring under the illusion that can openers…
Readers, I write today about a time when a strange passion gripped our polity. In the decade we called “the '80s,” there was a fervor for combining the ingredients, techniques and cuisines of myriad cultures into an amalgam that…
One of my favorite restaurants in town, GW Fins, has a couple of announcements. First, on Dec. 5 and 6 the restaurant will have a seven-course dinner celebrating the feast of the seven fishes. The seating is communal, and some of…
I read an interesting article recently that suggested the “eco-food” movement has become more about weight loss than environmentalism or ethical eating. The author reached this conclusion through her own experience and that of a former food-writer turned dietician. The…
And cooking generally
Bellegarde makes the best bread in New Orleans. That’s an opinion, of course, and if you can point me to another bakery offering bread for retail sale that approaches their product I’d be very grateful, because I love bread. I went…
Poydras and Peters Poydras and Peters has taken over for Café Adelaide in the downtown Loews Hotel. Chef Thomas Hines, a New Orleans native, heads the kitchen. His menu is grounded in the American south, with influences from Vietnam and…
I think I’ve written before that the first thing I cooked when I had access to a kitchen after Katrina was crepes. I still have no idea why that’s what I decided to cook, but there you are. Conventional…
It’s the People
When I was a kid, my school cafeteria served red beans with sausage every Monday. I wasn’t crazy about the beans, but to this day I have a weakness for the sort of sausage that, like laws, one would…
I wrote a while back about the death of Rene Bajeux, and promised to follow up when I learned more about arrangements. There will be a memorial service on Oct. 9 at Patrick’s Bar Vin, and there is a GoFundMe page set…
Couvant Couvant, a French brasserie, opened recently in the Eliza Jane Hotel in the CBD. Chef Brad McDonald got his start at City Grocery in Oxford, Mississippi, worked with renowned chefs here and abroad, and most recently helmed a Southern-focused…
A friend sent me an email last month alerting me that he was planning on surprising his wife with a visit to New Orleans at the end of September. He asked me for some recommendations and hoped that we could…
I attended the 25th anniversary of Joel Catering at Il Mercato on Wednesday evening. It was pretty sweet. I should note at the outset that I’ve known Joel for a while and consider him a friend. I’ve certainly written about him in…
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