The life and career of a chef is something akin to a pirate or a rock star. Yes, there are the tattoos, the brandishing of sharp knives and a mastery of fire, but it’s often journeyman work. For New Orleans-bred chefs, that means mustering the courage to leave that fat Big Easy nest in order to gain crucial skills, new techniques, and, most importantly, new perspectives about the things we eat and how to best wrangle them into something gratifying, even transcendent. But New Orleans tends to be a clingy mistress, and she doesn’t like her best and brightest to stay away for long before calling them back with her siren’s song. For those of us who’ve lived here long enough, it seems a story as old as time itself.
We see that story playing out once more in the best ways with chefs Billy Jones and David Rouse, whose latest project, Dr. Jones, is as big with its flavors as its dining room is small. At first, it seems enigmatic; why would anyone choose a busy stretch of Veterans Boulevard as the perfect spot for a diminutive, eclectic restaurant? I mean, judging by trends alone, shouldn’t it be nestled on a lamplit corner or the French Quarter or maybe the Lower Garden District? As it turns out, Jones and Rouse made that call easily, and the concept for Dr. Jones (a playful combination of their names) arrived organically.
The inciting incident for Jones, formerly the chef and co-owner of the lauded and popular Garden District modern Chinese spot Blue Giant, was the pandemic. “About two years in, COVID happened, and it was just too much,” says Jones, who was eager to team up again with his longtime friend and fellow Louisiana chef David Rouse, who had similar ideas at a similar time. Said Jones, “I decided to take a break from the whole industry. I sold Blue Giant to my partner, and then after both of our respective breaks, we came back together, and back to ourselves, and we started a catering company out of where Dr. Jones is now. And while we were catering, kind of looking around in the space, we decided: ‘You know, we should open up a restaurant here! It’s a nice neighborhood, and we like being in Metairie. So I decided to just do it on our own and open it.”
The pair of chefs share a long history of cooking and friendship and spent time honing their skills in Chicago’s competitive culinary scene before moving back home to New Orleans and, at present, running a roughly 25-seat casual-yet-sophisticated, inventive and worldly restaurant on Veterans Boulevard. If you find that idea surprising, you really do need to dine at Dr. Jones to see for yourself that sometimes, you don’t have to be in the hip hoods to dish up cool food. And that’s exactly what Jones and Rouse have going on with their latest project.
The menu is small and relatively simple, however that simplicity belies the kind of intelligent and creative consideration that only tends to come from chefs who’ve made their bones in locations far more exotic than Metairie. Having a tidy menu also helps when the chefs writing it have passions and fascinations that might just tend to veer wildly from week to week. According to Jones, “Our first concept, I think, was fast casual. Not like fast food, but just a very quick lunch, very easy eating, comfort food items. But we quickly got bored of that and decided to push ourselves a bit. And I think that’s kind of how this restaurant is going to be for me. We push ourselves to do something that we love cooking, and then the seasons change, or we find something else that piques our interest, and we put that on the menu.”
“We didn’t really go in there with the intention of opening this grassroots thing,” Rouse said. “It just kind of morphed into what it is now. And we’d like to continue to have that mindset, so it can grow and evolve and become something different all the time. With the limited menu we have, this is the time we really get to do what chefs want to do, to change the menu, put new things on, create a different experience monthly, weekly, whatever it may be.”
Hence, while your favorites from previous evenings at Dr. Jones might frequently change, the two aspects of the restaurant you can rely on are elevated, skillful dishes, and a room that is approximately the size of a large walk-in closet. But, as the old saw goes, good things come in small packages, and to that end Rouse and Jones consistently deliver. A recent meal offered up a number of fun and gratifying takes on classics that have been around for ages, like shrimp scampi, steak au poivre and chicken cordon bleu. Only here, the scampi comes dressed up with lime leaf and lemongrass, the steak arrives smothered in Singapore pepper sauce, and the cordon bleu oozes with caramelized onions and melty gruyere. The effect is that of getting to embrace something incredibly familiar and comforting, while at the same time reawakened from the doldrums with festive and unexpected new flavors. You can almost feel these ancient mainstays getting their groove back, and it’s delightful.
In addition to those bold entrees, diners new to the Dr. Jones experience can expect flourishes on smaller dishes, like a combination of country ham and Korean melon, or cucumbers marinated with yuzu and kosho panshu, and if that weren’t enough to liven up your palate, you might find perfectly snackable tapioca croquettes stuffed with Camembert cheese. And if for some reason you’re still not satiated, order up sauteed greens with Togarashi and citrus, or maybe the blistered zucchini with Tosazu and mint.
For diners hoping to break out of white tablecloth monotony, Dr. Jones will fit that bill and then some. It’s genuinely heartening to see a pair of chefs stretch their creative legs week-to-week, keeping us on our toes in all the best ways, and obviously having a blast in the process.
And New Orleans is a richer place for it.
About the Chefs
Chef Billy Jones grew up in Mandeville and Baton Rouge and spent his formative years working in local restaurants before deciding to pursue formal training at the Louisiana Culinary Institute. Around that same time, Jones met and quickly befriended another chef in training, David Rouse, a Slidell-native who left his undergraduate studies for kitchen life, spending several years at the North Shore’s famous fine dining spot La Provence. The pair eventually decided to move to Chicago, working in Michelin-starred Windy City eateries like Rhea and Sepia, which they did for a spell before returning to New Orleans. Rouse took positions at Restaurant August, Ko Sahn and Herbsaint, while Jones was at Cochon before opening up Blue Giant, and later Dr. Jones. It’s readily apparent that the chefs are savoring their new creative freedom, and that they adore cooking in their hometown.
