Sheltering in Place and Restaurants

 

I reached out the other day on Facebook to ask that restaurants serving take-out and delivery to let me know so that I could pass that information on to you. I got a lot of responses on Facebook and by email, but as it turns out there are a couple of other folks collecting that information and doing a much more comprehensive job than I can.

Here’s Eater’s list, which is organized by neighborhood.

Tom Fitzmorris also has a list of restaurants that are open currently, and also organized by neighborhood. It’s hard to search, because it’s not organized alphabetically, but it’s a more thorough list.

A couple that I didn’t see on either of those lists are DTB, which I believe will be handling takeout/pickup by the end of this week and which is working with d’Livery NOLA for, well, delivery service. Note that Fitzmorris has DTB listed as temporarily closed. I’m sure he’ll update quickly.

Then there’s my friend Chuck Avery, who is delivering large-format ice – and it’s absolutely amazing stuff – through his business, Melt.

I couldn’t find Nola Brewing listed either, but according to my friend Eli, they’re offering curbside pick up of all their packaged beer and “Crowlers” with order ahead by phone or via their website.

Gracious Bakery is another I didn’t see listed, but I’m assuming if you know good food you’ll know Gracious, and most of their business is takeout.

Poke Loa, and here I should point out that I know and like the folks behind the place, is doing delivery through their website, and other delivery platforms, including UberEats, which has waived its delivery fee for smaller, independently owned restaurants. I don’t know what constitutes a smaller restaurant, but I think it’s pretty cool that if customers order from Poke Loa through UberEats, they won’t pay a delivery fee.

As I’ve been writing this, I was just alerted to a website called Takeoutcovid.com.

I will let you read their words describing the site:

These are scary times, for everyone, but especially for those in the service industry. We are trying to track restaurants & bars in New Orleans that are doing their part to serve the public and keep people safe by expanding their take out, delivery & curbside operations. This is obviously a very fluid situation, so things will change, if you notice anything off (or have any other ideas about how we can help) please email us at noah@drinkersedition.com or call/text us at 504-264-6237 to talk.

I am sure I’m missing a few places, but things are in flux at the moment and the best we can do is try to keep our heads above water.

Personally, I have been staying close to home and only venturing out for occasional trips to the grocery or the pharmacy. The sole exception to that was today, when I walked around the Couterie Forest in City Park for 30 minutes or so, hoping to find blackberries, mulberries or a mushroom I could positively identify. I found a few blackberries, one ripe mulberry and some mushrooms that I am 97 percent sure were oyster mushrooms. Three percent is enough of a risk that I didn’t pick them, but one of these days I’ll add “oyster” to the short list of wild mushrooms I feel comfortable eating.

In anticipation of sheltering in place I had plans to cook a lot of things, some elaborate, two day jobs like an English pork pie and some more prosaic like tomato sauce and chicken stock. I’ve made the tomato sauce and chicken, pork and beef stocks, but I still haven’t gotten as far as making the hot water pastry for the pie.

I have, however, been patting myself on the back for having invested in a vacuum sealer several years ago, because while we have not been hoarding toilet paper (if you have been hoarding toilet paper, you are a moron), I have bought more perishable items than I would ordinarily purchase and on top of that a friend has shared the bounty of a Costco/Restaurant Depot trip or two with me.

I have a lot of meat, is what I’m saying and were it not for the vacuum sealer, I fear that much of that meat would turn on me before I had a chance to cook it. Instead I have bags in my freezer containing cuts of pork, beef and chicken as well as cubed, smoked ham and some pork belly I cooked to about the halfway point over the weekend to render the fat but didn’t finish. Between that and the vegetables I’ve purchased and those I’m pulling from my garden I feel confident we can last at least a few days before we run out of wine.

By next week I hope that my planned column, “tips for cooking under difficult circumstances” will be moot, but if not I’ve found a recipe for blackbird pie that uses crow in place of actual blackbird. There’s a lot of crows around, is all I’m saying, and I hear they’re delicious…

 

 

Lagniappe:

The digital editor of MyNewOrleans.com has a running list that is updated daily, as well as a form to let all of our MyNewOrleans.com readers know your business updates.

 

 

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