When Michael DiIonno was a teenager in New Jersey with big dreams of rock superstardom, he probably never imagined that a chance encounter at a late-night diner would forever alter the course of his life. “Every night after band practice we would go out to this diner and my friend and I would split an English muffin, because that’s how much money we had, and they would give us coffee for free,” he said. “And one night the elderly Greek owner was crying, and I said, ‘Georgia, what’s wrong?” And she said, ‘Mikey, my dishwasher quit.’ So, being the guy I was, I said, ‘I’ll do it for you.’ Little did DiIonno realize that this small act of kindness would turn into a steady job in the kitchen, and then a lifelong career in the culinary arts, leading to five restaurants, numerous accolades, and eventually a move to New Orleans to open up a charming, funky restaurant in the Lower Garden District with his wife and daughter. But such is the long, strange trip that resulted in Beggars Banquet.
The first Beggars Banquet was actually DiIonno’s fledgling foray into the restaurant industry, when he and his brother decided to take over a local luncheonette in New Jersey, which they acquired by trading the owner the only thing they possessed of value: a drum kit. “Because it was the early 70s and we were wannabe rock stars, Beggars Banquet sounded like a great name. We served tuna salad, chicken salad, bacon and eggs, that kind of stuff. We did that for a while and it didn’t really work out that well. My brother threw in the towel, and I went on to work at local places.” From there, DiIonno set to work learning the ropes of continental cuisine, particularly French and Italian, and a number of restaurants followed over the decades. There was the dingy dive bar he turned into a fine dining spot, The Huddle Inn, where he met his wife, Patty, who has long been his partner in the ventures that followed. The pair started a family and raised their children as they garnered acclaim for each new space they opened over the years. Eventually, two of their children moved to New Orleans for college, which proved a fateful decision when the COVID pandemic turned the culinary industry on its head.
“We had Avenue, which was a big restaurant for about 15 years,” said the chef. “And then COVID came, and they told us one day on a Tuesday afternoon that we had to close the restaurant until further notice. Everything was tough.”
“We’d come here years ago for our anniversary and I just fell in love with the city,” continued Patty DiIonno. “And my daughter never came home. She lives here and has since day one. We had nobody in the house, and I’d lived in New Jersey for 55 years, so I decided it was my turn. So we sold the house and here we are a year later.”
Like all great rock and roll songs, Beggars Banquet is, more than anything, what musicians might refer to as a “callback,” something that pays homage to the past while still remaining fresh, novel and alive. The callback here, of course, is to all the big hits of DiIonno’s career, with new inflections and inspirations that only seem to happen when creative people from far afield fall in love with the Crescent City and decide to contribute to our cultural and culinary patois.
“We were sitting around one day talking about the menu, and I’ve been a chef for 51 years and had my own restaurants for 45 years,” DiIonno said. “And my daughter said, ‘Remember that dish you used to make? We should do something retro, something that you’ve done all along, all these great specials and things that have always worked on your menus.’ So I compiled a menu from that. And at first, people were really excited about it, saying ‘Oh my god, nobody’s doing this kind of food,’ which wasn’t even really ‘this kind of food,’ but just things we’d done for years going back. Like, calamari here isn’t that popular, but it’s very popular where we’re from.”
That dish, of course, is the “firecracker calamari,” one of Beggars Banquet’s most popular appetizers, a spicy, Italian-inflected dish of perfectly crispy fried squid with hot peppers, olives, capers and balsamic. Like most dishes here, it seems intimately familiar and comforting. The same can be said for the rest of DiIonno’s menu, which harks back to the classics of his past, now with both Southern and worldly twists, courtesy of South Carolina-bred sous chef John Fox. You’ll find a riff on a Caprese salad, with creamy burrata paired with fried green tomatoes, as well as Asian-influenced dishes like sriracha spiced, fried cauliflower and char siu pork belly with kimchi, radishes and kewpie mayo.
Of course, adapting his long-heralded New Jersey career classics to the provisions available in the Mississippi Delta took some getting used to. Instead of swordfish, skate and halibut, for instance, DiIonno now employs grouper, sheepshead, cobia and redfish, albeit in ways that New Jersey diners might find old school, but New Orleanians will likely enjoy as something different. The potato-crusted Gulf fish with oyster mushrooms and leeks in a white wine sauce is definitely the best of both worlds, as is the not-to-be missed pan seared scallops with crab hash and aioli seasoned not with Tony Chacherie’s, but Old Bay. Also worth noting is the restaurant’s stellar brunch menu, which ranges from Bananas Foster French toast to grilled banana bread with maple bacon butter, as well as a pair of heavenly Benedict variants employing local lump crabmeat and remoulade or decadent braised short ribs.
“We’re very proud of it,” Patty said. “Proud of the food, proud of what Kat did with the space, and really proud of our staff. They take good care of people. We’re really lucky right now. Everybody in the building truly cares about the restaurant, and if a guest isn’t happy, they’d be upset themselves. You can’t ask for more than that.”
About the Owner
A New Jersey native, Michael DiIonno is what some might call a “restaurant lifer,” starting with a dishwashing gig in a local Greek diner in his teens. At the tender age of 17, DiIonno and his older brother took the helm of a luncheonette, named it “Beggars Banquet” after the Rolling Stones album, and a passionate career as a restaurateur was born. A number of other restaurants in the Garden State followed over the years, including popular favorite Avenue Bistro, and DiIonno even managed to win an episode of “Chopped” along the way. In 2023, the chef moved to New Orleans to start a new chapter in his life and career, opening a 21st century version of Beggar’s Banquet in the Lower Garden District with his wife Patty and daughter Kat. Chef DiIonno and his family couldn’t be happier to have landed in the Crescent City. “It happened so quickly and so seamlessly,” he said. “Even with moving and everything, we never looked back. We’re very happy with our life here.”
