WWNO skyline header graphic
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Local Newscast
Hear the latest from the WWNO/WRKF Newsroom.

Where Y'Eat: A Breakfast Boom Gets Cracking

Ian McNulty
The Ruby Slipper Café recently opened its fourth location, this time on Canal Street."

New Orleans asked for more breakfast, and New Orleans restaurateurs listened. All over town, a new crop of breakfast specialists have appeared. Ian McNulty explores the trend. 

Sometimes it’s phrased as a question, and sometimes it’s just a complaint. But whichever form it takes, one of the refrains I hear so often about the New Orleans restaurant scene is a request for more breakfast. It is not a patient request. In fact, it seems like every time someone brings it up, they are hungry, in desperate need of coffee and not interested in mincing words.

Evidently, the local restaurant community has gotten the message. From Uptown restaurant rows to the revitalizing downtown stretches of Canal Street to a dead end street in Mid-City, more and more restaurants are emerging to field the morning meal. Breakfast is their business, and it seems business is good. 

There are a few trends at play here. One is the recent return of the neighborhood bakery around New Orleans. Bakers and pastry chefs have been opening more small shops, and with their traditionally early hours many of them double as breakfast spots. One example is Laurel Street Bakery, which recently relocated from its longtime home Uptown to a new spot in Broadmoor. Meanwhile, the bakery Tartine is expanding into Laurel Street’s old space — on Laurel Street, of course. This new place, coming soon, will be called Toast and it will be all about breakfast.

Combine the new Laurel Street Bakery in Broadmoor with the nearby Gracious Bakery and the new Ye Olde Bake Shoppe, from the Ye Olde College Inn folks, and you find what amounts to a Bermuda triangle of bakery breakfast options all close together. Another cluster has developed in Mid-City. Just maneuver around the logjam of road construction barriers on Banks Street these days and you’ll find Biscuits & Buns on Banks, which specializes, naturally in biscuits. Then, right across the street, there’s the memorably named Wakin’ Bakin’, which in this case means they’re waking up to bake you breads and English muffins for breakfast plates. Just next door, the restaurant Crescent Pie & Sausage Co. gives its own brunch service a go on Sundays. 

The list goes on. G&O Food Company in the CBD, Live Oak Café in Carrollton, Manhattan Jack and Rivista Café along Magazine Street, HiVolt and District Donuts in the Lower Garden District, Petite Amelie in the French Quarter, even the walk-up stand Pagoda Café on Bayou Road — all these are independent boutique breakfast spots new to the scene.

But then, there are also the big boys of breakfast. From its start as a neighborhood breakfast joint in Mandeville, back in the 1990s, the Broken Egg Café has grown into a regional chain of restaurants, all called Another Broken Egg. Its first franchise in New Orleans opened Uptown last month, and a second is slated to open in Lakeview next week. More are in the works.

And then there’s the Ruby Slipper Café, a homespun spot that has become something of a breakfast brand. In January, the family owners opened their fourth Ruby Slipper, this time on Canal Street in the CBD. This new restaurant is just five blocks from another Ruby Slipper on Magazine Street. On the map, they look practically on top of each other. But as we’re learning, when New Orleans wakes up hungry, breakfast can never be too close.

Details on those new breakfast spots:

Another Broken Egg Café

2917 Magazine St., (504) 301-2771; 607 Harrison Ave., (504) 301-4667 (opening Feb. 10); anotherbrokenegg.com

Biscuits and Buns on Banks

4337 Banks St., 504-273-4600; biscuitsandbunsonbanks.com

Crescent Pie & Sausage Co.

4400 Banks St., 504-482-2426; crescentpieandsausage.com

District Donuts Sliders Brew

2209 Magazine St., 504-570-6945; donutsandsliders.com

G&O Food Co.

935 Gravier St., 504-267-7088; gravierandokeefe.com

Gracious Bakery+Café

1000 S. Jefferson Davis Pkwy., 504-301-3709; www.graciousbakery.com

HiVolt

1829 Sophie Wright Pl., 504-324-8818; hivoltcoffee.com

Laurel Street Bakery

2701 S. Broad St., 504-897-0576; laurelstreetbakery.com

Live Oak Café

8140 Oak St., 504-265-0050

Manhattan Jack

4930 Prytania St., 504-357-2003

Pagoda Café

1403 N. Dorgenois St., 504-644-4178; pagodacafe.net

Petite Amelie

800 Royal St., 504-412-8065; petiteamelie.net

Rivista

4226 Magazine St., 504-371-5558

Ruby Slipper Café

2001 Burgundy St.; 200 Magazine St.; 139 S. Cortez St.; 1005 Canal St., (504) 525-9355; therubyslippercafe.net 

Tartine

7217 Perrier St., 504-866-4860; tartineneworleans.com

Toast at Laurel

5433 Laurel St., phone n.a. (opening mid-Feb.)

Wakin’ Bakin’

4408 Banks St., 504-252-0343; wakinbakin.com

Ye Olde Bake Shoppe

3000 S. Carrollton Ave., 504-418-6072; yeoldebakeshoppe.com

Ian covers food culture and dining in New Orleans through his weekly commentary series Where Y’Eat.