Of all the facets of local life that have been up for re-evaluation lately, the New Orleans neighborhood restaurant might seem an unlikely candidate for change.
You know the places I’m talking about. They’re long on tradition, beloved and generally successful, sharing a common approach that New Orleans knows by heart. Why would anyone mess with that?
And yet, a new perspective on the New Orleans neighborhood restaurant has emerged lately. It has grown as new restaurants have joined the scene and others have retooled. They’re full service, ready for families, open for lunch and dinner for anytime meals and they let you know that you are eating in New Orleans. They look and function like the old classics, but bring a different edge to the food. Here are some of my favorite examples from around town.
We’ll start on Freret Street, at the High Hat Café. It could be the classic diner on a busy town square, and on the menu it’s all Creole flavor with a more Deep South angle. The third part of the equation, however, is the way the kitchen and even the bar embrace the fresh and seasonal. Crabmeat with watermelon and mint, a soft shell crab with multi-colored bursts of cherry tomatoes — these blackboard specials could be at a bistro; but at High Hat, they’re served next to a kids menu.
In Mid-City, we have Katie’s Restaurant & Bar, which has been around since 1984 but reopened after Hurricane Katrina as a much different restaurant. There’s still classic New Orleans fare, but now also a much broader, sometimes playful approach. So, your broiled oysters may bubble under tangy cheese dotted with shrimp and the old reliable smothered chicken and rice might be plated over lightly-charred flatbread with melted mozzarella.
Now we’re on to Gentilly and the Munch Factory high up on Elysian Fields. This is a modern Creole café, one that applies reverence where it belongs – namely with the Creole gumbo or the blackened redfish — but also acknowledges the other types of comfort food cravings that bring people out. That could be waffle-cut cheese fries with debris or beignets with condensed milk and chocolate sauce.
Then, over in Harahan, the tucked-away spot Seither’s has a familiar program of boiled seafood, fried platters and Creole Italian standards. But running parallel to all that are unusually creative, even eye-popping specials — dishes that arrive with a palpable sense of fun and a flair for presentation. There’s a taco salad that looks like a tidal wave sculpture of soft shell crab, fried tortillas and shrimp remoulade or a tuna po-boy of mostly raw fish that looks like a sushi bar salad composed by Jackson Pollok and framed in French bread. If that seems too much, though, there’s always the oyster bar, the beer pitcher and the fried shrimp platter.
And that’s what’s crucial about all these examples. None are about sweeping away the past or racing ahead of what anchors the appeal of New Orleans cooking. Instead, they represent the next-generation evolution of a beloved dining niche in this city, with a modern read on how local flavors can play out. They keep it real, and they’re also keeping it fresh in more ways than one.
High Hat Café
4500 Freret St., (504) 754-1336; highhatcafe.com
Katie’s Restaurant & Bar
3701 Bienville St., (504) 484-0580; katiesinmidcity.com
The Munch Factory
6325 Elysian Fields Ave. (504) 324-5372; munchfactory.net
Seither’s Seafood
279 Hickory Ave., Harahan, (504) 738-1116; seithersseafood.com
