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Where Y'Eat: The Sun Ray Grill Also Rises

Soft shell crab tacos at Sun Ray Grill, a neighborhood eatery in Gretna.
Ian McNulty

Keep it simple. That’s the mantra behind many restaurant concepts these days, promising a direct path to food cravings. Sometimes, though, it can seem like following this advice can lead to a lot of sameness — the same look in the dining room, the same flavors on the menus.

But consider the counter example of the Gretna café Sun Ray Grill. Following the menu logic means tracing a zigzagging path from Thai ribs to bacon cheeseburgers to fish Amandine to quesadillas. 

Then, across the river in Old Metairie, the menu at CoNola follows a vector through Southern comfort food, a full sushi bar and even an undercurrent of green chile-powered, Colorado-style Mexican cooking. 

They seem to be all over the place. But connect the dots, and you can see the continuation of a New Orleans restaurant story that’s always been about serving eclectic flavors at accessible, neighborhood joints. 

That story starts with Dana Deutsch, who opened the first Sun Ray Grill back in 1996 and, with his family, built it into a popular local restaurant brand with locations across town. Well, the Deutsches have embarked on a new adventure, moving to Vietnam this fall.

Before turning that page, they started selling off their Sun Ray Grill restaurants one at a time, and as it happened the last two went to former employees. Now, these younger chefs are independently redrawing the contours of each.

Tom Hinyup took over the original Sun Ray Grill in Gretna. He’s kept the fundamentals in place, including the name (and those Thai ribs). But he’s also added breakfast and is now imbuing the rest of the menu with an arm’s length approach to seafood, sourcing from fishermen at his doorstep on the West Bank. Recently, that led to a fat soft shell crab split between a pair of tacos on house-made tortillas with an okra and tomato salsa.

Meanwhile, Will Varas and his wife Kinsey took over the former Sun Ray Grill in Old Metairie, and rebranded it as CoNola. The name is a reference to their shared experiences cooking in Colorado and New Orleans, and the concept builds from there.

It brings in Southern flavors from Will’s native Mississippi — so, beef short ribs over cheese grits or chicken and dumplings. It expands on the sushi bar that Sun Ray Grill once ran here, so you can get a roll of beet-cured salmon with a splash of cilantro oil. Green chiles make their way into other rolls, and there’s usually a bowl of pork green chili, that Colorado staple.

Both Sun Ray Grill and CoNola can seem pretty wide ranging, but actually they share a focus, not on any one cuisine, but on the cravings and the laid back style that brings an intensely local clientele to their doors. These restaurants may not be the hot new things with name chefs, sleek designs and high-profile real estate. But in their suburban neighborhoods they are giving regulars what they want, even if that doesn't fit neatly into a box. When a restaurant has that figured out, it doesn't need to follow a straight line.

CoNola Grill & Sushi

619 Pink St., Metairie, 504-837-0055; conolagrillsushi.com

Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun.

Sun Ray Grill

2600 Belle Chasse Hwy., Gretna, 504-391-0053; sunraygrill.com

Breakfast and lunch daily, dinner Mon.-Sat.

Sun Ray Grill will host a “relaunch party” on Sept. 12, 2015; from 2-6 p.m.

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

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