Eat. Drink. Enjoy

(l-r) roasted chicken with greens and field peas; rosé; the last word cocktail; tuna niçoise salad; tofu stuffed squash blossoms at Bar Frances

left page: Korean short ribs with kimchi cucumber facing page, from the top left clockwise: Meril dining room; yellowfin tuna wraps; fried rock shrimp tacos; muffaletta flat bread; chef Will Avelar; upside-down cornbread

Meril

The concept for Restauranteur Emeril Lagasse’s first new restaurant in New Orleans in almost 20 years came from a series of trips he took for his Emmywinning Amazon series Eat the World. “I wanted to have a big menu, and I also didn’t want to do the traditional appetizers, entrée, dessert kind of thing,” he says. “But most importantly, I wanted it to be fun; to be the kind of place you would take your family.” The result was Meril, a celebration of tastes from around the globe as executed under the auspices of New Orleans’ most famous celebrity chef.

Rather than adhering to just one cuisine, Meril instead presents dishes from all over. These in turn are authentic rather than fusion-y – an important distinction. The challenge here is how to decide, as the diner’s attention is pulled in all sorts of exciting directions. Feel like visiting the Yucatan? Try the Rock Shrimp Tacos off the ‘Snacks’ menu, garnished with pickled red onion and a chili-spiked sauce for heat. If you prefer Korean, pay attention to the dishes coming off the robata grill. Thin, bone-in slices of marinated Short Rib are served with house-made kimchi. For seasonal options, Chef de Cuisine Wilfredo Avelar comes up with the specials, including a recent wood-fired flatbread inspired by a Louisiana crawfish boil. “He put crawfish tails, sausage, corn, onion and garlic on top,” recalls Emeril. “People went crazy for it.”

Meril offers a more casual vibe than Emeril’s other restaurants. Graffitiinspired murals adorn the raw brick walls and a wrap-around dining room presents a view into the bustle of the kitchen. But despite the less-formal approach, fit and finish is excellent, with thoughtful touches throughout. Adding to family appeal, a cotton candy machine is stationed near the cheese case. “They thought I was crazy for that one,” Emeril said. But on a recent visit, my daughter returned to the table with a fluffy pink cloud of spun sugar and a huge smile. Clearly, Emeril knew what he was doing. -JF

424 Girod St. 526-3745 EmerilsRestaurants.com/Meril

best bbq

this page: Nutella shake; brisket, potato salad, and spicy grilled cabbage. facing page: pain perdu; Lula rum mojito; pork roast grillades with grits

Frey Smoked meat Company

One recent Sunday the Forman family hungered for barbeque. Having heard about some ‘Family Feast’ special at Frey Smoked Meats, they decided to check it out. What followed was a multi-pronged smoky barrage on all senses, led by Brisket Chili & Cheese Fries, pepper-jelly glazed Pork Belly poppers, shaggy mounds of pulled pork, shimmering slices of beef brisket and much, much more. “Meat coma,” points out chef and owner Ray Gruezke, “is kind of the point. You pretty much get some of everything.” The quality stacks up with the quantity. Meats are smoked daily and overnight over a mixture of oak and pecan and Gruezke, who also owns nearby Rue 127, has fine dining chops. But Frey is where he cooks to have fun and let it all hang out. Be sure to save room for the goliath Strawberry Shortcake Milkshake, garnished with an actual strawberry shortcake and pocked with bubble tea straws. It comfortably served four. -JF

4141 Bienville St. 488-RIBS FreySmokedMeat.com spirited dining

lula restaurant distillery

This is the only place of its kind in the Southeastern U.S. It makes sense that a pioneering distillery/restaurant combination would be located on a main thoroughfare of one of America’s greatest eating and drinking towns. The owners, good friends Jess Bourgeois and Bear Caffrey, are Southeast Louisiana guys through and through. Bear is an E.R. doctor in Baton Rouge, and Jess is a unique combination of chef and spirits distiller. Lula is now distilling rum, vodka and gin, all from Louisiana ingredients. What comes out of the kitchen is creative and delightful. Spicy garlic shrimp, avocado and pompano dip, Gulf Fish Club, grits and grillades, braised rabbit and white beans. The old Halpern’s Furniture store, where Lula is located, was never this enjoyable. -TM

1532 St. Charles Ave. 267-7624 info@lulanola.com

this page: hogs head cheese broth soup dumplings from the weekend brunch dim sum menu. facing page: Maypop kitchen crew William “Trey” Smith III, Adam Bean, Michael Gulotta, Justin Bruhl, and Miles Glynn; crispy fried P&J oysters; foie gras and blueberry tart with corn miso, peach, and pickled chanterelles; Maypop dining room

maypop

According to Chef Michael Gulotta: “Hospitality and restaurant workers do not keep normal hours. And when we are done at the end of a hard shift, we like to head for pleasurable cuisines inspired by exotic places like Thailand and Vietnam, but we all have a healthy respect and love for the ingredients from South Louisiana.”

That, in a nutshell, explains Maypop, the newest expression from the much-awarded chef who brought us Mopho, Treo and a couple of temporary pop-ups that both satisfied and amazed. Maypop the plant is a wild vine that is purely Southern United States so even in the name of his new spot; Chef Gulotta did not stray far from his roots. Chef Michael Gulotta is a family-type guy at all levels. His brother, Jeff, is the food and beverage manager who does a masterful job of selecting wines and cocktails at their wildly successful first solo effort, Mopho near City Park. The new restaurant, which many have compared to Mopho, is somewhat different, more sophisticated in design and more adventuresome in menu selections. Chef is proud of both locations but he wants, and achieves, definable separations in styles and operations. “I like what hybridization, sometimes called Creolization, has done in our town, respecting somebody else’s cuisine and then making it our own with our ingredients, caught and harvested from very close to where the dining takes place.

Maypop can be defined as Mekong meets the Mississippi Delta,” Gulotta notes. Sometimes it helps to have a guide to better understand all the influences on Maypop’s menu. The noodle portion of the menu includes Pecan Cavatappi involving King Trumpet mushrooms, fennel,

Herbsaint, and coconut milk. Under the same heading, Andouille Bolognese is working with red bean calamarata. On the entrée side, one of the stars is a Duck

Confit punctuated by a black roux Hoisin and served in crepinette.

The chefs are having a lot of fun, turning out great and imaginative dishes, and we, the lucky diners, reap all the benefits. A very good deal all around. -TM

611 O’Keefe Ave. 518-6345 MaypopRestaurant.com

Central City bbQ

Central City commanded much of the BBQ buzz late last year, what with its dream team pairing of Patois’ Aaron Burgau and pit master Rob Bechtold of NOLA Smokehouse acclaim. A shakeup just a few months in resulted in Bechtold’s exit, but Burgau has steered his ship through the transition and has his team smoking on all cylinders. The space is striking, with a bold industrial feel softened by an island bar, wood paneling and pools of natural light. The dining room spills over into a huge side lot with picnic table seating, and onsite catering event space plays into to the restaurant’s vision, which is clearly to handle significant volume. Central City dreams big bbq dreams and delivers. Try the Brisket “Burnt Ends” – a signature item – and the sweet corn spoonbread as a side. The pulled pork pairs well with the Carolina-style vinegar sauce, and smoked boudin is a must as well. -JF

1201 S. Rampart St. 558-4276 CentralCityBBQ.com

eFFerveSCenCe

Hard to understand that up until now there was no bar in this festive city that specialized in Champagnes, sparkling wines, Prosecco and Cava. That shortcoming has been well rectified. Effervescence respects its historic setting then offers all-white decor, fully comfortable surroundings the likes of which has never been seen here. The list of wines is broad, covering a wide range of price points. The sometimes-overshadowed kitchen responds well with snacks and small plates perfectly paired to add to the fun nature of the core product and reinforce the feeling of the edge-ofthe-Quarter location. Even the new North Rampart Street streetcars passing at the door add to the overall delightful impression. -TM

1036 N. Rampart St. 509-7644 NolaBubbles.com

facing page: brisket burnt ends with sweet corn spoon bread and pickles. this page: seafood plateau, fries with aubergine aioli, and sparkling rosé

spirited dining

marjie’S Grill

Chef Marcus Jacobs and co-owner Caitlin

Carney are the sort of folks who’d be cooking whether they had a restaurant or not. They clearly love what they do. The couple met while working at Herbsaint, and the thing that struck me when I first visited Marjie’s Grill was their enthusiasm.

This is a casual restaurant, with counter service and communal tables in the main dining room that seat around 40. There are no tablecloths, but the service is friendly, attentive and effective. There’s a patio in the back of the place, which, as I write, is still under construction, but when it’s done it will double (at least) the seating space. It’s a neighborhood restaurant, though I suspect that many of the customers are coming from all over town. They decided to open a restaurant after travelling in Southeast Asia, and the menu reflects, in part, the food they ate during that vacation.

Then there’s the grill. They’re using a Santa Maria-style setup, which allows them to raise and lower the grates holding the food, depending on whether they want a quick sear or a low and slow process. Much of the best food coming out of the kitchen relies on the latter technique, though I won’t discount the fryer, which puts out exemplary catfish and chicken, among other things.

I was charmed by chef Jacobs when he showed me around their grills. It’s always exciting when a chef has complete control over the menu, the ingredients, and the cooking methods. Not every dish will work out, but when the folks in the kitchen are talented and inspired, the result can be addictive. I’m addicted to the char-grilled cabbage, the Thai-style vegetable salad, and the stir-fry of shrimp I had the last time I was there. It’s comfort food, in a comfortable setting, and made with passion. What else could you ask for? -RP

320 S. Broad St. 603-2234 MarjiesGrill.com

facing page: spicy wok shrimp and cornbread; cornmeal battered fried chicken with grilled squash and smashed cucumbers; owners chef Marcus Jacob and Caitlin Carney. this page: fried catfish and pig ear salad

cornbread; strawberry lemonade; fried chicken and red beans; Creole seafood gumbo; and potato salad. facing page: chefs Frank Jones and Lisa Ursin

dunbar’S Creole CuiSine

If you set the way-back machine to pre-2005

New Orleans and visited Freret Street, the sleepy corridor you’d find would bear scant resemblance to the trendy strip of restaurants and shops of today.

However, one thing you would find would be one of the most comfortable neighborhood restaurants in New Orleans. This would be Dunbar’s Creole

Cuisine, operated by Celestine Dunbar, whose red beans and rice, fried chicken and seafood gumbo drew fans from all walks of life through her welcoming doors. After the levee failures, the restaurant struggled to find a new space, operating for a time at the Loyola Law School and later as a catering service and festival vendor. They’ve finally found a new home at 7834 Earhart Blvd, Welcome back, Dunbar’s! We missed you. The food is no-frills Creole cooking, served in generous portions, with sides like mac and cheese and mustard greens alongside baskets of light, crumbly cornbread. The Fried Chicken is not to be missed, nor the Red Beans and Rice with its scored link of sausage. And while the all-you-can eat calling card of the Freret Street location is no longer offered, rest assured Miss Celestine Dunbar will not allow you to leave hungry. Poor boys, fried seafood and daily plate specials are all featured. Dunbar’s also serves breakfast from 6 AM to 10 AM. The space is markedly different from the old

Dunbar’s, where it could have felt like you were eating at someone’s house, with its low ceiling and warren of rooms. The new location on Earhart features soaring ceilings, brick walls and a much more open floor plan. There is plenty of parking in a lot out front, but most importantly the same hospitality that you found at the old spot can be found here as well. -JF

spirited dining

this page: citrus poached shrimp with a whiskey smash. facing page: St. Louis spare ribs with ginger sesame slaw and potato salad

bar FranCeS

Easily slides into the New American niche in a neighborhood populated by a solid diversity of cuisines and dining styles. Trendy and comfortable, the emphasis at Bar Frances is on an easily appreciated breadth of offerings of wellexecuted, reasonably priced small and large entrees. There is a particular accent on wine, mostly Europeancentric with solid selections from across the wine world map. Aperol Spritzer on the outside deck, anyone? Small plates include Beef Tartare, both Endive and Farro salads, Lamb Meatball, Mushroom Toast and Prince Edward Island Mussels. Larger entrees range from Cauliflower Tagine, to a solid range of preparations with fish, pork, chicken and steak. -TM

4525 Freret St. 371-5043 BarFrances.com

blue oak bbQ

Blue Oak started as a pop-up at Grits Bar back in 2012. It now serves its smoky fare in a brick and mortar housed on a corner wedge of North Carrollton Avenue near City Park. Co-owner Ron Evans turns New Orleans’ lack of signature ‘cue to his advantage, deftly spinning out a menu that takes its cues from Tennessee, Texas, and beyond. “There is not really a New Orleans barbeque style, so we’ve taken different styles from around the south but tailored the glazes and rubs more to a New Orleans palate,” Evans says. St. Louis Spareribs are recommended here, as are the sides, which are largely traditional but torqued up with some unique twists. Slaw is lightened with ginger and sesame and the potato salad is seasoned with Old Bay – Maryland’s analog to Tony Chachere’s. Be sure to try the cracklings dusted with cool ranch seasoning. Sandwiches, such as the Pit Viper with jerk-seasoned pulled pork and fresh jalapeno, are strong as well. -JF

900 Carrollton Ave. 822-2583 BlueOakBBQ.com

dtb

Oak is one of the streets in the New Orleans area that has a deserved reputation as a “restaurant row.” One of the newest, and best eateries on that street is DTB, an acronym for “Down the Bayou”; Chef Carl Schaubhut and his co-owner Jacob Naquin are both from Southwest Louisiana, and they describe the food at DTB as “coastal Cajun.” In practice, and with a talent like Schaubhut and Chef de Cuisine Jacob Hammel in the kitchen, that means both classic dishes rendered with a chef’s deft touch and ambitious takes on traditional flavors.

There’s an oyster gratin made with smoked bivalves, Parmesan béchamel and gremolata; squash blossoms are stuffed with alligator chorizo, ricotta and olives, and served with sauce piquant. Grilled local fish comes with andouille sausage, fried pickles, corn, Swiss chard and chermoula, the tart, spicy Moroccan condiment.

These days, any place with ambition will have a bar program, and at DTB that program is in the hands of Lu Brow, one of the best in town. When I covered DTB earlier this year, I mentioned the Louisiana Cocktail, and I’m inclined to do it again, because Brow has taken a simple formula – the Sazerac – substituted an amaro for the Herbsaint, and added a mist of pecan oil. I thought the oil might have a deleterious effect on the drink, but it’s subtle, and the drink remains one of my favorites.

The restaurant feels comfortable and modern, despite an abundance of wood salvaged from the renovation of the building, and decorative elements that include Spanish moss. Valerie Legras is responsible for the interior design, and Brooks Graham, whose name should be familiar to anyone who follows the local restaurant scene, was the architect. -RP

8201 Oak St. 518-6887 DTBnola.com

facing page: alligator chorizo stuffed squash blossoms; banana toffee cake; chef/owner Carl Schaubhut; mushroom boudin balls. this page: 24 hour short rib with baked grits

wild ride Mr. Rose’s

On his magical talking and walking tour through the French Quarter

By Chris Rose Illustration by Jason Raish

in 2013, I hit bottom. After Katrina, I fell into a downward spiral of clinical depression, psychotherapy, divorce, opiate addiction and several rehabs before I eventually kicked that habit. After finally crawling my way out of the rabbit hole, I found myself unemployed and, for the most part, unemployable, here in the city I know and love so much.

So, at the age of 53, I started waiting tables for the first time in my life, a last-chance, desperate effort to keep groceries on the table for my kids.

No need to play tiny violins for me; I brought it all upon myself. But still, it bothered me that I was not using my highly developed and attuned professional skills to make a living. Then again, I don’t actually possess any highly developed and attuned professional skills. I just know how to do two things. I write. And I talk.

I can talk a lot. Some might consider that a gift. My friends and family find it generally annoying. But I have discovered a way to make a career of it.

You see, I was born with a constitutional compulsion to entertain, inform and invigorate people. I crave an audience. Attention. The spotlight. But a table of four hungry diners in a restaurant was not the audience I was looking for. And then an epiphany hit me.

Walking from my French Quarter apartment to my restaurant every evening, I passed the same scene, night after night: Massive crowds of tourists scattered all over the Quarter, clogging sidewalks while patronizing ghost, vampire and voodoo tours.

Hundreds of people a night, in hot or cold weather, gathered in huge groups led by guys wearing chimney sweep hats and capes, carrying walking sticks, wearing Gothic eye shadow and holding the crowds in their grip with stories of legend, lore and mythology. Ghost tours, in a word. A thriving industry in this city, a place so often referred to as “America’s most haunted city.”

Hundreds, if not thousands, of tourists pony up anywhere from $25 to $75 every day and night in New Orleans to spend three hours getting their heads filled with fantastical stories of the afterlife, the occult and the netherworld.

I would walk past dozens of these groups every night and count customers: Twenty-five people paying $25 or more per person and I realized those tour guides were making more money for three hours’ work in one night than I was making during four eight hour shifts breaking my back slinging trays, suffering the vagaries of ornery diners, polishing silver and mopping floors.

And the tourists were eating it up! What’s wrong with this picture, I asked myself.

So I went on the city website to see how you become a licensed tour guide. Other than giving the city a bunch of money for fees, permits and other phantom expenses, you just need to pass two tests: One, a New Orleans history test and the other a urine test.

I looked at these guys out on the streets

I can talk a lot. SoMe MIght conSIdeR that a gIft. My fRIendS and faMIly fInd It geneRally annoyIng. But I have dIScoveRed a way to Make a caReeR of It. "

every night, some of them a motley crew, and I thought: If they can pass the tests, certainly I can pass the tests.

So I set about memorizing the difference between cast iron and wrought iron. The difference between Doric, Ionic and Corinthian columns. The difference between Bienville and Iberville. Who was the first mayor of New Orleans and the first Governor of Louisiana? Who was Don Juan Manuel de Salcedo? What are the ingredients of a Sazerac?

OK, that last one might not have been in there. Then again, it might have. The tour guide test is hopelessly tedious, based primarily on a hopelessly tedious, dense, somewhat out of date and overly romantic presentation of the city – a book called “The Beautiful Crescent,” whose revisionist history is a bit discomfiting, containing many pages and anecdotes about Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park, for instance, but no mention at of Lincoln Beach.

Yes, the good old days.

Now, I have no problem with the city requiring some kind of test to get a license, providing some kind of standard or safeguard for those who officially represent the municipality, albeit in a minor way. But I would think topics along the lines of hospitality and/or public safety would be much more useful than, say, requiring a guy who tells ghost stories for a living to know the history and intricacies of our sewage and water pumping systems.

Unless, of course, there is a haunted pumping station somewhere in the city.

Oddly enough, the test is administered by, of all city departments - the Taxi Cab Bureau. And it’s not an easy test by any means. Lots of folks fail it. And it’s a bit of a racket. Both the Cabildo and Delgado Community College actually offer pricey courses to prep would-be guides to help people pass. Some folks put in eight weeks of classes and are out more than $800 before they ever get their license. That is, if they get their license.

Me, I skipped the classes and the book. I figured I’ve lived here long enough that I should have enough institutional knowledge to skate by. Plus, the test is multiple choice, and anyone knows that if you don’t know the answer to a multiple choice question, it’s almost always “C.”

I have no idea how that works, but it does. You need a grade of 75 to pass. I got a 93. And so in April of 2016, I got my tour guide license. And then I set about creating and writing a tour. I didn’t want to work for one of the big tour companies that require their guides to deliver mandatory prepared texts and, more to the point – I wanted to tell stories that aren’t being told.

My goal was to create a guided adventure unlike anyone else was offering - not only for our visitors - but one that would attract locals as well. And so was born the Magical Musical History Mystery French Quarter Walking Tour.

A mouthful to be sure. Ostensibly

it is a “music” tour, but that’s a bit of a misnomer. What I do is use music as a doorway to open up stories about both our city and state’s history, culture, lifestyle, politics and a little bit of scandal.

Why music? Because, I believe, more than our cuisine and more than our architecture, music is the most fundamental element of our community’s shared cultural DNA. After all, what other state has not one, not two, not three, not four, not five...but six state songs?

Louisiana, the land of excess in all things. You wouldn’t believe what people from other places think their state songs are. Folks from New Jersey inevitably say “Born to Run” and I have had nearly a dozen folks from Seattle and other cities in Washington insist, inexplicably, that their state song is “Louie, Louie.” I am not making this up.

But, like many other myths I set out to destroy on my tour, I do my best to diplomatically inform these folks that they are possibly mistaken and may want to Google that, just to be sure. (The truth is, New Jersey doesn’t actually have an “official” state song, despite a recent push in the state legislature to adopt the lyrics of a composition called “I’m From New Jersey,” and Washington’s is “Washington, My Home.” Which kind of makes you think “Born to Run” and “Louie, Louie” aren’t as bad as they might seem at first blush.)

And so I started giving tours. I was nervous as hell at first. For one, I was worried how the other tour guides – folks who have been doing this for years and now ostensibly my competitors – would treat me out on the street, but I have been delightfully surprised at the warm welcome most have offered me, and how many have openly wished me luck.

After all, the French Quarter tour guide business has earned its fair share of sordid publicity in years past. When I was a reporter at The Times-Picayune many years ago, I wrote a series of stories about the ghost tour wars, and some of the incidents that occurred between rival companies and individuals reached a truly menacing, even dangerous, state of affairs.

Car tires were cut. Advertising and promotional flyers and posters mysteriously disappeared from racks in hotel lobbies. Some concierges were bribed to send hotel guests to one tour company over another. Sometimes such tensions came to blows.

The hijinks escalated. In some cases, a tour guide from one company would show up at the regular meeting spot for another company, ten or fifteen minutes before the scheduled departure time, and would gather whatever customers had showed up early to nurse a drink while they waited and they would wrangle the waiting crowd and lead them away on their own tour before the regularly scheduled guide arrived on the scene – only to find that his roster of 25 reservations had somehow dwindled to six people.

Tensions grew so hot that once, many, years ago – back in the ghost tour industry’s infancy – that one tour guide fire-bombed a competitor’s car outside the French Market because he suspected him of poaching his customers. The police got involved. The city council got involved.

And in much the same way the Mardi Gras Indians were brought to heal several years back – to stop shooting and stabbing each other and start chanting and dancing with each other– the heavyweights of the ghost tour business agreed to an uneasy peace which seems to have mostly lasted. It is a much more civilized business than in the past.

So, as a newcomer to the business and – more to the point – a threat to established bottom lines, I was a bit intimidated when I started leading my groups past their groups on the sidewalks. But I haven’t proved much of an existential threat to the ghost tour conglomerates. They still get 25 people every tour. When I get 10, I consider it a good day.

There’s no question: Madame LaLaurie and her ghastly and ghostly past and the lore of Marie Laveau’s dark arts carry a lot sexier appeal for out-of-towners than Ernie K-Doe, Gennifer Flowers and Cosimo Matassa.

But the past year on the streets has been a great opportunity to meet lots of interesting folks, both local and visiting. When I arrive at our meeting place (no one ever steals my customers) I can always tell who the locals are right away: They’re the ones who already have beverages in their hands.

Sometimes out-of-towners will inquire: If I don’t want a drink right now but maybe would like to pick one up along the tour, is that possible? Yes, I tell them. This is the French Quarter. You’ll have that opportunity about every 40 feet. And then we walk. Not very far, just a winding route from Jackson Square to Armstrong Park.

I tell my stories. Stories that break down a lot of old, institutional myths, and I create a whole new set of them for consideration, many of them stretching credibility, but all of them the absolute truth. And folks seem to enjoy it.

Although it’s not for everyone, I realize. Sometimes we’ll start with, say 16 people and finish with 12. Somewhere along the line, we turned right, and they turned left.

And so it goes. Perhaps they would enjoy a ghost tour more. But at least it’s turned into fairly steady, if unpredictable work. I’m out on the streets, sharing the magic of the city I love. Taking nice walks several mornings and afternoons a week. No desk, no boss, no dress code, no staff meetings, no suffering through King Cakes on Fridays during Mardi Gras.

Just living the dream and doing what I do best. Talking. And talking.

And talking.

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Chef Charles Blake cooks up Jamaican comfort food at 14 Parishes.