Restaurateurs vow to rebuild: updating a theme

[lperry]

Positive news in this morning's NY Times.

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Linda

[Jaymes]

I don't think there's much doubt they'll be back. Even if they don't think so now. A city like New Orleans seeps into your soul. Not so easy to dislodge.

[rjwong]

Crawfish Étouffée Goes Into Exile by KIM SEVERSON and JULIA MOSKIN

(New York Times, September 6, 2005)

Hurricane Katrina has devastated one of the nation's most distinctive culinary cultures ...  Nearly 10 percent of the New Orleans labor force, about 55,000 people, worked in the city's estimated 3,400 restaurants.

...

Some restaurateurs are vowing to continue. "We have been instructed by the matriarchs that we will rebuild," Brad Brennan, of the family that owns the famed Commander's Palace and eight other restaurants, said from his office at Commander's Palace Las Vegas. "There was no hesitation."

...

The restaurant association [Louisiana Restaurant Association], along with ... culinary associations, and ... an online restaurant service, are contacting restaurateurs around the country to set up a job bank they hope will provide jobs in as many as 3,000 restaurants.

[fifi]

Having lived off and on in New Orleans or in the area since the 60s, I can say that I have seen disasters come and go. No . . . maybe not as bad as this but pretty bad nonetheless. The great restauranteurs always find a way to come back. I am so grateful for that. A first meal at a favorite restaurant when the recovery is well underway is a way of reaffirming the great food culture and the resilience of the people. I will be getting on an airplane when it happens this time.

[joiei]

Fifi, that sounds like a reason to have a get together at some point in the future.

[rjwong]

Only until further notice / by Regina Schrambling; Los Angeles Times, 14 Sept. 2005

In New Orleans, a city defined by its culinary culture, restaurateurs vow to rebuild.

OTHER cities have specialties, a hoagie here or a chimichanga there. New Orleans has a cuisine, a rich, vibrant, fully evolved style of cooking from centuries in a pivotal location. There the melting pot actually lived up to the great American concept, blending African, West Indian, French, Spanish, Italian, Cajun and recently Vietnamese into one exuberant good-times roll ... Though other places have sold their souls to tourism, New Orleans has always shared.

According to a number of the city's prominent chefs and restaurateurs, ... they all echo what Susan Spicer of Bayona and Herbsaint insisted from her brother's house in Jackson, Miss.: Nothing can kill the music or the food.

[Gifted Gourmet]

This is a wonderfully upbeat article, rjwong! My favorite part of it went like this:

"Everyone needs to take a deep breath and know it's going to be a while," says Spicer. "New Orleans has such a strong culture. People are not that easily deterred."

Spicer says the city's cuisine is sure to weather the disaster primarily because it is so ingrained in the culture. "Home cooks will keep the tradition going, and the restaurant community is resilient; we'll come together as we have in the past."

[Timh]

I find it a little melodramatic to think that the city's culture would just disappear after this. Of course the cuisine will live on! Even if the the traditional stalwarts don't. New Orleans is so much more than any name restaurant. I will miss any of my favs that don't recover, but I'm sure another great pot stirrer will step up. If outside commercialism can be resisited, then the funkiness can get up and dust itself off and commence to cooking what they'v always cooked, and folks will eat what they've always ate.

Edited September 17, 2005 by Timh (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

More by way of updating the New Orleans restaurant reopenings:

from NO menu.com

"The thing we have to let people know is that there's nothing wrong with our fish and shellfish," he says. "It's been checked by the state agencies, and it's all fine. The shrimpers are really busy, and even the oyster beds are opening one by one."...  When the restaurants get ready to go, the fish will be there for them to serve.

North Shore Restaurants Packed, Traffic Bad... massive traffic jams on the North Shore

Drago's Kitchen Is Up And Running. The great oyster restaurant is not really open for business, but the kitchen has been cooking and serving food to relief workers and others, free.

Windsor Court Will Reopen November 1. That's the official word from the hotel. It sustained some damage and even some looting, but the luxurious hotel promises to have everything sparkling and operational for a November 1 relaunch.

[jesteinf]

The NY Times has a pretty good update on the status of many New Orleans restaurants.

A survey of more than two dozen of the best-known and most culturally significant restaurants here on Monday turned up buildings so soaked that they will probably have to be razed and places that are structurally sound but lacking supplies, basic services, a staff or customers.

Some pieces of the city's culinary history are probably gone forever, even if the owners can find a way to rebuild. A green-black watermark ringed Dooky Chase, the traditional Creole restaurant near the Lafitte public housing projects that was a favorite of Ray Charles. A moldy copy of the Dooky Chase Cookbook lay on the sidewalk next to a rusting fryer basket.

...

Nearby, Willie Mae's Scotch House, whose pots of red beans and hand-battered fried chicken have defined homey Creole-soul food cooking for decades, had the same green-black watermarks up to the windows.

[Jason Perlow]

Drago's Kitchen Is Up And Running. The great oyster restaurant is not really open for business, but the kitchen has been cooking and serving food to relief workers and others, free.

Drago's was spared? Yes, there is a God. I was getting concerned I would never have those charcoal grilled oysters with cheese sauce ever again.

Drago's (Metairie) on eGullet

[Gifted Gourmet]

Drago's was spared? Yes, there is a God.

←

Drago's website

Update 09/17/2005:

Over 23,000 free meals served! The last two days we did 2,600 and 2,800 meals.

Everthing is in place with our vendors and employees so we plan to open for business Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.

Update 09/12/2005:

Beginning next week we hope to have indoor service available while still serving free meals to those in need!

The Restaurant has survived with minor wind damage and no flood damage!

[NancyH]

Just picked this link up on another e-board. While the news is mostly sad - it was bittersweet to see photos of Finis Shelnutt sticking by Alex Patouts and making beans and rice on the sidewalk using a propane stove. He was so kind to us when we visited NOLA in July!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/dining/2...i=5070&emc=eta1

[PamPam]

Drago's is open. Today it served it's 50,000th free meal. You can go in and order off the reg menu and pay, or you can go in and say i"m hungry and they serve you some red beans and rice.

We are pretty cool, no?

[Gifted Gourmet]

latest news from NO Menu ...

The top of this column is updated and shows:

Wednesday, October 5, 2005

Thirty-Seven Days Since Hurricane Katrina

Who's Open? Here is a (partial) list of all the restaurants in the New Orleans area...

Bacco

310 Chartres

522-2426

Broussard’s

819 Conti

581-3866

Cuvee

322 Magazine

587-9001

Herbsaint (opens Fri.)

701 St. Charles Ave.

524-4114.

La Cote Brasserie

700 Tchoupitoulas

613-2350

Louisiana Bistro

337 Dauphine

525-3335.

Red Fish Grill

115 Bourbon

598-1200

Remoulade

309 Bourbon

523-0377

Stella!

1032 Chartres

587-0091

Table One (Byblos)

2800 Magazine

324-9550

Vincent's

7839 St. Charles Ave.

866-9313

Check out this site for more ... there is a load of info on what's happening ...

more in this thread from the NY Times ...

[TAPrice]

Table One used to be the Living Room, an overpriced steak place on Magazine. I don't know if the change of ownership happened before or after Katrina.

[Mayhaw Man]

This is the kind of thing that we should be reading about more often. Dickie Brennan, an owner and really successful operator who knows how to do it right.

HE HAS PAID ALL OF HIS 400 EMPLOYEES FOR THE LAST 5 WEEKS-EVEN THOUGH HE DOESN"T EVEN KNOW WHERE THEY ALL ARE.

I will, forever, think well of him. This is the sort of thing that seperates the men from the boys. I hope he comes back and makes a gillion dollars. He and his management team deserve it. Good on him.