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December 20, 2005
The Big Easy is coming back
(Photo: Sara Essex, of Court of Two Sister's Shrimp Toulouse, recipe here, then click on 'recipes'.)
Like the mighty Mississippi, there's slow but steady progress in the restaurant scene of New Orleans, which according to Tom Fitzmorris, editor of N.O. Menu.com. Check it out, it looks to be a terrific resource for those who want to keep tabs on what's going on in the Big Easy. I found Tom's site through an article in National Restaurant News written by Ron Ruggless (registration required, so I'll excerpt a bit):
"At the risk of sounding like an impossibly optimistic booster," Fitzmorris said, "I must tell you that I think the outlook for restaurants in the segment that I cover — namely, restaurants with significant culinary interest and appeal for local people — is very bright indeed."Every restaurant I go to, every night of the week, is a packed house," he said. "I've heard of a few exceptions to this, but not seen them, and most reports from my readers confirm my observation." Some employees are trekking back to the city, restaurant owners said, but finding workers remains a big challenge.
"The No. 1 problem right now is staffing," Fitzmorris said. "Many would-be restaurant employees are absent because they don't have a place to live. Between one-fourth and one-third of the area's housing is currently uninhabitable and will be for quite some time. That is the big challenge. On the other hand, most restaurateurs are telling me that their staffs are growing from the 25 percent they opened with to about 50 percent now. The hardest people to get are back-of-the-house workers."
Restaurants mentioned that are now open include Court of Two Sisters, Arnaud's, Café Adelaide, and Bourbon House, with 3 or 4 restaurants opening daily. Should be lots of places to eat during the first scaled-down Mardi Gras this year. Laissez les bon temps rouler!!!!
It would be fun to do a foodie crawl through New Orleans, wouldn't it?
Posted by The Pragmatic Chef at December 20, 2005 8:12 AM
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