NEW ORLEANS – Esquire raised a toast to 100 of the best restaurants in the country, and six of them are right here in New Orleans.
Esquire’s list of ‘100 Restaurants America Can’t Afford to Lose’ features corner bistros, barbecue joints, bodegas, and many more spots that make the restaurant industry what it is today. The restaurants on this list are so tied to our identities as foodies and people, that “if we lose them, we lose who we are.” And six local New Orleans restaurants made the cut.
Brigtsen’s, Casamento’s, Cochon, Dooky Chase, and Mosquito Supper Club are all local standouts that have been recognized in the article.
Jeff Gordinier says of Brigtsen’s, “If you’ve only got one dinner, I’m gonna ask you to leave the Quarter…go to this little shotgun house on Dante Street and you’ll never forget it.” His recommendations: bayou catfish, roast duck on dirty rice, broiled redfish with a lump crabmeat crust, and pecan pie!
As for the 101-year-old Casamento’s, Gordiner calls it “a tiled shrine to briny simplicity.” He recommends ordering a “loaf, which amounts to a heap of fried oysters in-between fat slices of white bread. We don’t have to tell you to use a lot of hot sauce, right?”
Gordinier says his first stop in NOLA is Cochon, where their jambalaya studded with pork cheeks and andouille sent him over the edge, “I actually started hollering with joy.”
As for a classic Pableaux Johnson says you can’t go wrong with Dooky Chase’s Restaurant: fried chicken, green gumbo, and the strength of legacy. His recommendation, “make sure somebody orders the Creole classic Shrimp Clemenceau—shrimp, crispy potatoes, ham, and mushrooms in garlic—and mask up to meander through the late doyenne’s outstanding African-American art collection.”
“There may be no finer example of Food As Theater / Food as Culture than this Crescent City landmark known for its marathon, booze-saturated Friday lunch at Galatoire’s” says Gordinier.
Johnson also recommends the Mosquito Supper Club, tucked away in an Uptown double shotgun. His recs: “crispy, delicate soft-shelled shrimp, browned cabbage smothered down in salt pork, rustic seafood gumbo.”
