New Orleans Restaurants: Still Cooking
In New Orleans, food and restaurants speak a language all their own: one of local pride, of community, and in the two years since Hurricane Katrina, of recovery and hope.
By Allison Perlik, Senior Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 8/1/2007
 Read more about New Orleans' culinary comeback.  Southern Louisiana native John Besh has opened two restaurants since Katrina: brasserie-style Lüke (above) and La Provence, purchased in 2006 from the late Chef Chris Kerageorgiou.  At his acclaimed restaurant August, Besh serves recipes such as house-made gnocchi with crabmeat and truffle oil.  In spring 2006, Chef-owner Donald Link (above) opened Cochon, a Cajun-flavored concept with Chef and co-owner Stephen Stryjewski in the kitchen.  Rabbit and Dumplings quickly became a menu signature. |
Three weeks after Hurricane Katrina nearly washed away New Orleans, Scott Boswell opened his new restaurant, Stanley, to booming business.
The makeshift operation—charcoal-grilled cheeseburgers and chips served on paper plates—wasn’t quite what Boswell, chef-owner of global-American restaurant Stella!, had envisioned for his casual burger-and-breakfast joint. But in those desperate post-flood days of 2005, as 80% of the city was submerged in flood waters and residents wondered if the town could possibly recover, it was as though Boswell was sending out a beacon of hope from behind his busy grill. The message he delivered, both to fellow New Orleanians and the rest of country, was resounding: New Orleans is still alive, and it’s still cooking.
"My first thought after I came back was, let’s get some food flowing in this city," says Boswell, who now is working to get Stanley reopened in its originally intended format. "Restaurants are what hold this city together. That’s the foundation of our local economy. When we opened, we set the tone, and everyone started coming back."
With everything around them in shambles, New Orleans’ foodservice community dug in and set to work, proving that the industry dedicated to bringing people together at the table also could feed a city’s soul and revive its spirit.
Now, as the colorful French Quarter, Garden District and Warehouse District again hum with energy and activity—an important step forward for a city that draws 35% of its annual operating budget from tourism—it’s clear just how much the efforts of Boswell and other local chefs and restaurateurs have done to advance the city’s return to its charismatic self.
Much of the national media’s post-Katrina coverage examined the flooding’s impact on the area’s legendary restaurants, seeing in them a microcosm of New Orleans’ overall struggle toward recovery. Food always has been irrevocably intertwined with the city’s culture and identity—as a means of sharing, as a way to connect with the community and its history, and as a perpetual source of pleasure and pride.
The immeasurable contributions of New Orleans’ foodservice leaders began in the storm’s immediate aftermath, as chefs such as Boswell, Paul Prudhomme of K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen, John Besh of Restaurant August and Tommy Cvitanovich of Drago’s Seafood Restaurant worked around the clock to feed recovery workers and members of their own communities. Relief and rebuilding efforts moved forward thanks to ongoing fundraising endeavors from high-profile restaurateurs, including Emeril Lagasse, Susan Spicer of Bayona, and the Brennan family.
Meanwhile, the industry continues to set an example with its unflagging optimism about New Orleans’ future, brought to life in the dozens of new restaurants launched there since the storm, from Ian Schnoebelen’s Iris (opened in January 2006) to Donald Link’s Cochon (April 2006) and Besh’s Lüke Restaurant (May 2007).
"There was a side of me that said, ‘Just reopen Herbsaint and forget about Cochon,’" says Link, whose homage to Cajun and Southern-style cuisine had been in the works for 18 months before Katrina. "But what I thought at the time was, if I don’t think it’s worth doing both, then it’s probably not worth doing either. I felt like [if I didn’t open Cochon], I’d be making a statement saying I don’t think New Orleans is going to come back, and I did think New Orleans was going to come back."
The Big Easy, Not So Easy
Beyond such encouraging accounts, though, less-heartening tales remain. New Orleans’ best-known tourist areas incurred some damage from flooding, winds and an extended loss of electricity, but they escaped the storm’s most-severe destruction. Much of the harder-hit, outlying regions—which account for the vast majority of the metropolitan area—remain a sprawling wasteland of abandoned neighborhoods. Though nearly all storm-related debris has been cleared, small pockets of new construction and homes under repair signal the limited progress being made.
The resulting lack of housing for displaced residents—in addition to still-unopened schools and other factors—means that tens of thousands who evacuated have yet to return, leaving the city’s population whittled by nearly half, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. For restaurateurs doing their part to keep New Orleans’ economy running, this loss created an incredible drain on the industry’s lifeblood—employees—and in many cases, has inflated wages by more than 30%.
The dearth of workers, as well as customer counts down by as much as 50% for some operators, still forces many restaurants to operate with scaled-back hours and menus. On a brighter note, others—some of which have smaller dining rooms to fill or that rely less on tourism and convention traffic—report that business is better than ever.
Right now, beyond operational issues such as staff shortages and skyrocketing insurance costs, many restaurateurs’ greatest concern is the city’s annual summer slowdown. The languor of the season always has meant less business, but the situation is more precarious since Katrina.
"We’re all very afraid of the summer," says Lally Brennan, managing partner of Commander’s Palace. "It’s going to be a tough summer for people to make it. The season is traditionally slow, but I think it’s even going to be slower this year."
At the recently rebuilt Ritz-Carlton New Orleans, where new restaurant Mélange showcases signature recipes from the city’s best-known restaurants, Executive Chef Peter Moore says that what the city really needs is a good storm—one that proves to the world that New Orleans is not another disaster waiting to happen.
"We need a storm to come somewhere close by without any damage, without any negatives, and show that [Katrina] was a once-in-a-hundred-years thing," he says. "It’s better than not having anything, because people think, ‘Well they haven’t had one for three years, maybe this is the year.’ Everyone’s waiting for it to come."
Time For Hope, Time For Change
Yet even in the face of these obstacles, Brennan, Moore and the city’s corps of strong-willed restaurateurs find plenty of reasons for hope in their determination to restore the city to its former glory.
Boswell dreams of a "new" New Orleans, a cleaned-up version with the city’s traditional charms, minus the baggage. Besh talks proudly of New Orleans’ food-and-music-driven culture, as well as its role as a vital American port on the Mississippi River. Leah Chase, chef and co-owner of 66-year-old local fixture Dooky Chase, speaks with wonder of the support that poured in via donations, fund-raisers and volunteered hard labor to help save her family restaurant (slated at press time to reopen in August).
For many locals, the city’s distinctive personality, historic heritage and rich culture in an era of so much urban and suburban homogeneity are the biggest reasons that New Orleans shouldn’t—and won’t—ever be left behind.
"This is a tough place to leave once it gets into your system," says Greg Reggio, president of the New Orleans chapter of the Louisiana Restaurant Association and co-owner of the New Orleans-based Zea Rotisserie & Grill chain. "So many times when I travel, I look at the area where all the restaurants are and think, ‘If someone had just picked me up and dropped me in this particular spot, I couldn’t tell what city I’m in.’ You think growing up in New Orleans that every place is [unique] like this, but it truly is special. I don’t know how big we’ll be when all this shakes out, but whatever we are, it’s still going to be a unique part of the country."
| Staffing Stories Immediately after Katrina, even restaurants that managed to open got by with bare-bones staffs. Two years later, labor remains the greatest obstacle for most operators. “[Right after Katrina] there was a gentleman in town [recruiting workers from Eastern Europe for restaurants], and we tried it. They were beautiful and delightful and charming and hard workers, but language was a barrier in the kind of service we like to provide. ... You’d go, “Table 40 needs water,” and you’d say it so fast and they’d say “Yes, yes,” but they really didn’t understand what you’d said. I don’t think we have any of them left with us, but we could not have gotten Commander’s open without them.” –Lally Brennan, Commander’s Palace “We had very good business-interruption insurance, so we were able to pay our employees while we were closed. ... Most of our staff has been with us for a long, long time. We have very low turnover in our waiters; I’d say the average [tenure] for our waiters is over 10 years. We have two father-son combinations of waiters, and in both cases the sons have been here over 20 years.” –David Gooch, Galatoire’s “If you were a single-restaurant operator and your two managers had their places destroyed and couldn’t get back, you might not be able to reopen or you’d have to do limited hours. Having all our managers available [as a chain company], we focused their energies on getting the first restaurant open, then the second, then the third, and it got easier and easier. Trying to get line-level employees back in was extremely difficult. ... We paid a Katrina bonus. It probably worked out to be about $3-$4 an hour more.” –Greg Reggio, Zea Rotisserie & Grill “We were lucky, because at Restaurant August we have an upstairs, a penthouse that the staff all used [to live in right after Katrina]. We paid them, and if we made any money, it was all divided up among the staff. And the money that we made from contracts with the four oil refineries [feeding employees brought in for cleanup] went into building this restaurant [Lüke] and buying La Provence [Chris Kerageorgiou’s former restaurant]. So there’s reinvestment, and I think when people see that, you’re able to attract the right kind of people.” –John Besh, Restaurant August “There are no places for people to live here, no affordable housing, so we’re stuck with [this smaller population], and that’s created this new wage level that’s not realistic. It’s hard to even make a profit anymore because everyone’s fighting over the few people that are here. ... We lose people that chase that dollar, but I’m not going to pay a ransom for employees. I would rather work twice as hard than have somebody back there who thinks they’re doing me a favor to work for me.” –Scott Boswell, Stella! |
Silver Linings Even a tragedy like Katrina can leave positive results in its wake, as many who’ve stayed in New Orleans are discovering. "Hopefully, we can start over with a clean slate. [The city] inherited so many problems from generations and generations of poor decisions and mismanagement and corruption. There were so many problems that you just had to look the other way; you couldn’t fix it. Well, Mother Nature came along and gave us an opportunity, and even though it is horrific, it’s all about taking your negative and turning it into a positive." –Scott Boswell, Stella! "There’s such a spirit here, and that is what came out more than anything. Instead of something being lost, that was found. The spirit of the New Orleanians—I didn’t know we had it in us. I’ll say that. I know we love to eat and drink and party and entertain and be hospitable and that type of thing, but man, when the spirit of determination and rebuilding and taking care of each other came out, it was just amazing." –Lally Brennan, Commander’s Palace "Katrina is the catalyst that really sparked this fire in me and in my crew. It was easy before, and after Katrina it’s not so easy. It’s become much more arduous just to do anything in New Orleans, especially in the year following Katrina, and it’s made us work harder. Nothing was given to us, and we had to work to bring this thing back, and I think it’s that passion that’s made all the difference in the world." –John Besh, Restaurant August "We’re making updates and bringing everything up to code. It’s been a great opportunity. After the storm we had a cleaning crew in here that really did the most spectacular job. They took every single picture off the wall and cleaned all the walls, all the chandeliers. The place truly has not sparkled like this is a very long time." –Colette Guste, Antoine’s |
How’s Business These Days? While several New Orleans chefs report 2007 as their best year ever to date, many of the city’s historic restaurants, designed for high volumes that rely heavily on visitors, aren’t yet back up to 100%. "The steakhouse is probably doing 30% more; at August, it’s at least that. Without the tourists, the locals were able to get in and get the reservations they wanted." –John Besh, Restaurant August "We just had four of the biggest record months we’ve ever had. We are on target to have the best year we’ve ever had since we opened in 2001, by probably 35%. The numbers are all there. We definitely made the right decision in staying." –Scott Boswell, Stella! "When we were getting Commander’s reopened, we did all these crazy budgets, because we had no idea what kind of business we were going to do. We were scared and nervous, so we did everything from the lowest-of-the-low to ridiculously high projections. We’re probably doing about 75% of our business, and we feel blessed." –Lally Brennan, Commander’s Palace "We’re at about 50% of business. We opened on Dec. 29, and it was wonderful. The house was filled with New Orleanians, and half the people had on black tie to celebrate the coming back of Antoine’s." –Colette Guste, Antoine’s "After the storm we were closed for four months; we opened Jan. 1, 2006, with almost a full staff, a full menu and regular hours. We’ve been very fortunate that we have so many regular customers, not just local customers, but also people who live in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. So even though the French Quarter has been hurting for a lack of tourist and convention business, we’ve been fortunate." –David Gooch, Galatoire’s "Last year was the best year we ever had out of six years at Herbsaint. This year we’re on track to do better than last year. Cochon is right up there with Herbsaint." –Donald Link, Herbsaint and Cochon |
“Getting help is going to be the hardest thing, because we don’t have people. [Before], I could go pick up some people from across the street in the projects. They had many good people in there, more good ones than bad ones, and you could pick who you wanted. But now there’s no one there.” –Leah Chase (r.), Dooky Chase
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