Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published February 12, 2008 Chef Breaks A Leg Anatole Closes Anatole, the expensive but excellent restaurant operated for the past couple of years by Chef Raymond Toups in the Lafayette Hotel, has closed. The hotel says that the chef brokle his leg and has decided to step (lightly, I suppose) from the business. They add that new operators will take the place over. Whether they'll continue the style of the restaurant is unknown, but I'd say that's unlikely. Chef Raymond was exectutive chef at the Royal Orleans Hotel for many years, then moved to the Wyndham at Canal Place until the hurricane. He had many fans--myself among them--and we all looked forward to his eventually opening his own place. Anatole was as good as we expected, with superior raw materials prepared in straightforward but delicious ways. But the restaurant was as expensive as the top steakhouses (prime beef was, in fact, one of the specialties), and the CBD location didn't draw enough dinner business. It's tough down there, but right across the street Herbsaint is doing just fine. So it wasn't only the neighborhood. Maybe it's the location. Let's see. . . Mike's on the Avenue, two iterations of Mike Ditka's, the unfortunate and weird Rasputin, all int he last ten years. And there were other restaurants there before that. The space is handsome, the food has often been great (as it was at Anatole), but something seems to be missing. We certainly hope Raymond Toups shows up somewhere again. © 2008 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com