Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published November 14, 2005 Click here for the current edition Antoine's May Re-Open Christmas Eve Now, here's some good news: Antoine's, whose original building was so badly damaged by the hurricane that the extent and nature of what happened is still not entirely surveyed, may be ready to start serving its customers as early as December 24. "That is a very wishful date, and I can't promise it," says Rick Blount, the fifth-generation CEO (they used to call his position "proprietor"). "But that's what we'd like to shoot for. We're working isolate the good areas of the building from the bad areas, so we can operate safely. The Annex and the Hermes Room will be the only ones we'll use for awhile." The Annex is the big red room where most customers dine anyway; the Hermes Room, formerly called the President's Room, is the one along St. Louis Street like side of the entrance. The problem area is in Antoine's original building, which is over two centuries old. (Like many large restaurants in the French Quarter, Antoine's is made up of several buildings joined together.) "It looks as if that building exploded," says Blount. "All its walls are bowed out, as if a tornado came over it and made it expand from air pressure." Parts of the walls actually collapsed. The walls are now all reinforced temporarily, but not before a large support beam in the main dining room sagged dangerously. The breaks let in a tremendous amount of rainwater, which ran throughout the restaurant, doing particularly severe damage to the kitchen. They're still trying to get water out of the gas lines. But at least they do have gas. There's more damage than merely the physical. "Because we have a legacy among many of our employees, many of whom have worked for us for generations, many of them came from the same part of town. Unfortunately, that was St. Bernard Parish," Blount says. "We have been able to locate many of them, and they want to come back to work. But they don't have a place to live, and that is our worst problem." And, as we reported here a few weeks ago, Antoine's has lost its long-time maitre d', Cliff Lachney. He and his son died in their Lakeview home after the storm. An article a few weeks ago in the Chicago Tribune reported all of this, along with a very gloomy outlook from the families that own Antoine's. But things are clearly more optimistic now. "We're going to have to open with a much shorter menu, and probably just for dinner, just because we don't have the people for both meals now," says Blount. "But I think if we can get thirty percent of the staff here, we can re-open just as soon as the Department of Health says we're okay. We won't take reservations again until February, at the earliest. But if we can open for Christmas Eve, we'd love to." They will have no trouble filling the room with customers, that's for sure. Funny. The odds against Antoine's opening before Galatoire's strike me as very long. But it may happen. © 2005 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com