Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published October 28, 2008 He'll Create New Locations Hicham Khodr Buys Gumbo Shop The Gumbo Shop, a fixture around the corner from St. Louis Cathedral since the 1920s--has a new owner. He's Hicham Khodr, who is also the owner of the Camellia Grill and a partner in the Byblos restaurants and Emeril's NOLA. "I paid a big price for it, but I think it's a great place and it does a very good business," he told me. He also bought the Gumbo Shop's Uptown commissary, which not only prepares a lot of the food served from the French Quarter restaurant's undersize kitchen, but also sells catering quantities of its dishes to riverboats and even to the public. The most valuable property of all, however, may be the name. "The Gumbo Shop" may be the best moniker ever devised for a New Orleans restaurant. "You hear it, and you don't have to wonder what they serve," Hicham says. "Gumbo, red beans, jambalaya, seafood, shrimp Creole." He says it's a certainty he will open other locations of the Gumbo Shop around town and perhaps beyond. Those will add fried seafood to the menu--something the St. Peter Street original was never able to do. He also says that Richard Stewart will stay on. Richard, in addition to running the Gumbo Shop well for many years, is also the author of cookbooks--the Gumbo Shop's own, and another about slow-cooking, Creole style. The Gumbo Shop is busy with tourists all the time, but its attractive prices have always drawn a local clientele, too. The Gumbo Shop's Reveillon dinner through December has long been the most fantastic dining bargain of that season. If Hicham is in the mood for taking advice, I offer this: The seafood gumbo is fine, but the Gumbo Shop's chicken gumbo has always been too light. Goose that thing up with a darker roux, smokier and spicier sausage, and a little more country-style flavor. Gumbo Shop. French Quarter: 630 St. Peter. 504-525-1486. Classic Creole. © 2008 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com