Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published April 25, 2007 Maitre d' Retires From Rib Room Dalton Milton, who started working at the Royal Orleans Hotel when it first opened in 1960, retired today from his long-time post as maitre d'hotel at the Rib Room. Everybody calls him just "Milton," no doubt because his name tag says that and he has one of those enviable reversable names. If you know the guy, it's certainly because you're one of the hundreds of regular customers of the Rib Room, and you need his help in getting the appropriate table on the day you want it. That is a harder thing to do at the Rib Room than at most restaurants. Particularly on Fridays at lunch, everybody there is a local VIP. When the Supreme Court of Louisiana moved into the courthouse building across the street, that became especially true. No hotel restaurant in town commands the following that the Rib Room does. It's the last of a dying breed, really, whose past examples included the Caribbean Room, the Sazerac (both gone but not forgotten), and the Grill Room at the Windsor Court (forgotten but not gone). Milton is one of a dying breed, too. Quick: name another maitre d' who matters, anywhere locally. There are very few. None of them command the front door post the way Milton does, because nobody has a restaurant with a post like that anymore. His peers included his predecessors Ernst Fisher and Chris Kerageorgiou. And Douglas Leman (Caribbean Room), Antoine Camenzuli and Herbert Pliessnig (Louis XVI), George Rico (Commander's), and Tommy Andrade (Sazerac). He's a friendly man who always kept the decorum, in a time when decorum is beginning to seem like a lost cause. Milton says he's moving to Lafayette, and that he really is out of the restaurant business. I guess we'll see about that. Today they're throwing a second-line parade around the Quarter and a luncheon at the Rib Room in his honor. Ave atque vale, Milton! © 2007 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com