More, Fewer New Restaurants In 2010
As the number of restaurants in New Orleans broke records in the past year, one quality united most of the newcomers.
They were either neighborhood cafes or ethnic restaurants.
We have more poor boy shops, more places serving red beans and rice on Monday, more fried seafood houses, more Chinese, more Middle Eastern, more Thai, and more Latin American restaurants than ever.
But the list of white-tablecloth eateries that entered the market in 2009 is short. As it was in 2007 and 2008. That's easy to understand. It takes a while to open a new restaurant in that category, and the spooks of Katrina were still with us up until recently. (Remember Gustav?)
And when those worries left center stage, would-be investors in major new restaurants shifted their attention to the downturn in the economy, and continued postponing projects. The only new developments were Coquette, Le Meritage, and the restaurants in the Roosevelt Hotel. And La Foret, which came along at the very end of the year.
The reluctance of restaurant investors makes sense. During August and September, the volume in the big places took a frightening nosedive. "The bottom fell out!" was a line I heard more than once.
On the other hand, the economy seems to look good for the near future, and although the tourist and convention managers say that 2010 will be less busy than 2009, I am not the only one who has a hunch it might, in fact, be noticeably better.
And that's why these restaurants--all venues for real dining--will open shortly.
Mike's East-West
This is the revival of Mike's on the Avenue, which twenty years ago made a big splash in the emerging restaurant community near Gallier Hall. Chef-Artist Mike Fennelly came from Santa Fe to create a unique menu with stylemaker Vicky Bayley. It was a phenom for five or six years, then ran out of momentum and closed in 1999. Vicky followed Mike's with a string of restaurants, one after another, all of which were marked by brilliant, unique concepts at the beginning and limited life spans. Some involved Mike, some didn't. Let's see. . . there was Artesia, 7 on Fulton, Mike's on the Circle, Ohi'a, and (most recently) the Lake House in Mandeville, a partnership with Cayman Sinclair from which she recently exited.
Mike's East-West takes over the restaurant space in the Lafayette Hotel, right where the original Mike's was. Three restaurants have come and gone there since then, including Mike Ditka's and (most recent) Chef Raymond Toups's Anatole. Vicky and Mike say that the menu will be a blend of New Orleans food with everything else. MikeFood, in other words. They'll also have a bar with dim sum, among other small plates. This I know: it will be delightful and delicious in the early going. This I don't know: how long it will be there. It will open within the next couple of weeks.
M Bistro
This is the new name for the main restaurant in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, just off the third-floor lobby. It's for Chef Matt Murphy, who about year ago made headlines with his heroic fight against a freak, life-threatening infection. The chefs of the city came to this very nice guy's aid with a benefit that exceeded in quality any other charity feed I've ever attended. Matt has been back at work for a couple of months. One of his projects has been retooling the restaurant formerly known as Melange (and Victor's, before the hurricane). It desperately needed it. The Melange concept (borrowing dishes from other local notable restaurants) was a disaster.
The ribbon-cutting for M Bistro is this week. At the same time, the name of the popular, comfortable adjacent bar will change to the Davenport Lounge. With good reason: that's where rising jazz start trumpeter and vocalist Jeremy Davenport plays most nights. All this sounds good. The Ritz-Carlton's restaurants have yet to make a big score with the local dining public. Chef Matt--an alumnus of Commander's Palace who has been at the Ritz since 2002--can certainly fix that.
Barreca's
Like the two above, this isn't really a new restaurant. But it's been gone so long it seems like one. David Barreca opened Barreca's on Metairie Road with his brother Nash (who has a restaurant in Lafayette now) in the 1980s. It made its mark by offering the first low-price, early-evening specials hereabouts. The food was generally good, too, particularly in the Creole and seafood departments. It was always busy. But despite that, and the fact that it was not much affected by the Katrina flood (it's right on the Metairie Ridge), Barreca's has not returned to a la carte business since the hurricane. This despite the fact that the demand is clearly there. I get asked about it at least once a week. And private parties have kept the lights on through most of the post-deluvian time.
David has told me a few times that he' was about to open, but he didn't. Now I hear that it really, no kidding, this is it, will open for business this Friday, January 15. I still have this in my I'll Believe It When I See It category (my name is Thomas), but I have a feeling this time it might be true.
All of this is in the next week or two. More are coming. My prediction: a dozen substantial new openings this year.
Now the bad news: most high-end restaurants tell me that business is softer than they projected. I can back this up. My Eat Club dinners are definitely down a shade. I think there may be a structural change in dining habits. But it's too early to say.