Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published April 25, 2006 Click here for the current edition More Than Three-Quarters Of Pre-Storm Restaurants Now Open As of May 6, there are 630 restaurants in the New Orleans area that I know to be open. That's 78 per cent of a pre-storm total of 809. That 809 figure is a new one from this source. A question I hear more often lately is, "How many restaurants were around before the storm?" I had been saying 1138, based on a count of restaurants in the Yellow Pages that I made last year. (I do this every time a new phone book comes out.) However, the criteria I apply for the New Orleans Menu Restaurant Index list are different from those I used to make that count. I went back to the phone books a few days ago and did a recount, this time applying the same limitations I use for the Index. And I arrived at the figure 809. Here are the restaurants excluded from the count, and the Index: 1. Fast-food restaurants. 2. Coffeehouses, unless there is a serious kitchen and a full menu. 3. Delis in food stores. 4. Predominantly take-out and delivery food operations. 5. Most chain restaurants. My criteria here are a bit arbitrary, I admit. I omit Applebee's, the Waffle House, and Bud's Broiler, but include Houston's, Copeland's, and Italian Pie. I'd say that this introduces a variance of between 20 and 30 restaurants, if the pre-storm count were compiled by someone more accepting of chain restaurants than I am. The geographical area in which I made the counts includes all of Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, and St. Tammany Parishes, plus the Belle Chasse area in Plaquemines Parish. I have included restaurants in the River Parishes (St. Charles, St. John, and St. James) that are well known and well patronized by people in the New Orleans area, or might be; there is an arbitrary aspect to this, too. Shortly after the storm, the Louisiana Restaurant Association predicted that some 25 percent of the restaurants open before the storm would not reopen. Now, after eight months, and with many restaurants still working to reopen, that estimate seems to have been pessimistic. Another cheery note: at least 20 of the restaurants on the New Orleans Menu Restaurant Index are establishments that did not exist before the storm. Sixteen of those are what I would consider major openings. That number is at least comparable to the number of new openings in any other recent year. I assembled all these statistics for a study being conducted at UNO. The person doing the study also asked me to give the numbers as they stood at various points since the storm. And here those are. In the first days following the hurricane, there were zero restaurants open that met the Index's criteria. That condition persisted for about a week, after which restaurants began opening on the West Bank and on the North Shore. The first Index, published September 19, listed 22 restaurants. A month later, on October 19, the list was up to 160. The last part of October was the busiest period for restaurant openings we've seen. Forty-eight restaurants opened in the last ten days of the month. Another 30 per week came after that, until the 300 mark was reached on November 29. The Index passed 400 December 20. There was a lull through the holidays and after the New Year, such that 500 restaurants open wasn't achieved until February 11. Then came a spate of reopenings right before Mardi Gras, February 28, when the Index was up to 545. The pace of openings slowed after Mardi Gras, but began picking up speed slowly. On April 1, the Index stood at 592. It reached 600 on April 10. I'll keep watching. If you know of a restaurant that's open but not on the Index, please let me know at tom@nomenu.com. © 2006 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com