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Shrimp remoulade.

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Restaurant Ratings

The ratings are based mostly on the degree to which the food excites us, and a little on environment, service, and other considerations. I rate restaurants relative to all other restaurants in the New Orleans area. Here's what the stars mean to me:

starstarstarstarstar
Among the best locally.

starstarstarstar
Excellent and ambitious.

starstarstar
Worth crossing town for.

starstar
Recommended.

*
Acceptable.

No star
Unacceptable.

Cost Ratings
Each dollar sign indicates a ten-dollar range, including a normal meal for the restaurant (dinner, if they serve other meals), not including drinks, or tips. So, for example. . .

1$--$5-15
2$--$15-25
3$--$25-35

. . . and so on, with no upper limit. While this scheme may suggest mathematical precision, know that perception of price varies from diner to diner as much as the star ratings do. So consider this an estimate.

All reviews are based entirely on meals I have personally taken at the restaurant and paid for from my own pocket. I don't take free review meals, nor am I reimbursed by anybody for my restaurant expenditures.

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Coffee Pot

Creole. Breakfast.
French Quarter: 714 St. Peter. 504-524-3500. Map.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days.
Casual.
AE MC V
Website

WHY IT'S ESSENTIAL
It serves terrific breakfasts with a Creole flavor all day, every day. Most important, it's the last stand for calas--Creole rice cakes, once a familiar local treat, now gone from everywhere but here. After breakfast, it functions as a neighborhood restaurant for Quarterites, but one that gets a lot of out-of-towners.

WHY IT'S GOOD
The menu is a collection of New Orleans culinary cliches, but despite the touristy location (next to Pat O'Brien's), the Coffee Pot comes by its food honestly. They've always served red beans, fried catfish, gumbo, poor boys, bread pudding, and all the rest of that, prepared in a way that wouldn't be embarrassing if you took a friend from out of town to lunch or dinner there.

BACKSTORY
The Coffee Pot has been around since the 1940s (although they claim to go back to 1894). It functioned for many years as a neighborhood cafe for people who lived and worked in the French Quarter. It's more touristy now, but still has that local quality. It has gone through many owners over the years, but managed to remain consistent--largely due to the presence of Pearl, a waitress and cook whose been there for decades. Leah Chase, now one of the city's most beloved chefs, began her career here in the 1940s.

DINING ROOM
The main dining room is the small parlor of a former townhouse, with windows looking onto St. Peter Street. They have a few tables in the carriageway for alfresco dining.

ESSENTIAL DISHES
Breakfasts:
Calas.
Omelettes.
Lost bread.
Eggs Jonathan (poached, with ham, shrimp and hollandaise).
Eggs Creole (scrambled, with Creole sauce stirred in).

Lunch and dinner:
Shrimp remoulade.
Chicken-andouille gumbo.
Red beans and rice.
Fried seafood platters.
Crawfish etouffee.
Bread pudding.
Pecan pie.

FOR BEST RESULTS
Don't go anywhere near this place if the city is filled with visitors. Breakfast is the great meal. Ask if they have chicken livers for an omelette.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
It would be marvelous to have all the locals who used to eat here take it back from the visitors, but I have no idea how that could be done.

FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.

SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES

This review was updated with new information on 11/9/2009.

 

A list of all 275 full, current reviews is here.