Creole. Chicken.
Mid-City: 2301 Orleans Ave. 504-821-0600. Map.
Lunch Tuesday-Friday. Take-out orders until 7 p.m.
Casual.
AE DC MC V
Website (not currently functioning)
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Nobody understands Creole cooking better than Leah Chase, who built her restaurant into one of the country's most famous. For half a century, this has been the Galatoire's of the African American community, and the place where everyone--including Presidents and every other kind of celebrity--goes for the cooking of the Creoles of color. New Orleans cooking crosses racial lines without really acknowledging them, uniting rather than dividing the community.
WHY IT'S GOOD
This is the real deal: Creole cooking in an old style, more influenced by home cooking than what's found in most restaurants. You come here for the cooking, not for the ingredients. And they can indeed cook.
BACKSTORY
Edgar "Dooky" Chase was a musician who opened a bar and cafe in 1940. His son (also called Dooky) expanded it in the late 1940s with the help of his wife Leah. She already had a career as a chef in some French Quarter restaurants, and was determined to at least equal them in her own place. She would do this by sticking to the cuisine she grew up with. Dooky Chase quickly became the leading restaurant in the African-American-Creole community. By the 1980s, it had expanded into two adjacent shotgun cottages with a handsome dining space that drew as many visitors as locals. Leah Chase by then had a national reputation--she speaks as well as she cooks. She wrote three good cookbooks. But Hurricane Katrina broke her restaurant, and it took years to get it back going at all. Leah was in her eighties, but she kept at it. Dooky's is not yet back to what it used to be (in terms of hours, anyway), and it concentrates its efforts on a daily lunch buffet.
DINING ROOM
It's a neat place: a pair of old houses have been turned into an airy dining room with some colored-grass panels that tell interesting tales from the New Orleans neighborhoods. They serve dinner only sporadically, but stay open after lunch service for take-outs until seven.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Most lunchers indulge in the buffet, which goes for $18. It includes dishes along these lines:
Shrimp Creole.
Creole gumbo.
Shrimp Clemenceau.
Stuffed bell peppers.
Stuffed shrimp.
Fried seafood platter.
Veal grillades with jambalaya.
Fried chicken.
Red beans and rice.
Bread pudding.
FOR BEST RESULTS
The ultimate experience here is coming on on Holy Thursday for gumbo z'herbes, the unique gumbo of greens. It fills the restaurant every year.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
I understand why it hasn't, but it would be great to have Dooky's back every day until late at night, like in the old days.
FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.
- Dining Environment +1
- Consistency +1
- Service
- Value +2
- Attitude +2
- Wine and Bar
- Hipness +1
- Local Color +3
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Good for business meetings
- Many private rooms
- Open all afternoon
- Historic
- Unusually large servings
- Quick, good meal
- Good for children
- Easy, nearby parking
This review was updated with new information on 7/6/2010.
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