Arabi

French Quarter

The passing in 2015 of Chef Paul Prudhomme brought new attention to his seminal restaurant. A lot of people who hadn't dined there in awhile showed up to give their respects. They found, in contrast, the same jolly party that has always marked the scene at K-Paul's. The restaurant returns the favors. A few years ago they added a very casual lunch service, reminiscent of the way K-Paul's was in its early days. Chef Paul set up a unique Cajun-style deli, making outrageously good poor boy sandwiches and other casual eats, at everyday prices. The one I look forward to having again is the shepherd's pie, which launches that old school-cafeteria special into the flavor stratosphere. The Cajun deli lunches are back on Thursdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Uptown 3: Napoleon To Audubon

Trying to think of a place for dinner recently, with the limitation that one of us didn't want Italian, the three of us could think of nothing but Italian restaurants. We finally settled on an Italian restaurant that was just different enough from the standard to make it seem. . . well, not really Italian. Whatever that means. Avo's take on Italian food is very new to the scene, having premiered only six months earlier. It wasn't until we were deep into the meal before we saw that not only is Avo's very Italian but very deep New Orleans-Italian roots. Avo's main selling point is its premises, a rebirth of the former Martinique restaurant and its hedge-surrounded, open-air courtyard. That part of the renovation was the deepest: it's now a weatherproof dining room that nevertheless has an outdoor-dining feeling. If the weather is even remotely nice, they open all the big windows. The menu is different enough from any other in that part of restaurant-loaded Magazine Street to be attractive. You will walk past at least three restaurants between your parking space and Avo.