Mandeville

For at least two generations of New Orleanians, the joys of restaurant dining were introduced in restaurants a lot like Mandina's. Or at Mandina's itself. Until the gourmet bistro era began in the 1980s, restaurants like this were in every New Orleans neighborhood. By then Mandina's had become not only a rarity but seemed to be every Orleanian's idea of what a neighborhood restaurant should be. Then Katrina came though and reminded us how important restaurants like this are to our cherished dining practices. The North Shore franchise of Mandina's doesn't have the pulse of the original, but it comes close to duplicating the food.

Metairie 2: Orleans Line To Houma Blvd

Some restaurants are time machines. They show us what it was like to eat dine out in the days before everything was artisan this or that. When if you didn't live in the neighborhood, you wouldn't even know about the existence of that restaurant's neighborhood cafe, and they wouldn't know you. Where nearly all the customers are regulars. And--best of all--how the kitchen cooks the way it did before restaurants could buy everything pre-cut, pre-seasoned, and maybe even pre-cooked. Not to mention probably frozen. Fury's is a restaurant like that. Its customers remember all those time-machine qualities, because they themselves were around back in those days.

French Quarter