French Quarter

Among the memories carried around by lifetime Orleanians, the circumstances surrounding the eating of one's first raw oyster loom vividly. For a long time, the population could be divided into those who had their first oyster at Felix's, and those who did so across the street at the Acme. What with all the oysters bars in town now, this effect has transmogrified into a predictor of the oyster-eater's age. If your first was from either Felix's or the Acme, you are probably over fifty.

Metairie 2: Orleans Line To Houma Blvd

One of the most important goals a restaurant must have is a good source of first-class raw materials. Even in the realm of seafood--which you'd think should be very abundant in our part of the world, but isn't--the person who buys food for a restaurant kitchen must either 1) pay top dollar; b) know somebody well-connected to the commercial fishermen; or iii) spend a lot of time on the phone tracking the every-changing seafood markets. Joe Impastato and his brother Sal do all three of those things. At Impastato's, for example, I often find soft-shell crabs when nobody else has them. Live soft-shells, at that. Can't fake that.

Slidell