Esplanade Ridge

Grab some chips and dig into the superb and offbeat salsa (it has a slightly smoky flavor). It's good enough that you will go for a second ration, for which you will have to pay extra--but probably without complaint. Margaritas and guacamole are excellent in their turns. After that, pretend you're in a gourmet bistro. Time for mussels, calamari, steaks, racks of lamb, big flanks of fish, and no small number of other specialties that might not remind you of anything Mexican. But so what? We let Italian and French restaurants get away with that. So why not Creole-Mexican?

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.

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.