The concept of New Orleans style came up at a table at which I was sitting a few weeks ago. I got interested when the conversation shifted--as it inevitably does--to the local style in restaurants. I reached into the back of my brain (what a mess!) and recalled a quotation that I think speaks eloquently to the matter. We ran it every week in our masthead during my years at the extinct weekly newspaper Figaro. "Localism alone leads to culture," said the American poet William Carlos Williams. Nowhere is that more essential an idea than in New Orleans.
That conversation led me to make a list of the dozen restaurants that best capture New Orleans style: their cuisine, their environments, the people who work there, and less obvious aspects like their names and locations.
I found it easy to compile this list, and I was well past a dozen candidates when it became clear that my list was almost identical with a list of oldest local restaurants. And that most of those achieved their strong New Orleans style just by staying open for many decades. So I started over, this time limiting the list to restaurants that opened no later than 1975--a pivotal moment in New Orleans cultural and culinary history.
To be fair to the old places--who, generally, really do top most of the younger spots with their Creoleness--I list them all together in the top spot. No need to explain. It's obvious why these venerable dining establishments have a strong, legitimate claim to localism.
[title type="h5"]1. Antoine's
2. Arnaud's
3. Galatoire's
4. Commander's Palace.
5. Brennan's
6. Tujague's
7. Broussard's
8. Pascal's Manale
9. Crescent City Steak House
10. Felix's
11. Bon Ton Café
12. Casamento's[/title]
Now, here goes with the modern restaurants with a lot of New Orleans feeling.
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R'Evolution dining room.[/caption]
1. 
R'evolution. French Quarter: 777 Bienville (in the Royal Sonesta Hotel). 504-553-2277. Only the renovation of Brennan's two years ago exceeded the investment made by Chefs John Folse and Rick Tramonto and the Royal Sonesta Hotel in this stunning restaurant. And it's not just fancy, but saturated in Louisiana style. The walls come close to giving a history lesson. It was a little stiff in the beginning, but the act is smooth now. The bar is particularly pleasant.
2. Ralph's On The Park. City Park Area: 900 City Park Ave. 504-488-1000. The non-continuous history of the building began in the 1860s, but it wasn't much until Ralph Brennan renovated the place. All of City Park is across the street. Balconies extend around the second floor. Most night there's live music--usually jazz--in the bar.
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The bar at Clancy's. If my back were aching, I would have had dinner there. [/caption]
3. Clancy's. Uptown 3: Napoleon To Audubon: 6100 Annunciation. 504-895-1111. In a lot of ways Clancy's feels fifty years older than it is. The food is classic French Creole, the waiters are chummy, and the conversion of the old neighborhood bar left lots of atmosphere behind.
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Crab cheesecake at the Palace Cafe.[/caption]
4. 
Palace Cafe. French Quarter: 605 Canal. 504-523-1661. The best view of downtown New Orleans from river through the old Canal Street shopping and business district is here, on the sidewalk, in the first floor, and upstairs. Big windows everywhere.
5. Atchafalaya. Uptown 2: Washington To Napoleon: 901 Louisiana Ave. 504-891-9626. The premises has hosted restaurants since the 1920s, but it didn't become one of the best gourmet bistros until after Katrina. That reputation has spread so widely that it's hard to get a table these days. And with delicious reasons.
6. 
Pelican Club. French Quarter: 615 Bienville. 504-523-1504. The Exchange Alley address tells good stories from the past. The art galleries that surround the restaurant are atmospheric. The menu includes its own classics, notably the West End-style stuffed whole flounder. The prices even suggest another local era in fine dining.
7. Brigtsen's. Uptown 4: Riverbend, Carrollton & Broadmoor: 723 Dante. 504-861-7610. High ceilings, doors and windows make Frank and Marna's place look bigger than it is. The whole place was built from old barge boards a century ago. Frank learned his craft the old way, and he buys most of his food from the markets.
8. Mr. B's Bistro. French Quarter: 201 Royal. 504-523-2078. Having the longest bar in the French Quarter is quite a claim. The best versions in town of such essential dishes as barbecue shrimp, chicken-andouille gumbo, wood-grilled fish, and bread pudding is also a local draw. Having to wait at the bar for a table is also something from the local restaurant past.
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Double-cut pork chop.[/caption]
9. Muriel's. French Quarter: 801 Chartres. 504-568-1885. The building was once a macaroni factory in the days a century ago when the French Quarter was really the Italian Quarter. Muriel's moved in in 2001, managed by a longtime Brennan-family hand. It looks touristy but this is New Orleans dining top to bottom, at menu numbers designed for locals.
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JoAnn Clevenger at her desk at The Upperline. [/caption]
10*. Upperline. Uptown 3: Napoleon To Audubon: 1413 Upperline. 504-891-9822. JoAnn Clevenger took over an old French-Creole restaurant and, over the years, expanded into a building next door. Its menu and style are sophisticated and appealing to New Orleanians and to frequent visitors.
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The entrance into GWFins, as seen from Arnaud's.[/caption]
11. GW Fins. French Quarter: 808 Bienville. 504-581-3467. The original idea was to start a chain of seafood restaurants around the country. That didn't work out. Instead, we have been gifted with the best seafood restaurant in New Orleans, with more species of finfish and shellfish than we've seen since the glory days of the French Market fish stalls.
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The big ballroom at Tomas Bistro.[/caption]
12. Tomas Bistro. Warehouse District & Center City: 755 Tchoupitoulas. 504-527-0942. Tommy Andrade is one of the last surviving proponents of grandiose fine dining. (He used to run the Sazerac.) Tomas Bistro is my preference for its beautiful and big-flavor cookery. All that is also true, with a bit more casualness, at Tommy's Cuisine across the street.
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Cafe Giovanni.[/caption]13. Cafe Giovanni. French Quarter: 117 Decatur. 504-529-2154. This is one of those times when I can't bear to leave unreported what would be Number 13 on the list. While most Italian restaurants have more of an Italian than a Creole style, Chef Duke LoCicero embraces both. The dining room is decidedly French Quarter in its design. Duke grew up eating and later cooking in the Sicilian way, but with New Orleans ingredients and methods. The opera singers recall the times when New Orleans was a world capital of opera.
