Dozen Best New Restaurants Of 2015.

It's not only the Feasting Season, but also the Listmaking Season. Although the number of restaurants in the New Orleans area has remained about the same as it was this time last year, quite a few openings and closings occurred, with the openings being more substantial than the closings. Almost all of these are well within the casual zone. Only the top entry on this list can be called a grand restaurant. Here are my choices for the year and a third (or so) just passed. Restaurants that have only just opened as I write this will show up on next year's Best New Restaurants list. Some places below opened in late 2014. (I hold to my tenet that going to brand-new restaurants is a bad idea. ) [caption id="attachment_45601" align="alignnone" width="480"] The new main bar at Brennan's. [/caption] 1. Brennan's. French Quarter: 417 Royal. 504-525-9711. The story of Brennan's bankruptcy, followed by its takeover by a different arm of the Brennan family, was the big story of 2014. This year we saw the reality, after more than $22 million spent on the stunning restoration of this 1700s building. Also a resounding success is the reworking of the menu, which blends classic dishes from Brennan's deep files and new method from the mind of Chef Slade Rushing. The only mistake a diner can make is to go to Brennan's wanting it to be exactly as it was before its year-long closing. It almost every case, it's better now. [caption id="attachment_49330" align="alignnone" width="480"] Hummus with lamb ragout.[/caption] 2. Shaya. Uptown 2: Washington To Napoleon: 4213 Magazine St. 504-891-4213. When I heard that Esquire named Shaya the best new restaurant in America, my reaction was that it was impossible, because that would imply that it's the best new restaurant in New Orleans. But how could that be? Surely the best new New Orleans restaurants must spring from local food and cultural resources, right? But after my second and subsequent visits to Shaya, I was so wowed by Alon Shaya's unique approach to Middle Eastern cuisine that I have to admit that the Esquire guys were onto something. Shaya's pita bread is certainly the best imaginable. 3. Franklin. Marigny: 2600 Dauphine. 504-267-0640. Franklin is among very few restaurants in the Marigny-Bywater restaurant boomtown that isn't a funky old joint. Instead, it's a handsome place with sophisticated cooking, service, wine list and bar. It's almost as if a major Uptown bistro had been transported whole downstream. [caption id="attachment_49494" align="alignnone" width="480"] Dining room in the crook of an L-shape, with the oyster bar on the left.[/caption] 4. Compere Lapin. CBD: 535 Tchoupitoulas. 504-599-2119. The buzz here is that the owner/chef hit it big on one of those chef competitions on television. That surely was good for business, exposing the many would be diners in the busy Tchoupitoulas restaurant row to this interesting mix of Creole, Cajun, Southern, and Caribbean cooking. The abbreviated menu is a little offputting, but that can be solved by finding out what the specials are about. Then it is clearly excellent. 5. Meauxbar. French Quarter: 942 N Rampart. 504-569-9979. The original Meauxbar is gone from its very useful location across the street from the Mahalia Jackson Theater, on the rim of the French Quarter. In its place is the relocated Ste. Marie, formerly of Poydras Street. (The Meauxbar name remains to puzzle first-timers. It's not a bar, but a full-bore restaurant.) This French-Creole bistro found a more appreciative clientele in the new site, where chef Kristen Essig's menus have blossomed into much more interesting prospects than she had on Poydras. Always busy, usually with locals and Quarterites. 6. Forks & Corks. Covington: 141 TerraBella Blvd. 985-273-3663. Restaurant Number Three for Osman Rodas, owner of Pardo's and Tchoupstix in Covington. Forks & Corks (not enough time spent on the name) took over the former Bosco's in Terra Bella. (The original Bosco's is still in business in Mandeville.) The F&C has an interesting idea: to create something along the lines of Clancy's, Galatoire's, and the Upperline, of which there is little on the North Shore. Fortunately, Osman has Chef Marvin Tweedy on staff, who not only fully groks oysters Rockefeller and turtle soup, but spins such things deftly. Handsome dining room in an interesting retro community. [caption id="attachment_49640" align="alignnone" width="480"] First floor dining room ay Balise.[/caption] 7. Balise. CBD: 640 Carondelet St. 504-459-4449. The first major new opening of 2015 took over an old lunch house and invented a fascinating, historically accurate milieu and kitchen. How can a dish be inventive and homely at the same time? They somehow do that here. 8. Trenasse. CBD: 444 St Charles Ave. 504-680-7000. Surprise of the Year: In a corner of the first floor of the Hotel Inter-Continental came this new Creole-Cajun seafood house, an extension of a Gulf Coast restaurant named Stinky's Fish Camp. Perhaps because I expected very little from this, I was astonished by the eating. Only a handful of top-end restaurants match the stock of fresh fish in Trenasse's kitchen. They do more with an oyster bar than we've encountered any where else. The menu is further riddled with a wide assortment of other dishes. 9. Kin. Uptown 4: Riverbend, Carrollton & Broadmoor: 4600 Washington Ave. 504-304-8557. A minuscule restaurant just off the triangle made by Earhart, Washington, and Jefferson Davis, this place is jammed with a hip young crowd. Two restaurant in one: at lunch, the menu is dominated by Vietnamese and other Asian eats, reflecting the origins of the owners. In the evening, the efforts shift to Contemporary Creole cookery, with the same staff. Can't get in without a reservation. 10. Avo. Uptown 3: Napoleon To Audubon: 5908 Magazine. 504-509-6550. The number of possible isotopes of Italian cooking seems to be infinite, even when the range is limited to Sicilian. That's the origin of the owners, whose ancestry includes Lama's Seafood in the old St. Roch Market. The cooking is different enough from what we're used to to make statement. The courtyard of the former Martinique has been weatherproofed, but still feels al fresco. Great service staff. [caption id="attachment_48399" align="alignnone" width="480"] Ceviche and salad.[/caption] 11. Johnny Sanchez. CBD: 930 Poydras. 504-304-­6615. John Besh had a busy year, opening both Shaya (see above) and this partnership with well-known Mexican chef Aron Sanchez. Johnny Sanchez is a wild-looking place, the murals making many references to obscure south-of-border icons. The menu is equally scattershot, with a dizzying number of options. 12. Messina's Runway Cafe. New Orleans East: 6001 Stars and Stripes Blvd (Lakefront Airport). 504-241-5300. The Messina family, which came to prominence with its restaurant in Kenner in the 1960s, has in more recent times become more of a caterer and food-service operator. The food at Zephyrs Field, for example. They were brought in to create a breakfast-and-lunch place and a catering hall at the newly restored Lakefront Airport. In a part of town bereft of good restaurants, the Runway Cafe kicks up a lot of excitement with this handsome place and its New Orleans neighborhood-cafe menu.