Dozen Best Restaurants For Father's Day
Choosing a Father's Day restaurant is tricky. It won't work to ask your father where he'd like to go, because if he's a good enough father that his family wants to treat him to dinner, he's probably the kind of guy who puts his own desires behind those of Mom and the kids. Or he might just want to avoid the whining from the latter if he were to go where he really likes to go.
Menu issues complicate things. The cliche desire for the manly man your father is supposed to be is to have a steak. This taste is largely but not entirely accurate. But everybody else likes steak, too. It's not surprising that steak houses are the first restaurants to fill up on Father's Day.
Here's a list of restaurants that have strong possibilities in making the event especially gladsome.
1. Emeril's. Warehouse District: 800 Tchoupitoulas. 504-528-9393. The spare, industrial design on Emeril's gives it a masculine look. And the food is substantial, cooked with gusto, and delicious. Good source of celebration wines, too.
2. Ruth's Chris Steak House. Metairie: 3633 Veterans Blvd. 504-888-3600. The first place anybody in New Orleans thinks of for Father's Day. If you haven't been there lately, know that the place has improved tremendously since five years ago, when it was getting dangerously chain-y.
3. Arnaud's. French Quarter: 813 Bienville. 504-523-5433. In the old days, restaurants were built to appeal to men. (Now restaurateurs are wise to the fact that women really choose the restaurants people go to.) Arnaud's has that masculine look and style. And the best Sunday brunch in town. And a great bar.
4. La Provence. Lacombe: 25020 US 190. 985-626-7662. The spirit of Chris Kerageorgiou rules again. The place is rustic yet pretty, with country French food with big flavors.
5. Pelican Club. French Quarter: 615 Bienville. 504-523-1504. A bustling restaurant when busy, the Pelican Club has one of the city's most appealing menus, adventuresome without making you raise an eyebrow.
6. Antoine's. French Quarter: 713 St Louis. 504-581-4422. Another old place built with male customers in mind. Antoine's only does brunch on Sunday, but it's one of the better ones. Live jazz band with some old guys playing.
7. Juniper. Mandeville: 301 Lafitte. 985-624-5330. The best bistro on the North Shore, Chef Pete Kusiw's food is not only excellent New Orleans eats, but portioned out to sate the appetite of a farmer.
8. Galatoire's. French Quarter: 209 Bourbon. 504-525-2021. Galatoire's is full of successful men and beautiful women of all ages. What more could a Dad want around him?
9. Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse. French Quarter: 716 Iberville. 504-522-2467. A dining room designed to suggest the presence of powerful men often comes across as sexy to women, and (according to my wife) it does here. Prime beef all the way, with particularly appealing slabs of it in the sirloin strip and porterhouse categories.
10. Zea. Harahan: 1655 Hickory Ave. 504-738-0799. & Kenner: 1325 West Esplanade Ave. 504-468-7733. & Lee Circle Area: 1525 St Charles Ave. 504-520-8100. & Metairie: 4450 Veterans Blvd (Clearview Mall). 504-780-9090. & Covington: 110 Lake Dr. 985-327-0520. &
Harvey: 1121 Manhattan Blvd. 504-361-8293. Not a grand dining venue, but one with three great advantages for Father's Day: 1) It's not expensive. (Dad always pays.) b) The menu has something for every taste, at every age, so complaints are minimized. iii) Dads are give a free four-pack of Zea's custom-brewed beers as a gift.
11. Lüke. CBD: 333 St Charles Ave. 504-378-2840. Luke was designed in the style of the old, masculine lunch restaurants downtown. Not only that, but the menu is full of dishes that sound like guy food. A terrific brunch menu, too.
12. Charlie's Steak House. Uptown: 4510 Dryades. 504-895-9705. The old Charlie's had an eighty percent male clientele not as much because men liked the place more than any other, but because women hated it. It looks the same but has been rebuilt completely, so that's over. And they'll be open all day Sunday, which they usually aren't.
