Will More Than Double Its Seating
Galatoire's Buys Building Next Door
Just when we thought that every possible upheaval that could occur at the formerly changeless Galatoire's had occurred, over the weekend we learned about another big one.
Galatoire's has bought the building next door, and plans to expand into it. That will double the restaurant's size. This will allow Galatoire's to meet the growing demand for private party space. Although they hold a lot of events on the second floor of the building they've occupied for 107 years, those are limited in size and number.
The expansion will pierce what I am pretty sure is a common wall between the original 209 Bourbon address and the new space at 215. The three-story annex, like the original Galatoire's, was built around 1840, during the most prosperous era in our city's early history. It has long been a restaurant, the most recent of which were Mike Anderson's (which didn't come back after Katrina) and Ralph and Kacoo's. The most famous occupant was Segreto's, a second-generation spinoff of the famous early 1900s Italian restaurant Turci's. That was one more door down Bourbon Street. This is a historic block for restaurants, even by New Orleans standards.
They say the structure brings 11,500 square feet of new dining room space to the restaurant--enough for 800 more seats. That almost triples what they have now.
A reasonable guess as to when the new addition will begin operation would be sometime next year, right? Wrong. Melvin Rodrigue, the president and COO of Galatoire's, said we can look for parties going on as soon as this year's holiday season. The new owners (that was the big Galatoire's story in 2010) clearly have the liquidity to get it done.
And here's another item that would have been a good guess, but must be said: the expansion will not result in any changes to the familiar, beloved first-floor dining room, or its policy of accepting no reservations.
