2019 was an anniversary of three very different restaurants around town, all much-beloved. These are among our favorites too. There are probably others we missed, but happy anniversary to all establishments celebrating this year. The restaurant business is a tough one, so longevity is proof of doing something right. These three do a lot right, and their success is well-deserved.
Casamento’s Celebrates A Centennial
Although it's not as consistent as it once was, Casamento's--a big, long room covered with enough spanking-clean Art Nouveau tiles that it looks like a gigantic bathroom--is still a first-class vendor of oysters. These are terrific in either raw or fried form. A fair number of patrons start with the raw and finish with the fried.
If this sounds familiar, consider Casamento's oyster loaf. It's not a poor boy exactly, but most regular customers find it familiar. "Pan bread," as it is called, uses the same bread that the makers of sliced supermarket bread use to make kids' sandwiches, but with the top sliced across the whole top from end to end. Then the top is toasted to make a top. The bottom two-thirds of the loaf turns into a deeper bed for the fried oysters, soft-shell crab, shrimp or whatever. And this is the pan bread. You will hear about it if you dine at Casamento's. Don't call it a poor boy, even though it does look like one and maybe even tastes like one.
Other seafoods are also fried with the same deftness at Casamento's. You will never encounter tepid, soggy, or greasy trout or limp soft-shell crabs here. The French fries are among the three or four best in town--cut from fresh potatoes and fried to order. The Italian dishes are less memorable--Sicilian red sauce piled atop white spaghetti. Not bad, but why get that when there is so much fried seafood goodness here?
Like many vendors of fried seafood, Casamento's adheres rigorously to the Two Laws of Great Fried Seafood. First, the raw seafood is fresh and local. Second, it's fried immediately before being served. They take this one step further by offering those aforementioned fresh-cut French fries. All of this is as good as it gets. If you began with the superb raw oysters, you have had as fine a simple meal as can be had in New Orleans.
But at this point, we run into a complication. As fine as the Casamento family can make its food, we customers never really know whether the place will be open. There are guidelines, but they're unpredictable. The restaurant is closed almost entirely in the summer, on or off all days of the week. Once I saw the prices of raw oysters go up a little right in the middle of my eating. Don't go there unless you know for sure the hours at that time.
One more matter: Casamento's doesn't accept credit cards. An ATM is in the front room, but I never feel secure that I have enough money in hand when I go to one of those. Casamento's is one of very few that maintains the policy, and on quite a few occasions (two weeks ago being one of them) I walked out--but with a smile on my face. They do what they want, and we like what they do. Because this is, after all. Casamento's.
Mr. B’s Bistro Rocked The Local Dining World 40 Years Ago
Some would say that Mr. B's Bistro is the most important restaurant in the history of dining in New Orleans. If that doesn't ring true, I can understand why. There are a lot of very important restaurants in this city. But in 1979, the fine-dining restaurants that dominated the standards for white-tablecloth restaurants in the French Quarter unexpectedly had their standards reset.
That move came shortly after the Brennan family of major restaurants suffered a split into two businesses. One of them was Brennan's on Royal Street, famous as the most profitable restaurant in town. The other was Commander's Palace, a beautiful place that was liked by a lot of diners. But it couldn't match what Brennan's on Royal could lay down.
The Commander's Palace side of the business kept things moving. But it became obvious that a new strategy was needed. And that came from Ella Brennan, the most influential of the family.
In 1979, the Brennans made their move, revolutionizing the New Orleans dining scene. At that time no New Orleans restaurants were using wood-burning grills. That was such a hit that Mr. B's drew many lines of customers on the sidewalk.
The next development completed Mr. B's. They were the archetype of the casual, contemporary Creole bistro. Restaurants like Mr. B's suddenly dominated the scene. Its kitchen creates innovative and excellent Creole dishes. Then it serves them in an easy, informal way. Although a scan of the menu suggests a wide variety of choices, the seafood dishes are almost without exception the best versions anywhere of numerous contemporary Creole classic dishes. Indeed, the seafood and everything else was held to very high standards of fresh fish entirely.
Mr. B's emerged as brilliant with real momentum, and ahead of the trends. It got and still gets a lot of attention, bringing in the new desires of the Baby Boomers, who were just then learning how to eat the best food in a beautiful environment. And still want exactly that.
Mr. B's quickly became the most agreeable restaurant for the younger diners. It wasn't long before other restaurants around town picked up Mr. B's style, its ability to draw new customers, and general success. Things are still pulling a clientele to at Mr. B's now. No small number of them believe that B's is the best restaurant in New Orleans.
A Quiet Italian Gem Going Strong For 30 Years
The DiPietro brothers are descendants of great Sicilian cooks, and the family has branched off in different directions for a number of years. This story is worth its own telling, and we will do that soon, but suffice it to say that these are the brothers of Irene, proprietor of the wildly popular Irene’s Cuisine in the French Quarter. Their other sister Renata had a very successful restaurant in Metairie for many years but has since moved out of town. The restaurant was called Renata’s, and her husband was from the Zuppardo family. These roots go deep, and this is a very interesting story of Italian immigrants make good.
Rolando and Fausto chose a quieter place to settle than their sister Irene, and these two have turned out delicious Sicilian-inspired classics for now thirty years, celebrating the anniversary this very month.
