Katie's

Restaurant Review

Anecdotes & Analysis

Some of the best restaurants took the longest to return after the hurricane, and their customers were among the happiest to finally see them return. That was a mixture of longing the the past followed by a well-planned bolt into the future. No restaurant proved that theory better than Katie's. Scott Craig and his partners made the resurrected Katie's into the best neighborhood restaurant ever, expanding its former specialties to embrace even more than its big old menu had. The seafood side of this energy is especially impressive. Here is the best fried seafood platter in town, and that's only the beginning of it. [caption id="attachment_7558" align="alignnone" width="400"] Seafood platter.[/caption]

Why It's Essential

The Mid-City neighborhood has always boasted a larger population of old-style neighborhood restaurants than most other parts of town. Katie's is one of the two or three best of these, with a menu that both recalls the eats of decades ago, and slips in enough innovative cooking to be cool. The scene is casual, busy, and very New Orleans. [caption id="attachment_18106" align="alignnone" width="400"] Roast beef poor boy.[/caption]

Backstory

Katie’s opened in 1984 as a nostalgic recreation of the old-style corner cafe, which was endangered at the time. It combined Italian and poor-boy shop menus, and became busier than its owners wanted. They sold it in 1993 to Scot Craig, who added more range and intricacy to the menu, particularly among the specials. Things were rolling right long until the floods after Katrina did enough damage to close Katie's for years. Scot Craig and new partner Katherine d'Aquin renovated the place and reopened in March 2010.

Dining Room

It's the standard neighborhood cafe layout: a long, narrow room with a bar that seems too big just inside the corner door, and a semi-open kitchen in the back. Sixties music plays all the time. The service staff is unusually attentive for a corner cafe, better than it was in the old days.

For Best Results

Fried seafood is the great specialty. The daily specials often include excellent works--but not always. Ask questions. Many nights of the week feature specials--steak on Thursday, for example.