Pizza prepared in the style of the French Riviera: very thin, almost crackerlike crusts, baked in a wood-burning oven, more often spread with olive oil than tomato sauce, topped not with layers but piles of cheese, vegetables, meats, and seafood. Pasta is prepared in the same spirit, lighter than in the standard local Italian restaurant. Salads, sandwiches, and daily specials continue these themes. Prices are a great value.
Louisiana Pizza Kitchen opened its first restaurant in the triangular building on Esplanade (where CC's is now) in the mid-1980s. It was the first wood-burning, stone-surface pizza oven New Orleans had ever seen. The place also pioneered other now-common ideas, like the bottles of herbed olive oil on the table to go with the bread. They expanded in the 1990s to the French Market and the Riverbend, closing the Esplanade location. For awhile there was a third LPK in Gretna. The two in New Orleans operate independently, but the differences in their menus and recipes are slight. .
The French Market location has the feeling of a trattoria in Venice or Rome, with low lighting, bustling servers, and a major sidewalk scene going on outside the many windowed doors. The Uptown edition is more like a standard American pizzeria, and more casual. Service is a little indifferent, and the place can get maddeningly busy, especially on weekends. In the French Market edition, they like to open all the doors here and the temperature can get a little warm.
Don't order your normal pepperoni pizza here. Try one of the specialties, and open your mind to the different, very thin style of crust.
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