The owners are fraternity brothers from LSU, and took a liking to the Caribbean islands. Knowing that adds a deeper understanding of the concept.
Everybody knows Mexican food, but the market has filled up with chains. This triggered the rise of a related but different style of Latin American cooking, usually described as Caribbean. However, the menu at the Rum House--a great example of the new genre--is enough like Mexican that people feel comfortable about it. The restaurant is also free of imperatives to do anything authentic (whatever that means). The flavors of Jamaica and Cuba dominate, but not the forms. You eat tacos and platters with rice and beans.
With some assistance from Restaurant 101--a network television show wherein an out-of-town chef comes in and tells a local restaurateur how to run his place-- Michael Buchert and Kelly Ponder opened the Rum House in 2009. It was slow at the beginning, but it wasn't long before it grew into something of a phenom. They got good advice from Restaurant 101, and had the good luck to be in the center of an explosion of restaurants in the stretch of Magazine Street between Washington and Louisiana Avenue.
An old storefront was intentionally left free of anything that smacked of newness or slickness. This, of course, appeals to the current vogue for minimal surroundings, and the Caribbean set-pieces make it unique. The restaurant has a wide frontage on Magazine Street, and has taken full advantage of it with sidewalk tables. They seem to always be full, and so is the inside dining room.
Order a lot of small plates. Also Caribbean beers. They make much of rum in the bar, but this hasn't impressed me as much as I expected.
| Attitude | 1 |
|---|---|
| Environment | 1 |
| Hipness | 2 |
| Local Color | 1 |
| Service | 0 |
| Value | 1 |
| Wine | 0 |
