Tully's

Restaurant Review

Backstory

Alonso’s opened on Jefferson Highway when the area wasn’t yet called Old Jefferson--back in the 1930s. Hurricane Betsy blew Alonso’s down. But the place reopened around the corner on Central Avenue--a little off the main traffic flow, as a good neighborhood place should be. When Al Alonso retired, his restaurant closed. It was soon taken over by some former customers who missed it. They restored Alonso's to its original form: a neighborhood joint serving seafood, poor boy sandwiches, and blue-plate specials so predictable you probably know the schedule without my telling you. That's a comfortable kind of eatery for Orleanians. The cooking is more than good enough to keep the place on your mental map. Fried seafood has always been the great specialty here, but when they decide to boil crabs or crawfish this is as good a place to hunker down and crack shells as any. The menu also includes a good bit of Italian cookery (largely done by the owner's mother) and one of the great hamburger steaks you'll ever eat. To draw an after-dark crowd, they have attractively-priced specials Mondays through Thursdays. The all-you-can-eat catfish-and-jambalaya deal on Tuesdays and Thursdays is especially appealing.