Salú

Restaurant Review

Anecdotes & Analysis

Salu is the second restaurant attempt in this spot by Tarek Tay, Gabriel Saliba, and Hicham Khodr--the owners of Byblos and a few other restaurants. The first go-round was Catch, a casual seafood café they closed during the height of the BP oil spill last year. (I think Catch's bigger problem was that it wasn't very good.)

This restaurant is tying its fate to two trends: the Magazine Street bistro boom and the tapas phenomenon. The first is a no-brainer. In the second, the place comes across as trying a little too hard to be cool, like a parent trying to dig his teenager's styles.

Why It's Essential

Salú is in the center of the busy sidewalk-dining scene that has bloomed along Magazine Street just past the Garden District. The name is a made-up hybrid of the Spanish, French, and Italian drinking toasts, all of which mean "to your health!" That should not be taken literally. Although the menu is built around good, fresh produce,they are not holding back on the butter, cream, bacon, cheese, or carbs. And even though Salú positions itself as a tapas restaurant, you will find it difficult to eat more than three courses. Despite that, almost all the prices are under $10--some well under.

Backstory

Salu is the second restaurant attempt in this spot by Tarek Tay, Gabriel Saliba, and Hicham Khodr--the owners of Byblos and a few other restaurants. The first one was Catch, a casual seafood café the troika closed during the height of the BP oil spill last year. (I think Catch's bigger problem was that it wasn't as good as we expected.) Before that, this had been the location of at least six previous restaurants since Flagons built the first dining room here in the mid-1980s. The building dates back another hundred years before that. Its marvelous facade has landmark status.

Dining Room

Salu inherited its space nearly unchanged from Catch. Over its brick-walled antiquity is a coat of contemporary fixtures. You choose from rows of banquettes, standard tables next to the big windows, and (most popular) sidewalk tables. The service staff is sharp (another benefit of the distant Emeril connection), and you can count on them for honest advice about the menu.

For Best Results

Ask with earnestness about the composition of the dishes. Nothing here is straightforward, and some of the best dishes are counter-intuitive. Parking in this popular neighborhood is tight, but Salu customers can land cars in the Liberty Bank's lot a half-block down.