My New Orleans
12/17/2020
I like Donald Link and have since I first met him. He wrote a letter to the editor that was published in
The Advocate the other day, and I think he pretty effectively expressed the issue a lot of restaurants have. There are risks in everything, and dining indoors is not something I would do at the moment, but private gatherings have been a larger source of infection than restaurants, which when managed properly, have a lot more control over the environment and can limit exposure.
As I drive around the city, I see a lot of places that did not previously have outdoor seating that now have outdoor seating. I see a lot more delivery and a lot more pickup business. I also see a lot of places struggling, and I worry whether a lot of these small businesses are going to fold despite having tried to hang on over what seems to me to have been the longest year in the 51 I’ve spent on the planet.
My New Orleans
“Haute Plates” has been a column in which I’ve related news about restaurants, written recipes and made comments on food culture generally. That has become problematic – particularly the part where I write about restaurants. There’s news, but it’s not good news for the most part and there are only so many ways to say “takeout” or “Yes, there are outdoor heaters.”
Restaurants keep opening, though; for example, Bywater Brew Pub opened recently at Royal and Montegut streets in the eponymous neighborhood. They have an interesting menu.
On paper it looks like hipster satire. There’s a burger called the “Royal with Cheese” that comes straight from the movie “Pulp Fiction,” and I don’t know how I feel about the “Phoritto,” which is a burrito with things that would otherwise be found in pho except for the soup. Some may say the soup is the essence of pho and given that pho is soup, I agree. It is not my gate to keep, though so …