Trail Blog
February 02, 2011
Must-read: 2011 New Orleans Dining Guide
Let’s be honest: If you’re seeking restaurant suggestions in the Big Easy, there is no shortage of guides or opinionated locals. Before you dig into that full plate, let us save you some time. Here’s the one dining guide you need for your next trip: the 2011 New Orleans Dining Guide by Steven Wells Hicks.
Hicks boils down the breadth of New Orleans’ restaurants to his top 26 picks, ones that will appeal most to, as he says, “the hungry visitor craving an authentic experience.”
Rather than summing up each dining experience into a few not-so-helpful lines, Hicks dedicates several pages to each destination, dishing on the food, atmosphere, history and personalities that set each place apart.
He’s in-depth and honest. When the ambiance is lacking or he thinks a restaurant is resting on its laurels, he lets you know. But when a poboy is particularly pleasing or a dessert is flat-out irresistible—calories be darned—he lets you know that too.
What’s most surprising about Hicks’ approach is he bills himself as an outsider to New Orleans’ dining scene. He doesn’t live in the city. But he’s been visiting for 37 years and dining as any visitor to the city would. He writes with authority about the kinds of experiences you can expect.
“I visit every restaurant anonymously, don’t tell people what I’m working on and will start making reservations under a false name if mine ever becomes well enough known,” says Hicks. “My guidebook is for visitors and when I go somewhere I want to be treated no different than any other visitor; that would be unfair to the reader.”
His picks, which range from white-tablecloth establishments to greasy spoons, aren’t ranked numerically in the book, though he does select a number one. “It goes to one of the Creole French grand dames,” he says, “but the city offers so many superb yet diverse choices that I can only cut my list of personal ‘number ones’ to a dozen or two...or three...or maybe four...”
Hicks recently took the time to share with us a little bit about his new book, his advice for avoiding the awful table, and the restaurant he’s dying to try next. You can find the book at Amazon and learn more about the author at www.stevenwellshicks.com.
Louisiana Culinary Trails: As someone born and raised in Omaha, how did this love affair with New Orleans cuisine begin?
Steven Wells Hicks:I moved to within 200 miles of New Orleans in the early 1970s. As a child growing up in the “beef belt,” shrimp was a luxury and grew into one of my favorite foods. I’d never had fresh shrimp until I came South; my childhood was before FedEx, and the only way we got them was frozen...Shrimp [was] my portal into New Orleans cooking.
I know I came to New Orleans when I was about five or six years old, but the only vague memory I have was live fish swimming in a seafood stall in the French Market. My first solid memory was when I was in Atlanta and came to New Orleans on business. The company I was with took our largest account’s top guy to Brennan’s for breakfast, at which he ordered Eggs Benedict—scrambled. The waiter didn’t react at all, but did nod approvingly when I told him I might try mine poached.
LCT: You've been dining in New Orleans for nearly 40 years. Why do a book on the cuisine now? What prompted the 2011 edition of the guide?
SWH: The Sensible One [his wife] has always said I prepare for any trip as if it were a military campaign. As a result, I have a bookcase brimming with guidebooks I’ve picked up over the years, most of them covered with notes scrawled in the margins. Also, a number of years ago, people started asking me for suggestions, and I would respond by e-mail. In early 2010, I was looking for a break from my work as a novelist and started a blog about my experiences over 40 years of New Orleans dining. It was a good way to enjoy all those pleasant experiences a second time. The book was a natural outgrowth from the blog.
LCT: In travel writing, an insider's perspective is almost always touted, but you take a different approach from the typical travel guide. Why?
SWH: Insiders and outsiders look at a city through different lenses. Insiders look for a wide variety of restaurants to avoid culinary boredom, while outsiders in most cases are looking for dining experiences that capture the essence of what makes a city unique. Those are the places I have tried to identify for visitors from outside the city.
Also, within seconds, most savvy restaurateurs in tourism-supported cities like New Orleans can tell if they’re dealing with a local or a visitor and the ugly truth is that some of them treat locals like family and visitors like something they’d scrape off their shoe. This is driven by the economic reality that restaurant owners have far more to gain by knocking themselves out for someone who could frequent their establishment dozens of times than from someone who may never come to the city again. While most New Orleans restaurants treat all customers well, a visitor is an outsider and that’s how he or she is going to be treated. If they’re treated better, that’s lagniappe, but to give them the idea that they can expect to be treated like a known regular, well, that’s dishonest.
LCT: What is the most important thing you hope readers take away from the guide?
SWH:I hope readers, both locals and visitors, will realize that this book is ultimately a valentine to the spirit of the people and the restaurant industry of New Orleans, a thank-you note for 40 years of joy. While the only thing that’s more subjective than food is sex, it’s my hope that readers will find the praise none too lavish, the criticisms tempered with fairness, and themselves trying to figure which place they want to visit—or revisit—first.
LCT: Share some practical tips: How far in advance do we need to make reservations for those places that do accept them? And do you have any advice on how to avoid the terrible table by the kitchen? How do you know when to trust a waiter's suggestion?
SWH:Reservations: Some places—Bayona, for instance—I try to make reservations weeks in advance. Because I generally try to visit the city during slower times, I can usually get last minute reservations.
The awful table: I don’t accept it, period. I’ll generally request a better table and if I don’t get it, I leave. The way I see things, any restaurateur who packs so many tables into his place that some are truly terrible is more concerned with profit at any cost than the satisfaction of his customers, and it’s not my job to finance his cynical view of what most patrons are willing to sheepishly accept. That may be a harsh attitude, but it’s funny how a better table seems to come open the minute I’m walking to the door.
The waiter recommends: If I ask the waiter for a recommendation, I really don’t care what he/she says, and with the exception of Galatoire’s, it’s a rare day when I ask for a recommendation. First, I know nothing about the waiter’s tastes or standards, and he/she sure doesn’t know about mine. Secondly, I’ve been around restaurants long enough to know there are times when the staff is instructed to push certain specials or slow-moving items; since I don’t know when those times are, I’d rather err on my own side than that of the house.
LCT: You're working on the 2012 edition. Will your approach be the same?
SWH: The 2012 edition is beginning to take shape and will be different in many ways. The current book is in two sections arranged alphabetically. The 2012 version will have more sections and the entries in each section will be arranged on the basis of their mileage from the Canal/Royal/St. Charles intersection.
One of the sections I’m toying with is naming places I avoid. Another is about places that are great, but aren’t necessarily indigenous to the city. I’m sure there will be repeats of some pieces because they’ll continue to be offering the authentic New Orleans experience, and some will be updated. I’ve already revisited and written a new piece on Willie Mae’s Scotch House for example. Heaven only knows what else I’ll cook up between now and press time.
LCT: At this particular moment, what restaurant have you not yet been to that you are dying to try?
SWH: I keep hearing great things about Da Wabbit in Gretna and it will be a high priority on my next visit. Somehow I haven’t made it yet to Tee-Eva’s new location, and only recently did I hear about the former Parasol’s owners opening Lacey’s. I also want to look in on La Foret and the Crescent Pie & Sausage Company.
Learn more about Hicks’ epicurean adventures at http://hickswrites.blogspot.com/.
