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Dining at Cochon

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What We Miss Most: The New Orleans Edition

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If you’re the way we are here at Resy, you’ve been spending the past weeks thinking every day about your favorite restaurants. What do we miss most about them? What are we most looking forward to returning to, as they begin to fully reopen for dining? Yes, there’s plenty of takeout and delivery to enjoy, groceries and wine to buy, and lots of other ways to support the restaurants we love. But nothing beats the experience of being in a restaurant, enjoying the dishes you adore.

We’ve compiled a list of favorite things about dining in New Orleans we’re hoping to get back to soon.

  1. Creole-inflected Italian cuisine from Gianna, like the life-changing baked lasagnetta with beef ragu and fontina bechamel.
  2. Dipping warm wood-fired pita bread into Saba’s hummus with blue crab.
  3. Listening to music and drinking wine in the garden at Bacchanal on a balmy spring night.
  4. The crispness of the tofu nuggets from Seed.
  5. Satiating our cravings for Southeast Asian barbecue at Marjie’s Grill with yardbird, crispy pig’s knuckles, and Hank’s cornbread, topped with sweet honey.
  6. A swing by Liuzza’s by the Track, because Jazz Fest or no, there will always be bloody Marys and barbecue-shrimp po’boys. (And there will be Jazz Fest too, soon enough.)
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    Photo Courtesy Saba

     

  8. That first bite of a Buckboard Bacon Melt, or the muffaletta, from Cochon Butcher.
  9. And then from Cochon: warm bread, served with those port-braised pork cheeks and those pork ribs with watermelon pickles, all shared among friends.
  10. Fried chicken, dark, at Willie Mae’s Scotch House. The benchmarks are benchmarks for a reason.
  11. Savoring a daiquiri at the bar, or on the patio, at Cane & Table.
  12. Those three-martini lunches at Commander’s Palace, but of course, although who’s really counting?
  13. The picture-perfect French Quarter setting of Bayona.
  14. Any and every one of the hand-pulled noodles at Bao & Noodle.
  15. Sharing a dry-aged Porterhouse at Doris Metropolitan.
  16. Lingering over late lunches with friends at Lilette, and scouring the wine list, with its deep French cuts, like Clos Marfisi rosé from Corsica.
  17. Feeling like you won the lottery by scoring a seat the sushi bar for Nagomi’s omakase.
  18. Searching for the tiny baby inside the apple king cake from Bywater Bakery, by eating as many slices as possible.

     

    Photo Courtesy Pêche

     

  19. Being welcomed by chef Brian Burns and restaurateur Reno De Ranieri whenever you walk inside Costera.
  20. Because there’s nothing quite like sharing cocktails at The Elysian Bar, located inside a former rectory first built in the mid-19th century.
  21. Having a massive bowl of pho for breakfast at Pho Tau Bay.
  22. Fresh crudo, the spicy ground shrimp and noodles, and a whole roasted fish, all preferably consumed at the bar at Pêche.
  23. Standing at the raw oyster bar at Pascal’s Manale for a fresh-shucked dozen, the quintessential Gulf-oyster experience.
  24. The warmth and hospitality you feel whenever you go to Kristen Essig and Michael Stoltzfus’ Thalia.
  25. A dressed surf-and-turf po’boy at Parkway Bakery and Tavern, because roast beef plus shrimp plus gravy.
  26. The perfect execution of the Ramos gin fizz at Bar Tonique.
  27. Browsing the wine list at Herbsaint for gems like Emmerich Knoll’s grüner veltliner, and pairing them with rich gumbo, pillowy gnocchi, or the duck leg confit with dirty rice.