The U.S. government prescribes a nutritional pyramid for healthy eating, but in actuality the eating habits of most students more closely resemble a square. Composing the four corners of this student diet are: 1) pizza, as much a part of college life as tuition; 2) cheap eats, a necessity unless you happen to be returning to school after a lucrative career in investment banking; 3) 24-hour diners and other night owl joints, for the inevitable all-nighters pulled for either work or play; and 4) coffee shops, where stimulation, education and socialization collide. What follows is our guide to local favorites in each category.
PIZZA
Defining Pie
Wherever there are college students, pizza can’t be far away. Inexpensive, easily divisible by roommates and usually available for delivery, pizza fits the lifestyle, palate and finances.
But when people talk about New Orleans food, the subject of pizza is usually only brought up as a matter of ridicule. The general wisdom is that New Orleans is not a pizza town—certainly not in the way of New York, Boston or Chicago—and that local examples are bound to be inferior.
Apparently, a number of entrepreneurs heard this chorus often enough to read market opportunity in the complaint. In just the past few years, a number of excellent new pizza parlors have opened around town and each has done it part to improve the overall pizza picture.
The most exciting is Slice Pizzeria (1513 St. Charles Ave., 525-7437), an upscale pizza specialist opened in 2003 by the same people who run Juan’s Flying Burrito. As the name suggests, pizza is available here by the slice, but don’t expect some casual walk-up joint. It’s strictly table service in the dark, sleek dining room, and you can custom build a single slice with the combinations of sauces and toppings just as you can an entire pie. The main appeal is the long list of interesting toppings, especially high-end ingredients like discs of fresh mozzarella, leaves of arugula and salty prosciutto.
Further Uptown, at Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza (4218 Magazine St., 894-8554), the underlying crust is the thing. It’s crunchy, like a cracker, and forms a slim lip around the circumference of the pie. Though they appear relatively small, these pies are surprisingly dense and pack a wallop. Opened just last year, Theo’s seems to have caught on as a popular date spot, if the number of eager-looking couples I noticed on my recent visits were any indication. Whether it’s a Dutch treat or not, reasonably priced pies and drink specials (including $10 bottles of wine and $1 beers) help make a visit affordable.
The third new pizza place to open recently is Sugar Park Tavern (800 France St., 940-6226). Located way, way down in the bottom of the Bywater, the place doubles as a neighborhood watering hole, but the pizzas cooked up in the back kitchen are good enough to cross town to sample. A Sugar Park pie is first distinctive for its size, which is huge, with two hands required to lift each floppy slice sagging under the cheese and lightly-sweet tomato sauce. The basic toppings work best here, although some of the specialty pies do deliver good and offbeat flavor combinations. For instance, the pineapple chunks, bacon slivers and hot peppers on the “Billyburg” pie do a great hot-sweet-salty dance on the palate. Sugar Park also makes pies with a southwestern-flavored adobo sauce, which is smoky and very spicy.
My personal favorite pizza is nothing new to New Orleans. It comes from Venezia’s Restaurant (134 N. Carrollton Ave., 488-7991), an utter throw-back to the shrines of garlic, red sauce and Chianti that became the standard for Italian-American eateries in the 1950s. Indeed, the dining room looks as though a Sicilian family reunion could break out at any moment. But the pizza is what really counts, and at Venezia’s it is a timeless classic. From the first bite, it’s clear this is a pie made with care and pride. The cheese mix they use here is pleasantly tangy, topped with a dusting of earthy Italian seasonings, while the mellow, smooth red sauce is applied with restraint. It also passes the ultimate pizza test, which is to remain delicious the next morning when eaten directly from the fridge.
Ambiance is entirely of your own making when eating a pie from Roman Pizza (7329 Cohn St., 866-1166), a take-out only operation very close to the Tulane/Loyola campuses and on the fringe of a cemetery. They specialize in well-composed combinations of toppings here, like spinach with feta, sliced tomatoes, mushrooms and mozzarella over a garlic butter sauce. The crust is substantial enough both to keep all this together and express itself through all the competing flavors riding atop it.
In a class quite all its own is Louisiana Pizza Kitchen (615 S. Carrollton Ave., 866-5900; and 95 French Market Pl., 522-9500), where wood-burning ovens turn out very thin, crisp crusts for sometimes exotic toppings. Though some of these pizzas have tomato sauce, most have instead a wash of olive oil. And rather than layering on the shredded mozzarella and pepperoni, toppings seem to stand on their own as discreet flavors on the crust. This leads to some unorthodox pizzas, like one with smoked salmon, capers and cream cheese or another with bits of grilled beef, guacamole and cilantro. More recognizable combinations of meats and vegetables are available but a Louisiana Pizza Kitchen pie is never ordinary.
CHEAP EATS
Full Bellies on Empty Wallets
New Orleans is known worldwide for its cuisine and the French Creole dining palaces where Uptown swells backslap and gorge on local delicacies. A lot of good that does someone on the normal student budget, when even the change scrapped together from the sofa begs the question of whether it’s better spent on laundry or happy hour (for the record, it’s usually the latter).
But a lesser known culinary heritage of New Orleans is that food here is expected to be very good at all price ranges. After all, the region’s most famous dishes—jambalaya, gumbo, red beans and rice—are not princely preparations but rather the fruit of thrift and ingenuity in the local kitchen. Here are some local eateries to visit when your belly has even less in it than your wallet:
Po-Boys for Poor Boys
The name for New Orleans’ favorite type of sandwich should be a dead giveaway for value. While po-boy prices have crept up past the $6 to $8 range in many cases, making them a bit of a stretch for true poor boys, there are still delicious exceptions however.
The classic example is the French fry po-boy, which is just what it sounds like: a po-boy with French fries standing in for the meat or seafood. This carnival of carbs can be further abetted by roast beef gravy, Swiss cheese, a slather of mayonnaise and hot sauce. These sandwiches grace the bottom end of the menus at plenty of joints around town, but one of the best is found at Parkway Bakery (538 Hagan Ave., 482-3047), a once-lost, now-revived classic po-boy shop by Bayou St. John. A large French fry po-boy here is $3.50, and the beer runs cheap at the bar, with cans starting at $1.
Cheaper still is a little-known deal close to campus, Le Croissant Café (8100 S. Carrollton Ave., 866-1846), which doesn’t serve croissants and isn’t a café. Rather, it’s a tiny sandwich counter tucked into the corner of the New Orleans Daiquiris location in the Riverbend that serves hot roast beef po-boys for $3 flat. The meat is simply deli roast beef soaked down with seasoned gravy, but at this price that becomes an academic point. Even splitting it with a friend (for $1.50 each) provides a substantial snack.
Cheap Chicken
There are no “fixin’s” at McHardy’s Chicken & Fixin’ (1458 N. Broad St., 949-0000), a take-out only operation near Esplanade Avenue. Don’t look for chicken sandwiches, biscuits, coleslaw or even little packets of salt and pepper. It’s fried chicken only, and the seasoning blend on these mixed batches of wings, drumsticks and thighs is perfect as is. Five pieces—or half a chicken—is $3.01. Double that for the 10-piece whole chicken. Larger orders are proportionally cheaper, and prices follow an easy multiplication table up for larger quantities. So the 20-piece box for $10.96 can grow by a factor of five to $54.80 for 100 pieces, which is approximately a dorm room full of chicken.
It’s not value alone that recommends McHardy’s. The chicken is outrageously delicious. “It tastes like your mama makes,” my friend Debra Williams once advised me, adding a moment later, “Well, not your mama, but our mamas.”
Rolls for Change
The idea of all-you-can-eat sushi is off-putting for some people, and reasonably so. But for unlimited Japanese and Asian cuisine on a very limited budget, it’s hard to beat the buffet at Kanpai (4116 Canal St., 483-0880) in Mid-City. Lunch is the real bargain at Kanpai, with a standard rate of $9.50. At dinner, the sushi selection greatly improves with more fish choices and more elaborate rolls, and the price rises to $14.50. A take-out only special here lets you load up a tray with 24 pieces of small sushi for $10.
Soul Living
For family-sized portions of New Orleans soul food, head to Dunbar’s Creole Cooking (4927 Freret St., 899-0734). To begin, Dunbar’s serves quart-sized cups of ice tea of the country variety, which is to say achingly sweet. Students have used a dose of Dunbar’s sweet tea as an energy drink long before there was Red Bull. And it’s good to have some such stimulation before tackling daily specials of red beans with fried chicken or cabbage with smothered chicken or mustard greens with turkey necks, all priced less than $5. A basic eggs-meat-and-grits breakfast plate can be had for $2. Fried seafood goes a bit up-market, topping out with a $16 platter that might as well just come with a take-out box for the inevitable leftovers.
Further downtown in a rough but promising part of Central City is Café Reconcile (1631 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., 568-1157), a weekday breakfast and lunch spot that also serves as a second chance training school for the people who work here. It is an outreach ministry of a local church and works in conjunction with area hotels to find internships and future employment for its people once they learn the ropes in the café. None of this will matter, however, when you taste the gumbo they serve, which is among the most satisfying in the city. Practically nothing on the menu is priced over $6, including po-boys and daily specials like Thursday’s white beans with shrimp or Friday’s excellent redfish. Whether for its food, its value or its mission, Café Reconcile draws a truly diverse crowd of regulars from all over the city.
LATE NIGHT
It’s Late, You’re Hungry, They’re Open
If you’re staying up late, chances are your appetite will be right there with you. Here’s where to bring it to keep it quiet until breakfast:
Angeli on Decatur (1141 Decatur St.,566-0077) The best dishes at Angeli are served on excellent, fresh-made breads. Big, crusty rolls at this eclectic all-night diner and watering hole make all of their sandwiches satisfying and memorable, even the humble grilled cheese. Pizzas benefit from a similarly solid foundation, and they load them up with interesting toppings, including whole cloves of roasted garlic. Breakfast food, salads and a pan-Mediterranean smattering of pita and olive oil-based fare round out the menu. There are plenty of vegetarian options and the place is located right in the middle of the lower
Decatur Street scene. You can get an Abita Amber beer on tap or a milkshake from the bar (please don’t mix), and watch one of the classic movies they often project on the wall. Open 24 hours Friday and Saturday, until 4 a.m. weekdays.
Camellia Grill (626 S. Carrollton Ave., 866-9573) Late is by far the best time to eat at this Riverbend landmark, since during the day every Uptown-bound streetcar delivers reinforcements for the snaking line of tourists that spills out its doors. At night, though, the scene is mellow, the grill men are gregarious and you have time to soak up all the retro ambiance of the place. Open since 1946, the griddle here truly belongs in the Smithsonian, but instead it is hard at work every night cooking up small hamburgers and gargantuan omelets. While watching the cook prepare one of these omelets, with all the ingredients spread out over the sizzling, popping grill, it seems unlikely you’ll ever be able to finish it all. The Mexican omelet, for instance, starts with a hefty mound of ground beef, cooked with however many eggs the cook blankets over them, and is topped off with salsa and jalapenos and served with a completely unnecessary side of fries. Chili cheese fries fall under the same spell of distorted portion control, and are commonly prescribed as a cure for the common hangover. Open until 1 a.m.
Clover Grill (900 Bourbon St., 598-1010) Take a classic diner from Norman Rockwell’s America, sweep it up in a tornado and deposit it at the lower end of Bourbon Street across from a thumping gay nightclub and you have the Clover Grill, a nighthawk icon with a side of camp. The hamburgers, in any case, are without fault. They start with big, hand-formed patties, grilled juicy and augmented with fresh toppings, the best of which are large strips of jalapeno peppers held to the meat by melted cheddar. As an added bonus, if you happen to come from a sheltered upbringing, a few meals at the countertop here will help augment your New Orleans cultural education. The crew behind the counter is, for the most part, soft-voiced but sharp tongued and the later the hour gets the sassier the crowd becomes. Open 24 hours.
Crepes à la Cart (1039 Broadway, 866-2362) Crepes are sidewalk food in Paris, and they are too on Broadway outside Crepes à la Cart. That’s out of necessity, since there is scarcely room enough for the lengthy menu inside this walk-up creperie, never mind anywhere to sit. The crepes are made fresh to order, beginning with a ladle-full of batter carefully transformed on a gas-fired crepe iron into a wrapper for anything from steak and crabmeat to cheesecake, marshmallow fluff and strawberry compote. These are very large crepes served in paper cones to be eaten on the move, or at least on the curb outside the Boot, a 24-hour bar located next door. Hours vary, but generally until 3 a.m.
Monaghan’s 13 (517 Frenchmen St., 942-1345) Part Marigny barroom, part restaurant and one of the best places for vegetarian options at any hour, Monaghan’s 13 speaks to many different desires. Located amid the nightclubs and bars of Frenchmen Street, the kitchen here stays open late serving sandwiches, breakfast and pizzas, while the bartenders pull Guinness pints and dispense shots of Jameson. There’s plenty of meat on the menu, but also a “burger” of black beans bound together with rice that perks up nicely under a wash of hot sauce, several tofu dishes and roasted vegetables that are perfect as either an appetizer or sandwich. Another fun option: tater tots are served as a side. Food served until 4 a.m.
St. Charles Tavern (1433 St. Charles Ave., 523-9823) It’s reassuring to look across the unsteady crowd that packs into this 24-hour diner and see uniformed police and emergency medical technicians, who always seem to be represented here in the wee hours. A popular place to eat after a night on the town, the dining room often simmers right on the verge of bedlam. Tables quiet down, though, one by one, as the harried waitresses bring out massive servings of breakfast food, po-boys and steaks. The burger menu trends toward the exotic, with unusual toppings like remoulade sauce and crawfish étouffée dressing up the large patties. Simpler bets tend to yield better returns here, and if all else fails a short stint of people watching here could inspire even a banker to write a screenplay. Open 24 hours.
COFFEE HOUSES
Orleans Caffeine
Booze isn’t the only way to drink your way through New Orleans. Coffee has played a major role in this port city’s life through the years, and in the form of the local chicory blend it is one of its most distinctive drinks.
Credit for that variation can go to the Union naval blockade during the Civil War, which sparked a sudden scarcity of many commodities in New Orleans, including coffee. So just as their French brethren did during the Continental blockades of the Napoleonic wars, resourceful New Orleanians stretched their precious stock of imported coffee by mixing it with ground, roasted chicory root, which they could grow locally. Though an invention of wartime necessity, the chicory blend was embraced for the mellow caramel undertones and smooth texture it added to coffee.
Today, one-third of all coffee imported to North America lands first in New Orleans. A dozen local coffee roasters prepare products for 20 national and local brands, while Folgers operates the world’s largest coffee roasting plant a few miles downriver from the French Quarter. The heady aroma of roasting coffee is a familiar scent in the mornings in many of New Orleans’ historic neighborhoods.
One city directory from the 1850s lists more than 500 coffeehouses in the rapidly growing port town. There is still a rich variety of coffeehouses in New Orleans today that offer local and charismatic alternatives to the reliable but bland national chains. Here are our favorites:
The name Fair Grinds Coffee House (3133 Ponce de Leon St., 948-3222) is a riff on the historic Fair Grounds Race Course nearby, but it also has something to say about the economic politics at this bustling hive of multi-generational activity in Mid-City. They serve Fair Trade Coffee, a designation certifying the beans were bought from farmers at equitable prices, and brew it so expertly that it is among the best cups of coffee in town. Fair Grinds is also fair to dogs and their owners, inviting patrons to bring their canines along to the outside patio and sidewalk seating areas where leash hooks, water bowls and a jar of biscuits are provided. Fair Grinds is known for hosting a dizzying variety of events, usually held in a second floor meeting room, which in any given week could include 12-step recovery programs, yoga classes, acoustic music performances, art shows, stand-up comedy and neighborhood meetings.
Music is on the menu at the Neutral Ground Coffeehouse (5110 Danneel St., 891-3381), a community-minded artists’ haven tucked into an Uptown side street. The successor to the co-op Penny Post coffeehouse, the place retains a homey vibe in all its weathered bargeboard walls, collections of well-thumbed paperbacks and public-access board games. The Neutral Ground hosts a wide array of performers and bands, with usually three or four acts booked for short sets every night but Sunday, when it’s open mic night.
Though it is a local chain of franchises, the five outlets of Rue de la Course each manages to retain the essential feel of a neighborhood coffeehouse. Each shares a classy ambiance of pressed tin architectural features, dark wood and big sunny windows, and each distinct location has its own devotees, some of whom will cross town and pass up many closer coffee shops for a visit. The quality of the coffee varies from location to location, reliant as it is on the preparation of each batch, but it all starts with good beans. To be among students, head to the Rue in the majestic old bank building at Oak and S. Carrollton streets or the reincarnated “big Rue” on Magazine and Ninth streets (it moved almost directly across the street from its former location last year). Meanwhile, the “little Rue” at Magazine and Race streets is more of a neighborhood scene and the two downtown Rues (one on Carondelet and Perdido, the other on Lafayette Square) cater to professionals.
Rosie Lea’s Bubble Tea Café (7638 Maple St., 861-4450) opened last year smack between the outlet of a local coffeehouse chain, PJ’s Coffee, and an outpost of global caffeinator Starbucks. That should be stiff competition, but this attractive, laid-back hang-out has something different to offer: the namesake bubble tea, an offbeat but increasingly popular iced drink with Asian roots. Imagine something like a smoothie with caffeine, combining strong fruit flavors with a tea base. Then add globules of tapioca pearls, the size of marbles and the consistency of Gummy Bears. Unusual, yes, but also undeniably rejuvenating on a hot day. Rosie Lea’s has all the more conventional coffeehouse offerings as well.
Bubble tea is also on tab at Z’otz Coffeehouse (8210 Oak St., 861-2224), but there is so much more. It might be easier to appreciate this place as an always-open art project in progress rather than a traditional coffeehouse, though it fills that role well enough. The large front room seems cocooned in a tactile patina that leads on to a collection of smaller rooms with décor that would not discourage Morticia Addams from sitting for a spell (a carnivorous plant here, an askew grandfather clock with wings there). Somehow, it all escapes being affected, possibly because the people who work here are genuinely friendly and engaging.
Though too busy and packed with tourists for studying, the famous Café du Monde (1039 Decatur St., 525-4544) in the French Market is still an indispensable part of the city’s coffeehouse culture. Open since 1862, Café du Monde has about as much in common with the modern type of coffeehouse as the French Quarter itself does with a suburban strip mall. A crowd as varied as limo-hopping debutantes, drag queens in full regalia and small-town church youth groups now regularly crowd the bustling, open-air coffee stand. The menu is simple: café au lait, beignets and precious little else. The landmark coffee stand closes only for Christmas or when the occasional hurricane looks particularly menacing.
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