In November, MaMou, a French restaurant with a Creole flair, opened its doors at 942 N. Rampart Street. Owner and Chef Tom Branighan brings charm and touches to the menu that is meant to be a reflection of the French cuisine that influences so much local fare and a tribute to his great-grandmother, whoM he watched cooking when he was a child.
Branighan is a native New Orleanian who got his start at Emeril’s Restaurant in 2006. He studied at the Culinary Institute of America in New York and cooked at Café Bouley with Chef David Bouley. From there, he moved on to Café Boulud under executive chef Gavin Kaysen. Both restaurants are located in New York.
“It was a wild ride,” Branighan said of his time there. “I learned a great deal from technique to work ethic. I learned the determination to push yourself when no one else is there looking over your shoulder.”
After his time in New York, Branighan moved to Philadelphia, where he cooked at Jean-Marie Lacroix’s Lacroix Restaurant at The Rittenhouse, a fine dining restaurant featuring international cuisine.
“There were some really talented chefs there and got to learn a lot about meat cookery, fish butchery, and sauce making,” he said.
When he moved back to New Orleans, he worked at Coquette on Magazine Street and helped open the now-closed Petit Lion at The Troubadour. Branighan is especially proud of his role as Chef de Cuisine at Longway Tavern on Toulouse Street, which closed during the pandemic.
He said, “Although it was a short run, I’m really proud of what we were able to accomplish there. We were named one of Esquire’s best new restaurants in the country, during my tenure there.”
During the pandemic, Meauxbar, a French bistro at the corner of N. Rampart and St. Philip Streets, closed. Having always loved the space, Branighan jumped at the opportunity to open his restaurant there.
“I love the old corner store feel of it,” he said. “It has the right number of seats and is the perfect size for a restaurant; there’s something romantic about the space.”
The menu at MaMou was created to inspire memories and feelings with a touch of familiarity in every dish.
Branighan said, “At this point in my career, the menu is a summation of events, meals, and techniques that have meant something to me up until this point. The Chicken Bonne Femme, for example, is an homage to Tujaque’s Chicken Bonne Femme.”
Branighan explained that he prepares his Chicken Bonne Femme with chicken and parsley and big chunks of garlic and potatoes. The chicken is brined, tossed in soy sauce, dredged in flour, and then fried. The process allows the restaurant to have a fried chicken dish on the menu that can be quickly prepared.
While MaMou’s menu reflects French influences, Branighan wanted to take it a step further and explore Creole dishes with a classic flair.
He explained, “I think it’s fun to explore what New Orleans food would be had it not diverged from France during haute cuisine with things like heavy sauces. What would New Orleans cuisine be if it had been nouvelle cuisine in the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s in France?”
One dish that reflects this is the restaurant’s Gulf Fish “Court Bouillon,” served with oyster dressing and rouille (a thick, bread-enriched sauce that gets much of its flavor and color from saffron). Branighan explained that the dish is prepared with a classic court bouillon broth pureed with butter.
Other menu highlights include Poisson a la Florentine with caviar beurre blanc, Pork Loin Choucroute with Sauce Robert, and Cote de Boeuf (for two) with sauce au poivre and pommes puree.
At the helm of MaMou’s wine program is the restaurant’s co-owner and sommelier, Molly Wismeier, named among the nation’s top seven sommeliers of 2015 by Food & Wine Magazine.
A wine that Wismeier especially wanted to highlight is the Alain Robert, Vouvray “Les Charmes” Loire Valley, France 2019, a citrus with floral notes of acacia and a Meyer lemon finish that lingers and pairs perfectly with Chefs Escargot Tartlet or Blue Cheese Charlotte.
The most important thing to both Branighan and Wismeier is creating a restaurant with a welcoming atmosphere. For the pair, making customers feel at home is as important as the menu itself.
Branighan said, “We’ve consistently talked about providing the best possible versions of our professional selves to New Orleans, but not in a way that’s unapproachable. It’s important for us to make everyone feel welcome, especially those who aren’t always going out to have a good meal at a nice restaurant. We don’t want to run the type of restaurant where the customer feels like they can’t be themselves.”
Branighan also acknowledges the importance of MaMou’s staff in making the restaurant run smoothly. Moving forward, he hopes that MaMou can elevate fine dining into a more relatable experience and provide a hospitable work environment—an essential piece of that puzzle.
“I’m really pleased with what we’ve been able to create and that we’ve been able to create a space that our staff can thrive in,” he said. “Our staff has done such a wonderful job here.”
MaMou, 942 N. Rampart Street, 504-381-4557. Hours: Thursday through Sunday, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
