Shutterstock Where to find the best crab claws, Bushwackers, and mullet (the fish) About three and a half hours east of New Orleans is a 32-mile stretch of impossibly white sand beaches on the Alabama coast. The area is home to popular beach towns, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, which are separated by the beautiful, protected Gulf State Park. Welcome to the land of crab claws, Bushwackers, and mullet — some might argue you haven’t lived until you’ve experienced the annual Flora-Bama mullet toss (only some, though). Still, there’s more to the area than party bars and fried seafood, and this guid ..read more

Emeril Lagasse is opening Emeril’s Brasserie in New Orleans. | Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA Emeril’s Brasserie will open in late 2023 in the new Caesars New Orleans casino After more than four decades as the face of Creole food for a national audience, Emeril Lagasse is trying something new. He’s set to open a French restaurant, his first new restaurant in New Orleans since 2016, in partnership with Caesars New Orleans later this year. Called Emeril’s Brasserie, it will be located in the landmark casino currently being transformed from Harrah’s New Orleans to Caesars New Orleans. The full-service r ..read more

Shutterstock Plus, Fowlmouth hosts final pop-up, new plans for Andrea’s, and another restaurant for Larry Morrow After nearly 40 years as a Metairie Chinese takeout favorite, Egg Roll House on Veteran’s Boulevard will close on June 26. The news first surfaced on a Metairie neighborhood Facebook page in April and has since been confirmed by owner Theresa Chien, who told the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate that the family-run shop can’t see sustaining the new rent when their current lease ends. Ricky and Theresa Chien, who have not yet decided if they will reopen in a different location, ope ..read more

Queer Eye stars Karamo Brown, Antoni Porowski, Bobby Berk, Tan France, and Jonathan Van Ness in New Orleans’s French Quarter. | Ilana Panich-Linsman/Netflix The Fab Five visited Good Friends Bar, N7, and of course, Stein’s Deli in the show’s latest season The seventh season of hit makeover show Queer Eye, filmed in New Orleans, debuted on Netflix on May 12, 2023. Most episodes of the show featured segments at restaurants and bars in the city, even beyond the episode featuring local sandwich hero Dan Stein of the beloved Stein’s Deli. Queer Eye is hosted by the Fab Five — style expert Tan ..read more

Shutterstock Plus, a second New Orleans Starbucks votes on unionizing, next steps for Rahm Haus founder, and an exciting winery takes shape in Covington New Orleans po’ boy institution Parkway Bakery & Tavern celebrated the opening of Jay’s Place on Instagram this week, complete with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and what else, a giant po’ boy-shaped cake. Named after owner Jay Nix, photos show an elegant, old-school bar made of dark wood and decorated with retro New Orleans beer paraphernalia and a small dining room, captioned with: “This hidden gem was created for Parkway’s customers — where ..read more

Salvatore “Sam” Caruso, founder of Laozi Ice Cream. | Randy Schmidt/Eater NOLA With Laozi Ice Cream, “I want to be a part of this community that I took away from for so long,” says Caruso Salvatore “Sam” Caruso started making ice cream at home in 2018 with a two-quart Cuisinart machine, but he could never get the texture right. Despite his best efforts, it was always too icy, not smooth enough for his taste. Then, as the world shut down in March 2020, Caruso found himself with ample free time after being let go from his job. He used a serendipitous tax return check to buy a higher-quality ice ..read more

Congregation Coffee has ceased roasting operations. | Congregation Coffee Plus, a top pop-up lands a permanent kitchen space, a farewell to Rahm Haus, and Bayou Boogaloo gets THC seltzer sponsor A nationally-acclaimed New Orleans coffee roaster loved by the city’s restaurants and its home-delivery customers has closed its roasting facility, reports the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate. Congregation Coffee Roasters has ceased operations at its Tchoupitoulas Street roastery with its Algiers Point cafe soon to follow, though both may reopen under new ownership. Founder Eliot Guthrie says he is ..read more

Sun Chong is now open at 240 Decatur Street. | Katherine Kimball/Sun Chong “Being able to do this for my grandmother, it hit different,” Morrow says of his third New Orleans restaurant Larry Morrow, the entrepreneur behind stylish New Orleans hotspots Morrow’s, Treehouse, and Monday, has brought his signature aesthetic and Creole-tinged Korean cuisine to the French Quarter with Sun Chong, now open at 240 Decatur Street. Sun Chong is named after Morrow’s grandmother, and she leads the kitchen along with his mother, Lenora Chong, and chef Christian Green. Morrow tells Eater Sun Chong is “Korean ..read more

Shutterstock 23-year-old server Hilbert Walker III was killed while working Friday night Mandina’s reopened Monday, May 1, three days after a fatal shooting at the restaurant killed a server and wounded a customer dining inside. Hilbert Walker III, age 23, was killed Friday, April 28 in what the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate describes as a “fusillade” of bullets outside of the Canal Street restaurant. Mandina’s, which was closed Saturday and Sunday, released a statement Monday saying in part: “The loss of our friend and fellow worker Hilbert Walker III has been devastating to our entire ..read more

Dan Stein of Stein’s Deli appears in Queer Eye season 7. | Iiana Panich-Linsman/Netflix Plus, chocolate Hubig’s Pies hit the market, Jazz Fest debuts a sober space, and a new restaurant opens near the Fair Grounds Netflix has dropped a trailer for the soon-to-air seventh season of Emmy Award-winning series Queer Eye, filmed entirely in New Orleans, and among the local faces chosen to receive the show’s purported life-changing makeovers is the beloved proprietor of Stein’s Deli, Dan Stein. Filmed in Summer 2022, Queer Eye star Bobby Berk called it the most intense season yet, mostly due to a hy ..read more