Willie Mae’s red beans and rice. | Randy Schmidt/Eater NOLA Here’s how to get in touch with Eater New Orleans Thank you, readers, for all that you do to keep Eater New Orleans in the know. It’s with your help that this publication can stay on top of the exciting coming attractions, major restaurant openings, and stunning closures that happen all over the city. Here’s your reminder to keep it coming: You can reach out to us any time via Eater’s tip line, or send a note to nola@eater.com. Have you noticed a new restaurant underway in your neighborhood? Spotted a “We’re Closed” sign somewhere whe ..read more

Beer-battered drum is on the menu at Junebug. | Randy Schmidt/Junebug Junebug, from the group behind Brewery Saint X and Devil Moon BBQ, will serve an ambitious menu past midnight There’s an exciting new bar and restaurant in the works in New Orleans’s Warehouse District, and it promises to fill a pandemic-related void just about everyone in town is aching for: good late-night food. Junebug, from the restaurant group behind nearby Devil Moon BBQ and Brewery Saint X, is set to take over a historic recording studio location at 748 Camp Street. The food will vary from those spots, where New Orlea ..read more

Sachin Darade, Aman Kota, and Sarthak Samantray of LUFU NOLA.  | Randy Schmidt/Eater NOLA The chefs behind Indian restaurant LUFU NOLA are delving into bubble tea downtown and Cajun seafood in the French Quarter Exactly one year after opening one of New Orleans’s best new Indian restaurants, the chefs behind LUFU NOLA are significantly expanding their local footprint. Sarthak Samantray, Aman Kota, and Sachin Darade have opened a branch of a Taiwanese bubble tea shop in the CBD, Ding Tea Downtown, and will soon open a New Orleans-centric seafood restaurant in the French Quarter, calle ..read more

Porgy’s Sicilian sashimi. | Kat Kimball/Porgy’s As July swelters into August, dive into cold, raw crudos, tartare, sashimi, and more As July swelters into August, it’s just too hot to cook. Heavy rib-sticking favorites are swapped out for lighter fare, frozen cocktails, and chilled soups. Cured cold raw seafood belongs on that list, refreshing bowls of spicy ceviche, crudo glistening with olive oil, and poke in flavors from bold to delicate. The focus here is on raw seafood transformed in the curing or brining process, not chilled cooked seafood, which of course is also delicious. As for sushi ..read more

A prosciutto and mozzarella sandwich from Lunch. | Merrill Stewart/Eater NOLA Lunch is making a home at the revamped food hall in advance of its 2025 restaurant opening A mother-son duo slinging Tuscan-style sandwiches on schiacciata in New Orleans have landed a new home in advance of their 2025 restaurant opening: the revamped, better-than-ever St. Roch Market. Lunch, the newish pop-up from Lisa and Jack Greenleaf, has been selling sandwiches featuring imported Italian meats and cheeses at various bars in the Marigny and Bywater neighborhoods since April, with plans to open a restaurant by th ..read more

Paul Sanchez with actor Clarke Peters, Alfred “Big Chief” Lambeaux on the HBO series “Treme,” at Tipitina’s. | Erika Goldring/Getty Images Where the fictional musicians jam in New Orleans, from Frenchmen Street to Uptown The New Orleans music scene is a huge part of the fabric of HBO’s Treme. Some of its main characters are musicians, including gig trombone player Antoine Batiste, wannabe rapper Davis McLary, violin sensation Annie Tee, and struggling busker Sonny. And nearly always, they are shown at venues that actually exist and thrive in New Orleans. Some of the venues featured in the show ..read more

Dooky Chase (and the late Leah Chase) was featured on an episode of Treme. | William A. Morgan/Shutterstock Food and drink destinations featured on the New Orleans-shot show include Bacchanal, Lil Dizzy’s, Dooky Chase, and more David Simon’s Treme was famously a love letter to the city’s music scene, but it also embraced the destination’s food culture. Local chefs such as Emeril Lagasse, John Besh, Susan Spicer, and even Miss Linda of yak-a-mein fame either made appearances or were name-checked during the show, and many restaurants served as locations for filming individual scenes. The show al ..read more

Oysters Saint John. | Randy Schmidt/Saint John Eric Cook’s acclaimed contemporary Creole restaurant, closed in May, will soon be reborn in the Central Business District After closing its doors in the French Quarter in May 2024 with promises to reopen elsewhere in New Orleans, chef Eric Cook’s acclaimed second restaurant, Saint John, has landed new permanent digs downtown. Saint John will reopen this fall at 715 St. Charles Avenue, the former home of restaurant Le Chat Noir, which closed last summer. The location has a similarly large footprint as Saint John’s Decatur Street address (though it ..read more

Inside Acamaya. | Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA The James Beard Award-nominated chef’s first solo restaurant following Lengua Madre is New Orleans’s biggest opening of the year On Sunday, July 7, Acamaya (3070 Dauphine Street) had only been open for two days, but one party was already making a second visit. “We’re back,” exclaimed the group as they walked in right at 5 p.m. That’s the kind of place Ana Castro’s new restaurant in New Orleans’s Bywater neighborhood is: somewhere you want to return again and again. Acamaya is the hotly anticipated solo debut from Castro, the James Beard Award-nominated ..read more

NightBloom. | Jillian Greenberg/NightBloom NightBloom is a “cool, calm, and collected” Bywater cocktail bar from the folks behind the city’s most celebrated wine bar Twenty-two years after the founding of beloved Bywater wine bar Bacchanal, its owners have partnered with a longtime member of their team to open a low-key, late-night cocktail bar just blocks away. NightBloom, set in a small corner building at 3100 St. Claude Avenue, opened in New Orleans in April. NightBloom is from Joaquin Rodas, Adrian Mendez, and Justin “Juice” LeClair, who worked with Rodas and Mendez at Bacchanal for a few ..read more