Ian McNulty: Meet the people behind uplifting New Orleans restaurant stories of 2023

Following the story of New Orleans food means many great meals and toggling between topics to try to keep up with a field that’s constantly in flux. It also means spending time with people who make their living in hospitality and pour so much of their energy, personality and convictions into the work.

The past year has been a difficult one in the hospitality industry. Yet there were also so many examples of the heart and soul, the ingenuity and generosity that people bring to this field.

They help demonstrate what I love about New Orleans: connectedness, character and a culture you can experience through something as immediate as a meal.

Let’s hear from a few of them below.

Dock to door with Mr. Shrimp

I’d heard a lot about Mr. Shrimp before I met him. He's a niche distributor of local seafood, serving a circle of restaurants and families who share an effusive regard for what he brings alongside the product.

The name Mr. Shrimp is now the personification of Larry Thompson himself. It's a business he built with few resources beyond personal drive, charisma and devotion to connecting New Orleans people to one of their passions, local seafood.

While many point to a disconnect between consumers in this seafood-loving city and the fishing families who actually catch and provide this bounty, Mr. Shrimp is creating a uniquely personal bridge from dock to table. His approach is minting a lot of fans along the way.

“When I saw this could be done right and the impact it was making on people, that gave me a purpose,” Thompson told me. “To see the smiles on people's faces — that's the thing, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I think they feel that connection, too.”

In November, Thompson opened a permanent outlet with a stand in the food court at the Riverwalk Outlets mall (500 Port Orleans Place). Mr. Shrimp’s Kitchen has a menu of boiled shrimp, fried seafood plates and po-boys, seafood pasta and other dishes from his repertoire, and it has a view of the river and an outdoor dining deck to take it in.

“It's a boil at the mall. I don’t know anyone else who is doing that at a mall,” Thompson told me.

I don’t know anyone else just like Mr. Shrimp.

Seizing the season with Jason Seither

During Lent, the region’s unofficial but undeniable seafood season, I worked up a series of stories on seafood traditions done a bit differently. This was an opportunity to spend more time with a restaurant operator I’ve long admired.

Jason Seither first came to attention for his Harahan restaurant Seither’s Seafood (279 Hickory Ave., Harahan, (504) 738-1116). It was initially a pretty conventional local seafood joint.

But in 2009, he set up a booth at the Oak Street Po-Boy Festival, where vendors stretch the limits of po-boy possibilities with far-out sandwiches. Seither found his muse.

“I’d always been creative, into drawing, music,” he said. “I never knew food could be my outlet of expression.”

His restaurant has since transformed into a fun, outdoor oasis of live music, traditional seafood and delicious original creations. Crawfish remains Seither’s jam, and during the season, he’s always on the move, boiling it outside Zuppardo’s Family Market in Metairie and running the epic boils at the Maple Leaf Bar. Underlying it all is a generous spirit and an unbounded culinary gusto.

“I first learned about crawfish as a kid at home, watching my dad and my uncle prepping the boil, then having everybody gather. I saw the way it brought everyone together,” Seither told me. “I do a lot of crawfish now, but seeing people come together here and just loving it, that’s the full circle. That’s what it’s all about.”

Love, spice and roux at Thai NOLA

In a New Orleans East strip mall, I was delighted to discover a new family restaurant story told with Thai basil and Creole roux.

Thai NOLA (5931 Bullard Ave., 504-300-7884) is a traditional Thai restaurant with a strong vein of Creole New Orleans running through it. It’s a reflection of the relationship between husband and wife, an extended family reaching back to Thailand, and New Orleans East neighbors now connecting with familiar comforts and learning about new flavors under this roof.

Gerald Butler grew up in Hollygrove on his mother’s Creole cooking. His wife, Benji, grew up in the restaurant kitchen her mother ran in Buri Ram, a city in the Thai interior near the Cambodian border.

Her mother, Sutitong, died during the COVID pandemic in 2020, and this lit the spark in Benji to open her own restaurant as a tribute.

“Since I was a baby, I was with her cooking, this cooking is in me,” she said.

Today, dishes like the pad ga pow stir fry and the bright, tangy tom yum soup run alongside specials drawn directly from her husband’s family tradition, like red beans (with jasmine rice) on Mondays and a Friday gumbo that always sells out.

St. Roch Market’s next chance

Kevin Pedeaux, of CR Coffee Shop, was serving coffee in St. Roch Market (2381 St. Claude Ave., (504) 267-0388) the day it opened as a food hall back in 2015. In the time since he’s seen the St. Claude Avenue landmark thrive in its modern incarnation, and he’s seen the ways it fell short.

St. Roch Market was poised to close over the summer until Pedeaux stepped up to take over the lease of the city-owned property and become its new operator.

To him, the stakes are stark: Either the food hall can live up to its potential, or the historic building will again languish and a gateway for new food businesses will close.

“There are too many things in New Orleans that need action, and here’s one thing that I can do, because I know the business, because I know the building. I can’t complain about what else should be better in New Orleans if I had a shot to keep the market going and didn’t take it,” he told me.

He’s up against formidable challenges, but he’s also focused on the best of St. Roch Market that he's seen as a vendor. It's the energy of a public market, where people drawn for different reasons find themselves on common ground.

“The whole point is the mix of people, the mix is what makes the magic happen,” Pedeaux said. “Having chefs in close proximity from all over the world is a recipe for really interesting things to happen.”

The past and future with Larry Morrow

Sun Chong (240 Decatur St., (504) 355-0022) opened in the French Quarter last spring with a hip-hop soundtrack, an Asian-inspired menu, eye-catching cocktails and a lush Korean design motif that feels immersive in its depth and style. It also came with a sense of gratitude and appreciation for legacy.

It’s the latest from restaurateur Larry Morrow, or Morrow’s, the lounge Treehouse in Central City and Monday Restaurant + Bar in Mid-City. He named Sun Chong for his grandmother, and shared their story.

Morrow is a 7th Ward native from a family that blends Korean and Black heritage.

His grandmother was living in Seoul when she met Morrow’s grandfather, an American serviceman stationed in Korea. Interracial relationships were not widely accepted in Korea back then, the family recalls today. After their daughter Lenora was born, Chong decided to leave for the United States to seek a better life and opportunity for her child.

“It’s about respect, honor, integrity,” said Morrow said of his regard for his family’s story. “My grandmother left everything behind to come to America and build something for her family.”

Morrow has more local projects on the boards, including Morrow’s Steak, taking shape at 1001 Julia St. in the Standard, an apartment tower that is part of the South Market development.

Friendships propel and preserve High Hat

High Hat Café (4500 Freret St., 504-754-1336) opened at the right time back in 2012, just as Freret Street was revving up as a hot restaurant row. It quickly acquired a timeless feel, connecting to deep-running Southern flavor and anytime hospitality.

A big part of that was Chip Apperson, the co-owner who ran High Hat day to day.

Apperson’s personality has been a big part of the restaurant, and that goes beyond the Delta influences that this Memphis native put on the menu. Perpetually clad in shorts, no matter the weather, with his reader glasses hovering low on his nose, Apperson was the calm, warmly welcoming presence at the door to greet people.

High Hat Cafe came about because Apperson’s longtime friend, the chef Adolfo Garcia, basically goaded him out of retirement to start something new together. But this year, Apperson really was ready to retire and he and Garcia sought buyers for the restaurant.

They found the right ones in Ryan Iriate and chef Fredo Nogueira, who in turn are longtime friends who together worked for Garcia at his long-gone Latin American restaurant RioMar.

Iriarte later worked at High Hat for its first 10 years; Nogueira is executive chef for Cure Co., overseeing the Freret Street neighbors Vals and Cure and also Cane & Table.

It was the kind of handoff High Hat’s regulars could only have hoped for; and behind it all are friendships running through the business.

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