Ian McNulty: On Oak Street, many changes add up for New Orleans bars, restaurants

I ate my fill and then some at the Oak Street Po-Boy Festival last month, but I still left the event with fresh plans to return to Oak Street.

That’s because this Main Street-like stretch off South Carrollton Avenue has seen a wave of changes across its stock of restaurants and bars. Let’s take them one by one.

Oak & Ale sold, combined

Say hello to Oak & Ale. You may already know them.

Oak Wine Bar and Ale on Oak took shape as neighboring bars connected by a patio and common ownership. That’s still the case, though now they have new owners drawing the wine bar and beer bar closer together. They also have big plans for more shared outdoor space here.

If that sounds just a little bit like the connection between Bayou Beer Garden and Bayou Wine Garden in Mid-City, you’re on the right track.

In November, Oak Wine Bar and Ale on Oak were bought by David Demarest, a partner in Bayou Beer Garden and Bayou Wine Garden, and Morgan Scalco and Jillian Arena, managers from those Mid-City spots who are now partners in this new business.

The wine bar and the beer bar are now united under one name, Oak & Ale.

This new Oak & Ale is a distinct business from Bayou Beer Garden and Bayou Wine Garden, but the partners are bringing lessons from their experience of those adjacent, intermingled bars to Oak Street.

The big, open room at 8118 Oak St. has a full bar with a clear emphasis on its wine collection, by the glass or bottle. The smaller, more snug room next door at 8124 Oak St. has a full bar with a clear emphasis on beer, from its 30 taps and extensive bottle and can collection.

Behind the scenes, the Oak Street bars’ systems are coordinated between the two adjoining properties, meaning your tab at one can carry over to the other. Both rooms draw from the same menu, still overseen by chef Mike Hinkhouse, with a mix of wings and dips, house-made sausage and burgers, and tacos on house-made tortillas.

One of the tasks ahead is to make the current patio more verdant with more plants, and later to expand it.

The new partners bought the bars from founders Katie Winters, Patrick Winters and Shawn Haddad.

“I love what (Demarest has) done with Bayou Beer Garden, and we wanted to put this in good hands,” Katie Winters said. “It’s bittersweet for us, but we’re so excited and happy to pass the baton on to them.”

Seafood Sally’s sails off

After temporarily closing this fall for a renovation and revamp, Oak Street’s modern seafood restaurant Seafood Sally’s closed permanently on Dec. 1.

It’s the second hit for chef Marcus Jacobs and partner Caitlin Carney, who announced plans to close their first restaurant Marjie’s Grill (320 S. Broad St.) on Dec. 20. They own the property for Marjie’s Grill at in Mid-City and plan to bring it back as a different concept in the new year.

Seafood Sally’s, though, where they lease, is shuttered for good.

Jacobs said the decision was spurred by the discovery of a plumbing issue in the building. The restaurant has not been doing enough business to absorb the cost of rectifying it, he said.

Mukbang becomes Magasin

Mukbang Seafood is now called Magasin Vietnamese Café (8312 Oak St., 504-345-2695), a name that will be familiar from its previous incarnation.

Mukbang was opened by Kim Nguyen and her family as a Viet-Cajun boiled seafood spin-off from her first restaurant Magasin, then located Uptown on Magazine Street. After Magasin closed, Nguyen started serving dishes from its menu at Mukbang.

But now she says Mukbang has run its course, and after the slow summer she decided to fully revive the Magasin brand here. The menu has added more street food dishes like quail with sticky rice and grilled spicy squid, alongside the filet mignon pho and banh mi.

The Viet-Cajun boiled seafood isn’t gone for good though. Nguyen says she’ll bring it back as a seasonal special when crawfish are rolling again.

Lakeview Harbor reset

The burgers and baked potatoes of Lakeview Harbor (8550 Pontchartrain Blvd.) have a new outpost on Oak Street as the longtime local restaurant opens a second location across town here.

This new Lakeview Harbor on Oak (8201 Oak St.) opened at the former Mucho Mas, a short-lived Mexican restaurant that closed in a swirl of drama over the summer when its staff walked out over unpaid wages, which owner Shawn Toups has been working to resolve.

Toups owns Lakeview Harbor, and he became owner of Mucho Mas through a partnership that later went south a few months before it finally closed.

Opening a second Lakeview Harbor here is meant to be a back-to-basics fresh start with new partners, he said.

This new Lakeview Harbor has a trimmed down menu of specialty burgers and sandwiches, steaks, appetizers and salads, with the signature typhoon punch at the full bar (omitting the seafood and other platters of the West End menu).

Hoagies are happening

As my colleague Chelsea Shannon reported, there’s now a new outpost for the sandwich shop PrimoHoagies in town, at 8228 Oak St.

Tulane graduate William Kulick, the franchise owner, decided to bring his favorite sandwich back home to New Orleans after visiting friends and family in Philadelphia.

Brewpub gets brewing

The new brewpub Calliope Beer Works (8801 Oak St., 504-510-2982) is now serving its own beer.

Calliope opened over the summer in the longtime home of Cowbell, a popular burger spot that closed during the pandemic. The brewing system took longer to get going, but now the first four in-house beers are flowing, including a West Coast IPA, a rye pale ale, an English bitter and a Belgian blond, each made in small, seven-keg batches.

The food menu has dishes that are at home in a tavern or neighborhood restaurant setting but bring little touches to elevate them. Try the “fried fungi fingers” with a drape of chipotle queso and shrimp lettuce boats that are like salad crossed with tacos.

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