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Saturday, August 20, was just another typical hot and humid day in New Orleans. Temperatures hovered around 100 degrees with 90% humidity. As the sun set, all across town people were getting ready for dinner. Whether they were going to celebrate a special occasion in one of the city's finer restaurants or just meeting a friend for a po-boy, there was an electric buzz in the air in anticipation of another busy Saturday night. Waiters across town were polishing silverware and glasses, cooks were prepping their stations and chefs were going over the specials.
People were off work and ready to spend time with friends and family. And in New Orleans, there is always time to have a meal with friends and family.
Food is the lifeblood of the city and plays a major role in life down there. Almost every social event centers around it. New Orleans is the type of place where at one meal, people are already planning the next, and talking about what they ate at the last.
On that Saturday night, August 20, the tropical storm brewing in the gulf was the furthest thing from people’s minds.
As they people settled into their reserved seats, or waited outside of their favorite neighborhood eatery, as they read the menu and ordered their food, they were not thinking of all the people that it took to get that food on a plate in front of them.
As you know, it takes more than just the cooks and wait staff to keep a restaurant up and running. There are many other people in the industry that the dining public never even thinks about when they go out to eat. They rarely think of where the food came from or how it arrived at the restaurant. They don’t think of what happens when a stove breaks or a refrigerator need to be repaired. They don’t think of how the windows get washed or the carpets cleaned. They don’t consider that all of the people working in the restaurants have homes to live in or bills to pay.
When people go out to eat, they go to enjoy the food and the atmosphere. They go to relax with friends and family or celebrate a special occasion or just to go get a bite to eat because they are too busy to prepare a meal at home.
Before Katrina, the city of New Orleans had a population of almost half a million people. Over a million people each year visited from other parts of the world. The cuisine is a crucial part of the culture of New Orleans and the number one reason why people visit.
In fact, tourism is New Orleans’ number one industry. Restaurants make up a large part of that industry. According to the Louisiana Restaurant Association, there were 3,414 restaurants in the greater New Orleans area in 2004. They generated 2.1 billion dollars annually for the city.
The restaurant industry is Louisiana’s number one private employer, directly employing 54,000 people. Another 23,000 people are indirectly employed by this industry, including farmers, fishermen, repairmen, purveyors, window washers, carpet cleaners and many more.
On August 23, 2005, Hurricane Katrina passed over the Florida peninsula and entered the Gulf of Mexico as a Category One hurricane. A Category One storm is not that big of a deal -- no reason to evacuate, most people just batten down the hatches, hunker down and ride it out. By August 26 it had developed into a Category Three hurricane. All tracking services had it headed straight for New Orleans. By August 27 many people had chosen to evacuate the city. They boarded up their houses, closed their businesses, and prepared to leave town. On August 28, Mayor Ray Nagin called for a mandatory evacuation for all people in the New Orleans area -- a first in New Orleans history.
Many people who had evacuated for previous storms figured they would be gone for three or four days. They anticipated minor damage to the city, possibly some flooding, but that they would be back to their routines by the end of the week.
On August 29, Hurricane Katrina made landfall near Buras, Louisiana. The storm surge breached the levees that protected New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. 80% of New Orleans flooded. It became evident that people were going to stay away for more than three or four days.
The skilled people that make the restaurants in New Orleans a success -- the chefs, sous chefs, pastry chefs, line cooks, prep cooks, dishwashers, busboys and waiters -- were scattered across the country.
This storm affected everyone -- from fishermen to farmers, from fast food places to caterers, from mom and pop places to legendary New Orleans dining establishments like Antoine’s, Galatoire’s, and Commander’s Palace.
No one was spared.
Seafood is found on almost every menu in New Orleans. It was one of Louisiana’s hardest hit industries.
40% of all seafood eaten in this country comes from the Louisiana coast. In the warmer months, most of the seafood found in restaurants on the East Coast comes from the Mid-Atlantic. In the winter, the colder temperatures shut most of that fishing down, and the seafood on East Coast menus comes largely from the Gulf of Mexico.
42% of all the oysters in the U.S. are from Louisiana waters. Oysters and crawfish took the biggest hit; almost all of the oyster beds were destroyed by the storm.
10% of the country’s shrimp comes from the Gulf of Mexico. In September, the shrimping industry was running at 25% of its pre-Katrina levels. By October, it was up to 50%, with a 50% projected loss for the year.
Louisiana waters are home to crabs, oysters, redfish, snapper, catfish, flounder, trout, Spanish mackerel, and crawfish, just to name a few.
Much of the freshwater fish is raised in aquaculture farms. Many of these farms were washed out by rising floodwaters or were contaminated by saltwater intrusion from the sea surge.
Louisiana is the largest producer of crawfish in North America. Almost 80 million pounds of crawfish worth almost 50 billion dollars came from Louisiana in 2004.
There are two ways that crawfish is produced in Louisiana: by licensed crawfish fishermen who go out and fish wild crawfish, and by crawfish farmers. There were 1,226 licensed farmers before Katrina.
In 2004, the fishermen brought in 8.3 million pounds of wild crawfish, worth 5 billion dollars. That same year the farmers harvested 69.5 million pounds, worth 41.7 billion dollars.
Like I said, that’s almost 80 million pounds of crawfish, worth almost 50 billion dollars.
The crawfish that are farmed are “seeded” in rice farms. Since rice is an inexpensive product, it is the crawfish that determines whether or not a rice farmer will end the year in debt. Without crawfish, many rice farmers may go under.
Unlike rice, however, crawfish is not considered an agricultural commodity so crawfish farmers are not eligible for crop insurance. Bob Odom, the State Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry, has seen no financial relief to date for crawfish farmers or producers.
Louisiana has 15 to 20 crawfish processing plants. Five thousand jobs could be eliminated if they do not re-open.
Boats, dock houses, ice houses, processing plants, trucks, equipment and machinery were affected by the storm. Because of the breakdown of the Gulf Coast transportation system, one freshwater farmer could stand to lose $2500 per week in sales.
Before Katrina, Louisiana crawfish were selling for about $3.00 per pound. Crawfish season begins again in a few weeks in March and it is predicted that Louisiana crawfish could sell for as high as $30 per pound.
Chinese crawfish were already threatening the crawfish industry in Louisiana, offering cooked tail meat at a much lower price. However, you cannot get live crawfish from China, only the cooked tail meat. Fresh boiled crawfish is a delicacy in Louisiana. During crawfish season, many seafood restaurants offer boiled crawfish on their menu either to eat in or take out. Boiled crawfish in Louisiana is as popular as BBQ is here.
As far as the cooked tail meat goes, most people cannot tell the difference between the Chinese and Louisiana product. Restaurants could choose to remove crawfish from their menus altogether, or they could choose to use only Chinese crawfish.
If Chinese crawfish take over the market then those jobs and farms will be lost forever. If those farmers go out and get non-farming jobs, a whole generation of farmers will be gone.
In addition to seafood, Louisiana also grows sugar cane, green beans, bell peppers, squash, tomatoes, rice, cabbage, collard greens, turnips, pecans, strawberries, dairy and citrus.
Katrina spared no one.
For example, Jim Bremer, a citrus farmer in Plaquemines Parish just outside of New Orleans, had ten acres of trees. In a good year he got about 8-10 boxes of fruit from each tree. He lost 40% of his fruit and was forced to pick the rest of it early.
Smith Creamery only opened a few years ago and was finally finding its niche in the local market, selling fresh cheese and cream to area restaurants, local farmers markets, and specialty stores. They lost a pipeline that ran from the dairy to the creamery. It will cost $40,000 to replace. Their buildings were totally destroyed, and because they were without power for three weeks, they lost their entire product inventory. They also lost three of their cows and most of their accounts.
A.J.’s Produce Company, a large produce purveyor, lost its warehouse and its entire stock of product that was stored there when the building exploded due to Freon tanks stored next door.
Leidenheimer Bakery, famous for its French bread used to make the city’s trademark po-boy sandwiches, suffered severe water damage.
American Seafood Company’s warehouse was flooded and its content turned into toxic mush. It won’t be able to re-open on its previous site.
Per-Fect Air, a refrigeration repair company, lost all of its trucks and equipment in the flood.
These are just a few of the suppliers, contractors, and purveyors that catered to many of the local restaurants. With these businesses so heavily damaged, no one knew what the future of the restaurant industry in New Orleans held.
Following Katrina, the water was not safe to drink, and due to elevated levels of fecal bacteria found in some parts of Lake Pontchartrain, seafood was not safe to eat. The city lacked utilities such as power, gas, and water service. Both cellular and land based phones were damaged.
In September, the Food and Drug Administration advised that the lake should be closed for fishing until further tests were conducted. The Environmental Protection Agency warned people not to come in contact with contaminated water. The Louisiana Department of Health warned people that if they were going to eat seafood, it had to be kept refrigerated until eaten and then cooked all the way through.
On September 21, three weeks after the storm hit, Slim Goody’s Diner was one of the first restaurants to re-open. With no power, they were only open for lunch and served by candlelight. The water was not safe to drink or cook with. They boiled water to cook with and used plastic utensils and paper plates. They put bleach in the dishwater to wash pots and pans. Hand sanitizer sat on the tables next to salt and peppershakers. The few customers they had consisted of rescue workers and emergency personnel.
It wasn’t until October 6th -- 40 days after Katrina hit -- that water was declared potable again. At the same time, the Louisiana Department of Health declared seafood from the Lake and the Gulf “safe and wholesome”.
Because of these two announcements, there was a surge of restaurant re-openings in October. Still, the majority remained closed. This was seven weeks after the storm hit!
It is much easier to operate a restaurant with no power than it is with no water. Ralph Brennan, owner of Bacco, Red Fish Grill and Ralph’s on the Park, decided that it was time to kick-start the restaurant community.
He collaborated with the Louisiana Department of Health and helped draft modified health regulations in to order to allow restaurants to reopen while protecting the health of both customers and employees. These modifications included using plastic utensils, paper plates, and boiling water to cook with.
Ralph Brennan estimated that it would cost a quarter of a million dollars to get his three restaurants up and running again. He managed to reopen both Bacco and Red Fish Grill by October 1st, and with no gas he said that he had to use a great deal of creativity in order to serve his customers.
Meatloaf and hamburgers graced many of the finer restaurant menus, and restaurants reopened with missing carpet or un-painted Sheetrock. But once they opened, the diners came, and were glad to be able to go out again.
Donald Link, chef and owner of Herbsaint, was also determined to open as soon as possible. After he dragged nearly 50 bags or rotten reeking food from the cooler to the curb, and had hired a professional cleaning crew to sanitize every surface in the restaurant, he managed to open the doors in early October.
Of cleaning out the walk-in, he says, “It was the most vile and disgusting thing I've ever done.”
Herbsaint, whose pre-Katrina menu was rustic French country, opened back up with iceberg lettuce salads, meatloaf, and chicken. There was no fish to be had and produce was at a premium.
His waiters were allowed to wear jeans and t-shirts, where before they had to wear black pants, white button down shirts and ties. Most people had lost all of their clothing in the storm. Obviously, the dress code for the guests was relaxed as well.
Shannon Skarda, the sommelier at Bayona, took a job waiting tables there while she waited for Bayona to reopen. She says that she was one of the more experienced waiters, and it had been a long time since she had done it. “We had lawyers working there also,” she says, “Service was an issue, but people were just glad we were open.”
That seemed to be the sentiment all across town. The restaurants that were open in October were packed with customers and waiters were making a lot of money. Many people still lacked water and gas and kitchens in their own homes, and wanted things to return to normal. They were forgiving of the poor service offered by inexperienced waiters.
Staffing was quickly becoming the major issue facing restaurants that were open or about to open.
97% of the restaurants in New Orleans are small business with fewer than 100 employees.
Although many of these restaurants held jobs for their staff, they were unwilling or unable to financially compensate people for lost time.
Some of the bigger houses, old-line restaurants and big-hearted proprietors continued to pay their staff through September.
Emeril’s Restaurant paid its waiters $650, the equivalent of about three nights’ worth of wages. Bayona did not pay its staff at all. Herbsaint was one of the few smaller houses that paid its staff through September. Chef Tom Wolfe of Peristyle covered payroll personally out of pocket for those employees who were committed to return to work for him.
Most people who returned were just grateful that they had jobs to return to.
I cannot talk about the restaurants in New Orleans without talking about Antoine’s and Galatoire’s. These two restaurants are at the top of the dining pyramid in New Orleans. They helped New Orleans rise to international prominence in dining at a time when haute cuisine and polished service was unknown in many American cities.
French immigrant Antoine Alciatone opened Antoine’s in 1840 and Jean Galatoire, another Frenchman, opened Galatoire’s in 1905.
Antoine’s is the county’s oldest single family owned and operated restaurant and one of the largest restaurants in New Orleans -- with 15 distinctive dining rooms, it can seat up to 700 people. On a typical Friday lunch, Galatoire’s serves 300. Both cater largely to locals.
The food and service at these two restaurants has remained virtually unchanged since the doors were first opened. Antoine’s only recently started using computers, and it was only a few years ago that Galatoire’s stopped hand chipping ice for their drinks.
These restaurants survived through fires, hurricanes, two World Wars, a multitude of recessions, Prohibition, and the Great Depression. They almost didn’t survive Katrina.
Antoine’s is a place where families pass down reserved tables in their wills and where timeless French cuisine is still served by full tuxedoed waiters.
It takes more than a year to train as an apprentice waiter there. Orders are never written down and the menu as well as the guests’ likes and dislikes must be memorized. 70% of the clientele is local.
At these two restaurants the employees have been there for decades. They are the restaurant’s biggest asset and cannot simply be replaced by running a want ad in the local paper.
In the chaotic days that immediately followed Katrina, no one was getting accurate information and no one knew exactly what had happened to the restaurants in New Orleans.
Susan Spicer, chef and owner of Bayona, believed that her restaurant was a complete loss and that all of the equipment and buildings were ruined.
Tom Wolfe, chef and owner of Peristyle in the French Quarter and Wolfe’s of New Orleans in Lakeview, believed that both of his restaurants were flooded, destroyed and looted.
Unfortunately, his fears about Wolfe’s of New Orleans were true. Wolfe’s was located only about six blocks from the levee breach at the 17th St. Canal. The building was completely underwater and it was a total loss. Nothing could be salvaged.
The French Quarter was an area of town that suffered very little flooding. Most of the damage caused to French Quarter restaurants was due to power surges, high winds and defrosting coolers.
Neither Bayona nor Peristyle had major damage to the buildings themselves. Bayona suffered minor roof damage and Peristyle had a small amount of flooding. The major losses at these restaurants were food, including dry storage, and wine.
In fact, there were major wine losses all across the city. Most of the great restaurants also had remarkable wine cellars. In the days immediately following Katrina, temperatures hovered around 100 degrees, and once the power went out, the wine was at the mercy of the elements. Although the restaurants were able to survive and eventually reopen, many of the wine collections in the city turned from vintage to vinegar.
Brennan’s Restaurant, listed by Wine Spectator as having one of the top 85 cellars in the world, lost 36,000 bottles. The cellar covered two floors of an old carriage house and was insured for one million dollars. One of its prizes, now lost, was a 1997 Opus One worth $1,000.
Commander’s Palace’s wine cellar was submerged and unsalvageable. They had 18,000 bottles. Among them was a 1928 Chateau Cos d’Estournel worth $4,000.
Antoine’s lost 22,000 bottles.
Bayona, a much smaller house, whose wine “cellar” was in a temperature controlled room in the attic, lost all 8,000. The collection was worth almost a quarter of a million dollars. The wine was literally cooked during the weeks that followed the storm. Shannon Skarda, the sommelier at Bayona, says it’s been both challenging and exciting to start a collection from nothing.
Brennan’s, which opened in 1946, not only lost its stellar wine cellar; its coolers were located on the second floor and the freezers on the third. When the power went out, the food defrosted first, then rotted. Water and rotten food oozed down the wall, ruining the Sheetrock. While cleaning up, they realized there was 210-year-old cypress behind the Sheetrock and they will have to be very careful with restoration.
Galatoire’s kitchen was severely damaged and the walk-in ruined -- again, full of rotten food.
Back at Antoine’s, Katrina ripped a hole in a fourth floor exterior wall and the top of the outside wall facing the street collapsed. A ceiling beam in the main dining room sagged and the walls were bowed out.
Power surges fried the electrical system. The coolers, which had originally been custom built to fit inside the 200-year-old building, were so polluted with rotten food that they had to be replaced.
The silverware all tarnished, the place was covered in dust and the menus were printed when there were cooks to cook what was listed on them.
It cost thousands of dollars to fix the broken walls, and tens of thousands to meet Septembers payroll, which Antoine’s felt obligated to pay its 130 employees.
Outside of the French Quarter, in restaurants such as Emeril’s and Commander’s Palace, there were rumors of looting. These, thankfully, turned out to be mostly false.
Commander’s Palace, opened in 1880, lost part of their roof and half of the facade of the building. They had extensive interior damage, and it had to be almost entirely gutted. They are not planning to reopen until at least the spring of this year. They paid their staff for one month.
Galatoire’s paid its long-time staff the entire time they were closed. They reopened on January 1st.
Although the majority of clientele of these finer restaurants come from the upper crust of New Orleans society, it is the employees who keep them running.
Over ten thousand homes were completely destroyed by Katrina. Whether people owned or rented, the homes were no longer habitable. Whole neighborhoods were literally wiped out.
When people finally were able to return to New Orleans, there was a shortage of housing. This caused rents to skyrocket. People who were used to paying $600.00 per month for an apartment found rents had doubled or tripled. There was no guarantee of an increase in their salary, only a rise in the cost of being able live in a city with an unstable future. Because of this, as restaurants reopened, they found themselves very short staffed.
Although Antoine’s guaranteed its staff jobs, not all of them returned.
Clifton Lachney, age 71, the Maitre D’ at Antoine’s and with the company for 43 years, was found dead in his home three weeks after Katrina hit. He drowned in the rising floodwaters.
Most stories are not so grim.
Antoine’s executive chef, age 54 and with the company for 33 years, said that he did not want to relocate, but he has a car payment, repair bills, and still owes a mortgage on a house damaged by the storm.
Michael Guste, Antoine’s General Manager, was afraid that if he didn’t reopen, the staff would find new jobs and the customers would dine elsewhere. He struggled with opening too soon and risking compromised service and food.
Antoine’s opened New Year’s Eve with 200 on the books and 2/3 of their original staff.
By November 1, 2005, 27% of restaurants in New Orleans were certified by the Department of Health to reopen.
Bayona reopened Thanksgiving Day.
Chef Susan Spicer, who spent her pre-Katrina days collaborating with her Chef de Cuisine, writing special menus, doing charity work and working on a cookbook, found herself back behind the line.
Her Chef de Cuisine, sous chef, and prep guys that had been with her for over ten years decided not to return.
She promoted her best line cook, age 25, to sous chef and worries that she puts too much on his shoulders.
She works on the line and says, “I’m cooking. It’s what I do. It’s not torture, but I’m not just a line cook. I can’t worry about just one station. I gotta make a menu, get ordering done.”
She craves being able to be more creative again -- to add one more element or texture to a plate, to be able to diversify the vegetables a bit.
Although Chef Spicer has managed to put many of her signature dishes back on the menu, things are not the same. The flavors are the same, but the employees are different, the hours are different, the city is different.
Since Bayona did not reopen until November, they had more time to find qualified people, but the employee pool was small and they did the best they could. People who were not up to Bayona’s previous service standard managed to get hired.
Bayona reopened with fifty percent of its previous staff. Some only returned part time and sought opportunity elsewhere.
Chef Wolfe opened Peristyle with less than half of his previous staff. Pre-Katrina, he had 28 total employees with 14 in the front and 14 in back of house. He opened back up with ten in the back of house and only five front of house, and pooled people from both of his restaurants who were willing to return.
Some people who returned to the city saw opportunity where before there was none.
Jeff Garriss, a former waiter at Emeril’s, returned to New Orleans the first week of December. Although his former job was available, he decided not to take it back. He always wanted to go into wine sales, and found an opportunity to do so.
Chris Evangelista, a former waiter at Bayona, returned to New Orleans on December 23. Although he returned to a good job in one of the city’s top restaurants, he only took it part time. He always wanted to work in one of the legendary New Orleans restaurants -- the ones that had waiters who worked there for decades; the ones that you had literally to wait for a waiter to die or retire before you could get a job there. And even then, you still had to know someone to get you in.
He was able to get hired part time at Galatoire’s and is hoping that it will turn into full time soon. At Bayona, he says that he is working more hours for less money these days. There were fewer conventions this winter, fewer people going out to eat -- fewer tips for him.
A former waitress at Peristyle and her boyfriend managed to open their own place after Katrina -- something they had only dreamed about doing before. Post-Katrina, people were selling cheap, and if they hang in there, hopefully it will work.It wasn’t just restaurants that were impacted by the storm. Caterers faced the same challenges that restaurants faced -- lack of staff, lack of facilities, and lack of revenue.
Some chefs, like John Besh of Restaurant August and Besh’s Steakhouse, turned to catering as a means of income while his restaurants were closed. Some of the financial loss that he suffered with closed restaurants, he was able to make up with catering sales. He cooked pots of gumbo and red beans and rice to feed the firefighters, police officers, and civil servants. It has opened up other possibilities for him post-Katrina, such as catering to oil field workers.
It wasn’t until October, when water was once again potable, that caterers were able to generate some business. They catered mainly to work sites serving lunch to the crews. It wasn’t ideal, but at least it was work.
By November, as life was starting to slowly get back to normal, they started to get orders for office parties. By the time the holidays rolled around in the end of December, social calendars were starting to fill up.
In February, with the onset of Carnival Season, people were ready to celebrate and welcome back friends and family. The catering business was finally starting to return to normal, and they predict by next summer, they will be back to their pre-Katrina levels.
Fast food restaurants suffered as well. 4,000 employees of fast food restaurants lost their jobs.
In the Gulf Coast region, Popeye’s Chicken and Biscuits, a fried chicken chain that started in New Orleans, closed 153 stores. Burger King closed 57, McDonald’s 200 and Sonic 60.
When they were able to reopen, they also felt the staffing shortage that faced the whole industry. Even though you don’t have to have a resume to work at one of these places, or have a passion for food, or even have to like French fries and fried chicken, there were simply not enough people back in the city to fill the positions.
In October, Burger King started offering a $6,000 signing bonus paid in monthly installments, available to anyone who would sign a contract to work full time for one year in New Orleans. $3,000 was offered to part time employees also willing to sign a contract for a year.
Popeye’s increased their hourly wage from $5.15 to $8.00.
Staffing remains the number one issue that restaurants face today. Many restaurants are operating with 30% of their former staff. This has forced some places to curtail their hours.
Acme Oyster House, which had an employee referral program pre-Katrina, has increased the payout from $250 to $500. Customers are now welcome to participate.
The Brennan Company, which owns ten restaurants in the city, including Commander’s Palace and Brennan’s, has increased their dishwasher pay from $6.00 per hour to $10.00 per hour and a cook’s wage went up from eight to ten dollars an hour pre-Katrina to $12.00 to $14.00 per hour.
Approximately 550 restaurants have reopened to date and the Louisiana Restaurant Association predicts that number will reach eight or nine hundred by the summer.
Business has slowly been trickling back to its pre-Katrina levels, says Tom Wortherly, spokesman for the Louisiana Restaurant Association.
By January restaurant menus were back to their former glory. Seafood was once again plentiful and superb. Even the oysters, which had been predicted to take two years to return to normal, were available and excellent.
The problem with the seafood today is the lack of fishermen that have returned. Before Katrina, there were 1,300 licensed fishermen. Hardly any have returned. The majority of their boats were totally destroyed and many of them have turned to construction work for income.
If the devastated infrastructure in the Gulf is not up and running by May, when shrimp season opens, then the system will get backed up. This includes getting the docks and boats repaired, getting boats back in the water, getting ice houses and processing plants up to speed, getting trucks to deliver and most importantly, getting staff for all of the positions that need to be filled. If they are unable to do this, then they will not be able to handle all of the processing and shipping that will be demanded of them.
Service remains an issue in New Orleans. As things return to normal, customers are growing impatient with poor service. There are some restaurants, like Galatoire’s and Antoine’s, who would not compromise their service and were more selective in their rehiring process. The lack of adequate housing has kept much of the work force away, and it is hard to achieve excellence without excellent people.
Only about 100,000 of the half million people that once lived in New Orleans have returned.
Restaurants are still struggling with unresolved insurance issues.
Purveyors, farmers and fishermen face a bleak and uncertain future.
Many restaurants are only receiving deliveries on Tuesdays. Purveyors do not have the trucks or the people to be able to deliver more often. It is not uncommon for a place to be out of several items on the menu. Chef Tom Wolfe says that is takes careful planning and organization to execute his menu without running out of things on Saturday night.
Many restaurants have not survived the economic impact or physical damage of the storm and may never reopen. Mandina’s, Brennan’s and Commander’s Palace will not be open until at least the spring of this year. They are all currently under construction.
When Carnival season started in late February, people were ready to go out and celebrate. Many restaurants are seeing about 60% return to normal business.
Galatoire’s is once again packed and both food and service are back to what they once were. However, their pastry chef did not return and they are only able to offer ice cream for dessert.
The restaurant industry in New Orleans, already a tight knit community, has banded together like never before to help each other out. They have helped those that are not yet up and running with cleaning out their establishments, making sure the crews get fed, and raising money. Restaurants around the country have also raised money for the New Orleans restaurant community.
The restaurant industry has really led the way in the recovery effort of the city.
Many chefs feel an obligation to return and provide the food that so many people love and will travel from all over the world to eat.
Chef Susan Spicer feels obligated to return to her normal business hours and to serve more meals, but she worries about being understaffed, about payroll, about the books. She worries about giving her newly promoted sous chef too much responsibility.
Chef Spicer is coordinating the upcoming James Beard Awards which will focus on New Orleans, and is worried that it will be too hard on the city’s already overworked and over-stressed chefs.
But most of all, she worries about the city and what the future holds for it and the restaurants in it. Like everyone else, she has hope for the future and predicts a one hundred percent return to normal business by the fall.
Restaurants are a kind of oasis for people -- they can escape from the destruction around them and the hardship many face with rebuilding their own homes. They can relax and enjoy time spent with family and friends.
Luckily, all of the old-line restaurants were able to survive and hopefully, New Orleans will once again see the tourism dollars that it did before Katrina.
Hurricane season begins again on June 1, less than 90 days from now, and this obviously weighs on people’s minds.
As Chef Spicer said, “More than ever before, we are not just feeding people, we are feeding their souls.”