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Our weekly blog on the New Orleans fine dining scene
Haute Plates

October 2011

Courtyard Dining

10/27/11

Courtyard Dining

When I wrote about Fatoush restaurant in a recent edition of Haute Plates, I remember thinking, but not writing, that while there are a number of restaurants in New Orleans owned by folks of Turkish descent, we do not have much in the way of Turkish cuisine here. I couldn't think of another restaurant that serves Turkish food at the time, but then I was reminded of the Courtyard Grill, which opened about a year and a half ago in an unassuming space at 4430 Magazine St.

The restaurant's signage announces that...

Posted at 09:18 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0
Merchant

10/20/11

Merchant

Merchant opened recently in the Maritime condominiums at 800 Common St. It's a narrow space, minimally decorated. The focus of attention is a gleaming chrome espresso machine that sits behind the long bar that runs the length of the restaurant. Merchant is one of the only venues where Illy coffee is served in New Orleans. 

Merchant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, from 7 a.m. until midnight. Breakfast options include quiche and pastries baked by Manhattan Jacks. Crêpes are a specialty of the restaurant, and the sweet crêpes are particularly good for breakfast. You can choose between Nutella, cacao, sugar, lemon, cinnamon, butter, strawberry, banana, confectioner's sugar, and whipped...

Posted at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0
New Food Co-op and Fatoush Restaurant

10/13/11

New Food Co-op and Fatoush Restaurant

The New Orleans Food Co-op opened its doors this week at 2372 St. Claude Ave. in the Marigny. It's located in the New Orleans Healing Center, which also houses a yoga studio, green business incubator, healing arts collective, performance hall, interfaith center and a restaurant I'll discuss below. The market is still in the process of stocking things, but so far it looks good. It reminds me of nothing so much as the early days of the Whole Foods market location on Esplanade Avenue, or perhaps a more sophisticated version of the old Eve's Market Uptown.

There's a decent selection of produce, much of it local, and an impressive bulk food section where you can find nuts, grains, and legumes. The market is...

Posted at 09:36 AM | Permalink | Comments: 0
Pizza by the Slice

10/06/11

Pizza by the Slice

It's hard to know whether you're more likely to stumble across a new burger joint or a pizzeria these days. On Freret St., the Midway is doing Chicago-style pizza, and Ancora is turning out traditional Neapolitan pies. Magazine Pizza opened not too long ago at 1068 Magazine St, and in Mid-City, Jeff Baron and Bart Bell have opened Pizzicare.

Baron and Bell are the kids behind Crescent Pie & Sausage Company and the now-closed (and dearly missed, at least by me, Huevos). I've had some excellent pizzas at Crescent Pie & Sausage,...

Posted at 09:29 AM | Permalink | Comments: 1

About This Blog


Robert D. Peyton was born at Ochsner Hospital and, apart from four years in Tennessee for college and three years in Baton Rouge for law school, has lived here his entire life. He is a strong believer in the importance of food to our local culture and in the importance of our local food culture, generally. He is a partner at the law firm Christovich & Kearney LLP and began writing about food on his website, www.appetites.us, in 1997. That is approximately 72 Internet years, for anyone counting.

In 2006, New Orleans Magazine named Appetites the best food blog in New Orleans. The choice was made relatively easy due to the fact that Appetites was, at the time, the only food blog in New Orleans.

Robert has gills, but they are nonfunctional.

He began writing the Restaurant Insider column for New Orleans Magazine in 2007 and has been published in St. Charles Avenue magazine and on the website www.slashfood.com. He is the only person he knows who has been interviewed in GQ magazine, albeit for calling Alan Richman a penis. He is not proud of that, incidentally. (Yes, he is.)

Robert’s maternal grandmother is responsible for his love of good food, and he has never since had fried chicken or homemade biscuits as good as hers.

Robert once ate an entire goat, but it was very small, and he didn’t feel too good about it afterward. He did, however, feel better than the goat.

He developed his curiosity about restaurant cooking in part from the venerable PBS cooking show Great Chefs and has an extensive collection of cookbooks, many of which do not require coloring. 

Certain parts of the above are exaggerations, but one thing is true: Robert appreciates your comments and e-mails, so keep them coming.

If you find that you need a more constant source of Robert in your life, you can follow him on Twitter.

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