(Photo: Brenden Riley | CC Flickr) K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen, a famed upscale French Quarter restaurant, has closed permanently due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a spokeswoman.
In a statement released by spokeswoman Brenda Prudhomme on July 13, K-Paul’s has closed permanently due to government orders issued in response to the coronavirus pandemic has made it difficult for the restaurant to stay open, according to the The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate.
K-Paul’s continued to operate on a take-out basis following state and local coronavirus-related orders in March shutting down restaurants for dine-in service. The restaurant announced a temporary closure in June.
The restaurant, located at 416 Chartres St., was founded by Louisiana-born celebrity chef Paul Prudhomme and his wife Kay in 1979, and became widely known for its Cajun and Creole menu.
Prudhomme died in 2015 while his wife died in 1986. His niece, Brenda, and her husband, chef Paul Miller, took over the business in 2015.
A gift shop connected to “Pit Bulls and Parolees” reality TV show located on lower Decatur Street, has closed earlier this month, citing the COVID-19 mandatory shutdowns.
In a statement posted to social media on May 15, Villalobos Rescue Center announced that The Tahyo, located at 1224 Decatur St., closed for good following a prolonged shutdown due to coronavirus.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell issued a March 16 executive order that closed businesses as part of a measure to contain spread of the virus. On May 16, Cantrell began easing restrictions and instituted a phased reopening of the city.
The shop was one of the first to close following the initial outbreak of the virus several months ago, according to Tia Torres, who runs the nonprofit all-breed dog rescue shelter and focus of the TV show.
Torres’ daughter Mariah ran the lower Decatur Street shop to help support the dogs housed by her mother’s rescue.
“We could not hold up against the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of mandatory shutdowns,” according to a May 15 statement released by The Tahyo. “We enjoyed our time on Decatur St and will miss our FQ family.”
The store will continue to exist, however, in its online form at thetahyo.com. Sales proceeds go to support Villalobos dog rescue, which costs approximately $4 million a year to operate, according to its website.
(Photo: jc.winkler | CC Flickr) Cafe du Monde reopened on Friday for the first time since closing its doors in March due to COVID-19.
The coffee and beignet shop, located at 800 Decatur St., is now open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day of the week as part of the May 16 phased reopening and easing of coronavirus lockdown restrictions in New Orleans.
Normally open 24 hours a day, the restaurant and must-see stop for tourists was forced to cease in-dining operations and use take-out or delivery services following Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s March 16 stay-at-home order issued as a measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
As the lockdown progressed, the restaurant also maintained its mail order operations by shipping coffee and beignet mix.
Cafe du Monde also ceased operations following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and received national media attention when it reopened nearly two months later.
The phased reopening is based on several conditions, including that coronavirus cases continue to drop and that people continue following public health guidelines such as social/physical distancing at least 6 feet apart from each other, according to the city’s safe reopening page.
Read more on the city’s reopening plan at ready.nola.gov.
Cafe du Monde, 800 Decatur St., 504-525-4544, open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week; cafedumonde.com.
(Photo: the courtyard of NOLA Cantina, now The Yard. Michelle Q | Yelp) The Yard, a restaurant and full-service bar located at 405 Frenchmen St. at the corner of Esplanade Avenue, opened on Wednesday.
The new Frenchmen/Esplanade location comes with indoor and courtyard dining and a menu that includes items such as Cuban sandwiches, burgers, wings, wraps and Cajun poutine.
The Yard, 405 Frenchmen St., 504-266-2848. Open 12 to 10 p.m. Mask required for entry.
Cafe Beignet at the Old Coffee Pot. Picture by Marvin Smith.
The Old Coffee Pot restaurant that abruptly closed in February has reopened, but this time under a slightly different name.
The restaurant, now renamed Cafe Beignet at the Old Coffee Pot, reopened at 714 St. Peter St. It was the location the previous restaurant before it was acquired and renamed.
The Old Coffee Pot was open for more than a century before it closed. The restaurant was a popular breakfast spot for bartenders, barbacks, and other service industry workers coming off the third shift—or for those who finished the second shift and stumbled into the place after several hours of drinking at Johnny White’s Bar across the street, or elsewhere.
Before it closed, the restaurant appeared on an episode of Gordon Ramsay’s reality TV show, “24 Hours to Hell and Back,” in which he scolded the staff for finding a dead mouse in a toaster.
The new restaurant’s menu includes crawfish omelettes, beignets, gumbo and calas.
Calas are a fritter similar to a beignet but made with rice. They’re sometimes described as a dumpling, a rice pastry, or cake. They’re believed to have their origins from the rice-growing regions of Western Africa and were brought to Louisiana by slaves.
Recipes vary, but typically calas are made by mixing rice with sugar, some flour and eggs, deep-frying them, and topping them with confectioners sugar. They were a specialty at the Old Coffee Pot for decades, but have been a part of New Orleans for centuries.
According to Poppy Tooker on NPR, calas vendors were a common sight on the streets of New Orleans, particularly the French Quarter. African-American slaves who sold calas used the money to buy their freedom.
Calas vendors weren’t restricted to only slaves, though. Selling them were part of the income for many families.
“Lottery sellers, praline and calas vendors, seamstresses, pieceworkers, and laundresses who worked at home are examples of teh various forms of work that were available to poor colored women who were married.”
Other menu items include pecan waffles, Cajun hashbrowns, and sandwiches such as muffalettas and roast beef po-boys.
Cafe Beignet at the Old Coffee Pot, located at 714 St. Peter St. is open daily from 8 a.m to 10 p.m.
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