>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
TIME OUT As Super Bowl crowds fill dining rooms and reservation books, off-the-radar eateries promise good food and easy access. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> By Ian McNulty
C
The pipeline of shiny black limos that will be shuttling between Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and downtown New Orleans this week will pass two of the great ethnic dining hubs of the region: Williams Boulevard in Kenner and Fat City in Metairie. Williams Boulevard is the de facto culinary home of the area’s Latino community, with a multitude of grocery stores and restaurants representing an array of tastes and traditions. For Brazilian food alone, the boulevard offers different choices. There’s Churra’s Brazilian Grill
Paulo Cesar displays some cuts of meat available at Churra’s Brazilian Grill in Kenner. PHOTO BY CHERYL GERBER
(3712 Williams Blvd., Kenner, 504-467-9595), where you pick your own meats from a big rotisserie holding everything from sausage links to chicken hearts (don’t miss the picanha, a classic Brazilian cut of beef).
Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > JANUARY 29 > 2013
arnival season temporarily redraws the New Orleans map each year with parade routes, surging crowds and parking issues. Locals have grown adept at adjusting their plans accordingly, and that includes dining. A similar spirit of improvisation and adaptability will be especially valuable for anyone interested in dining out this week as Super Bowl XLVII rolls into town. The entire week leading up to Sunday’s game in the Superdome should play out like a giant convention/ networking event and photo op for the sponsors, celebrities and high rollers who inhabit the NFL off the gridiron. As any local tourism official will tell you, New Orleans makes a great Super Bowl city because so many of the hotels, restaurants, events halls and attractions are within walking distance of the Superdome. That means all of this action is clustered there, too. Some streets will be closed (see traffic maps on p. 48), the parking lots that you (and restaurant employees) normally use will be filled with stages, event tents and trailers, and every limo available across the Deep South will be in town, angling for turning radius. Getting to dinner downtown is only part of the issue. You’ve heard about all these hot restaurants in New Orleans? So have the VIPs, who are arriving with a taste for the best and the personal assistants to set it up. Some reservation books were filling up long before the contending Super Bowl teams were determined, and in some cases, entire restaurants have been bought out for corporate events. For people seeking a nice meal without much fuss, all of this essentially turns the downtown area into a “no fly zone.” Looking at it another way, this week also is an invitation to explore the deep and increasingly diverse range of eateries spread farther around the metro area. What follows is a primer on a few categories, areas and themes to help get a handle on the options. With these reliable, if off-the-radar places, the local dining obsession need not resign itself to a hangar because Super Bowl crowds are blitzing downtown.
20
19