"Haute Creole" restaurant Commander’s Palace was greaty damaged during Hurricane Katrina, but has since been rebuilt back to its original glory.

It’s impossible to discuss New Orleans without mentioning its unique culinary culture. From jazz brunches to Creole and Cajun cuisines, The Crescent City is a hub of tastes, aromas and colors that – along with its fascinating history and lively traditions – draw millions to the Gulf city every year.

“It’s such a unique birthplace of cultures mixing different food together and coming up with a one-of-a-kind concoction of Creole, African, French, Cajun and Spanish,” says Jim Funk, president and CEO of the Louisiana Restaurant Association (LRA).

“It’s truly an American cuisine. You can’t duplicate it anywhere in the country.”

Of course, these days, one cannot discuss New Orleans without also talking about Hurricane Katrina, which in August 2005 became one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. New Orleans was hit the hardest by Katrina, which flooded 80 percent of the city and many areas of neighboring parishes for weeks. A city with strong ties to the past, many feared its rich legacy would be washed away. But nothing could be further from the truth.

‘Emergency Mode’
Before Katrina, “the foodservice industry was strong and played a big role in the success of Louisiana’s economy,” Funk says. “It is the single-largest private-sector employer, with Louisiana employing 140,000 people directly and another 55,000 indirectly.

“Tourism was booming and the industry was in good shape with industry sales of $5.53 billion. Then along came Katrina and Rita – a double hit. Forty-five percent of LRA’s 7,500 members shut down. There was a lot of confusion and lack of communication.”

Despite the chaos, however, Funk says those who could help, did so in a big way. “We went into emergency mode,” Funk relates. “The six to seven months after the storm were incredible. My son, who is a Marine, said, 'It's something we wouldn't want to do over again, but we wouldn't take anything for it.’

“[And] no one was worried about being paid; they just wanted to help out,” he adds.

‘Open for Business’
Today, Funk says all but about two major New Orleans restaurants have reopened. “We still have a lot of small quick-service mom-and-pops in East New Orleans that have not reopened,” he relates, due in part to labor shortages. Others, he says, retained – and even paid – their staffs throughout the recovery, including Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse, a steak and seafood restaurant in the French Quarter.

In addition, LRA established the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund to help displaced foodservice workers return to New Orleans. “We paid transportation to help them come back to New Orleans so they could go back to work,” Funk says. “Housing was another challenge, so we put up FEMA trailers in restaurant parking lots.”

This year, Funk says the LRA is predicting industry sales of $4.8 million – still shy of pre-Katrina sales, but not far off. “We had an incredible fall and we’re working our way back,” he says.

Sports events and annual festivals, such as Mardi Gras, have dramatically helped the New Orleans food and hospitality industry regain its foothold. This year, the Louisiana State University Tigers were crowned national champions after the January Bowl Championship Series game at the New Orleans Superdome. The game drew 80,000 attendees. “The fans were great – it was like the Super Bowl,” Funk recalls. “Hotels booked 31,000 rooms and many had near 100 percent occupancy. People didn’t know what to expect, but when they left, they were happy and pleased.”

Other recent and upcoming events, such as the NBA All-Star 2008, Mardi Gras, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the Zurich Classic of New Orleans golf tournament, are all expected to further restrengthen New Orleans’ position as a destination city.  “New Orleans is open for business,” Funk insists.

New Orleans Marriott Director of Sales and Marketing Mark Barton couldn’t agree more. “We have proven with several city-wide and special events that our city is ready to serve,” he says.

Locals Are Key
According to “Zagat Survey’s 2007 Best of New Orleans,” more than 360 of the 565 restaurants last featured by Zagat have reopened, and 83 percent of surveyors are eating out as much as or more than they did before Katrina.

Those are promising statistics, according to Funk, because he says the local clientele is a cornerstone of New Orleans’ foodservice industry. “You can’t be successful unless you have strong local clientele,” he says. “Tourism is a lagniappe [bonus].”

There are numerous reasons locals and visitors alike are encouraged to dine out. “We have the best restaurateurs in the world,” Funk says.

What’s more, many of tomorrow’s hottest chefs are trained in New Orleans’ culinary schools. “New Orleans is a laboratory for the foodservice industry,” Funk says, with the University of New Orleans School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism, the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute and the University of New Orleans Lester E. Kabacoff School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Administration. “The education and professionalism of the New Orleans foodservice industry keeps getting better and better every day,” he adds.

In addition, “the New Orleans Marriott is actually well-known in the international community as a place to hone the hospitality and culinary skills needed for success,” Barton says. “Hospitality and culinary professionals from around the globe flock to New Orleans to train and work because it is known among these professionals as the preeminent city in combining hospitality, culture, fun and business.”

Operators’ Perspectives
Though work still needs to be done to restore the city to its one-time glory and beyond, thankfully, many are up to the challenge. “We are very excited about our future here in the New Orleans area,” Barton says. “[The storm] is already seen as the base upon which New Orleans has been able to reemerge stronger than ever.”

Food and Drink has had the pleasure of covering many New Orleans companies in its five-plus years, and one thing has always rung true, particularly after the storm: New Orleanians are staunch optimists who don’t back down from a challenge. Certainly, many have not allowed Mother Nature to run them off course.

“We believe that in five years, the devastated residential areas will be well on their way to being rebuilt, and in 10 years, it will be difficult to find evidence of the 2005 storm,” Barton adds.

Southern Hospitality
The New Orleans Marriott, a 1,329-room hotel, reopened two months after the storm, and also recently wrapped up a $38 million planned renovation.

Overall business levels have steadily increased since 2005, but they still have not reached the levels that the hotel was at prior to 2005, Barton says. “We expect to be back to pre-2005 business levels by 2011,” he says. “Overall, we are still at about 70 percent of the total business as compared to [pre-Katrina].”

He notes in the last six months the hotel has seen more business and leisure transient travelers in the area than anticipated, and “we are very hopeful that 2008 will continue this trend.”

The hotel’s renovations have been well received, Barton says, and from a foodservice standpoint, “Chef Mark Quitney’s 5 Fifty 5 restaurant, located in the property, is being recognized as one of New Orleans finest new restaurants.”

In ‘Command’
Established in 1880, ‘haute Creole’ restaurant Commander’s Palace (November/December 2007) was “substantially damaged” during Hurricane Katrina, Operations Manager Stephen Woodruff says.

Although the restaurant is located in an area that did not flood, roof damage allowed rainwater to get inside. Because the city was without electricity for five weeks after the storm, mold and mildew ruined most of the restaurant’s interior. Its walls were ripped down to the studs and the inside was rebuilt back to its original glory.

Since the hurricane, “I’ve noticed there is a greater appreciation and a resurgence for things that are traditionally New Orleans,” Woodruff says. “Commander’s was the originator of the jazz brunch [see sidebar], and jazz brunches continue to be our most popular meal period. New Orleanians lost a lot in the storm and they have really held onto the things that are unique to the city.”

Eye of the Hurricane
It’s ironic that the very cocktail that has made Pat O’Brien’s restaurant famous – the Hurricane – is also what devastated its business. “We were greatly impacted financially,” Vice President Shelly Waguespack says, due to the several months it was closed after the storm. “It has taken some time to get back to pre-Katrina levels, but New Orleans is definitely moving in the right direction thanks to grassroots efforts and businesspeople."

Pre-Katrina, the restaurant employed 260 people. “On Nov. 10, 2005, we opened with 35 employees, including officers of the company,” she says. “Everyone pitched in to make it happen.”

Today, she says, “just about 200” people are on staff.

The recent Bowl games, she says, “were a huge boost for New Orleans’ economy. Not only did it give us a needed [increase of] sales, but more importantly, these weekends proved to the country that New Orleans is open and eager for business.”

The Saturday before Mardi Gras, which this year is Feb. 2, 2008, is typically Pat O’Brien’s biggest business day, but Waguespack predicts Pat O’Brien’s 75th anniversary celebration December ’08 will rival it. “We will have a block party, bands and drink specials,” she says. “We are different than other entertainment venues because a good part of our customers are local, either living in the quarter or close by ... in the middle of the action. The quarter is very pedestrian friendly and everything is within a few blocks.”

As for the future, Waguespack believes New Orleans will be at its prime in about five years. “Through smarter planning, New Orleanians finally feel confident that our past wrongs will be made right,” she says.

In addition to efforts to preserve New Orleans as major food destination, she says economic development is a major priority, with a focus on healthcare facilities, technology and green spaces.

Day in ‘Court’
The Court of Two Sisters restaurant, known for its rich history, jazz, and French and classic Creole cuisine, did not flood during Hurricane Katrina, however, the business was swimming in a host of other problems that came with the storm.

Its historic buildings needed new roofs from wind damage, owner Joseph Fein III explains. Power was out for three weeks. Food had to be thrown away and coolers and freezers cleaned. “We didn’t [open] until Dec. 1, [2005], so we were closed for three months,” Fein says.

With the majority of the city’s residents displaced by the storm, when it reopened, only 30 of its pre-Katrina 175 employees came back on board. Today, its staff is up to 65.

Although sales were only a quarter of their pre-Katrina levels at first, Fein says Court of Two Sisters is currently at about 60 percent of its sales before the storm.

He notes that conventions are beginning to return to the city – a good sign that tourism will soon be at its usual level in the coming years.

More important than the restaurant’s future success is the success of New Orleans in pulling through the disaster, Fein says. “My restaurant is just a small part of the whole picture,” he says. “If they have faith in New Orleans, then I’m just along for the ride.”