{"id":614741,"date":"2023-03-05T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-05T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/05\/the-best-gumbo-in-new-orleans\/"},"modified":"2023-03-05T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-05T13:00:00","slug":"the-best-gumbo-in-new-orleans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/05\/the-best-gumbo-in-new-orleans\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best Gumbo in New Orleans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Where\u2019s the best gumbo in New Orleans? If you live here, that\u2019s something you\u2019re asked all the time. Being a Creole girl from the 7th Ward\u2014a\u00a0multigenerational native<\/a> New Orleanian at that\u2014I certainly have opinions on gumbo. I\u2019ve been eating it since I was a bald-headed baby with only two teeth and I\u2019ve been making it since I was 18.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

At its core, gumbo is somewhere between a soup and a stew. It\u2019s a blend of a roux (flour and fat that\u2019s cooked until brown), stock, the Louisiana seasoning trinity (bell peppers, onion and celery), plus meat and\/or seafood. When I make gumbo, which is usually only for holidays because it\u2019s expensive to do it \u201cright,\u201d I put everything in it: chicken thighs, andouille, hot sausage, deveined shrimp, cleaned blue crabs, oysters, and okra. There\u2019s also fil\u00e9 (ground sassafras) on the table for me and whoever else wants it. Never in my entire life would I include a tomato in any form. Certainly not an egg, not snow crab claws, not loose crab meat, not crawfish, never anything crunchy unless it\u2019s cooked all the way down, and, for the love of all that is holy, never\u00a0corn<\/a>! These ingredients just do not belong\u2014that\u2019s me though. Needless to say, everyone here has strong feelings about this dish.<\/p>\n

Some people\u2019s favorite gumbo comes from Broad & Banks in Mid-City, while others prefer the spicier gumbo from Heard Dat Kitchen in Central City. No two restaurants will make gumbo the same\u2014even sister restaurants like Saint John and Gris-Gris. One thing I learned from interviewing chefs across the city as I put this list together is that pretty much every chef\u2019s gumbo exemplar is the one they ate growing up. For me, it\u2019s my mama\u2019s gumbo and the gumbo Ms. Fields made in the cafeteria at McDonogh 39 elementary school\u2014the latter served with a grilled cheese sandwich. For others, it\u2019s their family\u2019s, or the one served at their office or their school.<\/p>\n

We New Orleanians are protective of gumbo, and hypercritical of anything related to it. If you want to see us unite as a city, getting us talking about gumbo is one surefire method. \u201cAnytime you talk about gumbo, it\u2019s a long conversation,\u201d says Frank Brigtsen, the chef-owner of New Orleans Cajun-Creole restaurant Brigtsen\u2019s. \u201cOf all the dishes in Louisiana, gumbo really stands out as unique and identifies us as Louisiana people. And to me the best gumbo in the world is the gumbo you grew up with. It\u2019s a very personal, passionate thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

When it comes to finding the very best gumbo in New Orleans, at least outside of our own homes, these eight restaurants\u2014some old, some newer\u2014are where I turn.<\/p>\n

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Brigtsen\u2019s<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

723 Dante St., New Orleans<\/a><\/p>\n

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The first time I had Brigtsen\u2019s gumbo was around 2013, and I\u2019ve been recommending it to everyone ever since. Dining at Brigtsen\u2019s is like going to a relative\u2019s house for the holidays. The restaurant is located in an old home, with separate rooms, a hodgepodge of art and seasonal decor on the walls, the \u201cgood\u201d silverware you pull out for special occasions, and a team of kind people who treat you like family.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most of the time, Brigtsen\u2019s gumbo has chicken, andouille sausage and ground sassafras powder, which we call fil\u00e9. Chef-owner Frank Brigtsen trained under the\u00a0late Chef Paul Prudhomme<\/a>, the man credited with introducing Cajun cuisine to the masses. That\u2019s who introduced Brigtsen to the very Cajun style of gumbo he serves at his restaurant, which usually contains no seafood or okra.\u00a0On certain occasions, such as Lent, Brigtsen will serve seafood gumbo.<\/p>\n

There are two techniques that make Brigtsen\u2019s gumbo stand apart from the rest. First, he makes his roux and sets it aside to cool. By doing this, the oil rises to the top and he can skim the fat away before adding the roux to the gumbo\u2014ensuring the ideal consistency of slightly thickened soup. Second, unlike many chefs, he doesn\u2019t mix the trinity of vegetables in with the roux. Instead, Brigtsen adds the vegetables in two stages to add more browning, caramelization, and dimension. \u201cAlmost all Cajun cooking is based on very humble ingredients,\u201d Brigtsen says. \u201cThe key to success is in the use of seasonings and techniques to build layers of flavor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Order: You can never go wrong at Brigtsen\u2019s. Most recently, I ordered chicken and andouille fil\u00e9 gumbo and the crawfish pasta. The crawfish pasta here is a bright take on the classic dish, with shells tossed in pesto and topped with fresh crawfish tails\u2014not the typical linguine in crawfish cream sauce that you\u2019d find at casual gatherings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Broad & Banks Seafood<\/a><\/h2>\n

342 S. Broad St., New Orleans<\/a><\/p>\n

Chances are that if someone\u2019s going to Broad & Banks, it\u2019s for\u00a0gumbo and grilled cheese<\/a>. If a person grew up in New Orleans between the \u201870s through Hurricane Katrina in 2005, especially if they attended public school, they likely remember the cafeteria serving this combo around the holidays. In fact, it\u2019s a staple at Broad & Banks owner Ken Nguyen\u2019s restaurant because his kids ate it at their school.<\/p>\n

Broad & Banks gumbo is packed with smoked sausage, hot sausage, shrimp and chicken. In 1998, at 30 years old, Nguyen came to New Orleans from Vietnam. \u201cI put every kind of meat in there,\u201d Nguyen says of his gumbo recipe. \u201cBack in Vietnam<\/a>, we didn\u2019t have much, so now that I\u2019m in America and we have so much to eat, I include a lot.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nguyen says his restaurant goes through 10 big pots of gumbo and between 30 and 40 loaves of bread each day. Whenever I visit Broad & Banks, now in its 25th year of business, I marvel at how smoothly the line flows: huge pans of grilled cheese sandwiches moving through the space, staff replenishing the gumbo on the cafeteria-style line, both diners and employees honoring New Orleans\u2019 unique blend of southern hospitality with plenty of\u00a0sirs<\/em>,\u00a0babies<\/em>, and\u00a0yes ma\u2019ams<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Something that makes the Broad & Banks gumbo special is that it doesn\u2019t use a traditional roux. \u201cWe use a Vietnamese technique in our gumbo. So we\u2019ll say it\u2019s Cajun-Asian. We put our own spin on it,\u201d Nguyen says of his technique, which involves cooking down a large amount of stock, made with bones and flavorful scraps of the meat and vegetables used in the gumbo, until it’s rich and flavorful. \u201cLike ph\u1edf and b\u00fan b\u00f2 Hu\u1ebf or the other soups from Vietnam, we use a lot of stock, and that\u2019s how we build the layers of flavor. Ours is more of a stock-based gumbo.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Order: Gumbo and grilled cheese. The\u00a0red beans<\/a> and lima beans are two other famous dishes at Broad & Banks, both rich with pickled pork and served with smothered pork chops.<\/p>\n

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Dooky Chase\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0<\/h2>\n

2301 Orleans Ave., New Orleans<\/a><\/p>\n

There\u2019s so much about Dooky Chase\u2019s (Dooky rhymes with cookie) that can\u2019t be replicated: the collection of Black art on the walls, the stained glass hall partition, the fabrics on the chairs. And of course, the gumbo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The gumbo at Dooky Chase\u2019s\u2014and at sister restaurants Chapter IV in downtown New Orleans and Leah\u2019s Kitchen in the Louis Armstrong International Airport\u2014is traditional Black Creole gumbo, made with smoked sausage, Creole chaurice hot sausage from fellow multigenerational business\u00a0Vaucresson\u2019s<\/a>, chicken, shrimp, stewed down ham hocks and veal, blue crab, and fil\u00e9. On Fridays, it\u2019s made with okra instead of fil\u00e9.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dooky\u2019s kitchen is now helmed by the late chef\u2019s great great granddaughter, Zoe Chase, and great grandson, Edgar \u201cDook\u201d Chase IV. But little has changed since the restaurant first opened in 1941, and for many community elders, it still feels the same now as it did when\u00a0Leah and Dooky Chase Jr.<\/a> took over for Emily and Dooky Chase Sr. around 1946. In the \u201850s and \u201860s, the restaurant became a headquarters for Civil Rights leaders. The\u00a0late chef Leah Chase<\/a>\u2014the\u00a0inspiration for\u00a0The Princess and the Frog<\/em><\/a>, the\u00a0star of Beyonce\u2019s \u201cLemonade\u201d video<\/a>,\u00a0la belle grande dame<\/em> of Creole cuisine\u2014would be so pleased with how her family has maintained and built upon her restaurant legacy\u00a0since her passing<\/a> in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe proudest moment I get is when somebody that\u2019s been coming to Dooky\u2019s for generations, they come in now and say, \u2018This gumbo tastes the exact same as when your grandmother was making it,\u2019\u201d Dook says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Order: On Friday, order the okra gumbo. Any other day of the year, order the Creole gumbo. Always order the fried chicken, stewed okra, veal panne, and Lavender Lemonade.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Gabrielle<\/a><\/h2>\n

2441 Orleans Ave., New Orleans<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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No two dining experiences at Gabrielle are the same, and that\u2019s what makes it so fabulous. Unlike most other restaurants where chefs make huge batches of roux at once, chef-owner Greg Sonnier makes small-batch roux, slow-roasted in the oven. By cooking the roux like this, Sonnier finds it easier to control the darkness. He grew up on the light, low temperature, slow-roux gumbo of his New Iberia, Louisiana-born mother. But he also trained under the late Paul Prudhomme, who taught him about dark, high-temperature, quick-roux gumbo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At Gabrielle, Sonnier works to find ideal ingredients to pair with time-tested techniques. \u201cWhat kind of cool gumbo should I make?\u201d Sonnier regularly asks himself. Guinea hen, a meat often used in Cajun cooking, is almost always in the gumbo, but he also makes different types of sausages so he can incorporate a variety of meats, like alligator or rabbit, into the mix. \u201cIt really does perk the gumbo up and make it special,\u201d he says of all these variations. Another thing that sets the gumbo apart at Gabrielle is that Sonnier does not cook the rice for his gumbo in flavored stock like many other gumbo establishments do. \u201cI think rice has really evolved, and the people who sell rice are really proud of that,\u201d he says. With all the flavor packed into the gumbo at Gabrielle, the subtleness of the rice is an ideal base.<\/p>\n

Order: The duck, rabbit, and guinea hen gumbo, or any seasonal gumbo. Plus, duck liver mousse p\u00e2t\u00e9, and for dessert, a\u00a0Peppermint Patti<\/a>, which combines a fudgy dark chocolate-chip brownie, housemade pink peppermint ice cream, and chocolate sauce.<\/p>\n

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Heard Dat Kitchen<\/a><\/h2>\n

2520 Felicity St., New Orleans<\/a><\/p>\n

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Heard Dat is named for chef-owner Jeffery Heard, but you could also say it\u2019s representative of how customers find out about the restaurant: through word of mouth. Heard\u2019s daughter Tia’Nesha Heard-Dorest says people often come in showing her photos on their phones of what their friends told them they should order. Heard Dat\u2019s gumbo has shrimp, chicken, sausage and \u201ca crazy amount of spices,\u201d as Heard puts it. It\u2019s served with a grilled cheese sandwich and a side of potato salad, which Heard-Dorest calls \u201cthe best of both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heard worked at hotels in New Orleans for most of his adult life, and was disappointed that he couldn\u2019t tell guests where to get good gumbo in the city. \u201cIt was always too thick in hotels,\u201d Heard says. \u201cThat\u2019s them not letting the roux cook and break down enough to get to the right consistency, so as soon as they put liquid on that roux it swells and turns to paste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up, one of Heard\u2019s fondest memories is of his mom cooking the roux on the stove. \u201cIt always made me feel some type of way when I smelled that roux cooking,\u201d he says. Heard still refuses to serve his gumbo as soon as it\u2019s made, because he insists upon letting the roux cook down and the spices mellow out.<\/p>\n

Order: The Gumbo Combo, which is served with a grilled cheese sandwich and a side of potato salad. Also, try the lobster mashed potatoes, BBQ shrimp fries, and anything under the\u00a0 signature section of the menu.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Li\u2019l Dizzy\u2019s Cafe<\/a><\/h2>\n

1500 Esplanade Ave., New Orleans<\/a><\/p>\n

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If you want to feel loved, walk through the door of Li\u2019l Dizzy\u2019s Cafe. You\u2019re not only greeted by a chorus of staff, but by diners too. It\u2019s a must that you \u201cspeak\u201d or \u201cpass the time of day\u201d in New Orleans, which means saying hello to everyone when you enter a room, and greeting everyone you pass on the street. If someone \u201cspeaks\u201d to you, it\u2019s a must that you speak back. Li\u2019l Dizzy\u2019s embodies this spirit.<\/p>\n

The gumbo recipe at Li\u2019l Dizzy\u2019s is about 60 years old. It\u2019s the same gumbo you\u2019ll find in\u00a0The Baquet Family Cookbook<\/em>, and is full of ham, smoked sausage, crab, shrimp, and the Baquets\u2019 own pre-packaged hot sausage and gumbo base. Co-owner Arkesha Baquet credits her mother-in-law Janet Jourdain Baquet with some of Li\u2019l Dizzy\u2019s most revolutionary concepts, like making their own hot sausage and gumbo base recipe, and having its production outsourced to a commercial kitchen. Chef John Cannon IV says that getting those two key ingredients outsourced gives him the time to focus equally on the food and business aspects of running a restaurant, without sacrificing quality or consistency. \u201cGumbo is a simple dish, but it takes a lot of steps to get it right,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The\u00a0Baquet family<\/a> has been in the restaurant business in New Orleans for three generations, and many of Li\u2019l Dizzy\u2019s guests were once patrons of past Baquet restaurants, including Eddie\u2019s, Zachary\u2019s, Cafe Baquet and Paul Gross Chicken Coop. \u201cFor this family to still be holding onto the same recipes that got them started, it just blows my mind,\u201d says Cannon.<\/p>\n

Order: The gumbo, of course. Plus fried chicken, housemade hot sausage, and whatever the daily special is.<\/p>\n

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Liuzza\u2019s by the Track<\/a><\/h2>\n

1518 N. Lopez St., New Orleans<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cOh you\u00a0gotta<\/em> get the gumbo, you just\u00a0gotta<\/em> get the gumbo, it\u2019s the best gumbo in New Orleans,\u201d a grandmotherly diner told the table sitting behind me on a recent visit to Liuzza\u2019s by the Track. If you even mention Liuzza\u2019s, someone will say you have to get the gumbo. If you post a photo and someone recognizes that you\u2019re there, they will ask how you liked the gumbo.<\/p>\n

The gumbo here consists of chicken, andouille, shrimp, okra and tomato, made in 12-gallon batches three times a week, and chef Road Runner has been single-handedly making the gumbo at Liuzza\u2019s for around 20 years. Cooks often ask him to teach them how to make it, but he\u2019s a stickler for consistency. \u201cI\u2019m going to pass it on, but while I\u2019m able to make it, I\u2019m going to continue to make it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Order: The gumbo, along with half a fried shrimp po\u2019boy (\u201cdressed\u201d with lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and pickle, add butter and Crystal hot sauce). And, with whatever stomach space you have left, try the turtle soup, BBQ shrimp po\u2019boy, and the peach bread pudding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Saint John<\/a><\/h2>\n

1117 Decatur St., New Orleans<\/a><\/p>\n

The gumbo at Saint John and sister restaurant Gris-Gris is cognac-brown and rich with chicken and andouille sausage, the latter from\u00a0Poche\u2019s in Breaux Bridge<\/a>. The stock is made daily, using the carcasses from chickens roasted for the gumbo. \u201cIt smells like Thanksgiving,\u201d executive chef Eric Cook says of the restaurant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both Cook and\u00a0chef de cuisine Daren Porretto are from New Orleans, but have lived in cities in and outside of Louisiana. Those experiences have shaped their approach to gumbo.\u00a0\u201cIf someone doesn’t tell me once a week that I burned my roux, then I\u2019m not doing it right,\u201d Cook says. He\u2019s lived in many Louisiana cities including Mamou, Lafayette and Lake Charles, near Vermillion Parish (or\u00a0Paroisse de Vermillion<\/em>) and learned to make gumbo from a friend\u2019s mom, who lived \u201cdown the bayou<\/a>,\u201d just outside Lafayette. This was the darker seafood-free gumbo that many Louisianians associate with that part of the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though people don\u2019t always associate New Orleans with this style of gumbo, it\u2019s just as prevalent here because many New Orleanians have down-the-bayou roots. \u201cThere\u2019s a spectrum of gumbo in New Orleans,\u201d Porretto says. \u201cGumbo, potato salad, you only like it the way you like it, and everybody makes it different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Order: Paroisse de Vermillion-inspired gumbo with popcorn rice, served with what Porretto calls \u201cpush bread\u201d to sop up what you can\u2019t get with a spoon. Also, the duck popper, a plate of seared duck breast, root beer-braised pork belly, jalape\u00f1o Creole cream cheese, and shards of fried duck skin. The rotating desserts are seasonal and immaculate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Megan Braden-Perry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where\u2019s the best gumbo in New Orleans? If you live here, that\u2019s something you\u2019re asked all the time. Being a Creole girl from the 7th Ward\u2014a\u00a0multigenerational native New Orleanian at that\u2014I certainly have opinions on gumbo. I\u2019ve been eating it since I was a bald-headed baby with only two teeth and I\u2019ve been making it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":614742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[534,119959,22020],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-614741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-financial","8":"category-gumbo","9":"category-orleans"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}