Antoine's: A Culinary Legend

            Opened in 1840 in New Orleans’ French Quarter, Antoine’s is perhaps the most important restaurant in the history of New Orleans. Created by a French immigrant named Antoine Alciatore, the restaurant is still run his descendants. Throughout its long history, Antoine’s has come to symbolize New Orleans’ creole cuisine. Creole cooking is the fusion of the cooking traditions of New Orleans’ many immigrant communities into a new and original culinary tradition. Dishes like gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans and rice are all traditional creole dishes. Yet throughout much of its history, Antoine’s described itself as a French restaurant. Only recently has the restaurant come to embrace its foundational role in the evolution of New Orleans cuisine. 

The exterior of Antoine's

            Antoine Alciatore was born in 1822 in France. He worked in French restaurants in the port city of Marseilles before leaving for the United States in 1838. He eventually settled in New Orleans where he opened a boarding house and restaurant in the city’s French Quarter. Thanks to Alciatore’s culinary creativity, the restaurant soon grew in popularity. Alciatore and his son, Jules, who eventually took over the restaurant, gained a reputation for their culinary creativity. Famed dishes included Beef Robespierre—marinated beef tenderloin, cook rare served with a sauce of stock, sweetbreads and chicken livers. The dish, the chef claimed, reminded him of a story his father had told about witnessing the execution of French revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre in 1793. Jules later invented Pompano en Papillote—white fish baked in parchment paper and served tableside allowing the diner to cut the bag open. The list of famous dishes pioneered by Antoine’s is nearly endless, but includes: Oysters Rockefeller, Oysters Bienville, Toast St. Antoine (crabmeat in wine and Bechámel sauce) and Filet of Sole Joinville (poached sole with a white-wine sauce with mushrooms, truffles, and shrimp). 

            Despite branding themselves as a French restaurant, the Alciatores’ menu relied some of the key features of creole cuisine. They incorporated local shellfish like Gulf oysters and shrimp. The Pompano (of Pompano en Papillote) is a fish found primarily along the Eastern and Gulf coasts of the United States, but not in France. The menu also began to include locally made sausages—a contribution from German immigrants, African spices—the involuntary contribution of African slaves, and coffee—another American innovation. Yet the Alciatores and their descendants remained devoted to the idea of Antoine’s as a French restaurant. Historically, French cuisine has long been considered the best in the world. Creole cuisine was the bastard child of mostly non-French cooking traditions. Antoine’s even kept its menu only in French until the 1990s. 

            In 1877, Antoine’s moved from its original location to its present day home on St. Louis Street in the French Quarter. The restaurant features 15 dining rooms with the capacity to seat over 700 patrons. Each dining room has its own particular name and history. Some, like the Rex, Proteus, and 12^thNight Revelers, are named after famous Mardi Gras Krewes where the walls feature decades old memorabilia. During Prohibition, the famed “Mystery Room” served alcohol against state law. Guests went through a door in the women’s bathroom into a secret room where they would exit with a coffee cup full of liquor. When asked where the liquor came from guests would answer, “It’s a mystery to me.” The Japanese Room, designed in the late 19^thand early 20^thcenturies, features Asian style decorations. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, then owner Roy Alciatore closed the room. It remained closed for another 43 years. The restaurant also features a 165 foot long and 7 foot wide, wine cellar—though it’s more of a wine alley due to New Orleans’ position below sea level. 

            Antoine’s reached the height of its fame and prestige under Antoine Alciatore’s son, Jules. In 1877, after receiving four years of culinary training in France, Jules took over the restaurant from his mother. She had taken control of the restaurant in 1874 after Antoine had returned to France—wishing to be buried in his homeland. During his time running Antoine’s, Jules invented Oysters Rockefeller. The restaurants welcomed presidents and celebrities like Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, and Babe Ruth. While the restaurant appealed to some of the nation’s leading cultural figures, Jules also catered to the New Orleans elite. Antoine’s provided regular customers with their own personal waiters rather than assigning patrons to waiters at random. These repeat customers could make reservations directly with their waiters and be guaranteed a table when they wished. It became a mark of social distinction amongst the New Orleans elite to have their own waiter at Antoine’s. The waiters themselves also benefitted from the repeated patronage of their guests and attaining the job of waiter carried a certain standing above those at other restaurants. 

The interior of Antoine's 

            By the last quarter of the 20^thcentury, the New Orleans culinary landscape had begun to change and Antoine’s struggled to keep pace. The restaurant remained devoted to its French roots and style of service. Regulars kept the restaurant afloat, but the a new wave of affordable and less stuffy restaurants had emerged onto the dining scene. Mr. B’s Bistro, home of barbecued shrimp, marked the expansion of the Brennan family’s (they own Commander’s Palace amongst other restaurants) restaurant empire. Paul Prudhomme, former chef at Commander’s Palace, opened K-Paul’s in the French quarter and reinvigorated Cajun cuisine. Gone were the refined and traditional restaurants, replaced by minimalist designs where the chef and the food were the stars. 

            In 2005, Rick Blount, a descendant of the Alciatores, took over as owner and manager of Antoine’s. Less than six months later, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. Winds caused some of the walls at the attic level to collapse onto the street below. The walls of the main dining room bulged out and the ceiling nearly collapsed. The loss of power and air conditioning resulted in the loss of some 15,000 bottles of wine. Remarkably, the restaurant survived and reopened in January 2006 and Blount devoted his efforts to turning the restaurant’s fortunes around. As the city began its slow recovery in the aftermath of the hurricane, Antoine’s began to recover as well. Blount reduced the size of the menu to something more manageable—cutting down on food costs. He created the Hermes Bar featuring an informal menu and a jazz brunch. 

            As a result, Blount kept Antoine’s afloat during the worst crisis confronted by the city of New Orleans. Antoine’s remains one of the city’s restaurant gems in terms of food and its contribution to the history of New Orleans.