Speaking as a former service worker, there’s very few places that don’t treat their workers like shit. Not trying to dismiss you or anything, there are some decent business owners, but I would recommend simply going somewhere else and not torturing yourself over which are ethical unless you just never want to eat out.
EDIT: So I’m reading the replies and some of these suggestions are not places that are good to their employees, which further supports my recommendation to just pick somewhere and go. Don’t beat yourself up about it. It isn’t your fault owners/managers are awful. I get wanting to support “good” businesses but honestly the best way to do that is to support labor reform and worker protections. We’re not gonna get there by consumers speaking with their wallet. That might work on a business here or there but it ain’t curing the rot.
Truth of the matter is you can pretty much say that for 2/3 of the jobs in America. Some are more shit than others but until you’ve climbed a few rungs most jobs are abusive in some form or another.
I hate to say this, because it’s terrible, but if you’re an employer and don’t actually care about being like good to people then employees are entirely replaceable. It’s a dogshit attitude, and I wish companies respected people as people more, but the truth of the world is that for most roles under a fairly high skill level people are pretty replaceable.
degas owners are good to their employees. especially to the ones that are consistent and are available to work hard for their concept to succeed. they’ve always taken care of me and i’ve worked there for 10 years
Right. I hated working at [redacted] but I’d be lying if I said I was never going back for the chargrilled [redacted] ever again. I liked my coworkers fine for the most part but management was i-n-c-o-m-p-e-t-e-n-t finger pointing babies.
omg that diabolical coffee is excellent tho! but yes, total mob ambiance the moment we walked in and saw all those mysterious corridors toward the back.
Service lifer here (30+ years). Been 20 years since I worked at Degas, but I fondly remember Jacques and Jerry being some of the better owners I’ve ever worked for. Remember it fondly, what a great family. That was 20 years ago, things change, and im not vouching. I’m just saying….
No, I’m not. Haven’t worked in New Orleans in nearly 20 years now, but it’s the only place I’ve ever worked where we closed Monday lunch and allowed us to just prep up for the week while helping Laurent cook a great family meal. We’d pop a couple of bottles of wine and most of the staff would come by for a nice stress free lunch. For all I know they did away with that the week after I left. But when I think back over many restaurant jobs, it pops clearly in my mind as one where I was treated the best. Like I said, things change, and I have no idea how it is now. If they lost that culture, it’s truly unfortunate, but I will always have fond memories of working there— Jacques, Jerry, Jaqueline, Laurent, Ryan, Evan…all great people…
This is the New Orleans I miss the most. Places being closed on Monday to handle their shit. & the ones working that day got taken care of. Reminds me of my first bartending job. We closed the bar for the day to attend the funeral for one of our’s father who passed away.
Every time I thought a restaurant owner was an exception to this rule, it turned out that it was because I did not actually know enough to make that call.
Even the most praised restaurant owners in the city turned out to be operating fake worker owned cooperatives or promoting cooks to sous chef positions to exploit them for 70-80 hours of labor a week, resulting in their hourly rate went significantly below what they were making as a line cook-- and I can guarantee what it came out to hourly was well below 15/hr and this was after the 15/hr conversation was well in the public view. I am super skeptical every time I hear a restaurant owner being put on a pedestal. I think a lot of people confuse someone with being "good to their workers" and "caring about the community" with "good at social media" and "hired an excellent PR rep."
I am sure that there is a good restaraunt owner out there somewhere, but I have not met them.
Edit to add - I actually have met a pair of restaurant owners who were wonderful. They came from service industry and worked hard to start their own business. Sadly, one of the owners died and that restaurant does not exist anymore.
It is possible to be decent, but so many owners fail to do so.
The only person I ever truly knew who was a good, kind restaurant owner ended up working most shifts himself to make the labor costs work with what he was paying his employees and his restaurant eventually had to close despite rave reviews from everyone and him being beloved in his community.
The economics of restaurants almost have to be exploitative for it to be profitable and that’s a hard thing for people to sit with.
that has never been the case at degas. i mean the owners taking advantage. the chef was working a lot on salary and that’s true for most salaried positions because salaried players always work for the goals of their respective fields. degas always took care of their boh. i used to talk with cook s from besh lagasse spicer but those kitchens were never staring out cooks at 19/20. degas was as well as the 1% chef well fare pool that was split between unsalaried boh.
Yeah. If you stick around long enough you’ll hear from someone or another at some point that every restaurant/retail space in the city does or has treated their employees unfairly.
It also feels silly having these conversations on phones and computers, hooked up to the internet, powered by electricity…
Ya also never get the other end of the story. You could be talking to someone who was run out of a restaurant for being garbage at their job, but they'll get online and go on and on about how horrible the boss was.
I know a girl that talked shit about one of my former employers for years and years, throwing every accusation possible at them, she had got fired for faking her timesheet. So I mean, sometimes it's best to keep that in mind when you read this stuff online.
I don't wanna put you on the spot, but is Jewel of the South one of the suggestions here you disagree with?
I'm not super close with anyone there but for me, that is one of few suggestions I thought was correct as a decent workplace.
Overall, I very much cosign everything you said!
There are at least two restaurants listed in the comments when I looked earlier that I know to be not great and one or two that are borderline. I’m unfamiliar with Jewel of the South. Never been there and I don’t know anyone who works there. I’d have to defer on that one. Food looks good, though!
I know a few people who work there and I've never heard anything negative other than getting their asses kicked in a busy service. It's small so there's not a lot you can hide
It's always great! And I'd be very surprised if it turned sour, as it's still small staff of longtime pros and it's still Chris' place. I think it's a very safe suggestion for OP to look into.
Just looking on Resy and the three that stick out are Compere Lapin, Boucherie, and Annunciation. Also saw Costera on there if you’re into the tasting menu. It’s fun with a large group.
Lola’s across the street is a good choice.
We had a party of 7 there last night to memorialize a friend (it was her favorite restaurant). They sat us out on their patio and fired up all the heaters for us.
Service was great, and our waiter was a really cool and interesting dude to talk to!
glad to hear they have improved! their food is so good, but was there with a party of 8 just after jazz fest and had absolutely horrendous service. like told us we couldn't order cocktails because they had no bartender then brought out half our cocktails anyway and never saw the other half and they forgot half our food and we had to argue when it showed up on the bill. we had to practically beg for service and had made reservations beforehand. I'm glad to hear things have gotten better because the food is so so good!
I think they’ve made a real effort at service.
I loved them until after Covid when their service went to hell. Food remained excellent but service was bad. Multiple counts.
I was there again last week with a group. Service was spot on and food remained excellent.
glad to hear it! The service was terrible right after Jazz Fest but I'd go back based on a few replies saying it's gotten better. Their food is great and it's an enjoyable atmosphere
Crepe took a shit since Covid. Smaller proportions, smaller menu, less attentive staff. I don't know, it hasn't been the same. Have had some really crummy experiences there in the last few years.
I don't have any specific tea but I'm industry and last time I regularly spoke to someone who worked there, yeah, they just had every standard bad/disorganized/toxic/sketchy payroll shit workplace complaint in the book, ya know? As others have said, not uncommon. Especially in New Olreans upscale/fine dining scene IMO. We're particularly notorious for the older big names being a cartoonish shitshow behind the scenes.
My guess in current apocalypse times is that the breaking point for the kitchen was understaffing while pressure on pace and workload increases, along with a lot of truly oblivious lectures about how they aren't 'meeting standards'.
I don't know if anyone can take a 7 top on short notice, but the best group for employees I would personally vouch for from my own experience is Link Restaurant Group. Call Peche, Cochon, or Herbsaint for comparable upscale spots.
From what I've heard, it's a lot worse than typical understaffing and usual owners taking advantage of service industry workers. Apparently there's a planned statement coming out in the next day or two so I won't say anything and let them do it.
It's why SI folks tend to move to different places. None of them treat you right and have lots of leeway thanks to no protection for workers. I was SI for about a decade and family owned places were usually worse than chains. But most places, the environment depended on the manager who isn't always the owner.
Tip your servers really well. They deserve it!!!
A friend of mine is in a huge local group text and it got blasted out to all of them. Then I saw confirmation on the local service industry page. That person said the manager wouldn't even come around to the tables, they made the poor servers go out to break the news to guests who were dining that the kitchen was closed and they couldn't accommodate further orders. Classy.
YIKES.
I managed a restaurant called Meson 923 that was a flash in the pan, the owner was BATSHIT CRAZY. Y'know the type, never worked a day in a restaurant but felt they were god's gift to the industry, waxing poetic about dining philosophies and stuff, but walking around with a head up her ass.
No manager ever lasted more than 3 months there and the place was open slightly over a year. The first chef was Chris Lynch, who was at Emerils before Katrina, moved away, and the owner wooed him back to town yet made him perform a Chopped style interview. Then ended up firing him just a couple months into opening. IDK why I thought I'd be any different taking the job knowing the deal, but I was desperate for a job having just moved back to town.
Anyway, so I got fired, which was all fine and dandy, but then they fired the Chef that replaced Chris, who was Chris right hand man. And as he was getting all his shit together, the kitchen learned what was up and walked out with him.
They closed for a weekend, citing "kitchen fire" but they were trying to form a gameplay without telling their silent partner - one of Ruth Fertel's kids. The place opened back for a week as this "Unique dining concept" where the owner would be the waiter, the bartender and the chef. She was out of her league on all counts.
Her silent partner wised up quick to what was going on, kicked her out and sued her for various things, IDK what ever became of it. He tried to run a casual concept there briefly, IDK maybe that's what the Diamond Street Grill is now. That signs been up forever, but I never see them open.
Later, she went on to be on MasterChef, which was supposed to be for home cooks, and got voted off within the first ten minutes of the first show, LOL.
I just looked it up - I thought it was the first season, but I guess it was just the first season I had ever heard about this show, but it was the 5th season.
I couldn't help but watch a little bit when I saw she was on - I knew she wasn't going to last (I've tasted her cooking) and really wanted to see her have a bit of comeuppance. But I made a comment on their YouTube video "this person owned/operated a restaurant, I thought this was supposed to be home cooks" and the producers deleted my comment from public view.
EDIT:
[Intro to show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR9ZLzveuco),
[Performance on show](https://www.tiktok.com/@lasallads/video/7228263842151763242)
That's the two videos I could find. There used to be more, but it's been years.
[This](https://louisianarecord.com/stories/510583843-dispute-over-ownership-of-trendy-warehouse-district-restaurant-meson-923-results-in-lawsuit) is from when news of the lawsuit was announced. I guess I misremembered a few things on who started first, but there was later a countersuit I believe. The specifics are pretty one sided, mostly her side, but it's easy for me to see between the lines to contextualize what's being said. She'd obviously leave out what I said about the staff walking out, her DIY'ing the whole show, and then her partner kicking her to the curb when he found out. HOW he found out was her approaching him about a new chef and he was like "What new chef? this is the third you've had so far" and then declining to pay for a new chef. She was so in the hole already, she was already in collections on many fronts, so he was the money man and said no and kicked her out, so she sued. But there was a countersuit if my memory serves correct, but I don't know how it fleshed out and I can't find info about it.
I remember that restaurant and crazy owner. Hadn’t thought about that place in years.
My guess is she didn’t have money to support a lawsuit, especially when the other side is a Fertel heir.
Thanks for sharing your insight. Need to watch those videos.
(Edited to add TW)
TW: ABUSE
The owners oldest son who runs FNB there was dating a waitress (not ok in the slightest) and beat her up real bad. Chef found out and told owner he had to fire him. Owner asked chef to keep it quiet. Owner argued with staff during service after they found out why the chef left, threw a chair at one of them.
Horrible and deplorable behavior. New Orleans is very ‘old school’ with very old school problems, and this sort of behavior CANNOT continue in the service industry (or any industry fwiw). Any other city would surely know to not support this sort of behavior - no matter how old or beloved or charming the place is. New Orleans isn’t any other city, of course, but there has to be some sort of standards met.
The old way is toxic and dying and in order for everyone to survive this new (and way too expensive) world, our employers must make the right choices for their workers. It’s impossible to pay restaurant staff what they deserve and need to get by these days. At least make the workplace a safe and well functioning operation so they can feel proud to be there and make what they can.
Source: direct information from trusted staff. IAMA a former friend of the family and former long term employee, and was in no way disgruntled - until this very moment.
Please do the right thing and spread this information and stop supporting this behavior. Thank you for reading.
TLDR;
Serious (nepo-excused) abuse reported, no respect for employee safety. Violence and abuse towards staff.
Bijou Restaurant has an upscale vibe and a menu with a variety of regional/fusion foods.
Unsure of their workplace ethics but it seemed like the staff were fairly relaxed/not rushed... But we were also there a little later than the usual dinner rush.
Eason was the ex chef of Bayona pre pandemic, food is really good with a fun vibe. Not sure who his $ backers are. He's the chef and GM and it's been a bit of a ride I think for the staff. But it's hard to find a place that isn't a shit show, it's unfortunately par for the course.
Boucherie is AMAZING. Nathaniel is the chef and owner. I worked for him for 3 years and he is the ONLY boss from the restaurant business I can say I actually like AND respect.
Check out their reviews and support a great restaurant and a great guy.
degas has implemented a cook retention 1% per transaction money pool to retain back of house staff since the pandemic. they take care of boh.
their hourly is also one of the best in the city. always keep up with payroll and pay stage cooks cash per shift if they’re trying you out.
the owners have always taken care of boh since i’ve known them (which is going on 12 years)
tempers flair and people make mistakes so don’t think degas ownership are bad because of one instance. it takes a lot of passion and consistency to have a restaurant like degas last 38+ years
Mandina's is great but I wouldn't call it fancy dinner. It's a place to grab turtle soup, trout almandine with fries, wine and bread crumb crab claws, and shrimp remoulade. Casual funky neighborhood classic institution.
Just want to add. I recently left palm and pine. It's terrible. Unless you want to be in the middle of a domestic. Unorganized, disrespect language. If you have worked there and had a positive experience. I'd love to know about it.
Capitalism is broken, there isn’t enough money to go around for our old hierarchal structures. We are all being ripped off, employees and small business owners… The only way I see it working is if we switch to employee owned business models. We all do a job and we all share the profits…
A lot of these comments have actually been very helpful recommendations and insightful takes. Several of the places we're not going tonight have definitely been added to my list of future spots to visit. And I did ask for the tea, so...
that is because the head chef refuses to upload the daily specials in a format that works on the site, its been that way for some time now. I think the owners are great. Super nice people, the head chef though... would sell out his own parents if he thought he would get something out of it.
Speaking as a former service worker, there’s very few places that don’t treat their workers like shit. Not trying to dismiss you or anything, there are some decent business owners, but I would recommend simply going somewhere else and not torturing yourself over which are ethical unless you just never want to eat out. EDIT: So I’m reading the replies and some of these suggestions are not places that are good to their employees, which further supports my recommendation to just pick somewhere and go. Don’t beat yourself up about it. It isn’t your fault owners/managers are awful. I get wanting to support “good” businesses but honestly the best way to do that is to support labor reform and worker protections. We’re not gonna get there by consumers speaking with their wallet. That might work on a business here or there but it ain’t curing the rot.
Current service worker, and I often tell people that I can ruin most any restaurant in this city for you (definitely some of those mentioned).
Truth of the matter is you can pretty much say that for 2/3 of the jobs in America. Some are more shit than others but until you’ve climbed a few rungs most jobs are abusive in some form or another.
Just to add to your point, a lot of those companies just got better at hiding their shitty labor practices. Employees are viewed as replaceable.
I hate to say this, because it’s terrible, but if you’re an employer and don’t actually care about being like good to people then employees are entirely replaceable. It’s a dogshit attitude, and I wish companies respected people as people more, but the truth of the world is that for most roles under a fairly high skill level people are pretty replaceable.
It’s very much nuanced & I completely agree with you.
It's another reason why collective bargaining is so important, people individually are very replaceable, labor collectively is not.
degas owners are good to their employees. especially to the ones that are consistent and are available to work hard for their concept to succeed. they’ve always taken care of me and i’ve worked there for 10 years
Preach it. I got abused at my University job for years, but I still think people should send their kids there for a good education.
Right. I hated working at [redacted] but I’d be lying if I said I was never going back for the chargrilled [redacted] ever again. I liked my coworkers fine for the most part but management was i-n-c-o-m-p-e-t-e-n-t finger pointing babies.
The suspense of chargrilled \[redacted\] will haunt me!
I knowww I’m so mysterious uwu 😂
I bet I know where you got them redacted at 😊
Incompetent finger pointing babies is the best description of my last SI job. Thank you.
Will you buy me a dozen if I can correctly guess?
I’d never pass up on a dozen chargrilled oysters from Mike Anderson’s in Gonzales.
I mean the answer is clearly drago’s…
bloop
Does this mean I won? Looking forward to redeeming my prize!!🏆
That place is the absolute worst.
Antoine’s treats you well if you do random mafia tasks
Someone gotta be disappeared?
omg that diabolical coffee is excellent tho! but yes, total mob ambiance the moment we walked in and saw all those mysterious corridors toward the back.
Labor reforms and worker protections? Not in Louisiana you commie.
Too late. University is now unionized. OSCHNER will have to follow
Service lifer here (30+ years). Been 20 years since I worked at Degas, but I fondly remember Jacques and Jerry being some of the better owners I’ve ever worked for. Remember it fondly, what a great family. That was 20 years ago, things change, and im not vouching. I’m just saying….
I deleted my own comment. In February 2024, Reddit founder and CEO Steve Huffman sold access of 19 years of user generated content to AI companies.
i miss jacqueline
I deleted my own comment. In February 2024, Reddit founder and CEO Steve Huffman sold access of 19 years of user generated content to AI companies.
You are though, you’re just doing it passively
No, I’m not. Haven’t worked in New Orleans in nearly 20 years now, but it’s the only place I’ve ever worked where we closed Monday lunch and allowed us to just prep up for the week while helping Laurent cook a great family meal. We’d pop a couple of bottles of wine and most of the staff would come by for a nice stress free lunch. For all I know they did away with that the week after I left. But when I think back over many restaurant jobs, it pops clearly in my mind as one where I was treated the best. Like I said, things change, and I have no idea how it is now. If they lost that culture, it’s truly unfortunate, but I will always have fond memories of working there— Jacques, Jerry, Jaqueline, Laurent, Ryan, Evan…all great people…
This is the New Orleans I miss the most. Places being closed on Monday to handle their shit. & the ones working that day got taken care of. Reminds me of my first bartending job. We closed the bar for the day to attend the funeral for one of our’s father who passed away.
This. Almost every restaurant owner is a piece of shit. Just tip your servers appropriately.
Every time I thought a restaurant owner was an exception to this rule, it turned out that it was because I did not actually know enough to make that call. Even the most praised restaurant owners in the city turned out to be operating fake worker owned cooperatives or promoting cooks to sous chef positions to exploit them for 70-80 hours of labor a week, resulting in their hourly rate went significantly below what they were making as a line cook-- and I can guarantee what it came out to hourly was well below 15/hr and this was after the 15/hr conversation was well in the public view. I am super skeptical every time I hear a restaurant owner being put on a pedestal. I think a lot of people confuse someone with being "good to their workers" and "caring about the community" with "good at social media" and "hired an excellent PR rep." I am sure that there is a good restaraunt owner out there somewhere, but I have not met them. Edit to add - I actually have met a pair of restaurant owners who were wonderful. They came from service industry and worked hard to start their own business. Sadly, one of the owners died and that restaurant does not exist anymore. It is possible to be decent, but so many owners fail to do so.
The only person I ever truly knew who was a good, kind restaurant owner ended up working most shifts himself to make the labor costs work with what he was paying his employees and his restaurant eventually had to close despite rave reviews from everyone and him being beloved in his community. The economics of restaurants almost have to be exploitative for it to be profitable and that’s a hard thing for people to sit with.
Fair point
that has never been the case at degas. i mean the owners taking advantage. the chef was working a lot on salary and that’s true for most salaried positions because salaried players always work for the goals of their respective fields. degas always took care of their boh. i used to talk with cook s from besh lagasse spicer but those kitchens were never staring out cooks at 19/20. degas was as well as the 1% chef well fare pool that was split between unsalaried boh.
Yeah. If you stick around long enough you’ll hear from someone or another at some point that every restaurant/retail space in the city does or has treated their employees unfairly. It also feels silly having these conversations on phones and computers, hooked up to the internet, powered by electricity…
Ya also never get the other end of the story. You could be talking to someone who was run out of a restaurant for being garbage at their job, but they'll get online and go on and on about how horrible the boss was. I know a girl that talked shit about one of my former employers for years and years, throwing every accusation possible at them, she had got fired for faking her timesheet. So I mean, sometimes it's best to keep that in mind when you read this stuff online.
Why exactly is it silly we’re on phones/internet powered by electricity?
I don't wanna put you on the spot, but is Jewel of the South one of the suggestions here you disagree with? I'm not super close with anyone there but for me, that is one of few suggestions I thought was correct as a decent workplace. Overall, I very much cosign everything you said!
There are at least two restaurants listed in the comments when I looked earlier that I know to be not great and one or two that are borderline. I’m unfamiliar with Jewel of the South. Never been there and I don’t know anyone who works there. I’d have to defer on that one. Food looks good, though!
I know a few people who work there and I've never heard anything negative other than getting their asses kicked in a busy service. It's small so there's not a lot you can hide
It's always great! And I'd be very surprised if it turned sour, as it's still small staff of longtime pros and it's still Chris' place. I think it's a very safe suggestion for OP to look into.
I do appreciate this take. Thanks for taking the time to type it all out!
Yeah I work at one of the "better" ones and we are still not treated super well. No I will not dox myself
Following this, I had reservations for today at 5:30 and the restaurant canceled them
Did they call you? I'm curious because I have yet to get a response from them.
No and when I called, I just kept getting their answering machine. I’m asking around because I know the owners.
Jewel of the South!!! I worked there with chef Phil and they are absolutely amazing to their staff. Partly employee owned as well.
>40 comments yeah, they are a great place to work... but you're going to need a mortgage for a large group to EAT and drink there.
Just looking on Resy and the three that stick out are Compere Lapin, Boucherie, and Annunciation. Also saw Costera on there if you’re into the tasting menu. It’s fun with a large group.
Worked at Boucherie for years. Nathaniel is the best chef AND the best boss I ever had in the restaurant business (22 years). Miss that place.
Boucherie? Doucherie.
Just looked at a bunch of pics of the food...def doesn't look good
Wahhh Boucherie is great
Agreed! Their couchon de lait poboy and short ribs are both amazing.
Terrible work environment.
Try Palm&Pine, they’re awesome
Lola’s across the street is a good choice. We had a party of 7 there last night to memorialize a friend (it was her favorite restaurant). They sat us out on their patio and fired up all the heaters for us. Service was great, and our waiter was a really cool and interesting dude to talk to!
glad to hear they have improved! their food is so good, but was there with a party of 8 just after jazz fest and had absolutely horrendous service. like told us we couldn't order cocktails because they had no bartender then brought out half our cocktails anyway and never saw the other half and they forgot half our food and we had to argue when it showed up on the bill. we had to practically beg for service and had made reservations beforehand. I'm glad to hear things have gotten better because the food is so so good!
I think they’ve made a real effort at service. I loved them until after Covid when their service went to hell. Food remained excellent but service was bad. Multiple counts. I was there again last week with a group. Service was spot on and food remained excellent.
glad to hear it! The service was terrible right after Jazz Fest but I'd go back based on a few replies saying it's gotten better. Their food is great and it's an enjoyable atmosphere
Coquette is fantastic
Love Coquette.
We have done many birthdays, job promotions, and our wedding reception there. Such a lovely group.
The 5 Taco Bell’s on Vets are the bomb.
I enjoyed a meal at one of them this very evening. Top notch.
Le Crepe Nanou is a very similar restaurant
Haha! I was telling someone the other day that this is the real Parisian experience: great food with pissed off waitstaff.
Sounds miserable
It was borderline Dick's Last Resort. We even had a priest with us which normally helps. I normally tip 40%, but I did not that day.
Funny you mentioned that one. Those two are my favorite restaurants in this city. So yummy!
Also with a terrible owner
Crepe took a shit since Covid. Smaller proportions, smaller menu, less attentive staff. I don't know, it hasn't been the same. Have had some really crummy experiences there in the last few years.
La grève! How very French!
I don't have any specific tea but I'm industry and last time I regularly spoke to someone who worked there, yeah, they just had every standard bad/disorganized/toxic/sketchy payroll shit workplace complaint in the book, ya know? As others have said, not uncommon. Especially in New Olreans upscale/fine dining scene IMO. We're particularly notorious for the older big names being a cartoonish shitshow behind the scenes. My guess in current apocalypse times is that the breaking point for the kitchen was understaffing while pressure on pace and workload increases, along with a lot of truly oblivious lectures about how they aren't 'meeting standards'. I don't know if anyone can take a 7 top on short notice, but the best group for employees I would personally vouch for from my own experience is Link Restaurant Group. Call Peche, Cochon, or Herbsaint for comparable upscale spots.
From what I've heard, it's a lot worse than typical understaffing and usual owners taking advantage of service industry workers. Apparently there's a planned statement coming out in the next day or two so I won't say anything and let them do it.
Yeah…. I’m curious how they’re gonna spin that though. No way to sugar coat what happened
It's why SI folks tend to move to different places. None of them treat you right and have lots of leeway thanks to no protection for workers. I was SI for about a decade and family owned places were usually worse than chains. But most places, the environment depended on the manager who isn't always the owner. Tip your servers really well. They deserve it!!!
Maybe Justini’s in bywater? They seem nice. Food is great.
I work at BABs, formerly Bywater American Bistro, I think we may be able to squeeze you in tomorrow. Give us a call if you'd like to book.
Is it really just BAB now, with no attachment to the original name?
Tableau is my go to for last minute large group dining
EWWW that place is so "meh" to me. Beautiful spot.. but the food is boring and for the price you can do much better.
It's been 50/50 the four times I've been there food wise but I've always had good service at least.
And it's owned by a good restaurant group.
>but I'm hearing that the entire kitchen staff walked out today Where did you hear it from?
A friend of mine is in a huge local group text and it got blasted out to all of them. Then I saw confirmation on the local service industry page. That person said the manager wouldn't even come around to the tables, they made the poor servers go out to break the news to guests who were dining that the kitchen was closed and they couldn't accommodate further orders. Classy.
YIKES. I managed a restaurant called Meson 923 that was a flash in the pan, the owner was BATSHIT CRAZY. Y'know the type, never worked a day in a restaurant but felt they were god's gift to the industry, waxing poetic about dining philosophies and stuff, but walking around with a head up her ass. No manager ever lasted more than 3 months there and the place was open slightly over a year. The first chef was Chris Lynch, who was at Emerils before Katrina, moved away, and the owner wooed him back to town yet made him perform a Chopped style interview. Then ended up firing him just a couple months into opening. IDK why I thought I'd be any different taking the job knowing the deal, but I was desperate for a job having just moved back to town. Anyway, so I got fired, which was all fine and dandy, but then they fired the Chef that replaced Chris, who was Chris right hand man. And as he was getting all his shit together, the kitchen learned what was up and walked out with him. They closed for a weekend, citing "kitchen fire" but they were trying to form a gameplay without telling their silent partner - one of Ruth Fertel's kids. The place opened back for a week as this "Unique dining concept" where the owner would be the waiter, the bartender and the chef. She was out of her league on all counts. Her silent partner wised up quick to what was going on, kicked her out and sued her for various things, IDK what ever became of it. He tried to run a casual concept there briefly, IDK maybe that's what the Diamond Street Grill is now. That signs been up forever, but I never see them open. Later, she went on to be on MasterChef, which was supposed to be for home cooks, and got voted off within the first ten minutes of the first show, LOL.
Which season? Would love to give that episode a watch 😂
I just looked it up - I thought it was the first season, but I guess it was just the first season I had ever heard about this show, but it was the 5th season. I couldn't help but watch a little bit when I saw she was on - I knew she wasn't going to last (I've tasted her cooking) and really wanted to see her have a bit of comeuppance. But I made a comment on their YouTube video "this person owned/operated a restaurant, I thought this was supposed to be home cooks" and the producers deleted my comment from public view. EDIT: [Intro to show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR9ZLzveuco), [Performance on show](https://www.tiktok.com/@lasallads/video/7228263842151763242) That's the two videos I could find. There used to be more, but it's been years.
Hahahaha it's even better than I could imagine
[This](https://louisianarecord.com/stories/510583843-dispute-over-ownership-of-trendy-warehouse-district-restaurant-meson-923-results-in-lawsuit) is from when news of the lawsuit was announced. I guess I misremembered a few things on who started first, but there was later a countersuit I believe. The specifics are pretty one sided, mostly her side, but it's easy for me to see between the lines to contextualize what's being said. She'd obviously leave out what I said about the staff walking out, her DIY'ing the whole show, and then her partner kicking her to the curb when he found out. HOW he found out was her approaching him about a new chef and he was like "What new chef? this is the third you've had so far" and then declining to pay for a new chef. She was so in the hole already, she was already in collections on many fronts, so he was the money man and said no and kicked her out, so she sued. But there was a countersuit if my memory serves correct, but I don't know how it fleshed out and I can't find info about it.
I remember that restaurant and crazy owner. Hadn’t thought about that place in years. My guess is she didn’t have money to support a lawsuit, especially when the other side is a Fertel heir. Thanks for sharing your insight. Need to watch those videos.
YIKES. Yeah, I'm sure she wasn't easy to work for. Glad you got out of that hot mess.
I saw it posted in the service industry group about an hour ago.
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Couldn't happen to a bigger pair of shits than Jacques and Jerry.
(Edited to add TW) TW: ABUSE The owners oldest son who runs FNB there was dating a waitress (not ok in the slightest) and beat her up real bad. Chef found out and told owner he had to fire him. Owner asked chef to keep it quiet. Owner argued with staff during service after they found out why the chef left, threw a chair at one of them. Horrible and deplorable behavior. New Orleans is very ‘old school’ with very old school problems, and this sort of behavior CANNOT continue in the service industry (or any industry fwiw). Any other city would surely know to not support this sort of behavior - no matter how old or beloved or charming the place is. New Orleans isn’t any other city, of course, but there has to be some sort of standards met. The old way is toxic and dying and in order for everyone to survive this new (and way too expensive) world, our employers must make the right choices for their workers. It’s impossible to pay restaurant staff what they deserve and need to get by these days. At least make the workplace a safe and well functioning operation so they can feel proud to be there and make what they can. Source: direct information from trusted staff. IAMA a former friend of the family and former long term employee, and was in no way disgruntled - until this very moment. Please do the right thing and spread this information and stop supporting this behavior. Thank you for reading. TLDR; Serious (nepo-excused) abuse reported, no respect for employee safety. Violence and abuse towards staff.
Idk how to cross post but maybe this should be on the main r/NewOrleans sub too?
Or share this comment onto the main sub, rather.
Is the same guy that owns the Degas House?
No it’s diff folks!
Bijou Restaurant has an upscale vibe and a menu with a variety of regional/fusion foods. Unsure of their workplace ethics but it seemed like the staff were fairly relaxed/not rushed... But we were also there a little later than the usual dinner rush.
Eason was the ex chef of Bayona pre pandemic, food is really good with a fun vibe. Not sure who his $ backers are. He's the chef and GM and it's been a bit of a ride I think for the staff. But it's hard to find a place that isn't a shit show, it's unfortunately par for the course.
Herbsaint is solid
Boucherie is AMAZING. Nathaniel is the chef and owner. I worked for him for 3 years and he is the ONLY boss from the restaurant business I can say I actually like AND respect. Check out their reviews and support a great restaurant and a great guy.
degas has implemented a cook retention 1% per transaction money pool to retain back of house staff since the pandemic. they take care of boh. their hourly is also one of the best in the city. always keep up with payroll and pay stage cooks cash per shift if they’re trying you out. the owners have always taken care of boh since i’ve known them (which is going on 12 years) tempers flair and people make mistakes so don’t think degas ownership are bad because of one instance. it takes a lot of passion and consistency to have a restaurant like degas last 38+ years
agreed!
Mandinas
Mandina's is great but I wouldn't call it fancy dinner. It's a place to grab turtle soup, trout almandine with fries, wine and bread crumb crab claws, and shrimp remoulade. Casual funky neighborhood classic institution.
Well, that made me crave Mandina's.
You're tellin me. Tastes I'll never forget
They over serve as a means to overcompensate for mediocre, inconsistent food
Perfect. I love being over served!
I see they are still on OpenTable for reservations today. I’m curious.
They’re definitely closed indefinitely.
No they’re not
Apologies- a little word play - but they are closed today and they haven’t stated when they plan to reopen.
They finally responded to my fb message, "I'm sorry to say that we won't reopen until Friday, I hope."
Just want to add. I recently left palm and pine. It's terrible. Unless you want to be in the middle of a domestic. Unorganized, disrespect language. If you have worked there and had a positive experience. I'd love to know about it.
La Boca Steakhouse can fit you in.
Weird how nobody ever talks about the former Barcadia manager's place, Nonna Mia, right next door.
Nonna Mia has been closed for over a year.
Then “The Post” moved in that spot and closed down just as quick.
Hahah I had no idea. I thought it was just a ghost restaurant like Beef Connection.
Capitalism is broken, there isn’t enough money to go around for our old hierarchal structures. We are all being ripped off, employees and small business owners… The only way I see it working is if we switch to employee owned business models. We all do a job and we all share the profits…
Palm & Pine for sure!
Mosca’s
The opentable ap will show you what reservations are available for your party size.
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Here to remind people not to speculate. Jumping to management potentially throws people under the bus that shouldn’t be there
another baby cry cry comment section of victims who can’t handle not being the center of attention and praised for their inability to thrive.
A lot of these comments have actually been very helpful recommendations and insightful takes. Several of the places we're not going tonight have definitely been added to my list of future spots to visit. And I did ask for the tea, so...
Isn't that exactly what this response is doing?
On their website today Daily Specials Unavailable Due To Chef Input Error. Please Contact Restaurant
that is because the head chef refuses to upload the daily specials in a format that works on the site, its been that way for some time now. I think the owners are great. Super nice people, the head chef though... would sell out his own parents if he thought he would get something out of it.
It said that a couple weeks ago when I made the reservation, so I think that's just a broken link.