When the Ethiopian restaurant Addis NOLA made its debut as a food vendor at French Quarter Festival last year, one of its offerings required a bit of explanation.
It was the sambusas, staples of the Ethiopian table, with seasoned beef enclosed in triangles of crisp, flaky dough. With more experience in the festival game, Addis NOLA is this year simplifying the sales pitch, calling it instead "the world’s greatest meat pie."
The bravura is fitting for French Quarter Fest food. After all, Addis NOLA will be out there serving food alongside more than 60 other vendors who together turn different areas around the French Quarter into one gigantic collection of instant gratification street food.
Vendors know they have to serve something special to stand out. For meat pies alone, there are competing options from Mrs. Wheat's and Lasyone's.
It all goes down over this long weekend, Thursday through Sunday. And, because this is New Orleans, many of those flavors come with personalities, the well-known vendors who take part year after year. It’s people like Vance Vaucresson, educating others on Creole food traditions one hot sausage po-boy at a time.
Or it’s Miss Linda Green, the Yakamein Lady, dishing out her signature soup.
In recent years there’s also been much more diversity among vendors, part of an intentional step by the festival itself. You’ll find restaurants from all around town and across the flavor spectrum, grand restaurants and new mom-and-pops, well as caterers and food trucks in the mix.
French Quarter Fest also gives the rare opportunity to reunite with restaurants no longer open, at least for now.
One is Cafe Dauphine, known for Creole soul cooking in the Holy Cross neighborhood, but shuttered since the pandemic. It will be back at the festival offering essentially a sampler menu of its specialties, like fried ribs, seafood-stuffed egg rolls and fried stuffed bell peppers.
Praline Connection is another vanished restaurant that will be back for the festival, with fried okra and chicken livers.
Paired with all the music, and the interplay of New Orleans people themselves, it's all another lens on the culture of New Orleans that flows through food.
French Quarter Festival
April 13-16, various locations across the French Quarter
See frenchquarterfest.org/food for complete vendor list and menu.
