Most tables had at least one plate of fried chicken in rotation, because this was Willie Mae’s and that fried chicken is renowned and New Orleans hasn’t had a taste of it for too long.
But when people saw servers bring the grilled redfish from the kitchen, their eyes followed it and many ordered that, too.
There were candied yams on the back of the stove, and butterbeans and smothered cabbage. But there was also sweet potato syrup in a modern riff on the old fashioned from the cocktail list, and a dessert melding bananas Foster and a banana split to end. There were familiar faces working the dining room, though now in a contemporary downtown setting.
This is the new Willie Mae’s NOLA, the restaurant that just opened in downtown New Orleans
This is not your father’s Willie Mae’s. Nor really is it proprietor Terry Seaton-Stewart’s great-grandmother’s Willie Mae’s. It was she, the late Willie Mae Seaton, who started the original restaurant across town in Treme in 1957, and it was her recipes and way with hospitality that made it a New Orleans legend.
The new restaurant is very different, from the big bar to an expanded menu of dishes never seen at the old one, including gumbo.
But the new restaurant is also the continuation of a family story, and an important step in bringing back the original.
Going on close to 70 years in business it's among the oldest black restaurants in New Orleans. It's gone from a backstreet find to a bucket list destination for travelers in the know.
Willie Mae’s Scotch House in Treme has been closed since a fire broke out in April 2023.
The family says it will return, though rebuilding has taken much longer than first anticipated. Reopening is likely still a year away.
Opening this new Willie Mae’s NOLA downtown is a first step back, and also a new interpretation of the family restaurant legacy for the next generation of patrons.
It’s near the hotels and the Superdome. It feels like a date night place. It is an upscale casual restaurant with thick roots to the past. The gumbo is great and the Willie Mae’s fried chicken still hits home.
