In the Bywater, behind a set of iron gates and corrugated metal walls, I found an old riverfront workshop where they once repaired maritime engines humming again with new life.
One room is now devoted to a gleaming modern coffee roaster, working up small batches of some of the best coffee you’ll find in New Orleans.
In the next room, a bakery space produces bread that is half a world away from the New Orleans standard, modeled instead on the dense, dark, rye-flecked loaves of Nordic lands.
Both are served next door at Applied Arts Café, a new neighborhood hot spot for the unaccustomed delights of Scandinavian breakfast.
The cafe is a sunny, colorful space that I was delighted to discover. Sitting between patterned pillows and curling plants, it feels like visiting the den of your favorite aunt who travels the world and keeps a cozy home filled with eclectic finds.
Applied Arts started as a boutique coffee brand, sold wholesale to restaurants and by the bag at markets, and created by a one-time fine-dining chef who shifted gears. That’s Baruch Rabassa. His partner, Melissa Stewart, has Norwegian family roots.
So now, at their café, the chef has turned his culinary mind to fine coffee, and Nordic comfort food.
The food at Applied Arts is clean, bright, healthy and anything but boring. The dish to get is called smorbord, Scandinavian open-faced sandwiches. Like a French tartine, they serve as platforms to build a perfect bite over great bread. Try the one with pickled herring or fluffy egg salad. Now settle in for another cup of Applied Arts way with coffee.
There’s coffee that gives a morning jolt, and thank goodness for it. And then there’s another type of cup that sings a softer song. The roast is lighter, the flavors more delicate and layered. It’s the coffee you have for an afternoon chat, a spell with a book or just a good think.
Maybe now, with the echoes of a swift Mardi Gras receding, that has fresh appeal in New Orleans. Before we shift into crawfish and festival season again, Applied Arts was just the kind of mellow epicurean outing I needed.
