The fish was arrayed at a jaunty angle, its bright, light-tasting sauce was a reduction of bouillabaisse broth over a cool, crunchy tangle of mirliton slaw. It was nothing revolutionary, but it did feel contemporary, and, since it was served at Arnaud’s Restaurant, this dish was definitely a signal.
It’s one of a half-dozen revamped or altogether new dishes that joined Arnaud’s menu this fall. Plenty of restaurants devise that many specials every day. But very few restaurants, even in New Orleans, have a history and significance like this one. Taken together, the menu changes amount to the most visible sign to date of the next generation of family owners at Arnaud’s putting their mark on the old line French Creole restaurant.
Katy Casbarian and her brother Archie Casbarian have been running Arnaud’s together since the death of their father, Archie A. Casbarian, in 2009. They have been treading lightly and describe themselves as caretakers for the legacy of a restaurant that dates to 1918.
But part of that legacy has been a gradual evolution. The Casbarian family’s tenure at Arnaud’s began in 1978, and since then they’ve renovated, expanded and gently maneuvered the restaurant to respond to the market, while adhering to the fundamentals that make French Creole restaurants unique to New Orleans.
This latest round of changes amounts to some lighter touches on the traditional menu. Roasted quail, once piped with a murky foiegras mousse, are now filled with a mild seafood boudin and splashed with a tart raspberry gastrique. The requests for a vegan entrée that have grown through the years are now answered with mirliton stuffed with eggplant tapenade and squash. For another new dish, a crust of thin, crisp potato is fused to Gulf fish, with a buttery, anise-scented sauce.
These menu changes don’t feel sweeping, and that feels right. They’re adding options around the edges to what remains a trove of definitive French Creole tradition, where meals start with airy soufflé potatoes and end with bananas Foster prepared tableside and where grilled pompano with dashes of lemon and garlic may still be the simple, utterly satisfying highlight of any meal.
On busy nights, Arnaud’s can feel more like an old hotel than a restaurant, with parties in motion between a warren of 18 dining rooms. Between them all the restaurant even maintains its own small museum, a captivating if somewhat creepy gallery of vintage Carnival gowns collected by Arnaud’s previous owner.
The restaurant’s French 75 bar has become a top destination for craft cocktail mavens, but there’s a second bar here too, the Richelieu Bar. A tucked-away chamber, nestled and windowless, it’s a comparatively quiet spot to get a postprandial and watch the traffic of dolled up regulars, camera-toting visitors and tuxedoed waiters shuttling dessert carts between dining rooms.
Change has come to all of the city’s old line restaurants in the years since Hurricane Katrina, often with drama and sometimes with litigation. Arnaud’s is changing too, though its direction seems steady, channeled by those fundamentals of history, personality and ritual that can make dinner a dining experience and a restaurant an institution.
Arnaud’s Restaurant
813 Bienville St., (504) 523-5433; arnaudsrestaurant.com
Dinner nightly, brunch Sunday.
Also, holiday lunches are scheduled for Dec. 12, Dec. 15-19 and Dec. 22-24.
