This restaurant is a couple miles from the Quarter but worth the walk or cab ride! I thought I wanted the downstairs dining room but was pleased to find the upstairs quieter and airy with lots of windows for nice lighting. They offer a 3 course lunch menu and a number of other plates to add to the meal. Even the “small plates” are enough to share. I would warn that the wine list is a little spendy, with a pretty good markup.

Our lunch menu started with the pork gumbo and it was divinely smoked and full flavored. Served with the crusty house bread, you can bet nothing was left in this bowl. The addition of a sweet potato salad was a nice melding and fun turn on potato salad. The sweetbreads were served on a waffle with maple syrup drizzled over, along with lots of other goodies. It was another total winner. The crudo was nicely flavored and cut much thicker than other crudos l’ve had. Where they slightly stumbled were the fried oysters which had so little taste they were completely obscured by the lovely smoked fish remoulade. It could have been served as a plate in itself. The shrimp in the main course was cooked perfectly and again seasoned with items from their smoker. It was absolutely the best rendition of shrimp and grits I’ve had! The chocolate dessert was a bit mild for me but the accompanying pecan cookies were a bit of heaven. Of course I had the donuts which were strongly flavored of ginger and slathered with a wonderful sweet coating. The only problem with dessert was we couldn’t eat any of their incredible bread with it!