Blame it on the pandemic or blame it on a concept that didn’t translate to the Crescent City, but two consecutive food hall concepts weren’t able to succeed at 801 Magazine Street in the Warehouse District.
Now, the growing Boulevard American Bistro chain is set to move into the space and look to succeed with a more proven concept: the sit-down restaurant. It’s important to note that the ownership group behind the steakhouse-style restaurant chain isn’t intimidated by the prospect of filling big shoes. In June, a French Quarter location opened in a space that previously held Emeril Lagasse’s NOLA restaurant, which had served the Quarter for 30 years.
Perusing the menu of the French Quarter location provides some hints of what we could expect in the Warehouse District. Appetizers include fried oysters and the classic spinach-and-artichoke dip. Entrees include a fire-roasted half chicken, bone-in ribeye, rack of lamb barbecue ribs and pan-seared crab cake. Desserts include a brownie a la mode, walnut apple cobbler and key lime pie.
Boulevard American Bistro is owned by Creole Cuisine Restaurant Concepts, which entered into a lease-to-own agreement for the Magazine Street Space, according to the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate. The group plans to remove the food stalls but keep the central bar. The new restaurant will have an open kitchen, along with a mix of booths and tables for seating. Importantly, the ownership group also operates some very established New Orleans restaurants, such as Broussard’s and Café Maspero. When the new location of Boulevard American Bistro opens, which is slated for fall 2023, it likely marks the end of the food hall experiment in New Orleans. The concept is fairly successful in large metropolises like New York City, but it apparently never captured the public’s imagination here. At the Magazine Street location, the Auction House Market opened in 2018 and made it through the pandemic until March 2022. In August 2022, the Hall on Mag opened with a hybrid service model, but it only lasted until December that same year.
