Building a reputation on “gourmet to-go” food, Heard Dat Kitchen recently suffered a setback when a car crashed into the front of the restaurant. However, the restaurant will still go forward with a planned move around the corner by the end of 2023.
Launched in 2015 by Jeffrey Heard, Heard Dat Kitchen has built a sterling reputation on scratch-made food that’s reasonably priced. Unfortunately, someone driving a car and attempting a donut maneuver slammed into the front of Heard Dat Kitchen, causing major damage.
After being closed a few days for repairs, the restaurant is back open, but according to Heard, a three-decade veteran in the hospitality industry, the timing of the crash couldn’t have been worse.
“Most of our business is tourists and people hear about us on the weekend while they’re in town,” he told What Now New Orleans. “Then, early on Monday, we’re busy with people trying to check us out before they leave.”
As the name of the restaurant might indicate, Heard Dat Kitchen has built a word-of-mouth reputation for serving great Louisiana food at approachable prices stems. For example, the Superdome ($20.50) is a dish of blackened fish fillet with mashed potatoes, lobster béchamel cream sauce, corn and crispy onion rings. The Bourbon Street Love ($17.50) is a dish of Southern fried chicken, creamy mac and cheese, crawfish cream sauce, green onions and a side of house-made potato salad. Dishes like these have gotten the chef a lot of attention, and Louisiana Cookin’ recently tapped him for its 2023 Chefs to Watch dinner.
The new location will allow the restaurant to take advantage of an improving Central City neighborhood with more indoor seating and fully-plated dishes for dine-in customers. Heard hopes it will attract more locals.
“My biggest challenge had been getting local people to come because of the bad reputation of the neighborhood,” he said. “But when the store next door closed during the pandemic, we realized that it was a big reason for the high crime. Also, local people started finding out about us during the pandemic, when everyone was looking for to-go food.”
