When COVID hit, Mary Nell Bennett was forced to rethink her Nell’s Catering Company and one of the moves she made was to buy a 1962 Shasta Airflight trailer to convert it into a mobile food unit dubbed The Nell Shell. But until that magnificent contraption is able to hit the road in March 2024, the Nell Shell will be dry-docked as a seafood shack location at 3511 Magazine St, starting in December. Once March rolls around, the space will revert to being the Imperial Woodpecker Sno-Balls shop and The Nell Shell trailer will hit the road.
Bennett recently told What Now New Orleans that she’s currently operating The Nell Shell along with long-time colleague Chris Otten, who she met at Loyola Law School. She said the menu at the Uptown location will directly translate to the road. But for now, the Magazine Street location is the restaurant’s forever home.
“We have menu boards and signage going up so it’ll look a little bit fresher, I think,” she said. “That’s a great spot on Magazine, in between Louisiana and Napoleon. It’s kinda hard to beat.”
The menu will feature some of the greatest hits from Nell’s Catering Company, which has been serving the Greater Crescent City area since 2014. Those hits include shrimp and orzo pasta salad, corn and crab bisque, and Maine lobster rolls. Bennett said there will also be rotating soup and sandwich specials, and something she called “sea-cuterie”: an array of caviar and tinned fish presented in the traditional charcuterie style.
“We’ve done a lot of different charcuterie platters with catering, and we wanted to put a little bit of a seafood spin on it,” Bennett said. “The tinned fish industry is kind of having a moment right now and we wanted to sort of highlight that.”
Beverage options include an array of soft drinks and canned mocktails. Bennett pointed out that there’s also a wine store conveniently located across the street.
“We have a small space, but we’ve put a lot of thought, effort, and research into figuring out all the different things we’re going to offer,” she added. “So I think it’ll be good.”
