Hungry Eyes
Mason Hereford does fine dining, with an eighties twist
When it comes to starting a new restaurant, New Orleans chef and restaurateur Mason Hereford always comes up with the name first. Turkey and the Wolf and Molly’s Rise and Shine are local and even national favorites, beloved for elevating creative menus in thematically playful spaces.
Hereford's newest concept, the eighties-inspired Hungry Eyes, opened on Magazine Street in early April. He and his wife Lauren Agudo partnered with Turkey and the Wolf Co-Chef Phil Cenac for the project, with a drinks program run by Lahzie Takada (wine) and Carlos Quinonez (cocktails), and help from Kate Mirante, the Director of Operations of the entire company.
With any decade-based concept, the risk of nostalgia translating to gimmick lurks. How much fuel does riffing on a time period still have in its tank? Hereford and his team aimed to use the eighties mostly as a “vibe guide”. They didn’t want the restaurant to be a “theme park that looks like Saved by the Bell or something,” Hereford joked. “We found so much stuff we wanted to buy, but it didn't quite perfectly hit the vibe.” With the help of Paul Octavious, a creative director from Chicago, the result is an atmosphere of curated prints, neon pastels, and whimsical geometrics.
It’s a restaurant for a night out, Vesper martini in hand. The cocktail list is rounded out with colorful concoctions, often infused with Pacific-tinged flavors like pandan, ube, and sparkling sake. The Robert (named for Hereford’s father), a refreshing sipper with mushroom and sherry and sage, dances along the line between savory and sweet. Frankly, the drinks seem like they are having their own good time.
The decidedly un-eighties, and perhaps the best, thing about Hungry Eyes, is the food itself. As lively as the atmosphere, the dishes are “medium-size” plates designed for sharing and snacking. Composed as “food that pairs really well with drinking,” these dishes are “flavor forward, not a lot of subtlety,” Hereford said. And though they are meant to compliment a martini buzz, the food is anything but an afterthought. Drawing from Mediterranean, Asian, and other global influences, the dishes are layered with technique. The eggplant dip, with a blend of olives, mushrooms, and Calabrian pepper is a prime example of flavors working together to make a whole greater than its parts. Flavor forward, yes, but nuanced.
The joy of Hereford’s restaurants is that they are decidedly unstuffy while committing to service and flavor, and in this spirit the Hungry Eyes menu seems to wink at its diners: artichoke hearts are served “on the half shell” in a tray of ceramic oyster shells, and the hanger steak comes skewered with melted bleu cheese on top. You can get a choice of “carbs on the side,” including crab-boiled potatoes or fries with garlicky toum. The sense of humor works well because the food is so thoughtfully prepared. Dishes seem to be plated to encourage diner interaction: the aromatic seafood curry comes with a trio of rice, cilantro, and crisp, buttery roti that you can mix and match. The skewer of grilled pastrami is served with lettuce leaves and lightly pickled carrot and daikon for a do-it-yourself lettuce wrap. Dessert is where nostalgia comes out to have some fun, and Hungry Eyes’ option is a twist on the classic Viennetta frozen dessert cake, complete with a B52 reference.
With a dinner-only menu, Hungry Eyes allows its chefs to work with those seasonal and hard-to-find ingredients in ways they could not before. “After seven years of working in Turkey and Wolf and five years of Molly’s," Hereford said, “[we thought], why don't we take what we've now learned doing casual food and see if we can apply that playfulness to these higher price point ingredients?”
Dessert is where nostalgia comes out to have some fun, and Hungry Eyes’ option is a twist on the classic Viennetta frozen dessert cake, complete with a B52 reference.
This is where the design and menu come together: the ambient lighting assists in creating a distinction from the daytime fare of Turkey and the Wolf or Molly’s. As Hereford explained, diners “have to be in a different atmosphere to really be in the mood for “fine-dining”-esque ingredients.
The kitchen layout also helped determine what kinds of dishes Cenac and Hereford brought to the menu.
“We want to cook the food that we can best accomplish with our skill set and the tools we have at our disposal,”
“After seven years of working in Turkey and Wolf and five years of Molly’s," Hereford said, “[we thought], why don't we take what we've now learned doing casual food and see if we can apply that playfulness to these higher price point ingredients?”
Hereford said. “It’s a small kitchen. We have a certain amount of room for tools, which helps us figure out what we're going to cook. The skill sets of the people that join the team, the flow of service, all those things sort of decide the food. So we try not to put ourselves in a situation where any rules exist.”
When I visited, it was the day after opening night. They had nearly doubled their one hundred cover goal and were already making tweaks to the menu and flow of service.
The restaurant is walk-in only, but patrons can put their names down and wait for a text while they have a drink nearby, like at Second Vine Wine next door. Whether Hungry Eyes stirs personal memories or not, it’s a welcome addition to a bustling block of Uptown’s Magazine Street. Come for the fun of saying where you’re going, and stay for elegant flavors in a lighthearted environment.