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Da Parish

Food and culture on the rise in St. Bernard

by

Cheryl Gerber

Liz Williams didn’t move from the French Quarter to St. Bernard Parish for its dining scene. 

Though a serious foodie, Williams, the president and director of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, is no food snob. She adores the mom-and-pop places that have long populated “da Parish,” as the St. Bernardians call it.  But in the four years since she and her husband relocated, Williams has been pleased to see a fledgling art scene emerge, which in turn seems to be encouraging a flurry of new eateries. 

“Since I’ve only been here four years, not ten or twenty, I can’t say I’ve seen enormous differences in the culinary scene.  We moved because at a certain age, we wanted a place that felt safe and comfortable and where we could make changes as we aged in place.  That’s hard to do in the French Quarter.” 

Welcomed warmly by her Chalmette neighbors, Williams feels very much at home, and not at all like she’s left New Orleans behind.  “The Parish is simply an extension of New Orleans, you don’t feel like you’ve gone to another place. It’s like crossing into Metairie—it feels like the same city.”

St. Bernard is growing in all kinds of ways, said Cathy Alfonso, CEO of the St. Bernard Chamber of Commerce. “We are seeing an influx of new homeowners, new parks and bike trails, and new small businesses opening up shop,” she said, and that includes restaurants.  “We live just minutes from some of the best seafood in the world. The access to fresh ingredients, and our cultural history as a community greatly influences the culinary scene in St. Bernard.”

A tasty history

Cheryl Gerber

You can thank St. Bernard Parish for the mirliton.  Or more specifically, thank the 3,000 Canary Islanders, or Isleños (pronounced ees-lane-yos), who settled in the parish and a few other places in Louisiana in the 1770s. “We know from their ship manifests that they brought the chayote, or mirliton, to Louisiana,” said Bill Hyland, official St. Bernard Parish Historian. St. Bernard’s first documented restaurant and bar was established during that Spanish colonial period, said Hyland, whose office oversees nine historic buildings and twenty-two acres of green space and provides education outreach to local schools.  

Isleño cuisine, which draws from Spanish, Portuguese, and North African influences, has influenced local fare the same way Cajun, French, African, and Creole traditions have left imprints on Louisiana’s table.  One typical Isleño dish is caldo, a complex vegetable soup that is a cousin to gumbo, but without the roux.  The Spanish islanders naturally took to the trades of fishing and shrimping, adapting much like the Cajuns did to the bayous and local Gulf waters. 

St. Bernard, which was incorporated in 1807, includes the communities of Chalmette (whose residents sometimes call themselves Chalmatians), Meraux, Poydras, Violet, and Arabi, which is the closest to the Orleans parish line, just across the Industrial Canal and past the Lower Ninth Ward.  “In my lifetime, the restaurants we’ve had have focused on traditional Louisiana Creole fare,” said Hyland.  “We have so much bounty from the Gulf that fresh seafood is just a given.” 

Hyland described the influx of newcomers that have opened artist studios and eateries in the parish as just a natural occurrence in this part of Louisiana. “St. Bernard has always welcomed new people. After World War II and in the 1960s there was a great influx of people from New Orleans who brought New Orleans traditions with them here. I think that’s the essence of the history of Louisiana: people come here, adapt to what is already here and bring something new from their own experience. That’s quintessentially Creole and it is what is quintessentially good about St. Bernard.” 

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Old faves

Any dining tour of the parish has to start with Rocky & Carlo’s, a family-run Creole Italian icon run for fifty-three years. Order up laughably large portions of veal Parmesan, artichokes, and a wide variety of Louisiana Italian classics and settle in for a belly-busting experience. 

Joey’s Grill (inside Joey Jeanfreau’s Meats) is another local institution. Part butcher shop, part restaurant, the fourth-generation store dates back to 1974. Jeanfreau has been making sandwiches and platters featuring roasted fresh meats butchered onsite since he opened the casual eatery in 2000. Try the veal Swiss melt sandwiches with grilled onions, hunger-smashing meatball sandwich, and craveable liver cheese po-boys.

B&G Fresh Market on Judge Perez is a gas station market with surprisingly fresh seafood, meats, and produce as well as great po-boys.  “It’s the kind of place where some fisherman is a friend of theirs and sells them fish off his boat,” said Williams. 

Cheryl Gerber

Darron Newman, a vet technician who moved from the Bywater to Chalmette in search of more affordable housing a year ago, recommends the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dishes at the grocery and restaurant Stella Maris. He loves the combo of hummus, baba ghanouj, dolmas, tabouleh, falafel and eggplant salad. “It’s the same thing as Mona’s—but better.”  

Drive further downriver to Violet for a meal at Charlie’s Restaurant, a local institution since Chad Blanchard opened it in 1992. The welcoming spot pops with local artwork and friendly regulars.  Blanchard’s award-winning seafood gumbo, dark and rich, swimming with shrimp and crab, is just one of the down-home dishes to try. 

Today’s Ketch Seafood has been locally owned and operated by Jeff and Teri Pohlmann since 1985.What started as a store for pristine local seafood grew into a restaurant that serves all kinds of boiled seafood, a rich shrimp and crabmeat bisque, and fried or grilled seafood platters—get the crawfish fettuccine on the side.

When Metairie natives Al Cellos and his son Kyle go fishing, they usually make an early morning stop by Guillory’s Grocery, commonly known as the Green Store. “Why? Because it’s green,” he said.  “You can get any kind of po-boy at 5 in the morning, and their egg, bacon, and cheese breakfast sandwich is slammin’.”

Notable newcomers

Chuck and Rae Ann “MeMe” Williams opened their white tablecloth Creole restaurant MeMe’s in Chalmette six and a half years ago.  Known for fresh and char-grilled oysters, barbecue shrimp and grits, and buttery tender steaks, the restaurant was so popular that the owners expanded two years ago to add more seating and a dedicated oyster bar. “We opened because there wasn’t anything like this in the Parish,” said Chuck Williams.  “We wanted a local place where we’d want to go with our friends or for date night,” said Rae Ann.  “Now we have people from Metairie, the Marigny, and the Bywater putting us on their dining list.” 

Chung Quach used to have to go to New Orleans East for tasty Vietnamese fare.  When she took over the lease at Beignets & More in the Chalmette Cinema Shopping Center, she decided to change that. Now, along with freshly fried beignets, Quach and her family serve fragrant pho, banh mi, rice vermicelli, and rice platters topped with lemongrass-marinated meats and seafood.  

Cheryl Gerber

Further downriver, the menu is all over the map at Crave, Chad Roig’s eclectic casual eatery. In the mood for Asian fare? Order the bang bang shrimp or Buddha tuna. South of the Border tamales are popular, as are seafood muffuletta pasta and the eight-ounce filet with two sides—a bargain at $25. 

Kevin Hackett and Donna Cavato opened The Kitchen Table Café in Arabi in 2016. Hackett, formerly the sous chef at Mariza in Bywater, where the couple used to live, dishes up creative American cuisine for lunch and dinner. Savories like housemade smoked gulf fish spread, pimento cheese with cornbread, and New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp are hallmarks of the reasonably priced menu.  

Keep walking to the back of Pirogue’s Whiskey Bayou and you’ll find chef Scott Maki’s new pop-up kitchen, Chew Rouge, where twists on global street food prevail.  Try stuffed peppers wrapped in bacon and glazed with sweet pepper jelly, and don’t miss the Pho-Rench Dip burrito—think all the goodies in a bowl of pho stuffed into a flour tortilla and served with pho-style broth on the side for dipping. 

Liz Williams appreciates that St. Bernard Parish is showing up on more people’s radar, especially when they get hungry.  “I think people from New Orleans will enjoy the little jaunt across the Industrial Canal,” she said. “And I know they’ll be happy once they’re here.” 

See our complete list of recommendations below.

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