Ian McNulty: 6 dishes, one drink and a quick day trip for a hot New Orleans summer 2024

Where are you eating this month? If you’re in New Orleans, maybe it’s at places that offer a sense of escape, or an appreciation for what we have here even through the slog of it, or perhaps dishes that just seem right for the season.

That’s what inspired this roundup, a tour of restaurants, meals and particular dishes pulled from my notebook and on my mind as we slide through another hot summer.

Here we go:

Blue crab handroll of the stars at Sukeban

8126 Oak St., (504) 345-2367

I watched the acclaimed chef Daniel Boulud wolf down a few of these handrolls at a party for the big Bucuse d’Or competition in New Orleans where Sukeban had set up a mobile sushi bar. You can try one anytime at Sukeban, a casual but high-aiming sushi counter that always feels like a portal to a calmer, more orderly realm.

This handroll ($21) is one of the mainstays on a menu that otherwise changes frequently. I like its blend of familiar local crabmeat and the practiced perfection of the sushi rice, and especially the nori wrapper, all briny, toasty, fresh and crinkly when you bite in.

Falafel feast and a wine bar perch at 1000 Figs

3141 Ponce de Leon, (504) 301-0848

Dips can be dinner! Just say falafel feast ($48) and these two words conjure a veritable buffet of dips, fresh salads, crusty, airy bread and, of course, a clutch of crunchy aromatic falafel, all vivid green within. Yes, you want to add fries ($4.25) because 1000 Figs fries are fabulous. This feast fills the table, is more than enough for two people and works perfectly as a spread of snacks for more.

If you wonder how they manage with such a tiny restaurant space, just look next door. Swirl Wine Bar & Market has a cooperative agreement with its neighbor, so you can have your 1000 Figs meal served at one of its indoor or outdoor tables, provided you’re sipping wines from Swirl’s Italian-loving list.

Oysters of other waters at Pigeon & Whale

4525 Freret St., (504) 249-5487

For an oyster-sized escape from New Orleans summer, you can splash down with the waters of faraway places. Merroir is the expression of place from oysters, which do carry some of the water from their harvest areas with them.

The oyster bar at this stylish modern seafood restaurant has a large selection coming from cold water regions as far away as Canada, and some cultivated types from the Gulf Coast too. Get the shucker’s dozen ($36) for a mix, and taste around. Close your eyes; imagine maybe you are on those waters you’re tasting.

Round it out with an order of the taramasalata ($16), a salty, creamy roe dip to spread on crusty, hot grilled bread, and you have a perfect summer dinner for two right there. Add drinks from the “negroni color wheel” drink list as needed.

Jerk turkey necks on the patio at Afrodisiac

5363 Franklin Ave., (504) 302-2090

I wrote about this compulsively delicious Creole-Caribbean fusion find in Gentilly in the spring, when the weather was perfect for its outdoor patio. What’s been on my mind ever since is this utterly delicious treatment of turkey necks ($9.50), with smoky, peppery morsels to pull between the ridges of bone.

Yes, it’s hot for outdoor dining, but when the evening arrives, this lush patio can feel like a trip to the islands, and the well-wrought rum cocktails from the bar don’t hurt one bit. Note: the restaurant’s hours change frequently, check its status via instagram.com/afrodisiacnola.

Fish almondine on the deck at Pat’s Rest A While

2129 Lakeshore Drive, Mandeville, (985) 951-2173

This Mandeville lakefront restaurant is built from a collection of historic buildings that were once a summer camp, and today the elevation of its deck and dining rooms gives both a view and a breeze.

All of Pat Gallagher’s kitchens excel at Creole flavor, and this classic fish almondine ($26) is no exception, bolstered by brown butter over a crust of toasty almond slivers and sweet crabmeat. Bonus: this dish is on the restaurant’s Taste of Tammany menu (a parishwide August promotion, similar to Coolinary in the city), paired with a soup or salad and dessert for $40.

The softer side of soft shell crabs at Galatoire’s

209 Bourbon St., (504) 525-2021

The biggest thing most of us wait for in summer is for it to be over already. But I wait for soft-shell crabs to reach their peak in summer, and they are running good now.

We usually see these fried (or sometimes smoked and then fried, a la Clancy’s). But they were a seasonal special (market price) at Galatoire’s recently and I tried them sautéed for the first time.

This preparation left them buttery-crisp, and their delicate flavor more clearly in focus. Finish it with the lemon caper beurre blanc, and get a martini, even at lunch, because it’s Galatoire’s, it’s summertime and you’re in New Orleans. Note that Galatoire’s has Coolinary menus (no soft shells included) through Sept. 15, with dinner at $58, lunch at $28.

Shaken amaro at Gianna

700 Magazine St., (504) 399-0816

An impromptu late dinner at the bar at Donald Link’s downtown Italian restaurant brought a mushroom and provolone-topped pizza from the wood-burning oven, a special of summery chanterelle mushrooms tangled up with tagliatelle, and, in lieu of dessert, a drink that lifted the cap on a whole new obsession.

Gianna has the best amaro selection in town, a playground for fans of these dark, aromatic and pleasingly, bitter liqueurs. They can be wildly different bottle to bottle. 

But it was an off-the-menu preparation of Braulio ($11), a sharp, crisp Alpine-style amaro, that really did it. Ask for it chilled and shaken. It pours into the glass all mellow-smooth under a frothy head, and it turned a dram of amaro into what felt like the ultimate after-dinner cocktail for a hot summer night. Note: Gianna has Coolinary menus through Sept. 15, with lunch for $25, dinner for $45. Add an amaro after!

Seafood tower down the coast at the Thorny Oyster

101 N. Beach Blvd., Bay St. Louis, Miss. (228) 688-0401

Bay St. Louis makes for an enticing, easy summer day trip just about an hour away. The Thorny Oyster has made the food prospects much better once you get there.

This is the upscale, modern seafood restaurant in the boutique Pearl Hotel by the waterfront with a cool, airy design and this seafood tower ($49 half/$95 full) on the menu. It makes a decadent feast to share. Soon you’re popping shells off hot, buttery royal red shrimp strewn with herbs and pepper, picking apart the snow crab legs, and then sampling through the cold dishes: raw oysters, tuna dip, lobster salad and crab claws.

This is an expensive dish, but there’s a Portuguese Vino Verde called Twin Vines ($25) that is the cheapest bottle on the wine list and a perfect pairing for this.