Breakfast, lunch and dinner are fine for everyday meals. But planning a visit to French Quarter Festival calls for a much different approach when it comes to food. I’m here to help you make that plan.
Festival-goers share smoked brisket BBQ nachos during the first day of French Quarter Fest in New Orleans. (Photo by Sophia Germer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune)
Sophia Germer
Returning this week, April 11 to April 14, French Quarter Festival turns the city’s oldest neighborhood and cultural core into a self-guided festival ground of stages. It also brings clusters of food and beverage vendors, arrayed like individual food courts for quick street eats.
O’Dell Allen of NOLA Crawfish King stirs a batch of crawfish during the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans Sunday, April 16, 2023. (Photo by Scott Threlkeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
STAFF PHOTO BY SCOTT THRELKELD
Another distinguishing characteristic is the diversity of food vendors represented, the result of an intentional strategy toward inclusion and opportunity. The festival can be a big break for vendors and an opportunity to showcase what they do every day at their restaurants.
Hanging out in front of the Louisiana Fish Fry Stage next to the New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Old U.S. Mint at the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
Staff photo by Chris Granger NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
There are more than 60 food and beverage vendors this year, and among them are 16 making their festival debuts.
This year they are divided between seven distinct food areas. What follows is my scouting report with some best bets and intriguing additions at each. You can find the full festival menu at frenchquarterfest.org/foods.
‘Champions row’ at Jax Lot
French Quarter Fest food competes for your appetite, not awards. But the Jax Lot is shaping up as a champions row, lined with vendors who have racked up accolades at other competitions.
The KFC bao with fried chicken pieces and aioli in steamed buns at Bao Mi in New Orleans. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Bao Mi won a top award at last year’s National Fried Chicken Festival, and it has the same Korean fried chicken bao ($7).
LUFU NOLA won top honors two years in a row at Food Fight, and it makes its French Quarter Fest debut here with a range of Indian street food ($8-$16).
A hot fried chicken sandwich from the Southerns food truck. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Food truck Southerns hit a superfecta at last year’s Oak Street Po-Boy Festival with four awards, and it’s back at Jax Lot with its fried chicken sandwich ($12), as well as its stand-out cracklins ($13).
Speaking of Po-Boy Fest, that’s where Red Fish Grill once served its tangy, fried BBQ oyster po-boy ($15), and you can get a taste again here.
Full circle at Jackson Square
Food is everywhere at French Quarter Festival, as people stroll between stages around the city’s oldest neighborhood and dig in. (Photo by Chris Granger, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune)
Classic and new vendors are interspersed across the festival areas, and this one at the center of it all brings that interplay into focus.
A new one to watch is Nori Guys, a pop-up bringing spicy tuna sushi tacos ($10) and crab and tuna wonton nachos ($12).
This is also where you’ll find Tujague’s, the city’s second-oldest name in dining, with shrimp-stuffed mirliton ($11) and shrimp remoulade ($12)
Vaucresson Sausage Co. returns with its popular crawfish sausage po-boy at French Quarter Festival. (Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.co
And no vendor has more experience in the game than Vaucresson Sausage Co., which was here from the start of the festival and returns with its classic po-boys of hot sausage or crawfish sausage (a pork blend) and a new rendition with jerk chicken sausage ($10 each).
Woldenberg Riverfront Park — Kohlmeyer Lawn
Once, Cafe Dauphine was a neighborhood anchor in Holy Cross. The Creole Soul restaurant has been closed since the pandemic, but returns annually for French Quarter Fest. Look for fried ribs, seafood-stuffed egg rolls and fried stuffed bell peppers ($13 each).
Cafe Dauphine is a French Quarter Fest vendor with deep-fried seafood stuffed bell peppers. (File photo by Ann Maloney, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Treme restaurant Fritai makes its festival debut with Haitian dishes, including the shrimp pikliz, a spicy-crisp slaw ($13), and oxtail handpies ($8).
The crabmeat-stuffed beignet is a savory treat from Loretta’s Authentic Pralines, a vendor at Jazz Fest and French Quarter Fest with a restaurant in Faubourg Marigny. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Loretta’s Authentic Pralines has created a festival sensation with its specialty beignets, and both the crab beignet ($9) and praline beignet ($6) are irresistible.
Larry Morrow has created three restaurant hits in different neighborhoods, and each of them will be in the same festival area here. His original restaurant Morrow’s has grilled oysters with crabmeat ($16) and a crawfish pasta with fried fish ($15). Son Chong has a fusion flex of Korean chicken wings with crawfish fried rice ($16) and dumplings injected with gumbo ($12). And Monday has sweet potato stuffed beignets ($10) and a whole fried snapper ($25), which seems an unlikely but confident festival food undertaking.
Restaurant entrepreneur Larry Morrow and his grandmother, Sun Chong, inside Sun Chong restaurant in the French Quarter of New Orleans on Thursday, May 11, 2023. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
Staff photo by Chris Granger NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
For something lighter, check out new vendor Pho Bang with fresh spring rolls with shrimp, and less light but still vegetarian fried tofu (each $8).
Woldenberg Riverfront Park — Palm Lawn
Fatty’s Cracklin’ was a mainstay vendor at Jazz Fest for many years, but its last appearance there was before the pandemic. Now, though, Fatty’s has joined the French Quarter Fest lineup with a different menu. Here, it’s serving chicken cracklin’ ($8), along with pepper-jack boudin balls ($10).
French restaurant Couvant debuts at the fest with duck and Brie spring rolls ($10) and “Frenchie sliders” ($15), burgers with tomato confit and bacon jam.
14 Parish’s jerk chicken plate is a Jamaican classic. (File photo by Ann Maloney, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Jamaican restaurant 14 Parishes is a master of jerk flavor, deployed with chicken ($11) or pork ($12). Try the “festival” ($8), the apt name for a puffy fried bread.
Old U.S. Mint
This year, NOLA Crawfish King returns from Gentilly with barbecue sandwiches ($12), brisket burnt end plates ($15) and the “brisket bomb” ($7), a specialty roll filled with ground brisket, mac and cheese and jalapeños.
A festival-goer peels crawfish during the 3rd day of French Quarter Fest in New Orleans, Saturday, April 15, 2023. (Photo by Sophia Germer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune)
STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER
This same area is where you’ll find boiled crawfish ($10 to $30 by size and sides), again from NOLA Crawfish King (the dual identity of NOLA Cochon King above), in partnership with Louisiana Fish Fry products.
The lambeaux is a leg of lamb po-boy, a riff on traditions from Smoke & Honey in New Orleans. (Contributed photo from Vassiliki Ellwood Yiagazis)
Smoke & Honey is a Greek/Jewish café that just opened this year in Mid-City and makes its festival debut here with its signature Lambeaux po-boy, filled with braised lamb leg, whipped feta and onion garlic jam ($15, half and vegetarian versions also), an assortment of vegetarian dips ($12) and chicken souvlaki ($8).
New stage at Spanish Plaza
This is the new location for the Jack Daniel’s Stage this year, and it has its own food area, on the riverfront between the Four Seasons Hotel and the Riverwalk Outlets mall.
Look for Addis NOLA here for a taste of Ethiopian cooking, with honey glazed shrimp ($20), jollof rice, aka “the original jambalaya” ($12), honey glazed wings ($12) and sambusa meat pies ($6).
Mar mitmita shrimp at Addis NOLA is a dish with local seafood and Ethiopian spice. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Friends of Codey is set up in the same area with both a lamb yakamein ($14) and a vegetarian version ($12) of the street food soup.
Yakamein is classic New Orleans street food and festival food.
Dinah L. Rogers, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
Miss River, the lux restaurant at the adjacent Four Seasons hotel led by chef Alon Shaya, debuts this year with an indulgent-sounding combo plate of the three dishes it also serves separately. That would be red beans and rice ($8), muffuletta ($14) and crab roll ($16). Order the “three-piece suit” and you get a sample of each ($32), and a token you can redeem inside at the restaurant’s bar for a pour of sparking wine (the restaurant can’t sell alcohol at the fest, hence the token).
Culinary Stage and Aquarium Plaza
Also new to the riverfront area is the Culinary Stage presented by Kingfish Kitchen & Cocktails. Chef Kevin Belton will preside over daily cooking demonstrations and interviews. The festival will have a total of 21 stages in 2024.
Booths here have adult beverages, soft drinks and ice cream and frozen cups from Lizzy’s Catering ($4-$12).
French Quarter Festival
April 11-14, various locations across the French Quarter
See frenchquarterfest.org/food for complete vendor list and menu.