Evviva is the restaurant you visited in Italy, the neighborhood spot that speaks softly and that you couldn’t stop talking about afterward.
It’s the one with the menu that reads simply, overdelivers in fresh and vivid flavors, and changes constantly with the market and the catch of the day. You swore that after that your trip you’d keep eating like this back home, and now you can again at Evviva.
Evviva restaurant in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans has a contemporary style and coastal Italian menu. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
The restaurant opened last spring in the Marigny address that had been the Franklin for more than 10 years.
Getting the tables ready for dinner at Evviva restaurant in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
The space is darkly stylish and sexy, with a few nooks for larger tables and a collection of contemporary art. A big L-shaped bar is the centerpiece, and it’s a great eating bar too.
Behind it, glass columns of golden bubble patterns rise like fizz to the top of a glass, strongly suggesting a round of prosecco or crémant, which here are affordably accessible.
Two chefs, one style
The food is the result of two chefs who have fed us well in the past — Rebecca Wilcomb and Marcus Jacobs. They once cooked together at Herbsaint and are back together at this new restaurant, run by Heather Lolley and Humberto Suazo (who also have Galaxie Tacos nearby).
Chefs Rebecca Wilcomb, right, and Marcus Jacobs together run the kitchen at Evviva restaurant in New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
At Evviva, the two chefs are like flipsides of each other’s coin, with different styles that make a consistent whole. You might pick up a flicker of Jacobs’ old restaurant Marjie’s Grill in the fire-roasted meats, and there’s no missing Wilcomb’s love of rustic Italian cooking throughout.
Happy hour eating
Happy hour shows the approach in miniature. The happy hour food is not simply snacks for the early shift drinkers; it is playground for ingredients the chefs are excited about but might not have in enough abundance for the main menu.
The Saunterer is a cocktail with Scotch, Lillet and rosemary at Evviva restaurant in New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
Most recently, that meant a batch of soft-shell shrimp (not crab, but shrimp), a bit of dockside exotica that I’ve always heard you need a fisherman hook-up to find. Apparently that’s as easy as going to the Crescent City Farmers Market and asking at the Anna Marie Shrimp van. So there’s your hook up.
Soft shell shrimp were a special on the ever-changing menu at Evviva restaurant in New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
When fried, the shell becomes a brittle layer of crunch, accentuated in this version by some Calabrian chili butter and wisps of ginger.
On earlier visits, happy hour had porgy brandade, a whip of salty fish and potato under a golden crust, and pork jowl showing every hour of its slow roasting in a sticky bite of rendered fat.
There’s no telling if these dishes will return to circulation, but the Evviva approach ensures there is always something interesting coming through.
Menu mainstays
Deviled chicken livers over sourdough were on the ever-changing menu one night at Evviva restaurant in New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
Chicken livers make frequent appearances, once with rigatoni (all the pasta comes from local makers, Costantini, another fixture of the farmers market). Recently the livers were deviled, with a trickle of spice and a sauce dark and rich as a gumbo roux over sourdough.
There’s usually a cut of Gulf fish finished with green peppercorn butter and lemon, like a brighter, lighter au poivre treatment.
Roasted mussels were on the ever-changing menu one night at Evviva restaurant in New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
I’d cross town to again sample the mussels roasted on the shell with parsley butter, though that will only happen if the chefs get a supply of such outstanding quality, all plump and briny-sweet.
Velma Gene’s anchovy bread is a menu standard at Evviva restaurant in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
A few reliable centerpieces have emerged. There’s always “Velma Gene’s anchovy toast” (named for Jacobs’ grandmother), with pickly-sour hunks of fish interspersed with herbs and chile on crunchy focaccia. And that’s a good thing because I want them on every visit.
The house salad is a family-sized platter that starts as a study in vegetal bitter notes from the sharp radicchio and softer endive, contrasting with burly slices of country ham and fresh mozzarella looking like it was torn and tossed in by the fistful.
Grilled shrimp are covered with garlic and lemon at Evviva restaurant in New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
The grilled shrimp show the Gulf harvest at its absolute best, with a bit of lemon, all the garlic in the world, and not a moment too long spent over the fire, bursting with a fresh pop under a hint of char.
Fine wines, family suppers
Dessert can be a simple budino (the Italian textural perfection of pudding). Or maybe it’s a generous plate of Harbison cheese, excellent with some sharp mostarda and honey, best with some sherry or another glass of wine.
Evviva restaurant in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans has a contemporary style and coastal Italian menu. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
The friendly pricing for bubbles mentioned above is not an outlier. Evviva’s wine list has plenty to pick from across Italian, Spanish and French labels at $60 or significantly less.
On Sundays, Evviva adds a three-course “family supper” special to the regular menu, with antipasti and a meaty red gravy, polenta and dessert along with $7 martinis from the happy hour menu all night.
A martinis is part of the happy hour offerings at Evviva restaurant in the Marigny neighborhood of New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
The regular happy hour (5 p.m. to 7 p.m.) is a great introduction to Evviva. Come on the early side to watch the sun shift through the windows and crawl across the tables as late afternoon turns into evening. This restaurant is casually seductive, intimate and wonderful.
Evviva
2600 Dauphine St., (504) 267-0640
5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday
Dining and Cooking