There were dishes I insist on getting at Palm & Pine whenever I bring people for their first visit. Where else in New Orleans will they find a steak tartare from a sub-niche of Texas regional foodways or a tuna crudo inspired by a corner store?
Palm & Pine is essentially an upscale/casual neighborhood restaurant for the French Quarter, which, at some point, everyone in New Orleans can regard as their old neighborhood.
Whether showing visitors around or coming for our own celebrations, spring is rife with such reasons to revisit, and this restaurant feels in sync with the good energy of the Quarter at its best.
The Rampart streetcar rolls past Palm & Pine restaurant in the French Quarter. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
I’ve been here more times than I can remember since it opened in 2019. The dining counter with a view of a busy but confidently calm kitchen is a great spot for a solo meal. Hours that include Monday night often fit my schedule.
The vibe is laidback; the cooking is serious.
Inviting, invigorating
Amarys Koenig Herndon and her co-chef and husband Jordan Herndon present an exhilarating culinary romp.
Amarys Koenig Herndon and Jordan Herndon opened their Palm & Pine restaurant in 2019 after building a following with their Old Portage pop-up. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
In their kitchen, local sourcing runs through the Caribbean and Mexico across Texas and around the Deep South before landing squarely in the realm of contemporary Creole. It’s New Orleans cuisine of the moment — personal, original, anchored by a continuity of local flavor.
Palm & Pine feels vibrant, inviting and inclusive. It’s framed in the old brick-and-plaster bones of a French Quarter townhouse redone in a tropical style, with soft pink and green tones and splashes of color.
Old brick, vibrant colors and an open kitchen are part of the dining room at Palm & Pine in the French Quarter in New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
Underfoot there’s a collage of weathered floor finishes from different eras; all around, there are cookbooks and menus and totems from other local restaurants, underscoring the sense of community and connection that runs through them.
Before opening Palm & Pine, the Herndons were each sous chefs at other restaurants and on the side ran a pop-up called the Old Portage just down Rampart Street at the Black Penny bar. Late-night hours and inventive menus made regulars of restaurant and bar staff coming off their own shifts.
Parisa, a steak tartare from a southeast Texas tradition, is on the menu at Palm & Pine restaurant in New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
Their restaurant has become a go-to for hospitality pros around the city (Monday’s service industry night special, with 25% off the bill, doesn’t hurt one bit either).
Don’t miss dishes
The corner store crudo has been a standard since the pop-up days.
The name riffs on the idea of dropping into a store for a bottle of Big Shot and a bag of chips. Cook that pineapple soda down with fish sauce for a tropical-sweet nuoc cham, interpret the chips as shrimp puffs and plate them with cilantro and velvety tuna slices and you have a dish that gives big bursts of bright-fresh flavor.
The rendition of BBQ shrimp highlights the sweet, plump shrimp at Palm & Pine restaurant in New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
BBQ shrimp has been on the menu since the beginning too, and it’s a distinctive style. It shows the fresh sweetness of the shrimp, garnished with a peppery butter sauce, not bathing it. You’ll still want to stop it up with a bit of the Dong Phuong bread on the side.
A newer addition is parisa, a staple of Medina County, outside of San Antonio, and found practically nowhere else. It’s a steak tartare, made (improbably, but deliciously) with Muenster cheese and fermented chiles. It’s like a hunting camp snack with European roots and some Texas twang, slightly sour and with that animal satisfaction of raw beef.
Parisa, a steak tartare from a southeast Texas tradition, is on the menu at Palm & Pine restaurant in New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
Embedded in the chicken-fried quail is a nod to a late Creole soul master, Chef Austin Leslie. His famous way with fried chicken included dill pickles on the side and a topping of persillade, a mix of garlic and parsley (this persists at Jacques-Imo’s, where Leslie once cooked, and its sister restaurant Crabby Jack’s).
Palm & Pine’s quail makes the pickles, garlic and parsley one chunky, zesty, aromatic topping, over quail with a crackling crust.
The chicken fried steak is topped with a mix of garlic, parsley and dill pickles at Palm & Pine in the French Quarter. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
Underneath the bird, the snap peas smothered with tomatoes show another strength of the Palm & Pine Kitchen. If an ingredient sounds humble, it is reliably bound for glory. Order any bean dish cycling through the menu for another example. Recently, it was an Indian-inspired red bean chaat that blew me away.
New on the menu is a heart-size chunk of swordfish, under a crunchy filigree of rainbow carrots and dappled by a sauce that hits like a buttery hot honey, with a backbeat of fruity fire from Scotch bonnet peppers.
Ice cream and cocktails
To end, the coconut lemongrass cream pie, served in the oversized portion of a steakhouse dessert, is sweet and bright and clean.
Curry banana ice is a house standard dessert at Palm & Pine restaurant in New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
But Palm & Pine also excels with homemade ice cream, and I always want the curry banana flavor. It’s a mellow-sweet adventure of brûléed sugar and spice that has a beguiling similarity to rich chocolate.
The wine list is short and accessible, with well-priced Latin American bottles leading the way. The bar is reliably creative. The spicy marg is bright with hibiscus, and the “Palm & Pain” blends earthy mezcal with whiskey and ginger beer under a cloak of juicy tropical sweetness.
The “palm and pain” with mezcal and whiskey is on the cocktail list at Palm & Pine in the French Quarter in New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
The Rampart Street location is clutch for downtown destinations this time of year, near the Saenger Theatre and on the edge of the Quarter, when Easter and French Quarter Fest bring out the locals and visitors in droves. This is precisely the kind of modern New Orleans restaurant I’d want them to experience.
Palm & Pine
308 N. Rampart St., (504) 814-6200
Dinner Wed.-Mon., brunch Sat., Sun. (closed Tue.)
Dining and Cooking