Upperline, a New Orleans dining institution for decades, never reopened from the pandemic, and, after years of speculation about its future, the Uptown property at 1413 Upperline St. changed hands late in 2025. Now the new owners are sharing their plans for the first time.
New Orleans chef Justin Devillier, wife Mia Devillier and their business partner Joel Dondis, all of La Petite Grocery (4238 Magazine St.), are now creating a new restaurant in the space.
Upperline restaurant photographed in New Orleans, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER
It will be called Daughter’s Neighborhood Italian, and it’s slated to open in fall 2026.
Daughter’s will be a New Orleans neighborhood Italian restaurant, with the menu drawn mostly from Italian-American red sauce classics.
“This is the food of Sicilian immigrants who came to the United States,” the chef said.
He wants the restaurant to feel right for special occasions, but also be approachable enough for anytime family meals. It’s that family dining aspect that inspires the name, a tribute to the daughters in the Devillier and Dondis families.
Chef Justin Devillier and Mia Devillier of La Petite Grocery are turning the former Upperline into a new restaurant. They stand by the door that will lead to second floor private dining spaces. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
The kitchen will have a small wood-fired oven, but there’s no plan to serve pizza from it. Instead, it will finish dishes with a blast of heat and prepare small-batch breads, like focaccia.
Joining Devillier in the kitchen will be chef de cuisine Blake Scherer, a longtime sous chef at La Petite Grocery.
Next moves
Justin Devillier worked his way up through New Orleans restaurants in the pre-Katrina era, including Bacco, Stella! and Peristyle. In 2007, he became executive chef at La Petite Grocery, and three years later, he and Mia became owners.
They remade the restaurant in their own style and have steered it to become among the most consistent and satisfying of the city’s contemporary Creole bistros (it was part of The Times-Picayune’s 30 best restaurants for New Orleans in 2025).
The Uptown restaurant La Petite Grocery has kept an elegant presence on Magazine Street for many years. (File photo by Michael DeMocker, The Times-Picayune)
Daughter’s will share some of the same DNA of La Petite Grocery, namely having an anchor menu and then a long list of changing specials.
“Think of La Petite as the cousin that leans toward French Creole; this is the cousin that leans toward Creole Italian,” Devillier said.
Renovations, private dining
A renovation of the old Upperline is now underway. Daughter’s will keep the familiar layout, with a progression of rooms across two once-separate buildings that were conjoined long ago.
Upperline restaurant photographed in New Orleans, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (Photo by Sophia Germer, The Times-Picayune)
STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER
The main entrance will be in the same location, opening to a bar and the first dining room. This room is envisioned as a bit darker in hue, with black and white photos on the wall, more akin to a cocktail den.
A few steps lead up to a different scene in the sunny garden room, lined with windows, and then on to a pair of connected main dining rooms. The feel of an old house will remain.
A big change from the past will be upstairs. The second floor was used for storage in the Upperline days, and it had once been home to a hair salon. But for Daughter’s Neighborhood Italian, the second floor will be private dining rooms, accessed by an existing but previously little-used entrance on Pitt Street.
The chef sees potential for creative collaboration in these spaces as well as private dinners.
Next for a neighborhood staple
Upperline Restaurant was among the most consequential closures for the New Orleans dining scene during the pandemic.
Upperline owner JoAnn Clevenger shares stories about the art and the regulars at her Uptown restaurant in New Orleans, November 2, 2021. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
CHRIS GRANGER
From its opening in 1983, founder Joann Clevenger ran Upperline as something more than a restaurant. It was the distillation of her ideas of hospitality, and the place where her love of cuisine, art and community came together. It served a cuisine rooted in Louisiana Creole tradition, and with plenty of its own character (fried green tomatoes with shrimp remoulade, now a regional standard, was created by Clevenger here).
In late 2021, at age 82, Clevenger confirmed she would retire and put the restaurant up for sale.
The idea for an Italian restaurant has been on the Devilliers’ minds for a while. Mia is a third-generation Italian-American, and her family has been reconnecting with Italian relatives. When it was clear Clevenger would not reopen the Upperline, the Devilliers saw an opportunity.
The building had been home to Italian restaurants before Upperline. It was this history, its significance as Upperline and the Uptown neighborhood itself that drew them for their next project.
“The first rule of a neighborhood Italian restaurant is that it needs to be in a neighborhood,” Devillier said.
The 100-seat restaurant will serve dinner nightly, weekday lunch and Sunday brunch.
Daughter’s Neighborhood Italian
1413 Upperline St., projected opening fall 2026
Dining and Cooking