Amid all the social and family traditions this time of year, New Orleans offers one of its own across the dining scene.
Réveillon arrives each December as a season of destination dining built around special holiday menus. More than 50 restaurants are taking part this year, alternately drawing inspiration from French Creole tradition, their own house traditions, contemporary styles and Christmas food motifs.
The main dining room at Jack Rose restaurant at the Pontchartrain Hotel in New Orleans on Saturday, June 30, 2018. (Photo by Chris Granger, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Photo by Chris Granger, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
How to cut in and make the tradition your own? I have some suggestions below. Consider this your Réveillon scouting report. But first, some background.
What is Réveillon?
Réveillon is derived from the French word for “awakening,” and in New Orleans it was originally a feast, often buffet style, served in the homes of Catholic families after midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.
The dining room is especially festive around the holidays at Arnaud’s Restaurant in the French Quarter. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
The custom all but died out as the 20th century brought more American modes of Christmas to New Orleans. But in the 1990s, Réveillon itself was revived, and transformed. Now Réveillon takes place in restaurants as multi-course, prix fixe dinners.
These run through the month. Restaurants serving Réveillon menus also have their regular a la carte menus available. Note that some restaurants suspend Réveillon service on some combination of Christmas Day and New Year’s Day and both eves. You can find all the menus and service dates at neworleans.com.
The spectrum: $40 to $185
Réveillon menus have a set price, but there is no limit to that price. This year some restaurants are pushing the envelope with increasingly extravagant meals resembling chef tasting menus.
Restaurant, August is an upscale dining destination in the Central Business District in New Orleans.
Advocate Staff photo by SOPHIA GERMER
That’s the case at Restaurant August, which once again owns the high end with seven courses that start with a fruits de mer platter and run through caviar, pompano, duck, A5 Wagyu beef and two desserts before ringing in at $185 per person (and that’s before drinks).
Commanders Palace always makes a lavish menu for Réveillon, and this time it’s five courses, including foie gras and a bison entrée, at $135.
Commander’s Palace chefs meeting in New Orleans, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023. (Staff photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com)
STAFF PHOTO BY DAVID GRUNFELD
On the other end of the spectrum are a mix of casual restaurants embracing Réveillon and some upscale places packaging bargains.
In that first category, Suzie’s Soulhouse Soulfood Restaurant in Central City has the most affordable menu (four courses, $40) including a choice of two gumbos, stewed chicken or catfish and sweet potato pone. Also under $50 is Galatoire’s (four courses, $48, though this is a starting point; choices range up to $72).
Drinks before (or after)
Dinner may be the main act, but some Réveillon restaurants invite making a night of it with a pre- or post-dinner drink stop (or both, it is the holidays after all).
The Bayou Bar at the Pontchartrain Hotel in New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger, Nola.com | The Times-Picayune)
CHRIS GRANGER
Go to Jack Rose (four courses, $75), in the Pontchartrain Hotel, and start with an old fashioned at the cozy and atmospheric Bayou Bar. After you’ve finished your dirty rice-stuffed quail and s’mores pot of crème in the buzzy, colorful main dining room, take the snug elevator upstairs to the Tin Roof bar for the view of the city, and (should conditions cooperate) the new lights on the Crescent City Connection bridge.
The main dining room at Jack Rose restaurant at the Pontchartrain Hotel in New Orleans on Saturday, June 30, 2018. (Photo by Chris Granger, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Photo by Chris Granger, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
Meanwhile, Réveillon at Miss River (four courses, $95) will set you up for a one-stop bar hop around the Four Seasons hotel.
The Chandelier Bar greets visitors in the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences in New Orleans. (Photo by Sophia Germer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER
Miss River itself has a gorgeous bar in its Belle Epoque dining room, and then there’s the Chandelier Bar in the lobby (an elegant destination in its own right) and upstairs you can make it a three-fer at the Purple Grackle Bar inside the riverfront-facing Chemin à la Mer.
Feasting by the oaks
Location can be key to choosing a restaurant, especially if it puts you close to other stops on our holiday circuit. That makes the smattering of Réveillon restaurants in Mid-City well-suited for outings to Celebration in the Oaks at nearby City Park.
Advocate staff photo by Ian McNulty – Ralph’s on the Park is an upscale restaurant with inventive Creole cuisine near City Park in New Orleans.
Ralph’s on the Park is right by the park gates with a hearty Réveillon menu (four courses, $75), with gumbo, blackened redfish and also steak au poivre before the satsuma icebox pie.
Cafe Degas, the long-running French restaurant in Faubourg St. John, is known for its rich flavors and lush ambiance. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Just down Esplanade Avenue, Café Degas (four courses, $52) goes very French this year, with salad served after your entrée and a glass of port after dessert.
Family-style Réveillon
Many people have built Réveillon traditions around dining out with a small group, reuniting during the season. Some menus are particularly well suited for these outings.
The dining room and bar at Costera, the modern Spanish restaurant in Uptown New Orleans. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Costera serves a family-style tour of its modern Spanish menu (four courses, $75). You pick courses from across a variety of dishes; that means a couple or larger group can try a wide sampling of the menu.
Casarecce with pesto (left) and radiatori with blue crab and pecorino are two of the house-made pastas at Osteria Lupo, an Italian restaurant in Uptown New Orleans. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
The same format is translated into regional Italian at its sister restaurant nearby, Osteria Lupo (four courses, $65).
A modern feel and touchpoints to the homeland define the new Addis NOLA, the Ethiopian restaurant on Bayou Road in New Orleans. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
A new addition to Réveillon this year is Addis NOLA (four courses, $60) where the traditional style of Ethiopian dining will play out with shared platters served family meal style.
Wintry cravings
Some restaurants just feel naturally aligned with holiday ambiance, and I always get that at Jewel of the South. The modern British menu can read like a Dickens tale translated through a contemporary kitchen. This year ham hock in broth, angels on horseback (bacon-wrapped stuffed dates), turkey confit pie and traditional British Christmas make the Réveillon menu (four courses, $90).
The modern tavern Jewel of the South was built in a townhouse dating to the 1830s in the French Quarter of New Orleans. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
The menu at Gabrielle (four courses, $62) that starts with beef daube pie is speaking the same language, with a course of she-crab bisque for hearty good measure.
A holiday give back
Preparing desserts tableside at Arnaud’s Restaurant in the French Quarter. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Arnaud’s delves into its own culinary traditions for Réveillon, with a menu (four courses, $70) that starts with daube glacé, a Creole throwback, and scallops St. Jacques. This is also when it continues a newer holiday tradition — its annual Teddy Bear Drive, in partnership with the New Orleans Police & Justice Foundation.
The annual Teddy Bear Drive is a holiday time tradition at Arnaud’s Restaurant, in partnership with New Orleans law enforcement. Officers give the bears to children during their work. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
The program collects new teddy bears, which will be donated to the police department for officers to give to children who have been traumatized. Bring a new bear along when you dine for Réveillon or visit its French 75 bar for cocktails.
The drive continues through Dec. 31. Arnaud’s is one drop-off site. Others are the NOPJF office at 320 Metairie-Hammond Hwy., the New Orleans & Co. office at 2020 St. Charles Ave., and NOPD headquarters, 1615 Poydras St.