COOLinary New Orleans - Cool Prices, Hot Meals
It's hot in New Orleans in the summer. Locals flee the humidity that sits heavily, densely on their shoulders. Travellers avoid the steamy soup bowl the Big Easy becomes. But for the brave and for the hardy, we reap the rewards of sticking it out. COOLinary New Orleans has hit the town.
Essentially, in an effort to boost tourism and to lure residents out of their full-blast air-conditioned homes, a good many restaurants - 34 this year and counting - participate in 3-course prix fixe menus that have prices slashed so low that'd it'd cost more to prepare the same meal at home. And at restaurants like Dickie Brennan's Steakhouse, Palace Cafe, Pascal's Manale, Peristyle, Grand Isle, Melange at the Ritz, 7 on Fulton, Tujague's, and Wolfe's in the Warehouse, a $30 dinner is more than a steal, considering that their entrees alone are not too much less than that. Even better, you can grab a 3-course lunch for under $20, too, at many of these restaurants, including Commander's Palace, La Cote Brasserie, Martinique's, Bourbon House, and Cafe Adelaide and the Swizzle Stick Bar.
Restrictions do apply for many of the higher end restaurants, so make sure to click on the restaurant's menus for details and the selection. The offers by participating establishments vary quite a bit, with Broussard's offering just one fish entree to Muriel's plethora of choices, and time and day limitations (if any) are different from place to place as well. Make sure to ask for the prix fixe menu to get the deal - your meal will be that much more satisfying knowing that normally, it'd be twice the price, but just as nice.