Dining

From Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, the holiday season is all about traditions--something the 300-year old Crescent City has in spades. The dining rooms of century old restaurants get decked out in their holiday finest.

One of the most popular traditions during the month of December are the réveillon meals that emerge from restaurant kitchens. An old Creole tradition, originally réveillon (which comes from réveil, meaning waking) was a long meal hosted in a private home after midnight mass on Christmas Eve that lasted for hours and sometimes into the morning.

Though boiled crawfish, blackened fish, shrimp remoulade, and chargrilled oysters consume the spotlight in New Orleans dining, this seafood town has a long history of steakhouses--and the downtown area has some of the most luxurious and interesting.

New Orleans has always been celebrated in the food world for its French-inspired Creole and Cajun culinary heritage. However, food influences that are the main go-to for locals’ and for the visiting populace are noted as a gumbo of a wide range of different cuisine cultures. Native Americans, diverse settlers, slaves, travelers passing through, and others who have been here have all contributed to the evolving creations of the city’s cookery.

For such a time-honored city--New Orleans celebrates its Tricentennial this year, 300 years since its founding in 1718--this place is always hopping and bustling with the latest and the most innovative, whether it’s entertainment, festivals, cultural events, music, dancing, or celebrations of America's most unique culinary heritage.