The best wine bars

One Restaurant & Lounge
One Restaurant & Lounge 8132 Hampson St., 504.301.9061 Average drink prices: Beer, $4; wine, $8; cocktails, $8 Parking: Street Crowd: In-the-know tourists and the Uptowners Upon entering One, the bar running along the right side of the room immediately draws your attention. The first six seats face the bar, while the remaining eight are for counter dining, facing the...

The Brick's Courtyard Bar & Grill
The Brick's Courtyard Bar & Grill 735 St. Joseph St., 504.525.2396 Average drink price: Beer, $4; wine $5; cocktail, $6 Parking: Street Crowd: After-work, service industry crowd Just 2 months old, The Brick is marketing itself like any self-respecting new bar trying to make it in New Orleans -- by offering ample alcohol specials. The bar offers $2 domestics...

Swirl Wine Bar & Market
Swirl Wine Bar & Market 3143 Ponce de Leon St., 504.304.0635 Wine by the glass: $5 and up Parking: Street Crowd: The whole neighborhood This small, cute place in the Esplanade cluster of businesses near Bayou St. John has terrific, friendly service and recommendations, plus local artwork and a nice cheese selection. Not a lot of seating, but the...

Clever: A Wine Destination
3700 Orleans Ave., 504.483.6360 Wine by the glass: Four wines are priced at $4 during happy hour. Parking: Lot Crowd: Residents of American Can Apartments, their friends, folks from the neighborhood This quiet, comfortable spot is an extension of the wine store Cork & Bottle. The staff is sophisticated and not at all intimidating. With...

W.I.N.O
W.I.N.O. 610 Tchoupitoulas St., 504.324.8000 Wine by the ounce starts at $1.60. Parking: Metered street Crowd: Tourists to national press; local wine drinkers of all types Exposed brick walls and maps of wine regions enclose this cozy wine bar, shop and school. About 120 bottles of wine are hooked up to a self-service Enomatic wine dispensing system. With a...

Coquette Bistro & Wine Bar
Coquette Bistro & Wine Bar 2800 Magazine St., 504.265.0421 Average drink prices: Wine and cocktails, $9 Parking: Street Crowd: Garden District neighbors and after-work professionals This bustling Garden District bistro is known for its continually changing, refined menu. The long bar that runs the length of the downstairs dining room is the ideal perch to survey the scene and...

Tommy's Wine Bar
Tommy's Wine Bar 746 Tchoupitoulas St., 504.581.1103 Wine by the glass: $6-$20; happy hour, $5 Parking: Valet or metered street Crowd: Business people after work, restaurant patrons This, probably the largest wine bar in town, has candles, dim lights and gaslights flickering over comfortable, clubby seating. Nearly 40 wines by the glass are described in flamboyant first-person on the wine...

The Delachaise
The Delachaise 3442 St. Charles Ave., 504.895.0858 Wine by the glass: Starts at $5 for the "cheap wine specials." Most others start at $7. Parking: Metered street Crowd: Changes hourly due to high-profile location. In late afternoon, lots of people use the free wifi The Delachaise has it all, including good food and bartenders, a deep selection of spirits...

12 Best New Restaurants

Twelve Best Fully-Emerged New Restaurants Of 2010

I've always hated the idea that newly-opened restaurants are the most newsworthy. Or, to go at it the way food magazines do, the only newsworthy restaurants. It's very clear that few restaurants rev up to their full capacities until they've been open at least a few months. After six months to a year, they're serving much better food much more smoothly than they did when most writers were writing about them.

These restaurants--many of which opened not in 2010 but 2009--have come into their own in recent months. They are the best of the new graduating class of restaurants, you might say, and are ready for your pleasure. You can get to detailed reviews of most of them by clicking on the name.me

1. Le Foret. CBD: 129 Camp. 504-553-6738. Easily the best new restaurant to emerge on the dining scene since Katrina, this new five-star restaurant has imaginative and delicious cooking, a fantastic wine list, a great manager and dining room staff, and the grand dining style many of us thought we'd never see again.
2. Ristorante Carmelo. Mandeville: 1901 US Hwy 190 . 985-624-4844. After twenty-three years in the French Quarter, Carmelo Chirico moved his act to Mandeville, where it instantly became the best place to eat Italian food in that town. Everything from pizza to elaborate Northern Italian dishes.
3. Charlie's Seafood. Harahan: 8311 Jefferson Hwy. 504-737-3700. The presence of Frank and Marna Brigtsen made the reopening of this ancient Harahan seafood joint a phenomenon, and that threw off the act for a few months. It's still very busy, but now they have the routine down, and it's as good a place to eat roll-up-your-sleeves seafood as anywhere else in town.
4. Mike's On The Avenue. CBD: 628 St Charles Ave. 504-523-7600. After experimenting with a truly bizarre menu for its first few months, Mike's reverted to the food it made a name with back in the 1990s. It was ahead if its time then; now it's right on the money.
5. Sazerac. CBD: 123 Baronne, Roosevelt Hotel. 504-648-1200. Only two things keeps the flagship restaurant of the new Roosevelt Hotel from becoming a great restaurant again: the lack of a significant dinner clientele, and a service style and dress code much more casual than it should be. But the food is spectacular.
6. Lake House. Mandeville: 2025 Lakeshore Dr. 985-626-3006. This is the old Bechac's, which has been many things in recent years. The Lake House is as much a catering facility as a restaurant, but they're serving lunch and dinner, too. The kitchen won't win any top awards, but its food is reliably good, and the view of the lake from the Mandeville seawall is romantic and wonderful.
7. Mondo. Lakeview: 900 Harrison Ave. 504-224-2633. Like Charlie's Seafood, the story here is that a famous local gourmet chef (Susan Spicer) opened a neighborhood place. Blammo! The place is packed. The service still hasn't quite caught up, the place it too noisy, and the menu a bit over the top. But it seems to be just about leveled off.
8. Katie's. Mid-City: 3701 Iberville. 504-488-6582. Five years after Katrina shut it down, Katie's got a new paint job (good-bye, K&B purple) and a twenty-five--percent new menu that moved its food up a notch. After months of nudging everything into place, it's a great Mid-City neighborhood cafe again.
9. Ruby Slipper Cafe. CBD: 200 Magazine St. 504-525-9355. Not only has this tight corner cafe established itself as one of the most popular places to breakfast in the city, but it's one of the best at that meal, too. And they just opened a new branch in the CBD that's too new to include fully on this list. I suspect that will not be true for long.
10. Barcelona Tapas. Riverbend: 720 Dublin. 504-861-9696 . Xavier Laurentino lost his Metairie Spanish restaurant early last year, but shortly after reopened in the former Cafe Volage in Riverbend. The menu is still Spanish and minimal; the service is sub-minimal. But the food is good, and his idea of having a tapas crawl every month is brilliant.
11. Royal House. French Quarter: 441 Royal. 504-528-2601. This is one of a better-than-average chain of tourist-targeted restaurants in the French Quarter. Its aim is clear, right down to the barker in front. But the cooking is good, and the oyster bar and baked oyster dishes are beyond reproach.
12. Sid-Mar's. Metairie: 3322 N Turnbull Dr. 504-831-9541. The reborn Sid-Mar's is not physically like the old place, which was blown away by Katrina and forever prevented from moving back to its old lakefront spot. But the food has resumed its former aspect, with all the boiled and fried seafood you need.

Some cool restaurant links

New Orleans Menu Website:
http://www.nomenu.com/joomla1/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=7&Itemid=55

My New Orleans.com:
http://www.myneworleans.com/My-New-Orleans/Food-Dining/

Beaucoup Bubby at Bouche

Bouche is romantic and cozy with a helpful and quite knowledgable waitstaff. Complete with private dining booths, a reservable private dining room with television, designated smoking area, cigar humidor, and "living room," this full service eatery and wine bar is a must see. Try the stinky french cheese with a frenchman named Xav. Complement all that Frenchness with 2 entire bottles of champagne. The day after will be a treat!

Bouche

Bouche, nestled in the historic Warehouse district, was excellent. The ambience was great. The brick walls were old fashioned; dating back to the Civil War (I just made that up) Lots of different seating options: tables, booths, sofas, kitchen stools. The overzealous cigar guy is also a drink waiter. On Tuesdays they offer champagne flights. Very good deal – except if you’re name is Megan and you drink two bottles by yourself :)

On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it a 9.


Bouche
840 Tchoupitoulas Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 267-7485
Website
http://www.bouchenola.com/