From Deseret News archives:
New Orleans restaurateurs worry, but vow to come back
As restaurateurs and diners around the country worked to organize fund-raisers and find jobs for industry refugees, the people who ran many of the best-known restaurants in the United States struggled to find out what, if anything, was left of the vibrant New Orleans restaurant scene.
Nearly 10 percent of the New Orleans labor force, about 55,000 people, worked in the city's estimated 3,400 restaurants.
Most of the city's best-known restaurants are in the French Quarter, Uptown and in the Garden District, which remained relatively dry. But there were still reports of fires, looting and other damage. Restaurants in the Central Business District and in the Bucktown section were flooded and more seriously damaged.
But whether or not restaurants were damaged, reopening them will be difficult.
"We're kind of assuming that even in places like the French Quarter, even if they don't have water damage, they're not going to have customers for a long time," said Don Luria, president of the Council of Independent Restaurants of America, which is helping to find jobs for thousands of workers. "I think a lot of these people are not going to be returning to New Orleans for a long time, if ever."
Some restaurateurs are vowing to continue.
"We have been instructed by the matriarchs that we will rebuild," Brad Brennan, of the family that owns the famed Commander's Palace and eight other restaurants, said from his office at Commander's Palace Las Vegas. "There was no hesitation."
The matriarchs are Brennan's aunt, Ella Brennan, and his mother, Dottie Brennan, who was evacuated to Houston, where the family also has a restaurant.
Brennan said it was too soon to know the extent of the damage, but all of the 800 employees of the Brennan restaurants were accounted for.
Chuck Subra Jr., executive chef and co-owner of La Cote Brasserie in the Warehouse District, stayed at the restaurant and the adjoining Renaissance Hotel until Wednesday afternoon. The looting started almost immediately after he left for New Iberia, about 110 miles to the west, Subra said.
"We're picking up the pieces and moving on," he said, "but I definitely think New Orleans will be back. I'll be back with it."
John Besh, co-owner of Restaurant August and the Besh Steakhouse at Harrah's casino, both in the Central Business District, drove evacuees to his family home in North Carolina last week then returned last weekend with water, gasoline, guns, and red beans and rice, said Simone Rathle, his publicist.
