22 December 2025
A flurry of year-end openings offers a bright spot for the New Year of restaurant dining in New Orleans. The reopening of iconic spaces, bringing back memories of Marti’s, MoPho, and Marjie’s, is both positive and bittersweet for diners still mourning their loss.
Pay-what-you-can community cafe opening Uptown
Crescent City Cafe has served more than 24,000 free breakfasts at Rayne Memorial Methodist Church since 2009. In early 2026, the nonprofit will take over the former Uptown Surrey Cafe at 4807 Magazine Street, adopting a pay-what-you-can model to serve low-income and marginalized members of the New Orleans community with dignity and to build relationships through shared nourishment. According to executive director Adelle Bergman, all will be welcome, regardless of means. “It will be a donation-based restaurant where all guests order from a menu, sit down, and enjoy a dignified dining experience,” she said. “Guests pay what they can — some pay it forward, some give a little — but all are welcome.” Crescent City Cafe joins more than 60 pay-what-you-can cafes in the U.S., including Jon Bon Jovi Soul Kitchen, with four locations in New Jersey, S.A.M.E. (So All May Eat) in Denver, and F.A.R.M. Cafe (Feed All Regardless of Means) in Boone, North Carolina.
More cooking with a purpose at St. Mary’s Restaurant
It’s all in the name. Yes, St. Mary’s Restaurant is a casual cafe serving Creole and American comfort food, created by chef and co-owner Brad McGehee, in a Metairie strip mall at 4445 W. Metairie Avenue. But the name reflects his partner, Bob Hecker’s, gratitude to St. Mary’s Residential Community and Services, a campus in Alexandria that serves people with severe developmental disabilities, including Hecker’s son, who has lived there for more than 20 years. The restaurant donates 15 percent of its profits to the community. Diners can feel extra good about enjoying dishes such as pork grillades and grits, a Cajun Benedict with boudin, a fried chicken sandwich, and drinks from bar director Daniel Victory, including a serious bloody mary. If McGehee’s name sounds familiar, he created Blue Line Sandwich Co. in Old Metairie more than a decade ago. Sidney Montrel, who worked at Blue Line, is the executive chef.
Succotash opening in former Marti’s on North Rampart
Chef Kimberly “K” Cochran will open Southern-fusion restaurant Succotash at 1041 Dumaine Street, at the edge of the French Quarter. Christmas and New Year’s Eve will be her first service, but the chef will kick off her regular menu on January 2. The building at the corner of North Rampart and Dumaine Street has housed several restaurants in the last century. But the yellow-and-white awning dates to 2014, the year the highly regarded rustic bistro Marti’s closed.
Neauxstalgia Bar and Grill serves Southern soul in Mid City
Located in the former Marjie’s space at 324 S. Broad Street, Neauxstalgia Bar and Grill spotlights homestyle cuisine from chef Julius Mosely, an Algiers native who earned his culinary degree the hard way — while serving 10 years in federal prison for selling drugs, his first offense. Mosely fed 2,200 inmates a day, an experience which fueled his career as a chef, a passion he’s pursued since his release in 2008. Menu highlights include chicken and andouille gumbo, grilled lamb chops with creamy stone ground grits, fried chicken, and bread pudding. The restaurant is open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner. There’s also a lively 5 to 8 p.m. happy hour and a patio hookah lounge.
Charmont takes over the former MoPho in Mid City
Chef Chris Borges has spent decades in hotel and fine-dining kitchens, most recently running the show at Virgin Hotels New Orleans. With the late November opening of Charmant at 514 City Park Avenue in Mid City, Borges and his wife, GM/sommelier Bonnie Borges, have a place of their own. Charmant, which means “lovely” or “captivating” in French, radiates European charm, from its elevated bistro menu to its robust wine list and interesting cocktails from lead bartender Kyle Godwin (formerly of the Country Club and Brutto Americano). Serving brunch and dinner, the menu ranges from an outstanding fried Brussels salad with lima beans and golden raisins to house-made croissants and a wonderful homage to the former restaurant, PhoMo, with pho reimagined as grits and grillades. Pastry chef Jillian Duran promises Rahm Haus-inspired ice cream flavors, along with a buttermilk panna cotta and a salted caramel apple galette.
Cuban roots inspire the opening of Cafe Conmigo
Cafe Conmigo, housed in an 800-square-foot shotgun house at 2511 Jena Street, off of Freret, will open in early 2026. A passion project from Fredo Noguiera and Ryan Iriarte, who also own High Hat Cafe, the Cuban coffee house and lunch spot, speaks to the partners’ shared Cuban heritage. “The gravity and importance of holding onto the foodways honoring my family in different stories means so much to me,” said Noguiera. “This is something I’ve wanted to do and have to do.” Cafe Conmigo translates to “coffee with me,” an invitation to enjoy the dark, Cuban brew shared in tiny cups throughout Little Havana in Miami. There will be a Cuban sandwich, of course, a Cuban-style frita burger made with chorizo-spiced beef, and snacks such as pastelitos, croquetas, and flan. Cocktails, including daiquiris and mojitos, will also flow. The pair’s shared history includes formative years working together at chef Adolfo Garcia’s storied RioMar in the Warehouse District.
The Hampshire opens in Covington
There’s a new addition to the burgeoning restaurant scene in Covington. The Hampshire, an elegant steak-and-seafood restaurant, features chef Ryan Gall, formerly of Tchefuncte Restaurant, in the kitchen. Louisiana seafood is in the spotlight, including local grilled oysters, swordfish, and tuna sashimi. There are creative surprises, too: grilled pineapple and mango salsa with the crab cakes, surf-and-turf lettuce wraps featuring cured pork belly and Gulf shrimp, and the “Land and Sea,” a $90 menu for two featuring twin filet medallions, Louisiana crab, and sides. The restaurant is a partnership between Gall and GM Jonathan Cimino, longtime friends who first worked together at Pardo’s Restaurant in Mandeville. Dinner is served Tuesday through Saturday, and brunch is served on Sunday.
Kira quietly opens in the CBD
Open to the public on December 11, the new Kira transformed the former Mister Oso taco restaurant into a cross between a high-concept Greek taverna and a Japanese omakase, with a healthy dose of disco chic. Created by New Orleans restaurateur Billy Blatty, founder/owner of Sofia restaurant on Julia Street and previously a partner in Mister Oso, the restaurant features a glowing bar and theatrical interiors. It’s a dramatic backdrop for a menu that ranges from raw hamachi on fried sticky rice cakes to smoked bone marrow on toast from the robata and a tomahawk steak with labneh. Open daily for dinner at 601 Tchoupitoulas Street.