13 May 2024
Nate Barfield serves up stewed okra and tomatoes at Hot Stuff. | Kat Kimball/Eater NOLA
The hot steam table restaurant with a funky covered patio brings “south Louisiana fishing camp vibes” to New Orleans
Leave it to the Turkey and the Wolf team to take an unassuming, mid-century corner store on slab and turn it into something unlike anything else in New Orleans. On Monday, May 13, that simple brick building at 7507 Maple Street opens as Hot Stuff, Mason Hereford and Nate Barfield’s new Southern-style meat and three restaurant.
Barfield, a Monroeville, Alabama native, has been with Turkey and the Wolf since the beginning — he was one of the first chefs at the widely acclaimed sandwich shop that opened in 2016. Hereford, the chef and founder of Turkey and the Wolf, is from Charlottesville, Virginia. Meat and three is “[Barfield’s] favorite way to eat and my favorite way to eat,” Hereford tells Eater, and is a style of restaurant the two have wanted to do together for years.
Durel Randall, Nate Barfield, and Mason Hereford on the hot line at Hot Stuff.
The approach is as traditional as it gets. Diners enter and grab a tray — “You’re on one side of the cafeteria line, with staff on the other side,” Hereford says — and pick their meat or main dish, a roll (brushed with herby sage brown butter) or cornbread (baked continuously throughout the day), and as many sides as they want to add on. The core menu price is for one meat, the cornbread or roll, and two sides, which is about $15. All said and done, including tax and service charge, the plate is around $20.
Black-eyed oeas, stewed tomatoes and okra, collard greens, and hamburger steak au poivre.
From there, tradition gets a few small twists. These are recipes that Barfield has spent the last year perfecting, says Hereford. There’s a hamburger steak au poivre drenched in a creamy black peppercorn sauce and, as suggested, served over mashed potatoes. Sides include marinated cucumbers in a chili crisp dressing, a bright and rich stewed okra and tomatoes cooked down “super far,” says Hereford, creamy mac and cheese, vegan black-eyed peas, miso green beans, and collard greens made with ham hock. There’s also pickle cheese — “similar to pimento cheese, but made with pickles” — served with saltines.
For dessert, there are individual Mountain Dew cakes, like a 7-Up cake, topped with a glistening glaze and zested with lemon and lime, as well as classic banana pudding made with Nilla Wafers.
The menu will change slightly every day. “As we get the hang of things, there will be bigger changes,” says Hereford. Eventually, each day of the week will have a set menu of mains, like a conventional plate lunch spot (as tradition dictates in New Orleans, Monday will be red beans and rice day). Other mains will include smoked pork ribs, buttermilk and hot sauce-marinated fried chicken, smoked chicken wings with pineapple habanero white barbecue sauce, and fried pork chops. There are two or three vegan dishes a day, like the black-eyed peas, stewed okra and tomatoes, and miso green beans, and even more vegetarian sides.
Stepping inside Hot Stuff is like visiting a cafeteria-style restaurant in the South, which feels worlds away from Uptown New Orleans (though some certainly exist within 50 miles). Hereford says they were going for “south Louisiana fishing camp vibes,” but with signature Turkey and the Wolf touches. “I have a bit of a shopping habit,” says Hereford. “One of the things I like gathering is old junk. All of our restaurants are a little bit maximalist, but this is quite the collection. We call it my opus in the collection of junk,” he says.
The tin roof-covered back patio in particular is a treasure trove of vintage signage and funky decor in a roadhouse atmosphere, a bit reminiscent of the Rivershack Tavern in Jefferson Parish. There are giant neon pieces from Big Sexy Neon in Central City, antiques from Junks Above in Mid-City, a few signs from Low Timers in Bywater, and furniture from picker Chris Shortall’s The Rust Report on Instagram. Inside, the countertops and tables are embedded with nostalgic knick-knacks and toys, which also have a major presence at Turkey and the Wolf and Molly’s Rise and Shine.
The pay counter at Hot Stuff, where diners can order a pour of liquor and make a DIY mixed drink at the soda fountain.
There’s another playful element that feels like quintessential Hereford and company: diners can order pours of spirits when they pay, which they can then take to the soda fountain to create a DIY mixed drink. Turkey and the Wolf had great success with a similar formula when it created a frozen margarita spiked with 7-Up.
House hot sauce.
Black-eyed peas, hamburger steak au poivre, and cornbread.
Hot Stuff is Hereford and his wife Lauren Agudo’s fourth restaurant, and while collaborative, is largely Barfield’s vision. Following Turkey and the Wolf, Hereford opened Magazine Street breakfast restaurant Molly’s Rise and Shine in 2018 with Colleen Quarls and Liz Hollinger, the restaurant’s co-chefs who were named James Beard Award Semifinalists in 2023 for best chef, South. In April 2023, Hereford, Agudo, and Turkey and the Wolf chef Phil Cenac opened Hungry Eyes, the team’s first dinner restaurant. Hereford says he has worked with this team (Quarls, Hollinger, Cenac, Barfield, and operations director Kate Mirante) since Turkey and the Wolf opened, and has partnered with each of them to open places that fit their individual passions.
“This team is incredibly solid. Eight years in, it makes a lot of sense for these people to be running their own restaurants.”
Hot Stuff is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday through Monday; closed Tuesday and Wednesday.
Barfield plates a side of stewed okra and tomatoes.
Hereford and Barfield on the covered patio.
The team outside Hot Stuff.