Antoine's
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Antoine's is a Louisiana Creole cuisine restaurant located at 713 Rue St. Louis (St. Louis Street) in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. It has the distinction of being the oldest family-run restaurant in the United States, having been established in 1840 by Antoine Alciatore. A New Orleans institution, it is notable for being the "inventor" of several famous dishes, such as Oysters Rockefeller, Pompano en Papillote, Eggs Sardou and Pigeonneaux Paradis. It has also known for its VIP patrons (including several U.S. presidents and Pope John Paul II). Antoine's features a 25,000 bottle capacity wine storage and 15 dining rooms of varying sizes and themes, with several featuring Mardi Gras krewe memorabilia. The lengthy menu (originally only in French, now in French and English) features classic French-Creole dishes. It remains a favorite of both visitors and a loyal local clientèle.
Antoine's is a short distance off Royal Street, near the Louisiana State Supreme Court.
Antoine is also known for Cafe Brulot, a drink made from coffee, orange liqueur, cinnamon stick, sugar, cloves and lemon and orange peels. At Antoine's, the coffee is customarily flamed when it is served as part of a dessert course. If the customers are obviously tourists, the waiters may pour some of the orange liqueur on the table cloth and flame it, too. (This is harmless as the flame point of the alcohol is not high enough to ignite the cotton tablecloth, which is not even seriously stained by the process.)
Cellars are not practical in New Orleans because the water table basically begins a couple of inches below the surface. Therefore, Antoine's has what is best described as a "wine alley", a corridor more than 200 feet long, lined by wine racks and carefully air-conditioned.
Guests who are present at closing time are sometimes offered a tour of Antoines, which includes the major dining rooms and several display cases full of Antoine's memorabilia.
Antoine's Cookbook, compiled by Roy F. Guste (the fifth-generation proprietor) features hundreds of recipes from the Antoine's tradition. It can be purchased from the Antoine's website or Amazon.com.
By tradition, Antoine's is closed for Sundays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Mardi Gras. However, the Antoine's website now indicates that Antoines can be reserved for private parties on "Closed Days." Advance reservations are required.
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[edit] Appearance in the book Dinner at Antoine's
Dinner at Antoine's, a 1947 murder mystery by Frances Parkinson Keyes, begins with a dinner party in the 1840 Room and includes another dinner party at Antoine's near the end. Antoine's itself is not pivotal to the plot, which hinges on the murder of a woman from a snobbish-but-impoverished old Creole family, just as she was beginning to face a serious chronic illness. Rather, Antoine's is part of the ambiance of New Orleans, which Keyes depicts as an exotic, half-foreign city whose ways are not easily understood by outsiders, especially those from the North. The novel is notable for it use of the "least likely person" motif in revealing the identity of the murderer, and for a final plot twist that renders the murder and its aftermath even more tragic. Antoine's is mentioned in other novels by Keyes, including Once on Esplanade and The River Road. Dinner at Antoine's was Keyes only murder mystery and her best-selling and best-known book.
[edit] Appearance in the film JFK
Antoine's was used for the filming of two sequences in Oliver Stone's 1991 movie, JFK. The first, which is quite brief, shows the Garrison family waiting for their father in the mirrored Main Dining Room. In the second, which lasts several minutes, Jim Garrison (played by Kevin Costner) has lunch with his staff in the Large Annex Room. At the beginning of the segment, Costner is greeted by the real maitre d', Henri Alciatore, a direct descendant of the founder of Antoine's.
[edit] Katrina
The French Quarter was fortunately above the flooding which devastated the majority of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (see: Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans), but Antoine's suffered from the hurricane winds which damaged part of the roof and knocked down a section of exterior wall. The extensive contents of Antoine's wine cellar were also lost due to a failure in the climate-control system; as of June 2006, the cellar is slowly being replenished, $10,000 per week being devoted to new purchases. The restaurant was able to reopen in early 2006, although a number of rooms are still closed off while they undergo repairs. Only the first floor is open for customers.
Currently the Large Annex, Rex Room, Proteus Room, Escargot Room, Mystery Room, Hermes Room, the Last Room and the 1840 Room are available for dining.
In the wake of Katrina, Antoine's has added its first-ever Sunday Jazz Brunch program.
