re: You can bring one restaurant and bring it to your town

My choice would be a restaurant that might raise consciousness and inspire a whole new scene here in New Orleans.

So I would pick Rick Bayless's first restaurant, still going strong in Chicago: Frontera Grill.

Frontera's scope is ambitious enough to reveal greatness at every level of Mexican cuisine, from fine-dining to street food.

Within a few weeks of Frontera opening here, after New Orleans got a taste of what Mexican food actually tastes like, every place that thinks it currently offers Mexican food would be deserted and forced to close. But, in their wake, a new generation of Mexican restauranteurs, both high and humble, would arise.

BTW I don't know of a restaurant even in, say, Mexico City that offers both amazing fine-dining and also amazing tacos and other antojitos. So that's why I picked a Mexican restaurant in Chicago. Frontera Grill covers every level of that gamut superbly.

As a bonus, I think Frontera Grill is also the most affordable restaurant ever to win the James Beard award for Most Oustanding Restaurant in America (as it did back in 2007).