re: Coquette closing after 18 years

8 years of Teedy and Covid absolutely obliterated the tourism and convention industry here.

Conventions and events have gone elsewhere to avoid the crime and corruption and heat and hurricanes.

We've almost become a college town where once school is out the city is completely empty.

Crime continuing to fall, and basic infrastructure improvements, fiscal responsibility, restoring trust from companies in our leadership. Those things happen and maybe we see an upswing

If you’re in the restaurant business, and are one of the fortunate ones to be profitable, it would be wild to just close

I found saftas table underwhelming compared to his other offerings. Under seasoned and pita wasn’t great on my visit.
I would rather add the 10 minutes round trip and go to 1000 figs.

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Juicy crawfish!

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The downfall of Magazine Street. Dodge Challengers doing donuts at the intersection of Magazine and renamed Weezyanna Avenue incoming.
There's already a Starbucks and Chipotle across the street.

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What happened in your opinion? It’s just confusing to see this statement in arguably the best food city in the country.

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See above. But it’s been the case since Covid. It just obliterated what was left. Every June we see a string of high profile closings because they know they can’t survive Summer

The places that do well generally stay doing well and everyone else is fighting for scraps.

The chefs menu move could play into some of the shift in dining habits as well.

There are savings with the move but not every diner wants to experience a set menu vs having options. Especially going in blind if the menu isn't set.

I was just at Cochon Butcher and there wasn't a place to sit because it was full of convention attendees.

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But it’s been the case since Covid. It just obliterated what was left. Every June we see a string of high profile closings because they know they can’t survive Summer

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Agree 100%, this is number 1. Then for business owners, insurance still sucks and costs keep going up (not saying inflation) but in real life everything is more expensive and there is a limit to how much you can pass on to customers, especially for restaurants which have tight margins. In other businesses easier to reduce costs, but you need a baseline of staff and food to run a good restaurant.

Also important, cost of living for service industry workers. NO used to be great for workers because there was a good supply of sometimes crappy, but affordable housing, generally close to work (LGD, Mid-City, parts of Treme) if you wanted. Today in these areas quality housing is limited and/or it's been converted to short term rentals. Who wants to get paid NO salaries with a cost of living closer to DC, New York, Chicago. So they eventually bounce, especially at the start of summer.

Its a viscous cycle.

nobody is passing on having a convention in New Orleans or picking another city to visit because they didn't like the mayor, be serious.

also i guess suddenly crime, heat and hurricanes started becoming a thing in New Orleans in 2026.

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NO salaries with a cost of living closer to DC, New York, Chicago

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Cost of living is definitely higher, but to compare Nola to DC, NYC and Chicago isn’t an accurate representation.