I thought some of you might enjoy this old article about LeRuths restaurant

I was born and raised in New Orleans, although I haven't lived there in about 30 years. LeRuths was my favorite New Orleans restaurant of all time. Crabmeat St Francis is my favorite appetizer of all time. The Canard Ferme Freres LeRuth is in my top 3 entrees of all time. And who else beside LeRuths had Puligny-Montrachet and Aloxe-Corton as his house wines!

Anyway, I believe this article by Tom Fitzmorris is from around 2011.

quote:

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LeRuth's was ready when a new dynamic entered the restaurant community. In the summer of 1970, Richard Collin published The New Orleans Underground Gourmet, the first rated restaurant guide in the city's history. Its influence on the dining habits of New Orleanians was incalculable.

And the Underground Gourmet said in no uncertain terms that LeRuth's was the best restaurant in town.

LeRuth's food lived up to the accolade. It was based on two sources: restaurants in France that Leruth admired, and Galatoire's. Dinner was a five-course table d'hote repast. These were not tasting portions. When you went to LeRuth's, you needed to be ready for a big, lengthy meal.

The famous appetizer was crabmeat St. Francis, a baked ramekin of crabmeat with a rich, peppery sauce. (It was so good that when Leruth closed the restaurant, he said his greatest regret was that he wouldn't be able to eat crabmeat St. Francis anytime he wanted.) They also made good baked oysters, shrimp remoulade, escargots Bourguignonne, and a couple of other items.

Leruth invented oyster-artichoke soup. He called it potage LeRuth, and it was always on the menu. It was one of only two dishes there that would be widely copied by other restaurants, and is now such a universal classic that it's hard to imagine a time when it wasn't around. Leruth's version had no cream, just a good oyster stock with recently-added oysters, chunky artichokes, herbs.

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