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The Central Restaurant Frontier in New Orleans has pushed noticeably upstream in recent years. Large new buildings and renovations of old ones invite sophisticated new places to eat in a part of town where there were only blue-collar lunch houses for decades.
The entire process can be summed up by what became of Ditcharo's, at the corner of Carondelet and Girod. "The Ditch," as the place was called by its regulars, was a utilitarian lunch place with a bar full of regulars for many years. But absorbing energy from many new restaurants in the area, it has become a gourmet bistro, complete with an original menu and two columns of specialty cocktails and wines. And a five-star chef/owner: Justin Devillier, of La Petite Grocery fame. This is real progress.
For me, the memory of Maylie's restaurant - a remnant of another era of dining in the CBD - casts a pleasant spell around Balise and the similar restaurants in this long-underused part of town. In some ways, it's like the French Quarter dining scene, but without the tourists. In other words, you have to be a local to appreciate a restaurant like Balise.
WHY IT'S GOOD
The menu here, like the restaurant premises, are strongly reminiscent of a long-gone era in New Orleans dining. That's...