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One of the most-asked questions on my radio food show is which eight restaurants get my highest rating of five fleurs-de-lis. I ought to have a ready answer for that, since I don't change the ratings especially often. Reason: One of my considerations for the top rating is a good record of consistency.
In trying to give the five-fleur restaurants off the top of my head, I get stuck at around six or seven. My memory isn't what it used to be. Then I ask pardon, and say I will finish the list shortly - which I never do, because searching cyberspace is hard to do while maintaining an ad-lib radio conversation.
For that reason, for the first time in decades, I hereby present a list of all eight of the fivers as of this writing. They are in reverse alphabetical order, to counteract the advantage restaurants with names near the top of the alphabetical have in getting attention.
Restaurant August. CBD: 301 Tchoupitoulas. 299-9777. Top rating since 2002.
The moment when the chefs began to supersede the guys in suits was when Emeril opened his first restaurant in 1990. Eleven years later, Chef John Besh took that game to the next level. Restaurant August became incontestably one of the most culinary advanced restaurants in New Orleans. Even though competitors at that level appeared, August remained a contender. Besh and his lead partner Octavio Mantilla were elsewhere on all of my last three visits to Restaurant August. If this made a difference in the food or service, it was lost on me. The only decline I see at August is in the dress of the customers-but that disease is endemic now.
Pelican Club. French Quarter: 615 Bienville. 523-1504. Top...