New Orleans Creole Restaurant: Cajun Food and Music
Tucked away near Seattle's Pioneer Square, the New Orleans Creole Restaurant serves up Cajun food with a healthy serving of live jazz and blues on a nightly basis, a duty it's undertaken for over 25 years.
The premises occupied by the restaurant is the Lombardy building, notable for being the first building completed during the rebuilding after Seattle's Great Fire in 1889.
Worn planking and exposed brick create a feeling that the diner's experiencing early Seattle. But the food is hardly Pacific Northwest traditional, featuring Cajun spices in dishes like prawns remoulade in a sauce of Creole mustard, cayenne pepper, and tarragon vinegar, oysters bayou, or chicken, shrimp or vegetables jambalaya-style.
Timorous diners can opt for mild spice, while others may choose a more nuclear option.
House specialties include crabmeat John Baptiste, plantation stuffed flounder, and fried catfish with hush puppies. The drink menu features a hearty selection of alcohol, including cocktails like Richard Beal's mint julep, a Cajun martini (vodka or gin with jalapeno peppers) and bloody O'Reilly with a pickled okra garnish.
Musical offerings suit the restaurant's flavor: jazz, blues, zydeco and Dixieland jazz. There is no cover charge for most events, and the venue has become one of Seattle's best jazz venues, providing good food, quick service, and a remarkably comfortable and cordial atmosphere.
HelloSeattle tip: During football season, try the New Orleans Pre-Game brunch, starting at 10 a.m. on game days.
Posted on Apr 8, 2011 by Cat Rambo
