Katie’s Restaurant (3701 Iberville St., 484-0580) reopened today at long last.
- This backstreet restaurant has been closed since Katrina. Owner Scot Craig pledged to return early on, when its Mid-City neighborhood was still in ruins from the levee failures (see above, circa October 2005), so Katie’s has been on the watch list for reopening for the last few years as a prolonged renovation took shape.
- Though the building looks largely the same from the outside (albeit with a toned down color scheme from the previous Grimace purple), the interior of the restaurant and its menu have been thoroughly redone. The bar is now lined with beautiful bare cypress (see below) and at the far end of the long dining room an open kitchen gives views of all the new stainless steel equipment.
- That kitchen once again prepares the familiar mix of local seafood and red-sauce Italian dishes, but there’s a lot more on the menu now, including deli sandwiches (like a Reuben), offbeat po-boys (like fried shrinp with crabmeat dressing on French) and specialty pizzas (like the Boudreaux, topped with cochon de lait, garlic and spinach).
- Katie’s serves lunch and dinner.
