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.

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Restaurant-based fundraisers and benefit dinners were one way people across the country found to give money to Katrina-relief causes after the levee failures here. Similar efforts are taking shape now in New Orleans to direct aid to earthquake survivors in Haiti, and two are on tab for Tuesday.

One citywide event, Called New Orleans Night Out for Haiti, is structured similarly to the annual Dine Out for Life benefit organized by the NO/AIDS Task Force. In this case, each participating restaurant will donate 10 percent of its sales from Tuesday, Feb. 2, to the charity of its choice working on earthquake relief. The public is encouraged to support the campaigning simply by dining at a participating restaurant on Tuesday.

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New Orleans artist Miranda Lake and the owners of Dick & Jenny’s Restaurant are organizing a restaurant-based benefit next week to help humanitarian causes in Haiti.

Called New Orleans Night Out for Haiti, the event is structured similarly to the annual Dine Out for Life benefit organized by the NO/AIDS Task Force. In this case, each participating restaurant will donate 10 percent of its sales on Feb. 2 to the charity of its choice working on earthquake relief, while the public is encouraged to support the effort simply by dining out that day.

Restaurant owners interested in participating can find more details on this Facebook page for the event.

Some participating restaurants thus far include Dick & Jenny’s, J’Anita’s at the Avenue Pub, Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza, Kyoto and Nonna Mia Café & Pizzeria.

“(T)ogether we can help scores of suffering people in their darkest hour by doing what we do best,” Lake writes, “cooking like nobody’s business and going out to enjoy a fantastic meal and some drinks at one of the many amazing restaurants and bars we are so lucky to have here in New Orleans.”

Nearly four and a half years after Hurricane Katrina wrecked their original Bucktown location, the family owners of Sid-Mar’s Restaurant & Bar plan to reopen tomorrow, Jan. 19, at a new Metairie address (3322 N. Turnbull Dr., 831-9541).

The Burgess family opened Sid-Mar’s in 1967 next to the old Bucktown fishing docks on a spot with an unimpeded view of the lake. The Army Corps of Engineers took over that property as part of its flood control plans following Katrina.

The new location is strikingly different, and well inland. It’s a restaurant space that was most recently home to the Korean barbecue restaurant Gimchi. It’s just off Veterans Memorial Boulevard.

While you won’t find the lake views and breezes that characterized the Bucktown original, the new Sid-Mar’s menu of po-boys, seafood platters and seasonal boiled seafood remains the same, right down to the Sid-Mar’s special, a hot sausage po-boy with roast beef gravy and cheese.

Sid-Mar’s will serve lunch and dinner, Tuesday through Sunday.

Local restaurateur Hicham Khodr plans to open a French Quarter rendition of the historic Camellia Grill.

He says construction will begin within a few weeks at 534 Chartres St. The building was long the site of Keuffer’s Bar and later housed a succession of short-lived restaurants, though it has sat empty for some time.

“It will look like Camellia Grill, the same thing, only I might have more stools here,” he says.

Some veteran waiters of the original Camellia Grill will split their time with the French Quarter location in an effort to lend the new place a convincing feel, he says, and the menu will remain the same.

The news marks the latest move by a restaurateur who has been very busy lately.

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Our first little cold snap late last year inspired a Five in 5 list of chicken soups to warm you up. That was back in November, when a little chill was welcome. Today is something else altogether, but I think these places will still do the trick for a core-warming lunch or dinner and a dose of prevention.

Pho Tau Bay
113 Westbank Expy., Gretna, 368-9846
Pho ga, or chicken noodle soup Vietnamese style, with herbs to add tableside.

Taqueria Guerrero
208 N Carrollton Ave., 484-6959
Half a bird goes into the pozole (pictured above), bobbing with hominy.

Lüke
333 St Charles Ave., 378-2840
Matzo ball soup’s chicken broth is a “Jewish penicillin” delivery system.

Taqueros
1432 St. Charles Ave., 267-3032
Rich and warming tortilla soup is back at Taqueros’ new incarnation.

Siamese Thai Cuisine
6601 Veterans Memorial Blvd., 454-8752
Spicy and sour chicken is just that, with hot peppers, lemongrass and lime.

Sweet Gals in the Lower Garden District has closed. The casual café first opened in October, serving a breakfast and lunch menu specializing in crepes and egg dishes.

The restaurant’s storefront space at 1906 Magazine St. was previously home to J’Anita’s. That restaurant closed last spring and relocated its operation to the tavern kitchen at the nearby Avenue Pub.

Sweet Gals opened not long after new owners revived the long-shuttered Jackson restaurant right next door, and at the time it looked like a mini boom was underway on that block of Magazine Street. It will be interesting to see what comes along next.

The local nonprofit MarketUmbrella.org, parent group for the Crescent City Farmers Market, will soon take over its old pre-Katrina farmers market spot in Mid-City, thanks to some good timing and a long-running proof-of-concept effort from one dedicated local merchant.

Before Hurricane Katrina, the Crescent City Farmers Market held one of its three weekly markets in the parking lot outside the American Can apartment building (3700 Orleans Ave., map) each Thursday afternoon. While the group’s Uptown and Warehouse District markets reopened after the catastrophe, the Mid-City market was put on hold indefinitely.

Enter Jon Smith (above), proprietor of Cork & Bottle Fine Wines, which is located in the American Can building. In April 2008, he organized and launched a new market on the same site, and dubbed it the Mid-City Green Market.

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Yesterday, news broke that Galatoire’s Restaurant had changed hands, with Todd Trosclair, CEO of a large, LaPlace-based electrical contracting company, taking an ownership stake in the landmark Creole restaurant. Today, however, New Orleans businessman and mayoral candidate John Georges issued a statement announcing that with “the completion of his investment” in the restaurant he is now the “majority owner.”

“While Georges will acquire the largest share, Trosclair will serve as chairman of the Board,” the release reads.

Reached for comment this afternoon, Galatoire’s chief operating officer Melvin Rodrigue said he was unaware of Georges’ role in the deal.

“It’s news to me, I don’t know anything about it so I can’t comment,” Rodrigue said.

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Jeff Baron and Bart Bell have opened their new restaurant Crescent Pie & Sausage Co. (4400 Banks St., 482-2426) next to their Mid-City breakfast and lunch joint Huevos (4408 Bank St., 482-6264).

Plans for the restaurant suffered a most dramatic delay last year when Hurricane Gustav blew down the dilapidated, one-time appliance repair shop Baron and Bell were renovating for their new restaurant. Instead, they built a new structure, complete with wrap-around deck, where they’re now serving a casual menu of gourmet pizzas and dishes drawing heavily on Bell’s house-made sausages.

Some dishes here may already be familiar to some thanks to the owners’ frequent cooking appearances at festivals and other local events. Baron also owns the Dough Bowl (1039 Broadway, 861-2200 ), a pizza parlor practically on the Tulane campus, though the pizza style at Crescent Pie & Sausage is quite different. The Mediterranean pizza, for instance, has lamb sausage, baba ghanoush and mint crema.

Crescent Pie & Sausage is open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday, and the owners plan to add lunch hours soon.