Antoine's Restaurant
New Orleans, LA
Antoine's Restaurant
713 Saint Louis Street New Orleans, LA 70130(504) 581-4422
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ESTABLISHED IN 1840, ANTOINE?S IS THE COUNTRY?S OLDEST FAMILY-RUN RESTAURANT.
It was spring in 1840, when New Orleans was queen city of the Mississippi River, when cotton was king and French gentlemen settled their differences under the oaks with pistols for two and coffee for one. ?Dixie? had not yet been written, destined to become the marching anthem for Confederate forces in the Civil War. This was the city young Antoine Alciatore adopted, after stopping in New York, to establish a restaurant that would endure under his family?s direction for more than 180 years and set the standard that has made New Orleans one of the great dining centers of the world.
It was on St. Louis Street, just one block from the spot the famed restaurant occupies today, that the 18-year old Alciatore started what was to become simply ?Antoine?s? as a synonym for fine food. He felt at home in the French-speaking city of lordly aristocrats and their extravagances, an ideal audience for his culinary artistry.
The main dining room at Antoine?s as it appeared in 1951. Even at that late date the gas chandeliers provided the only heat for the room during the winter months! [Louisiana Photograph Collection, New Orleans Public Library] After a brief period in the kitchen of the grand St. Charles Hotel, Antoine opened a pension, a boarding house and restaurant.
It was then that he made arrangements for his fiancée? to join him from New York. She came to New Orleans with her sister and she and Antoine were married. Together they worked to build up their pension with culinary emphasis.
It was on St. Louis Street, just one block from the spot the famed restaurant occupies today, that the 18-year old Alciatore started what was to become simply ?Antoine?s? as a synonym for fine food. He felt at home in the French-speaking city of lordly aristocrats and their extravagances, an ideal audience for his culinary artistry.
The main dining room at Antoine?s as it appeared in 1951. Even at that late date the gas chandeliers provided the only heat for the room during the winter months! [Louisiana Photograph Collection, New Orleans Public Library] After a brief period in the kitchen of the grand St. Charles Hotel, Antoine opened a pension, a boarding house and restaurant.
It was then that he made arrangements for his fiancée? to join him from New York. She came to New Orleans with her sister and she and Antoine were married. Together they worked to build up their pension with culinary emphasis.