Restaurant R'evolution Should Be Open By Jazz Fest

Chefs John Folse and Rick Tramonto, partners in the forthcoming Restaurant R'evolution gave an interview to National Restaurant News where they talked about their plans to "evolve" New Orleans cuisine. The talk of "evolution" helps make the restaurant's kinda-nonsensical name a little less ridiculous, but the real takeaway from the piece is the news that the restaurant is "slated to open in New Orleans’ French Quarter this April, right before the April 27–May 6 Jazz & Heritage Festival."

Take that with a grain of salt though. The plans for the fine dining establishment inside the Royal Sonesta were announced in 2010, when James Beard Award winning chef Rick Tramonto, formerly of Chicago's Tru, decided to team up with South Louisiana chef and author John Folse in the new project. At that time, the restaurant was due to open in the summer of 2011. In true New Orleans fashion, the opening was delayed significantly.

But what can diners expect from Restaurant R'Evolution whenever it does open? It sounds like they're trying to stay true to Southeast Louisiana cuisine. Here's Tramonto: "We're going back into the history of those dishes and looking at them again through a fresh set of eyes." But Folse adds that that doesn't mean they'll be doing really whacky interpretations: "We're evolving exactly the way they did so many hundreds of years ago, using the swamp floor as the pantry of raw ingredient opportunities for us. We're not trying to make a molecular gumbo or anything like that."

· R'evolution Aims to Evolve Louisiana Cuisine [NRN]
· All Restaurant R'evolution Coverage on Eater NOLA [-ENOLA-]

Rick Tramonto and John Folse. [Photo: Facebook]