Pigs Will Fly, Donald Link is Opening a Seafood Restaurant

Stop what you're doing and sit down. Donald Link is opening a seafood restaurant next year at Julia and Magazine in the Warehouse District. The Donald of Cajun country tells Todd A. Price that the restaurant will have a raw bar, and fish that's grilled/baked over oak and pecan wood. They'll work with local fisherman for fresh line-caught fish, and there will be a few meat options. Ryan Prewitt of Herbsaint will head up the kitchen.

Apparently the idea was solidified after Link, Prewitt and Stephen Stryjewski returned from a Fatback Collective/exclusive pit-master trip to Uruguay, where Link says, "we really fell in love with that style of primitive, soul food" that's cooked over open flames. "We've been talking about doing a seafood restaurant for years that's not your typical fried seafood."

The restaurant doesn't have a name yet, but does have a building. The Link Group is working with architect Peter Trapolin to renovate a late 1800s building at the corner of Julia and Mag. The vibe will be very much like Cochon including a cypress bar, except this place will probably be haunted by the ghost of Jefferson Davis, because the building was once a a funeral home, where the Confederate Prez was embalmed. Burn some sage over that pecan wood, y'all.

Link says he is hoping to open by Jazz Fest, but this statement was accompanied by Prewitt's laughter, so perhaps April, or later in 2013.

· Donald Link to Open Seafood Restaurant in Spring [NOLA.com]
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