Longtime Creole-Italian Chef and Scarpetta Alum Opens Lakeview Restaurant

A new restaurant from Ludovic “Vic” Gerrets, a longtime chef of Creole-Italian cuisine in Louisiana and beyond, has landed in Lakeview. Billed as an “upscale-family” classic Italian restaurant, Elle-J’s opened today, October 4, in the building that formerly held Susan Spicer’s Mondo.

The restaurant reflects Gerrets and partner Jason Serpas’s local upbringings as well as Gerrets time cooking at Andrea’s in Metairie, Mezzaluna, a New York staple for Neapolitan pizza, and at Scarpetta in Miami, a regional Italian restaurant in the famed Fontainebleau Hotel.

Creole-Italian dishes, often marked by a smooth red gravy made from a dark roux, make up a good part of the menu, which also draws from Sicilian and Northern Italian cooking. There’s an alligator and fennel starter, rigatoni scarpetta, classic and seafood lasagnas, roasted hen and rabbit marsala, fish basilico and soft-shell crab piccata, and pizzas. The brunch menu includes eggs sardou, polenta and grillades (what sounds like an Italian twist on the New Orleans breakfast classic), and a duck croissant egg sandwich.

Elle-J’s is the latest in a wave of family-friendly restaurants opening in Lakeview, among them Danny Millan’s Azul and the forthcoming Junior’s on Harrison. It’s open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.; closed Monday.

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