A Former Bayona Chef Just Opened a New French Quarter Restaurant

The masterminds behind longtime French Quarter pop-up Old Portage, Amarys and Jordan Herndon, opened their much-awaited Rampart Street restaurant over the weekend, called Palm & Pine.

With what looks like a lot of help from friends, the pair has been working for a few years on the project while maintaining their weekly presence at fellow N. Rampart Street bar Black Penny. The pop-up was known for its Vietnamese crawfish boils and more recently for experimenting with Palm & Pine menu items like grilled eggplant salad, Jamaican fish curry and crawfish hushpuppies.

When they teamed up to run the Old Portage dinners, Amarys was working as a sous chef at Susan Spicer’s popular Bayona, and Jordan as a sous at Ralph’s on the Park. After a year of the pop-ups, Amarys quit her role at Bayona; upping Old Portage appearances to include NOLA Brewing and adding a monthly Sunday at ramen hotspot Kin and some Friday nights at the former McClure’s Barbecue.

Palm & Pine bills itself as providing a “progressive and soulful dining experience” with a menu based on the southern states, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America, and a bar program focused on agave and cane spirits. Blessedly, the new restaurant at 308 N. Rampart Street is open until 1 a.m. weeknights and until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday. Service industry happy hour is from 11 p.m. to close nightly.

EDIT: 7.9.2019: Eater contacted Palm & Pine owners numerous times before the publication of this article.

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