Bye Bye, Pinkberry: The Froyo Exodus Hits New Orleans

Waning frozen yogurt chain Pinkberry will soon no longer have a presence in New Orleans, with two locations closed in the last month and the Carrollton Avenue shop’s final day set for September 18. That location will be transformed into a new restaurant, reports NOLA.com, by the family that currently owns the local Pinkberrys as well as Felipe’s numerous locations. It will be called Felipe’s Heladeria, and serve coffee, soft serve ice cream, and Mexican-style snacks, while the downtown location will be taken over by Ayesha Motwani, who relaunched Sucre a few years back. That shop, located at 300 Canal Street and to be called Hot Bennys, will focus on beignets and coffee. Both are expected this fall.

Legacy Chinese restaurateur cuts retirement short to open new restaurant

The Magazine Street address that area residents relied on for Chinese-American staples, and less-known specialties, for 12 years will continue that legacy when a new restaurant opens there this fall. Shirley and Tang Lee, the former proprietors of Royal China in Metairie, will open Miss Shirley’s in the former home of Jung’s Golden Dragon II, reports the Times Picayune/New Orleans Advocate. The duo ran their Metairie restaurant before more than 40 years before selling it in 2021 with plans to retire. The restaurant will continue a focus on dim sum, Lee tells the newspaper, like its predecessor, but will have a smaller menu. Miss Shirley’s is expected to open this fall after renovations at 3009 Magazine Street.

Decadence returns to New Orleans

This weekend is Southern Decadence, and French Quarter bars and restaurants are hosting special events all weekend to celebrate the annual “Gay Mardi Gras.” There’s a tea dance at Couvant; drag brunches and late-night happy hours at SoBou; a jazz and sword-swallowing event with Gigi DeLuxe at the Peacock Room; and more. For full info, see the Decadence website, and for a guide to New Orleans’s gay bars and LGBTQ-friendly spaces, see here.

NOLA chefs head to Mississippi for annual Boucherie

A number of top New Orleans restaurants are headed to Como, Mississippi this weekend, joining other chefs from Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana for the sixth annual Hill Country Boucherie and Blues Picnic. It takes place at Home Place Pastures, an acclaimed regional farm where many local restaurants source their meat. Chef teams from Turkey and the Wolf and Gianna, among others, will be cooking on Saturday, September 3, for the Boucherie dinner. Tickets are $110 and include live music.

Get your copy of Turkey and the Wolf: Flavor Trippin’ in New Orleans signed

Fresh on the heels of a book signing for chef Vishwesh Bhatt, the Chicory House will host famed local chef and all-around culinary personality Mason Hereford to party for his cookbook, Turkey and the Wolf: Flavor Trippin’ in New Orleans. Most notably, it’s free and open to the public, at p.m. on September 14.

Alon Shaya cooks to raise funds for local culinary training lab

Saba chef Alon Shaya has a foundation, the Shaya Barnett Foundation, that’s co-named for his former home economics teacher, with whom he credits for helping point him in the right direction. He’s teaming up with his business partner and co-chef Zach Engel and his foundation to benefit a new culinary lab at New Orleans Career Center (NOCC), a nonprofit career training center. The big party will take place on October 10 at Saba, with an over-the-top four-course menu featuring grape leaf wrapped lemonfish and Shaya’s famed blue crab hummus. Tickets for the event start at $400 and can be purchased here.