Creole Italian food has a particular slant in New Orleans, informed by a wealth of Gulf seafood and the local creed that more — sauce, cheese, cheese on seafood — is better. The city’s influx of mostly Sicilian immigrants in the late 19th century (an estimated 290,000 settled here) expanded the New Orleans table to embrace Southern style cuisine from the boot. That Italian influence, which at one point transformed the French Market area into “little Palermo,” is still apparent on St. Joseph’s Day, March 19, when altars made of pastry, fruit, and bread honor the patron Saint of Sicily.
New Orleans diners can celebrate the city’s Italian roots any day with a visit to one of these restaurants, a wide-ranging sampling of the area’s best regional Italian, Creole-Italian, and American-Italian cuisine, from the Westbank to the French Quarter.
Health experts consider dining out to be a high-risk activity for the unvaccinated; it may pose a risk for the vaccinated, especially in areas with substantial COVID transmission.
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