These walls can talk
Dooky Chase’s Restaurant has been a revered New Orleans’ institution since 1941. Ms. Leah Chase married into the family that owned the restaurant and started working there in 1957. She thought she was being hired to be the hostess, but wound up back in the kitchen. A self-taught chef, Chase went on to win every culinary award imaginable. Known as the outspoken Queen of Creole Cuisine, she once chastised President Obama when he started to put hot sauce in her gumbo, giving him a double dose of “Oh no you don’t!” for even thinking of messing with her perfect recipe.
As delicious as her gumbo and fried chicken are (the latter was recently voted the best in New Orleans), the art on the restaurant’s walls may be the most memorable thing you’ll savor. Ms. Chase received her first painting, a work by the artist Jacob Lawrence, as a present from her husband. Over the next 50 years, she assembled a remarkable collection of art by African Americans; some pieces were gifts, some were traded for meals, and others were acquired from the artists. Ms. Chase received a first-class education in art from Celestine Cook, a civic leader and the first African American to sit on the board of the New Orleans Museum of Art.
Info
Address 2301 Orleans Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70119, +1 504.821.0600, www.dookychaserestaurant.com | Hours Tue–Fri 11am–3pm (lunch); Fri 5pm–9pm (dinner)| Tip There’s no shortage of places for great fried chicken in New Orleans. Others high on anyone’s list would be the James Beard Award-winning Willie Mae’s Scotch House (2401 St. Ann St); Fiorella’s (1136 Decatur St); McHardy’s (1458 N Broad St); and Manchu Food Store (1413 N Claiborne St), where you pay for takeout through bulletproof glass.
Highlights of the collection include works by Elizabeth Catlett, John Biggers, and a series of portraits of Ms. Chase by Gustave Blache III. While she sat for Blache, she implored, “I hope you’re making me look like Halle Berry.” Two of Blache’s paintings depicting Chase at work now hang in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
When the levees broke in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Dooky Chase’s was terribly flooded. Thankfully, one of Ms. Chase’s grandsons was able to remove all the art before any damage was done. Today, visitors can dine on Ms. Chase’s award-winning cuisine in what remains one of the finest African-American art galleries in the city—perhaps in the country.
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