Photo du Jour: Rooster's in Mid City

Senator John Blutarksy, Paul S. Pierce, and I headed into Mid City this morning as Mr. Pierce wanted to check on the progress with the construction crew of the reconstruction of his once-flooded, now in full steam renovation mode Victorian Double. Another purpose of the trip: lunch. The Mid City Juan's Flying Burrito (the one before the storm I'd refer to as the one I can bring my mom to--versus the Magazine Street location) has been renovated and is back open for business as of this week. One problem--they don't open (for now at least) until noon. I stuck my head in and JFB employees were there getting ready, but were not ready to open yet. The place looked good. So instead we decided to try a new post-KTMB restaurant--Rooster's Grill and Bar. Rooster's is on North Carrollton directly across from the still shuttered Venezia, A. Brocato's, New York Pizza, and Pho Tau Bay and is in the former location of the short-run pre-KTMB Lil' Ray's. All three of us ordered sandwiches and all three thought the food was good enough to give the place future business. The French Bread on the sandwiches was up to New Orleans par. The head guy came out to talk to us and said for now they were going to concentrate on lunch and dinner for the time being and hopefully in the future be able to be a breakfast place--as was the pre-KTMB predecessor Lil Ray's. We got there a bit early for lunch so there weren't many patrons, but by the time we finished several tables had filled up. The adjacent former Hola has permits in the window and from the outside appears to be nearly fully renovated and ready for to open for business. Nothing on the permit indicates exactly what it is due to become other than a food establishment. Wit's End on the corner appears to be fully renovated and back open as well. This particular stretch of North Carrollton sat under four-plus feet of water following the floodwall failures ten months ago (to the day) in August 2005.

TAGS: Katrina, New Orleans, NOLA, Mid City, Carrollton Avenue, Louisiana