Napoleon House gets its name from Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. The story behind the place is that a group of New Orleanians, whose number included Nicholas Girod, mayor of New Orleans and the pirate Jean Lafitte. The Emperor was quite the hero to these men, and the story goes that in 1821, they were planning to mount a rescue mission to the island of St. Helena, where Napoleon had been imprisoned since his defeat at Waterloo in 1815 and his second abdication. The group of New Orleanians purchased a house on Chartres and St. Louis Streets that was to be the Emperor's home while they figured out how to get him back to France. Napoleon's death in 1824 squelched the plans, but began the tradition and legacy of Napoleon House. While it never became the emperor's home, Napoleon House did become a bar and small cafe'. It was typical of many small bistros and bars in New Orleans and France in that it was a neighborhood place where men could come in, have a sandwich, a drink, and socialize. Napoleon House was purchased by Joe Impastato in 1914, and the Impastato family gave the menu a decidely Italian flair. Over the years, Napoleon House developed a reputation for some of the best Italian sandwiches in town, the Creole-Italian "muffeletta" becoming the featured item on the menu. We sat out on the courtyard yesterday; the weather was quite sunny and nice. Richard had a tuna/avacado salad and I had half a muff. A muffeletta is a sandwich that is usually made on a 10-12 inch round loaf of Italian bread, so half of the loaf is more than enough. As usual, the sandwich was delicious. Napoleon House does the muff in the classic style, by heating the bread, and placing the other ingredients cold on to the bread. By the time the sandwich gets to the table, it's all the right temperature. While the muffeletta is the house specialty sandwich, it's by far not the only one they do at Napoleon House. The kitchen does a full complement of po-boys, and their roast beef stacks up against just about any quality sandwich in town. They also do excellent salads and soups, in classic Creole-Italian style. Napoleon House's muff is rated second on the top ten list, behind the great Central Grocery sandwich, but that's comparing sandwich for sandwich. When you factor in atmosphere and elegance, Napoleon House will win hands down every time. Whether you decide to eat in the dark, cozy bar or out on the patio, your dining experience will be enjoyable. Napoleon House, 500 Chartres St. (corner St. Louis), New Orleans, LA. -- Edward J. Branley, [email removed] |Listowner, New Orleans Mailing List Yatcom Communications, +1.504.455.5087 |To join, send a message to: Visit Virtually New Orleans: |[email removed] http://yatcom.com/neworl/vno.html |with JOIN NEW-ORLEANS in the body. From [email removed] Sat Jan 21 21:14:00 1995 >Received: by mintir.new-orleans.la.us (1.65/waf) via UUCP; Sat, 21 Jan 95 19:44:46 CST Sender: [email removed] To: "New Orleans Mailing List" Reply-To: "New Orleans Mailing List" Organization: Minas Tirith BBS (Public Access Usenet for New Orleans) Subject: Re: Re: Re: Restaurenteur Jimmy Moran dead at 69 X-Mailserver: Waffle File Server (WFS), Release 3.0.2 X-Article: 406 Content-Type: text Content-Length: 2043 > Speaking of fettuccine, would anyone care to explain why in New Orleans one > gets angelhair pasta instead of fettuccine with fettuccine alfredo. I'm > not sure what Moran used, and I'm not talking about places like Semolina, but > at all the neighborhood restaurants like Venezia's and R&O. I like it better > with angelhair than with those flat rectangular fettuccines. > All this talk makes me want that R&O crawfish fettuccine now! > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- > | Joseph Graves | "I feel like I'm stranded on a sandbar, | > | [email removed] |--------------| stuck in my tracks like a streetcar." | > | http://b61445.student.cwru.edu | (Jimmy Buffett) | > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not all places have that angel-hair setup. I had the best meal of my life (Yes, even better [a little] than Commander's Palace) at a joint called Alberto's down by Snug Harbor. The fettuccine was absolutely the lightest I had ever had. It was a pretty simple meal, just Crawfish Fettuccine, a romaine salad, and a bottle of Cab (I forget the label), but I came away with that inexplicable feeling that I never had a better meal. Anyway, the fettucine was definitely different from any I'd had before. I usually think of fettuccine as reasonably solid because of the shape, but this stuff was, as I said, very light. In fact, it was so light, I was able to eat far, far too much, as I recall. I asked them how they got it so light, and I believe they told me that it was actually made by a shop in the French Market area. Possibly Bella Luna? Mark -- ====================================================================== Mark Justin Cecil || [email removed] Cray Systems Analyst || (205) 955-4777 (day) USASSDC Simulation Center, Huntsville, AL || (205) 536-3041 (night) ====================================================================== From [email removed] Wed Jan 25 11:36:08 1995 >Received: by mintir.new-orleans.la.us (1.65/waf) via UUCP; Wed, 25 Jan 95 08:38:03 CST Sender: [email removed] To: "New Orleans Mailing List" Reply-To: "New Orleans Mailing List" Organization: Minas Tirith BBS (Public Access Usenet for New Orleans) Subject: Re: Re: Re: Camellia Grill X-Mailserver: Waffle File Server (WFS), Release 3.0.2 X-Article: 461 Content-Type: text Content-Length: 720 In reply to: > >> While the chili-cheese omelet is definitely one of the best things there, >> I've always been partial to a potato/onion/cheese omelet. > > Where in NO is Camellia Grill? > It's on S. Carrollton Avenue, right where Carrollton meets St. Charles. The area is also known as the Riverbend. It's where the streetcar turns from St. Charles onto Carrollton for the final leg of the route. |Edward J. Branley [email removed] |Moderator, New Orleans Mailing List.| |Yatcom Communications, New Orleans, LA|To join, send a message to: | |Visit VIRTUALLY NEW ORLEANS: |[email removed]| |http://yatcom.com/neworl/vno.html |with JOIN NEW-ORLEANS in the body. |
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