Antoine's Restaurant

Antoine's Restaurant on Saint Louis Street in New Orleans opened as a small French eatery in 1840 under Antoine Alciatore, but the guide centers on his son Jules, who locked the kitchen door every afternoon while mashing a green sauce on the counter. You'll hear how an oyster shortage of escargot led Jules to invent a dish rich enough to be named after the richest man in America, and how he refused to share the recipe with any rival cook for the rest of his life. The guide also walks you through the wine alley, a corridor built above ground because the city's water table is too high for a proper cellar.