South - New Orleans: Oil spill effect on restaurants, etc?

Going to be going to New Orleans for the first time here pretty soon. Was looking forward to having some good fresh seafood and other local favorites. Now I'm wondering if anyone has any idea if my plans are going to be hampered by this giant mess, are restaurants taking stuff off the menu? Replacing stuff with frozen/imported alternatives? Prices skyrocketing?

Going to be going to New Orleans for the first time here pretty soon.

Pretty hard to give a definitive answer, since "pretty soon" isn't well-defined.

I'll give answers as of this week:

are restaurants taking stuff off the menu?

Nope.

Replacing stuff with frozen/imported alternatives?

Nope.

Prices skyrocketing?

Nope.

Thanks. Good to know that atleast for now things are still running. Pretty soon is three weeks away. I guess by then things will be terribly worse or the worries will have passed and everything will be ok?

I hope that you'll be able to eat all the fresh Louisiana seafood that you possibly can. Have a good time and thanks for coming to visit NOLA.

Much of Louisiana's coastal fishing/shrimping area is located west of the mouth of the Mississippi and the "oil slick" (which has been carried eastwards by Gulf currents), and the waters to the west unlikely to be much affected.

Much of Louisiana's coastal fishing/shrimping area is located west of the mouth of the Mississippi and the "oil slick" (which has been carried eastwards by Gulf currents), and the waters to the west unlikely to be much affected.

As of yesterday, that's no longer the case.

natesba, as your trip gets closer, you may want to check The Times-Picayune website periodically for the latest news:

http://www.nola.com/

Darn. Thanks for the update.

And here I was happy that they were finally making some progress, but it looks like at the same time it is just now starting to come into shore and is having a bigger impact on fishing and wildlife.

Well, if I don't get to indulge on seafood atleast I will get to see the city.

And best of luck to all you who live in the area. I grew up with the mess from the exxon valdez oil spill in alaska and even though I was thousands of miles away we saw a lot of the mess first hand and our beaches were polluted with that tar for atleast a decade. :(

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9650/5.0.0.699 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Any update on this? I just booked a trip to MSY on 8/24.

I'm really hoping to be able to sample some New Orleans cuisine!!

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9650/5.0.0.699 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Any update on this? I just booked a trip to MSY on 8/24.

I'm really hoping to be able to sample some New Orleans cuisine!!

It's somewhat of a fluid situation with regard to seafood. Some restaurants have dropped some menu items, some have raised prices on certain seafood dishes, others have held the line on prices (for now), and some have made substitutions with seafood from other locales. Some restaurants still have a decent supply of certain seafood items because they deal with individual fishermen that they've worked with for years. It's starting to become somewhat more of a concern since tar balls are now entering Lake Pontchartrain.

If you have specific restaurants in mind, probably best to call them directly and ask. I know that when I've been dining out recently, I've been asking the source of the seafood and if it's "Louisiana", I jump on it.

BTW, not all of "New Orleans cuisine" is seafood based, so there will still be lots that you can sample. Wish I could give you a more definitive answer, but with over a thousand restaurants in the metro area, it's not possible. As "they" say, YMMV.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9650/5.0.0.699 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9650/5.0.0.699 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

Any update on this? I just booked a trip to MSY on 8/24.

I'm really hoping to be able to sample some New Orleans cuisine!!

It's somewhat of a fluid situation with regard to seafood. Some restaurants have dropped some menu items, some have raised prices on certain seafood dishes, others have held the line on prices (for now), and some have made substitutions with seafood from other locales. Some restaurants still have a decent supply of certain seafood items because they deal with individual fishermen that they've worked with for years. It's starting to become somewhat more of a concern since tar balls are now entering Lake Pontchartrain.

If you have specific restaurants in mind, probably best to call them directly and ask. I know that when I've been dining out recently, I've been asking the source of the seafood and if it's "Louisiana", I jump on it.

BTW, not all of "New Orleans cuisine" is seafood based, so there will still be lots that you can sample. Wish I could give you a more definitive answer, but with over a thousand restaurants in the metro area, it's not possible. As "they" say, YMMV.

Thanks! I appreciate the info!!

Here's an update from today's Times-Picayune:

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/07/gulf_oil_spill_puts_oyster_shu.html

It's a sad situation and I can attest to the fact that a number of restaurants are offering menu items with scallops instead of oysters.

Good news!

Soft Shell Crabs:

http://www.nola.com/dining-guide/index.ssf/2010/07/soft-shell_crabs_are_readily_a.html

Some fishing areas re-opened:

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/07/state_reopens_waters_east_of_t.html