2012 Edition

An old Mafia roadhouse in a swamp. A fried chicken joint at the heart of an historic ghetto. The Italian grocery where the original muffuletta was created. A 92 year-old neighborhood oyster bar. A vampy, campy greasy spoon. The Creole bistro that stopped the clock a century ago. These and 25 more places make up the second edition of the only guidebook expressly written for the adventurous New Orleans visitor with more taste than time. Written for conventioneers, traveling executives or just folks coming for a playful weekend, this guidebook whittles over 1,000 restaurant choices into more than two dozen establishments where food, service, room and vibes add up to New Orleans experiences as authentic as coffee with chicory or Dixieland jazz. From stylish white tablecloth dining rooms to six-napkin muffuletta dives, "New Orleans Dining" offers in-depth previews of the city's truly homegrown restaurants. Both candid and curmudgeonly, occasionally flippant yet always thoughtful, the book's leisurely essays are designed to steer guests toward the city's best...and away from the rest. "Hicks sifts through savory joints, restaurants and fine eateries without pulling any punches or skimping on the hot sauce." - The Clarion Ledger, Jackson, Mississippi
About the Author: Novelist and epicurean essayist Steven Wells Hicks knows that a restaurant meal is more than a plate of chow. Over all, it's a holistic experience; one that includes the aura of the surroundings, the professionalism of the staff and how the establishment fits within its neighborhood or city itself. Ultimately, a restaurant's mission is to first set, and then fulfill patron expectations, and success or failure is wholly dependent upon the tastes, preconceptions and caprices of every customer who walks in the door. In the thirty-plus years since Hicks wrote his first restaurant review for the former "Jackson" magazine, his work as a marketing planner and strategist has given him perceptive insights into consumer expectations and those factors impacting subsequent satisfaction levels. It is those factors he brings into play as he defines, examines and reports at length on more than two dozen restaurants the generally succeed in not only living up to consumer expectations, but reflecting the authentic, prismatic cuisines and cultures that make New Orleans one of America's premier dining destinations. In addition to "New Orleans Dining," Steven Wells Hicks is the author of three novels: "The Gleaner," "The Fall of Adam" and "Horizontal Adjustment." When not anonymously investigating New Orleans restaurants, he makes his home with his wife, The Sensible One, upriver in Mississippi.