Any New Orleans food in Boston ?

[nola native]

We will be hosting our son's rehearsal dinner in Boston, and would love to find a restaurant with large room and great New Orleans food.....any ideas for us?

[Blumie]

I highly recommend against going with a New Orleans menu. It's a great idea, but you WILL be disappointed.

[phoebek]

Haven't been there yet (but have reservations for this coming Wednesday), but Hungry Mother--in Cambridge--seems to have a lot of Southern-influenced menu items.

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Hungry Mother
233 Cardinal Medeiros Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02141

[sailormouth]

While Southern (and excellent!), what I have seen on their menus so far are decidedly not Louisianan.

[sailormouth]

There is, sadly, not much in the way of New Orleans food. One option depending upon the time of year, if you're driving up, is to do a crawfish boil. You'd need to bring just about everything with you except maybe the corn and the water. It would be pretty special because sadly we don't get these up here. You might also need hamburgers and hot dogs for the squeamish.

Another option would be to do something like a New England clambake and make some New Orleans drinks. Most of the better bartenders here can do more than a serviceable job on the cocktail side and with some planning you might be able to get a few kegs of Abita.

[Eatin in Woostah]

Or you could order the crawfish and shrimp for the boil and have it shipped up here. I've had good luck with cajuncrawfish.com. Of course, that depends on time of year.

[Eatin in Woostah]

Hi Nola Native,
No, there is no great New Orleans food here. I'm originally from the North Shore (of Lake Ponchartrain, not Boston) and can attest that the only way to get good New Orleans food here is to make it yourself.

However, if you want an approximation of New Orleans food, heavy on the barbeque, in a fun and not expensive atmosphere you might want to try Jake's Dixie Roadhouse in Waltham. http://www.jakes-bbq.com/

Good luck!

[vonwotan]

Not New Orleans food but Locke-Ober has the atmosphere of some of the older French restaurants in NOLA. The Art Nouveau main dining room is wonderful and they have several private dining rooms for groups of various sizes.

[Karl S]

LO is grand. I am not sure I've seen a private room that size there - I've only been in a couple of smaller ones. And LO will be very pricey (worth it, but very pricey).

[phatchris]

Daniel Bruce did a great NOLA brunch at the boston Harbor Hotel recently. Don't know if they would prepare one for a rehearsal type dinner. The rotunda there is awesome and can accomadate a fairly large crowd.

[bakerboyz]

I don't think so, do you have second choice for cuisine?

[itaunas]

Its not a large room, but depending on when they are slated to close, you could potentially rent out Magnolia's in Cambridge and have them do a New Orleans menu. Also Something Savory's biggest selling catering item is Jambalaya, again the restaurant is small, but you could rent a VFW hall nearby and have a blast. For something a bit more upscale, but not New Orleans you could try Hungry Mother which is not a large room but really beautiful. I would think, though, it might be hard to get the restaurant there given its popularity.

[Joanie]

I thought Mag closed in June.

[nola native]

We just want to host a FUN night, with good food (not too upscale), for around $60 a person. Crowd will be anywhere from 50-70 people. Since we are not familiar with Boston, except for occasional visits to the city we are clueless as to where to begin. Would prefer New Orleans foods (due to heritage of groom) however we realize how slim our chances are in finding that type of restaurant in the city of Boston.......just don't want Italian, or super gourmet! Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

[itaunas]

I still think your best bet might involve talking to Something Savory about recommendations of places where they could cater. There are function halls (Anthony's, Montvale Plaza), VFW halls (and the occasional bar which may allow you to bring food in if you give them a drink minimum). With the social clubs, they are all over the area so it gives you options on location at the expense of non-spiffy surroundings. I think their New Orleans food is limited to Jambalaya, but they may have other options which are close enough to satisfy (eg blackened x ...) party needs. You could offer a New Orleans themed bar. I had noted above that Magnolia's was closing and Joanie thinks they have closed. They did slightly more New Orleans food and might do catering if they haven't moved from the area yet (they have a web site), but it would help to be able to try the menu first which you could at Something Savory.

Other than that, you are talking upscale or Italian, or chain (eg skipjacks for crawfish) for something of that size. There are a few non-Italian ethnic cusines which do have larger restaurants (greek, portuguese, dominican), but they aren't New Orleans or even Southern. There are also places which do nice blackened fish (Dolphin comes to mind), but nothing else NoLo.

[Karl S]

I would suggest getting a catered New England indoor clambake (well, it's not quite the same without the rocks, rockweed, wood fire, and everything in a pit at a beautiful beach...). With hot sauces....

It's what would be more "authentic" here than NO food, which I would trust to find in NO rather than Boston.

[Joanie]

Hosting 50-70 people is a whole other animal and deserves probably a new topic rather than "NO food". Not every place can accommodate that large a crowd, there's usually a room charge, etc. (or renting a whole restaurant) so that will take some homework. The one easy recomendation is MIstral but that's way too much $$.