(images via Facebook)
Luvi, a stylish pan-Asian bistro on Tchoupitoulas, and El Libre, a Cuban eatery on Calhoun, are two of Uptown’s latest new restaurants to open, and they will be followed soon by the return of Barrow’s Catfish on Earhart Boulevard, the resurrection of a pre-Katrina favorite.
Luvi opened in late April at 5236 Tchoupitoulas, the previous location of Proofed donut shop, and features a “creative dishes with a wide range of Asian influences” by former Sake Cafe chef Hao Gong, according to a report at Gambit by Helen Freund. Times-Pitayune food writer Todd Price recently visited Luvi as well and wrote a tribute to the restaurant’s aesthetics, “a deliciously beautiful story” at nola.com.
Also open now is El Libre, Blake Lindberg’s modern Cuban restaurant that migrated from the French Quarter to the former Bud’s Broiler location at 3151 Calhoun Street. El Libre’s simple menu prominently features ropa vieja and a Cubano sandwich alongside chicken and vegetarian sandwiches, plus waffle fries, plenty of avocado and a small bar.
The next anticipated restaurant opening will be Barrow’s Catfish, operated by Deidre Barrow Johnson, the third generation of the family that originally opened Barrow’s Shady Inn in Hollygrove in 1943, reports Price at nola.com. The new incarnation of the restaurant will add more soul food options to the menu and be located at 8300 Earhart, where Johnson and her husband hope to open by early June.
Also on the horizon is Union Ramen, planned to open by the end of the year by the former chef at Kin and an Eiffel Society founder for 1837 Magazine Street, the former location of Jim Russell’s Rare Records, Price reports.
