Uptown’s modern Réveillon chefs take on a classic New Orleans feast

New Orleans’ decadent holiday feast, le Réveillon, is traditionally served on both Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Now it has expanded to include the entire month of December.

The Réveillon tradition descends from the French Catholics of the colonial New Orleans period under France’s rule. There were once two Réveillons: le Réveillon de Noël, enjoyed before sunrise on Christmas Day, and le Réveillon du premier de l’an’s, enjoyed early on New Year’s Day.

After Creole families strolled home from Midnight Mass or “la Messe de Minuit” at the St. Louis Cathedral, the solemnity of Advent religious observance and fasting ended with le Réveillon. 

The term “Réveillon” comes from the French word for waking or awakening, “réveil” — because one had to stay awake long into the early morning to participate in the hours-long feast of food and wine. 

The original feast was more of a drawn-out breakfast of egg dishes, raisin breads, fruit cakes, wine, strong coffee and “daube glacé,” a richly spiced and carefully prepared jellied meat that held prominence on the Creole table. With a nod to history, Restaurant August prepares a truffled scrambled egg dish course as part of its Réveillon menu.

Le Réveillon and its meaning drifted away amid the Americanization of Christmas and the loosening of Catholic rules on abstinence. The tradition was lost until 1988, when le Réveillon was revived as a marketing gambit to fill French Quarter restaurant tables during one of the slowest months of the year.

This holiday season, dozens of Uptown, Mid-City, Warehouse District and French Quarter restaurants are again participating in Le Réveillon. The menus are prix fixe – one price for several courses – usually four, but sometimes five. Many restaurants provide one or two choices per course. Wine pairings may be offered but are usually extra.

Modern Réveillon menus are served during regular dinner hours — there is no need to stay awake after midnight to participate. 

Several Uptown restaurants have created Réveillon menus. On Magazine, The Bower Italian menu starts with Luxardo cherries whipped in mascarpone followed by a choice of squash carpaccio or mushroom arancini. The third course offerings are Sugar Root Farm’s eggplant parmesan with Swiss chard or basil spaghetti with preserved lemons, oven-dried cherry tomatoes and burrata. The meal is topped off with cookies and Italian pastry cream. 

Carrollton’s Boucherie, tucked behind Lebanon Café, offers choices for its each of its four Réveillon courses, served with optional wine pairings. The Réveillon menu includes Gulf shrimp bisque or black & bleu salad; blackened shrimp with grits cake or Coquilles St. Jacques scallops; a crispy duck confit, swordfish almondine or steak frites, and a Krispy Kreme bread pudding or Louisiana citrus tartlet.

Commander’s Palace has a five-course tasting menu Réveillon that features shrimp and squash bisque, a coup du milieu (a small shot of fruit liquor), crispy Gulf oysters over poached flounder, grilled antelope in cherry marrow, and an intriguing foie gras figgy pudding with a brandy glaze and candied orange peel.

Costera‘s coastal Spanish version of the French midnight feast has several selections, including marinated olives, beef shank, scallops à la Plancha, seafood paella with lima beans, teres major steak with patatas bravas and a salted honey tart or chocolate terrine. 

The Chloe on St. Charles Avenue also offers a decidedly nontraditional Réveillon meal featuring golden and purple beet salad, alligator soup, beef short ribs with cream cheese dumplings and turnips, and apple fritters with basil mint crème anglaise for dessert.