The New Orleans Restaurant scene is returning. The flourishes may not be there yet, as it is very difficult to find staffing. Dishwashers are reported to be making 10 dollars an hour. However, the reason we visit New Orleans so often is returning. The cuisine of New Orleans is the reason for visiting the city, and hearing that the restaurants are coming back, will help me to come back to this fine city.

From The LA Times:

We’re not taking it day by day; we’re taking it shift by shift,” says Charlee Williamson, the Brennan group’s executive vice president.

To be sure, some of the city’s most famous restaurants — Commander’s Palace, Brigtsen’s, Emeril’s and Bayonaare — are still closed. Only Bayona’s owner is talking about reopening before 2006. On a list of 200 city restaurants approved for reopening by local health officials (posted last week on the restaurant association’s website, http://www.lra.org ), few famous names appeared. But, beginning Oct. 19, it was again possible to enjoy coffee and beignets at Cafe Du Monde, the open-air cafe adjacent to Jackson Square that, despite its short menu, is one of the city’s iconic eating spots.

Also open are nearby Cafe Beignet, Herbsaint, Cuvée, Restaurant August and the New Orleans Grill inside the Windsor Court hotel.

“I’m very, very encouraged,” says Laurie Claverie of the New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corp., whose website, http://www.neworleansonline.com , maintains a list of restaurants, music venues, tours and other attractions open for business.

“The people [who] are coming back are pioneers, doing what they can,” says Claverie, who compiles and updates her list largely by walking around town. “But people are going and supporting them because they’re open, and they don’t care if they’re eating off paper plates.”