Why K-Paul’s in New Orleans was forced to close: ‘You can only bleed so much’ | Where does NOLA eat

K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen made Cajun cuisine a global phenomenon, made its founding chef a superstar of American food, and had a culinary impact that spanned generations.

Now, one of New Orleans’ most famous and influential restaurants has closed permanently amid the difficult times of the coronavirus crisis.

The restaurant created by legendary chef Paul Prudhomme had been in business for four decades. But closing orders and restrictions on the coronavirus response and the prospect of difficult days ahead forced the restaurant to close, its owners said.

“It is heartbreaking and we are trying to absorb it ourselves,” said Brenda Prudhomme, niece of the late chef and co-owner of the restaurant. “This has been devastating for many companies, including ours.”

The last meal at K-Paul’s was served sometime in May, before the restaurant closed so Prudhomme and her husband, chef Paul Miller, thought it would be a temporary closure.

Now it is final. The restaurant building at 416 Chartres St. is for sale. The name of K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen, however, will not be part of any sale. That business name will be removed in the transition.

“It’s difficult because once we’re gone, that name is gone,” said Miller.

At the beginning of the crisis, K-Paul’s remained open to go and then added a limited dinner service as the reopening phases progressed. But Miller said the restaurant’s supply and staff costs while running a small part of its normal business were depleting the restaurant.

“The business has been bleeding from this, and you can only bleed so much before you have to stop it,” he said.

The hotel industry has been reeling from the coronavirus crisis. In New Orleans, the sharp decline in travel is especially dire for a restaurant scene accustomed to receiving millions of hungry tourists a year.

A growing number of New Orleans restaurants have announced plans to temporarily close for various periods of time, citing concerns about the spread of the coronavirus, financial sustainability, and exhaustion after frequent and dramatic changes in business operations. Some restaurants have closed entirely.

K-Paul’s Louisiana kitchen is by far the most important shutter forever. Over the decades, it has been ranked among the most outstanding restaurants in the city. It was a bucket list destination for visitors, and the influence of the restaurant and its founder enter the New Orleans modern restaurant scene.

Paul Prudhomme, who died in 2015 at the age of 75, was hailed in his time as a visionary who gave the Louisiana flavor a worldwide following and helped chart a new phase for American cuisine.

“I think Paul Prudhomme has had the greatest influence on American cuisine, in cultivating the public interest in American food, of anyone I know,” New York Times food writer Craig Claiborne said in an interview in 1988. .

It started with humble roots but a rich streak of Louisiana’s food heritage. Prudhomme, the youngest of 13 children, grew up on his family’s small farm in the Cajun grassland just outside Opelousas. He learned to cook alongside his mother, and he often credited the early lessons of farming life and family traditions for his success.

Prudhomme moved to New Orleans in 1970 and was the chef at the Maison Dupuy hotel in the French Quarter when he caught the attention of the Brennan family, who had recently taken over the former Garden District Commander’s Palace restaurant.

The Commander’s Palace had always had European chefs formally trained at the helm. But this new self-taught chef from Acadiana gradually began incorporating Louisiana’s bolder regional flavors on the menu.

“Paul came at a very exciting time in American cuisine, a transformative moment, and it was an important part of it,” the late Ella Brennan said of her chef in a 2015 interview.

Later he helped the Brennans open their trendy restaurant, Mr. B’s Bistro, on Royal Street in the French Quarter.

At the same time, he and his wife, the late K Hinrichs, were developing what they envisioned as a small café for lunch around the corner on Chartres Street. Prudhomme left the Commander’s Palace to dedicate himself full time to that restaurant.

When K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen opened in 1979, it was small and informal, with communal and unreserved tables. In style and flavor, it was a notable change from traditional Creole restaurants of the time, and quickly became a sensation.

Gene Bourg, the former Times-Picayune restaurant critic, covered K-Paul’s in its early days. He said the closure of the restaurant was significant because of what it represented at a crucial time in the restaurant’s local culture.

“It was a great discovery for many people,” said Bourg. “It was an identifiable American regional cooking style and recognize that it was new to the country at the time. And the food was really good, it had a great depth of flavor. ”

People lined up on Chartres Street to sit, and soon Prudhomme was receiving invitations to travel and cook its Louisiana flavors across the country, in an early version of the emerging trend. The fashion around a dish, the blackened red fish, is credited with nearly eliminating local populations of red fish, leading to long-lasting commercial fishing limits on the catch. Prudhomme then changed his recipe to the blackened drum.

He wrote cookbooks that have become canonical, developed his own brand of spice blends that are now staples of the kitchen pantry, and starred in television cooking shows that turned his image, with its resounding build and beaming smile. , in an international emblem of the Louisiana bonhomie.

As K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen grew in importance, it maintained the feel of a family restaurant, and that continued after the chef’s death.

Brenda Prudhomme and Paul Miller took over the restaurant in 2015. Paul Prudhomme often portrayed Miller as his stepson, and the two had cooked together for decades, returning to the Commander’s Palace. Miller followed Prudhomme to K-Paul’s in 1982 and cooked there for the rest of his career.

In later years, the restaurant could feel like an interactive tribute to the chef, with colorful Louisiana motifs around the dining rooms and signature dishes he created anchoring the menu.

Brenda Prudhomme and Miller acknowledged that they would eventually close the restaurant, though they imagined this would happen for at least another five years or so. The coronavirus crisis forced the decision much earlier. K-Paul received emergency funds through the federal government’s Payroll Protection Program. But Prudhomme said that while that money helped pay the staff, it was not enough to bring the restaurant into calm business, without a clear idea of ​​when travelers might return.

“You can only spend so much time knowing that your future is undefined,” said Prudhomme. “The only thing we have control over is how we decide this. That is the truth, and it is a difficult place to go, but it is the truth. “

Although the restaurant has closed, Prudhomme’s line of spice blends will continue to flow from Magic Seasoning Blends in Elmwood, which is a separate company from the restaurant.

That was one way that the chef’s legacy would endure beyond the restaurant, Brenda Prudhomme said, along with her books and cooking shows. Another facet of the restaurant’s legacy is less tangible, but it’s still on Prudhomme’s mind now that it’s closed.

“It’s hard to say goodbye, but we know that everyone who walked through our doors made memories,” said Prudhomme. “Those memories, the conversations, the people you met and the stories you shared, all of that is still there.”