West End & Bucktown: A Legendary Waterfront Dining Destination Finds Big Momentum

Growing up in New Orleans often meant dining along the lakefront at West End or neighboring Bucktown in Jefferson Parish. With nothing but locally sourced seafood on the menus, it was a legendary and heritage dining destination for the city.

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Sundays, Friday nights, and birthday dinners brought long, satisfying and locally sourced seafood meals — boiled Louisiana shrimp, oysters, blue crab, fried seafood, stuffed flounder, and hushpuppies — with your mom, dad, aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandparents at generational restaurants like Bruning’s or Papa Roselli’s. 

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Walking across Fitzgerald’s wooden foot bridge felt like an adventure. The pedestrian bridge connecting Bucktown with West End made the neighborhoods one. There were always stray but industrious cats looking for a handout, and Lake Pontchartrain provided a waterscape of sailboats, pleasure craft, shrimp and crab boats and luggers framed by giant oak trees from the shore.

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That era ended on August 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina wiped out West End’s iconic restaurant row.

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But 20-years later in this historic, beloved place that boasts New Orleans' only true waterfront dining beyond the floodwalls and levees, a new chapter is taking shape. 

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With 21 restaurants within easy walking distance of each other, infrastructure investment, and growing support from local and state government, West End and Bucktown appear to have something they have lacked for decades: big momentum.

Nick Asprodites, Sr. opened West End’s Blue Crab nearly 13 years ago, and he’s witnessed a lot of slow change in those difficult years. Initially, it was just his restaurant and Landry’s as the neighborhood struggled to regain its footing after the storm, and Asprodites says he’s encouraged to see more dining options.

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“I think the more the better,” says Asprodites. “I mean, if we could bring all that back again, I think it would be wonderful.”

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Culinary Restoration

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Restoring the past figured prominently in Asprodites’ vision for the Blue Crab. What many people don’t realize is that the area has been a dining and recreational destination for at least 165 years (Bruning’s opened in 1859). 

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Literary giant Mark Twain wrote about his visit to West End in his famous nonfiction travelogue, Life on the Mississippi (1883).  Twain dined on pompano at a West End restaurant, which he described as, “delicious as the less criminal forms of sin.” 

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That particular recipe might be lost to the annals of culinary lore, but Asprodites did have access to many of the menus of the gone-but-not forgotten restaurants. 

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He wanted to honor the past, so he included stuffed flounder on the Blue Crab menu, in homage to the famous Bruning’s dish.

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Asprodites refers to Blue Crab’s menu as “Old School New Orleans” and a quick review reveals culinary classics–oysters on the half shell, charbroiled, wedge salad, two gumbos (seafood and chicken andouille), fried seafood platters, etc. - meals that most New Orleans grandparents or even great grandparents would recognize and order. 

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“That’s how I did it,” Asprodites says. “I was trying to bring it back as close as I could to what was here for over 100 years.”

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Bucktown

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Located at the upper end of the 17th Street Canal opening to the lake and the Coast Guard Station, chefs Drew Knoll and Alison Vega Knoll opened Station 6 in 2016. The restaurant is near the rebuilt Bucktown Marina Harbor, which reopened in 2012 and has seen a steady list of improvements like a boardwalk and pier, a learning pavilion, recreational equipment and a living shoreline. 

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Restaurateur and chef, Aaron Burgau of Uptown's Patois, bought Station 6 with partners a few years ago. He likes to put a new twist on seafood, staying away from too many fried items.

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Burgau calls it “elevated seafood” that includes dishes like seared pompano with curried brown butter, toasted cashews and asparagus; and blackened Gulf fish with brabants and Sauce Delery. For Burgau, who proudly grew up in Metairie, investments in the infrastructure like the marinas, parks, and boardwalk are great, but he says that Bucktown will always be Bucktown.

“Having the support of the Jefferson Parish government is definitely a plus, but, in my eyes, I don’t see much of a change,” Burgau says. “I’m doing very good business where I’m at, and they've always been helpful.”

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Regional Cooperation

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The reason Burgau doesn’t see too much of a difference in local government’s approach to West End and Bucktown is because he’s always had good relationships with Jefferson Parish. He has direct access to a number of elected officials and they have responded quickly to his concerns. 

On the Orleans Parish side of the area, that hasn’t always been the case, but that’s changing under the new administration - fast.

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For years following Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers forbade any construction on the footprint of West End’s old restaurant row and parking lot– property and water bottoms controlled by the state, two parishes and multiple other government entities–while flood control construction projects were ongoing. But Orleans and Jefferson Parish officials recognized the financial, cultural and recreational benefits of returning it to its historical use.

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Currently, State Representative Stephanie Hilferty has a bill in the legislature that would create an economic development district, using tax revenues to finance the redevelopment of the historic footprint of West End's restaurant row and its parking lot.

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New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno has said regional cooperation is critical for the parish neighbors, and both the Jefferson Parish Council and the New Orleans City Council have passed resolutions in favor of Hilferty’s bill. That’s exciting news for Asprodites. 

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“Orleans and Jefferson have finally figured out how to work together,” says Asprodites.

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There has been some opposition to these goals from a few nearby boathouse residents. However, with so much enthusiasm and alignment coming from the public, local business owners, and the two parishes, it feels like the moment is finally here to return West End and Bucktown to its former seafood glory. 

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“This is a place that has long connected New Orleanians through seafood, fishing and boating culture, and that universal urge to sit by the water with family and friends over lunch or dinner,” says Troy Gilbert, Chefs Brigade's Executive Director and former Friends of West End Board member. 

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“For generations, West End and Bucktown have drawn people to Lake Pontchartrain, her tree-lined parks and marinas - and not just for a meal. They've offered the promise of time together and generational memories. And, it's time to create some new ones.”

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