New Orleans, LASoul Food

Family-owned since the 1940s, the late chef Leah Chase's Creole-soul kitchen in Treme served as a meeting place during the civil rights era and remains a New Orleans landmark. The gumbo z'herbes and fried chicken anchor a menu of Creole comfort cooking, and the restaurant was named a James Beard America's Classic in 2025.

The family behind the 1957 Treme fried-chicken institution opened this downtown location on Baronne Street while the original building is rebuilt after a 2023 fire. The draw is the same crackling fried chicken that made the name, served with red beans and Southern sides. It carries the institution forward from a new Central Business District address.

A nonprofit job-training restaurant in Central City, open since 1996, that serves classic New Orleans soul food while funding a paid internship program for local young people. Plates of smothered pork chops, white beans, and bread pudding come out of a kitchen staffed by trainees. The mission runs alongside the cooking, and the daily specials draw a downtown lunch crowd.

A Treme soul-food and Creole institution known for gumbo and hot sausage po-boys, part of the Baquet family's long line of New Orleans restaurateurs. The buffet and fried chicken keep the neighborhood coming, and the room carries the easy familiarity of a place that has fed the same blocks for generations.

A no-frills counter on North Broad selling fried chicken by the piece and the box, alongside classic soul sides. The kitchen turns out crisp, well-seasoned birds at a volume that keeps the line moving, drawing regulars who come for a bag of chicken to go rather than a sit-down meal. Simple and consistent.