New Orleans, LASouthern

The Garden District's grande-dame of Creole dining, a multi-generational institution under the Brennan family and a frequent James Beard honoree. Turtle soup, pecan-crusted fish, and bread pudding souffle define the menu, served in a landmark turquoise Victorian on Washington Avenue. The jazz brunch and 25-cent martini lunch remain New Orleans rites of passage.

Chef Nina Compton brings the West Indian flavors of her St. Lucia childhood into New Orleans cooking at this Central Business District dining room in the Old No. 77 Hotel. The menu runs to a seafood pepper pot and curried goat with sweet potato gnocchi, blending Caribbean spice with Louisiana ingredients. One of the city's defining modern Southern kitchens.

Chef Kelly Fields' Southern bakery and restaurant in the Central Business District, where the pastry case anchors the room. Crawfish grits arrive with shrimp and a poached egg, and the biscuits, cornbread, and cookies have a following of their own. It works as a morning bakery stop and a sit-down Southern meal alike.

A Lower Garden District dining room serving refined Southern classics with a Louisiana accent, from shrimp and grits and chicken and dumplings to an oyster-and-caviar po-boy and redfish court-bouillon. Chef Eric Cook's cooking stays rooted in home-style Southern dishes dressed up for a proper sit-down meal, with a balcony over Magazine Street.

A longtime Uptown neighborhood favorite on Annunciation Street serving contemporary Creole-inspired Southern cooking to a loyal, dressed-up crowd. Fried oysters with brie, smoked soft-shell crab, and veal are the kind of dishes that keep regulars on a first-name basis with the staff. The white-tablecloth room trades on familiarity rather than trend.