Before our dinner at Maple Street Café New Orleans, we had drinks at our dear friends home in Black Pearl.

A white plate topped with pasta mixed with crawfish tail meat and a fried crab at Maple Street Café New Orleans

Maple Street Crawfish Pasta crowned with a soft shell crab.

A red, black and white sign for Maple Street Café New Orleans

Welcome to the Maple Street Café New Orleans

To start off

Good wine and nibbles grew into a feast because neighbors were having a crawfish boil! The mud bugs were made extra spice and you know what that means. More wine! At that point we realized that we needed to choose a restaurant that we could walk to. Paul and Holly kept mentioning all of the places close to them. I was amazed at the number of places that we had not yet been to. But when they mentioned Soft Shell Crabs at Maple Street Café I was all in! So we strolled leisurely to our charming destination.

Maple Street Café New Orleans

A green table topped with a bottle of wine, a stemmed glass with white wine and a plate of crawfish, corn and potatoes.

Picture perfect crawfish boil!

Maple Street Café is situated on historic Maple Street in the heart of Uptown New Orleans. Maple Street is filled with vibrant and fun venues. It’s a popular area with lots of boutiques, specialty shops and local restaurants. But Maple Street Café is the centerpiece for fine dining in this area.

The restaurant opened in 1995 by restauranteurs and chefs Jameel and T.J. Qutob. These brothers have a long history in the New Orleans culinary scene and it didn’t take long for Maple Street Café to become a local favorite that specializes in casual but superb dining experiences.

The menu leans toward Italian but with a flavor all its own.

Location Location Location

With its proximity to both Uptown universities, Loyola and Tulane, Maple Street is a favorite hangout for the college crowd as well as a growing number of creative locals from the neighborhood.

Maple Street offers several coffee shops with tasty treats, ample tables and WiFi connections for laptops. Grab a muffin and some cold brew and enjoy the sunshine at one of the numerous coffee shop patios.

Maple and adjacent side streets offer several small, intimate restaurants. From vegan friendly brunch to classic burgers and Vietnamese cuisine, Maple Street has food for all taste buds. And these Traveling Locavores look forward to trying many of them. But I can’t imagine that the food could be better than at Maple Street Café.

And it it’s night nightlife that you’re looking for, several small pubs have popped up around the area offering beer and cocktails at reasonable prices. And the best part? They’re all within walking distance of each other.

A variety of consignment shops and boutiques line Maple Street, offering affordable options for fashion forward shoppers. Angelique Boutique is an extremely popular local women’s clothing store for locals.

Maple Street History

It was during the Civil War that the Carrollton area was quickly seized by Union control. Carrollton was also where soldiers were known to be heavy drinkers under the command of General John W. Phelps. At that time, General Benjamin F. Butler issued an order forbidding the sale of liquor. However, Andrew J. Butler, who was the General’s brother, persuaded him to lift the ban. Afterwards, Andrew benefited from the lucrative liquor trade which helped the small local economy grow. During this time period, local cattle was brought in from Texas and products like flour from the North. It didn’t take long for Butler to establish a monopoly on groceries, medicines and necessities brought into the New Orleans neighborhood.

Maple Street Today

Carrollton Avenue which is lined with beautiful Southern oaks is the neighborhood’s main street. Carrollton Avenue features the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar running on the central median. Tulane University and Loyola University New Orleans are located just three blocks below the neighborhood allowing many students, staff and faculty to support the local businesses in the area. On Maple Street, the neighborhood offers numerous restaurants, coffee salons, bars and upscale shops.

“Black Pearl”

“Black Pearl” is the historic section where our friends have their home in NOLA. “Black Pearl” began as a 20th century, predominately African-American part of Carrollton along the riverfront. The Queen of Gospel music, Mahalia Jackson, was a prominent musician who hailed from this area.

Here’s a cool tidbit for you – In the late 1800s, Carrollton was the site of the Rising Sun Hall which was a building used for Social Aid and Pleasure Club meetings, used for dances and functions. It is thought that it was the inspiration for the famous 1960’s song “The House of the Rising Son” by The Animals.

Our meal at Maple Street Café

A white plate topped with an eggplant cake and creamy white sauce with flecks of green parsley zt Maple Street Café New Orleans

Eggplant Cake topped with a creamy crabmeat sauce

A white plate topped with fried oysters, toasted almonds and sauce at Maple Street Café New Orleans

Oysters Amandine

Our dinner at Maple Street Café New Orleans was so delicious and the portions were large. We started off with a couple of very delectable appetizers. The first small plate was unique, an Eggplant Cake which was a paneed, or pan roasted, eggplant cake that was napped with a luscious cream sauce and nice pieces of lump crabmeat. And the second plate, which was equally as delicious, was Oysters Amandine. Plump, briny oysters were fried and topped with toasted almonds and a tart, white wine, lemon and butter sauce.

A white plate topped with breaded veal scallops, lemon sauce, capers, a scoop of mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables at Maple Street Café New Orleans

Veal Piccata

A white plate topped with pasta, crawfish tail meat and a fried crab at Maple Street Café New Orleans

Took half of this home for lunch the next day!

For entrées, both of the guys had the Veal Piccata. While both Holly and I had the very fabulous Maple Street Crawfish. Both dinners were wonderful, but of course I thought mine was the better choice. What’s not to love? Al dente pasta with an amazing sauce that was bursting with sautéd crawfish tail meat, roasted peppers, dill, butter and parmesan. And all of that goodness was crowned with a fried soft shell crab. I could actually only eat half of it. But worry not! It was almost as good reheated for lunch the next day. Could let that go to waste.

Dessert at home

A man with red oven mitts holding a baking pan filled with cake.

Dessert was Steve’s Cinnamon Swirl Streusel Coffee Cake fresh from the oven.

A rectangular baking pan filled with coffee cake and a piece removed from the corner.

Why is that first slice always so hard to get out of the pan?

We were all much too stuffed to be able to enjoy dessert at the end of our wonderful meal at Maple Street Café New Orleans. However, by the time we got back to Ladybug and changed into our sleepy time clothes, we found just enough room in our tummies for a piece of Steve’s fabulous Cinnamon Swirl Streusel Coffee Cake!

A yellow and blue plate topped with a piece of cake and a dessert fork.

Moist and cinnamony Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake.

2 Comments

JEANNE JONES on September 23, 2021 at 10:55 am

Everything looks so good!!!!!
- Sandy Axelrod on September 23, 2021 at 11:11 am
  
  It was fabulous! Can’t wait to go back when we go to NOLA for the first week of November. Fingers crossed they have soft shell crabs.