NEW ORLEANS’S PREMIER PIE SHOP IS SERVING ITS LAST SLICE

April

Windowsill Pies

May 5 is the end of the road for Windowsill Pies, a Freret Street bakery known for gorgeously crafted pies, quiche, savory hand pies, seasonal tarts, friendly poetry nights, and honey lattes. Friends and business partners Marielle Dupré and Nicole Eiden notified followers of the closure on Instagram in late April, surprising the many fans who competed for their apple lattice, brandied cherry, and vanilla bean bourbon pecan pies around the holidays. “We have had a wonderful thirteen-year run. The thing we will miss most about Windowsill Pies is the joy of working together every day,” the pair tells Eater.

March

Bijou

Rampart Street restaurant Bijou has closed in the French Quarter, Nola.com reports. Bijou opened in the fall of 2021, transforming a historic cottage into a luminous, modern bar and dining room with a snug courtyard out back — chef Eason Barksdale debuted with a menu of tom yum chicken, squid ink spaghetti, and tuna tartare. Jeff Bomberger, one of Bijou’s founding partners, told Nola.com that last year’s summer slow season was the worst he’s seen, and that business has been inconsistent recently, leading to the decision to close. He and Bijou’s partners own the Rampart Street building, however, and as they restructure the business, the restaurant may eventually return — if not as Bijou, then as something new.

February

Calliope Beer Works

Oak Street brewpub Calliope Beer Works closed February 24, approximated six months after opening in New Orleans’s Leonidas neighborhood. Owner Richard Szydlo, who launched Calliope in August of 2023 with a small-batch brewing system and a menu of chicken and waffle sandwiches, fried green tomato shrimp remoulade, and other pub fare, told Nola.com that the brewpub faced a number of delays before it was able to open last summer, which caused financial strain that he wasn’t able to surmount. He’s open to transferring the property’s lease to a new business, however.

Mukbang

Vietnamese-Cajun, seafood-centric restaurant Mukbang, which opened on Oak Street in late 2021, has closed. The good news, however, is that owner Kim Nguyen has reopened her former restaurant Magasin Vietnamese Cafe at 4226 Magazine Street in Uptown — she chose to move, she says, because the space was too big and sales were inconsistent. Nguyen’s mother is helping lead the new restaurant. “Mom loves Magazine Street and heard that we are opening up here [so] she decided to get out of retirement and get back in the restaurant again,” Nguyen says. “She is a busybody and could not wait to return.”

Little Korea BBQ

Magazine Street’s Little Korea BBQ, beloved for creative dishes like kimchi volcano fried rice, creamy udon bowls, mozzarella dogs, and fluffy, chocolate-drizzled croiffles, closed in February. According to Nola.com, the restaurant announced the closure via social media (its accounts have since been deleted), expressing “the deepest gratitude to all of you who’ve walked through our doors.” Owner Joyce Park has run the restaurant since 2015, when her parents retired — Little Korean BBQ was previously located on Clairborne Avenue, before it relocated to Magazine.

2024-03-13T16:06:55Z dg43tfdfdgfd