Dooky Chase is a landmark family-run restaurant in New Orleans offering Creole
specialties. The restaurant (which opened in 1939) was the original creation of
Dooky Chase, and is now owned by his son, Dooky Chase II. Leah Chase (wife to
Dooky II) is co-owner and chef. In an interview (link below) Leah describes the early
years of the restaurant:
We opened when segregation was
still in the South, and we always had big crowds here. It was a meeting place,
and if a person needed to see someone in the black community, they'd come here,
because this was where everyone met.
We had Count Basie, Sarah Vaughn, Lena Horne ...There was no other place to
go, really. And I'm so grateful to the ones like Lena, and our dear Sarah who
passed away a few years ago, because they always remembered us, even after
segregation. Sarah used to order our stuffed crabs, and Lena, she likes our
fried chicken.
Duke Ellington got us selling Heineken beer, because that's what he liked to
drink. Cab Calloway, John F. Kennedy, the Jackson Five - everybody comes here
to see what its all about. We make Creole food. And this city has so much good
food. You know there's White Creole and then there's "Creole de Colour" - don't
ask me where it came from - I don't know, it's just been that way, and I guess
I'm just in the thick of it all. But the food here is all so unique.