August

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Building With a Story

The address at 301 Tchoupitoulas Street has been many things since the 1830s — a riverfront warehouse for tobacco and coffee, a garment factory, an electrical company — before becoming Restaurant August in 2001. Local business figure August "Duke" Robin enlisted Chef John Besh to open a restaurant that would honor New Orleans' Creole culture, and the building's mid-19th-century craftsmanship was preserved with care: Parisian windows, cypress and heart pine woodwork, local brick, soaring columns, mahogany paneling, and antique mirrors still define the main dining room today.

The Kitchen Now

Executive Chef Corey Thomas, a Louisiana native from Monroe, took the helm in early 2022. His path to August ran through Commander's Palace, where he spent three years developing his technique, then through Shaya — where he served as sous chef during the year it won the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant — and later through Domenica, where a deep engagement with Italian cuisine and a trip to Italy for his own wedding left a lasting mark. At August, those varied influences converge: French classical technique applied to thoughtfully sourced Louisiana ingredients, with the vibrant local flavors of the Gulf Coast and surrounding farms at the center.

Holding the dining room together is General Manager Emmaline Duhon, whose background spans a Park Hyatt in Abu Dhabi, a Michelin-starred restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area, and several BRG Hospitality properties in New Orleans. The result is service that the team describes as refined yet warm and personalized — a balance that suits the room.

What's on the Table

The menu offers two paths. The Chef's Tasting Menu ($200 per person) moves through a progression that opens with fruits de mer — a blue crab tartlet, a petit de sel oyster with tomato XO and smoked cane vinegar, a NOLA BBQ shrimp croustade, and a spearcaught cobia crudo with peach and shiso — before arriving at cornbread served with Tsar Nicoulai Osetra caviar and Rodolphe Le Meunier butter. Further courses bring ramp and ricotta agnolini with chanterelle mushrooms and summer truffles, pan-seared grouper and diver scallop in a ham hock and tomato brodo, and grilled A5 wagyu with chickasaw plums, black garlic, and bordelaise. Sommelier-led wine pairings are available at $150, with a reserve option at $350.

The Four Course Menu ($125 per person) offers choice at each stage — seared foie gras with Chilton County peaches alongside a wagyu beef tartare with nước chấm and lemongrass; a gnocchi "black and blue" with jumbo lump crab and summer truffles; a snapper Pontchartrain with shrimp, crab, and sauce béarnaise; and desserts like the hummingbird cake with Creole cheesecake custard and roasted banana ice cream.

During summer months (June through August, Mondays through Thursdays), the kitchen also offers Carte Blanche — a market-driven progression with no fixed script, priced at $70, guided entirely by what arrived from local docks and farms that day.

Recognition

Wine Spectator has recognized Restaurant August with its Best of Award of Excellence, a reflection of the depth and care behind the wine program that complements this Contemporary Creole kitchen. It's the kind of acknowledgment that fits a restaurant now in its 25th year — still rooted in the same building, the same culture, and the same commitment to cooking and serving from the heart.