Dooky Chase's In New Orleans May Just Have The World's Best Gumbo
By Celina Colby|Published December 14, 2021
×
Celina Colby
Author
Celina Colby is a Boston-based writer and native New Englander who has been covering travel, arts, food, and culture nationally for ten years. When she's not on deadline you can often find her reading, sewing, and searching for the perfect empanada.
Dooky Chase’s Restaurant has been operating in New Orleans since 1941. A restaurant doesn’t last more than 80 years in a vibrant city like New Orleans unless it’s a special business serving up some truly delicious cuisine, including the world’s best gumbo.
Over the years Dooky Chases's evolved from just a restaurant to a jazz hot spot and a civil rights gathering place.
Dooky Chase's has been family owned and operated since day one. Leah Chase married into the family and was the visionary behind the restaurant that's known and loved today. She took the space from a bar to a sit down restaurant and brought in a collection of African American art to enhance and elevate the space.
Though Leah Chase has passed, the restaurant stays in the family. Over the years the Chase family has hosted guests like Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Quincy Jones, Jesse Jackson, Duke Ellington, Thurgood Marshall, James Baldwin, Ray Charles, and Barack Obama.
Serving up the city's most delectable fried oysters may seem like a public service enough, but the Chase family also runs The Edgar “Dooky” Jr. & Leah Chase Family Foundation that makes contributions to the culinary and cultural arts as well as social justice organizations.
Some visitors come in for the warm and flavorful gumbo, some for the dynamic art collection and others for the rich community that lives behind Dooky Chase’s doors. No matter what brings them in, guests leave with stomachs and spirits satisfied.
OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.