Coquette chef and owner Michael Stoltzfus wanted to call his new restaurant Wild South when he took over the space on Thalia Street six years ago. But when Urban South Brewery opened up nearby, the names seemed too similar. He opened Thalia in the space in 2019, and then the tasting menu restaurant Lengua Madre with chef Ana Castro in 2021.
“People always mispronounce Coquette, and they butchered Lengua Madre,” he says. “Wild South is simple. There’s emotion behind it. And you can’t mispronounce it.”
The 40-seat Wild South opened a few weeks ago, with a weekly, five-course, $85 tasting menu as well as an a la carte menu, with dishes ranging from $13-$17, available only at the six-seat bar.
The Barbie pink neon-lit hallway that led to Lengua Madre's dining room is now lined with burnished refurbished wood. There is charming Mexican tile in the dining room – look for one with imbedded paw prints — and local photographs on the walls.
“It’s a work in progress,” Stoltzfus says.
The floor plan is the same, with a curvaceous bar between the open kitchen and dining room. There will be two chef’s tasting seats facing the action.
“We want to have our friends and neighbors in,” Stoltzfus says. “We have an amazing team here, many from Coquette. We just want to get folks in the space to see what we’re doing.”
The restaurant’s executive chef is Bret Macris, who came to New Orleans in 2017 and previously was chef de cuisine at Donald Link’s Cajun restaurant Cochon. An Angeleno raised in Burbank, California, Macris trained with Nancy Silverton at Campanile and later worked at Rose Water in New York.
“We’re here because we love New Orleans,” he says. “I have French family roots here, and we’d visit a few times a year. We wanted to make it permanent.”
The a la carte menu includes Ugly Cheese Toast, a crusty melt made with Leo’s thick semolina bread and Eldo, a raw cow’s milk cheese from Texas that’s reminiscent of manchego. There’s a house-made tuna nduja, ground tuna cured with chiles; fried fish pieces using cuts like the collar left over from portioning; and steamed Little Moon oysters from Grand Isle served with swordfish bacon.
The two chefs knew of each other for years. Becky Brooks-Macris directs service at Coquette and now Wild South. “My wife has worked for Mike for a long time,” Macris says. “He tried to hire me for the Columns, but the timing wasn’t right.”
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Wild South hits all the right notes for both chefs and is perfectly suited to serve what’s fresh and local. With his seafood program, Macris depends on local fishers to inform his menu, which recently included grilled grouper with greens and shiitake mushrooms. The opening menu was seafood centric as a nod towards Lent, but upcoming menus include beef, pork and rabbit along with seasonal vegetables. Fried Lion’s Mane mushrooms was a recent vegetarian option.
A changing five-course tasting menu doesn’t pose a challenge for Macris. “The only place I’ve worked with a menu that wasn’t always changing was Cochon,” he says. “I have this weird encyclopedia of dishes in my head to draw from. I think of my style as complex simplicity. My goal is to keep all the dishes delicious and approachable.”
Stoltzfus sees the $85 price tag as in sync with the per person prices at many fine dining restaurants. “Our menu is delicious but nothing crazy,” he says. “New Orleans wasn’t a tasting menu city for a reason. People don’t want a four-hour meal driven by ‘look what we can do.’ Our guests trust us. They come in, and we take care of them.”
Sommelier Ryan Plas curated a $45 wine pairing menu and lists of bottles and by-the-glass options. Jason Kaplan oversees cocktails and will introduce a non-alcoholic pairing menu in the coming weeks.
“We are researching kombuchas and fun sodas,” Kaplan says. “Just because a guest doesn’t want to drink doesn’t mean they don’t want to stimulate their palate. Because we are small, we can execute that option here. I want it to be a touchpoint for the restaurant.”
