Ask a local of a certain age where to eat and you will not hear about the new place downtown. You will hear about the restaurant that invented Bananas Foster in 1951.
The oyster house where the same family has been running the kitchen since 1840. The Garden District institution where lunch means twenty-five-cent martinis and a dress code that has not budged in decades. These are not trendy spots.
They are the kind of restaurants where the waiter knows the menu by heart because it has not changed since the senior at table four started coming with his parents. Each one earned its place through consistency…