After a soft opening last week, Eliza, a Creole-style restaurant at 7970 Jefferson Hwy., celebrates its grand opening tonight with a private reception and officially opens for business Tuesday.
Owner/chef Russell Davis says last week was something of a test run for the establishment, and that feedback so far has been very positive.
“We’ve had a great response from people in the neighborhood,” he says. “A couple of people came in and liked it and put up a Facebook post and it has kind of snowballed from there.”
Davis is a New Orleans restaurateur who learned the business in the 1990s working for the Brennan family, first at Commander’s Palace and later at several of Ralph Brennan’s restaurants in the French Quarter.
In the early 2000s, he moved to California to open his own restaurant. A few years later, he returned to New Orleans, where he co-owned and operated a popular Uptown seafood restaurant, The Saltwater Grill.
Eliza is his daughter’s middle name, and features a menu of familiar Louisiana favorites, with fresh seafood dishes, gumbos and soups, and salads. For now, the restaurant is open Tuesday through Saturday. Beginning in January, it will also serve Sunday brunch.
The restaurant is located in the 1,850-square-foot space on the western end of the Jefferson Village shopping center that has been vacant since a WOW Café & Wingery closed several years ago. Davis spent several months renovating the space.
Eliza is the latest of several locally owned restaurants that have helped to transform Jefferson Highway’s culinary scene in recent years. Beausoleil opened in the Bocage Village Shopping Center at 7731 Jefferson Hwy. in late 2010, City Pork Brasserie & Bar opened at 7327 Jefferson Hwy. in late 2014, and Palermo Ristorante opened at 7809 Jefferson Hwy. earlier this year.
Having several locally owned restaurants in such relative proximity creates a synergy that is good for all the establishments along the busy corridor, Davis says.
—Stephanie Riegel
