"Fat Tuesday" At The New Orleans Restaurant

Join local band The Basically Blues tonight at the New Orleans Restaurant on Rte 1 in Westbrook and celebrate Fat Tuesday with fantastic food and entertainment. Check out this review:


We are from Massachusetts and were on the Conn. shore for a New Year's Eve party. We saw the New Orleans Restaurant on the drive down and it looked intriguing so on New Year's Day night, we thought we would see if they were open. To our great delight they were. We parked and were beckoned to enter thru the kitchen by the server ("the way the VIP's enter") and met the chef/owner on the way past. Given the option of sitting in the lounge or the dining room, we opted for the very N'Awlins appearing dining room. The dinner was absolutely terrific - the best seafood gumbo that I have tasted in years and years - and the homemade blue cheese dressing on the salad was to die for. Unfortunately, by the time the gargantuan dinners came, we were already too full so took most of them home. The food was delicious and the service could not have been friendlier. The Hurricanes were pretty tasty, too.

As we were finishing up, we heard the sounds of a band warming up and were intrigued so we adjourned to the lounge. Little did we realize that the Basically Blues Band was on the bill on a quiet New Years Day night (and apparently most Friday nights). They were a six piece (guitar, bass, drums, sax, harmonica, organ) very tight band that was smoking! Even though the crowd was small, the music and the pure enjoyment that they had performing got just about everyone on their feet with great covers of all the best blues-rock you could want.

What had started as just wandering in off the street turned into one of the most fun nights we've had in a long, long time (and was much better than the wildly more expensive New Year's Eve party the night before)!

-Rich V.
1/2/2010