Willie Mae's Scotch House

Willie Mae's Scotch House serves what the James Beard Foundation has called 'America's best fried chicken' — a distinction earned by Willie Mae Seaton, who opened the restaurant in 1957 in a small house in Tremé and spent the next five decades perfecting a recipe that involves a wet batter, a hot skillet, and a level of patience that fast-food chains can't replicate.

The chicken arrives at your table so crisp that the first bite sounds like cracking a crème brûlée, followed by meat so juicy and well-seasoned that you understand why people fly to New Orleans specifically for this meal. The sides — butter beans, cornbread, pickled coleslaw — are Southern comfort food at its most fundamental. The menu is short because everything on it is perfect, and the kitchen operates at its own pace rather than yours.

Willie Mae Seaton died in 2015 at the age of 99, and her great-granddaughter Kerry Seaton-Stewart now runs the restaurant. The building was destroyed by flooding during Hurricane Katrina, and the restoration was funded partly by Southern Foodways Alliance volunteers and chefs from across the country who believed that losing Willie Mae's would be a cultural catastrophe on par with losing the music venues. The line begins forming before the restaurant opens for lunch, and the wait can be an hour or more — but the Tremé neighbourhood around the restaurant is worth exploring while you wait, and the chicken, when it arrives, justifies every minute.