Profile

It sits near Upper New York Bay, not the mighty Mississippi, but since it opened in 2003, Bayou has given this outlying section of Rosebank a little Louisiana flavor. Inside, purple, gold, and green Mardi Gras beads dangle from the chandeliers; walls lined with worn clapboard evoke a faux Preservation Hall, with stucco and brick. A portrait of the nineteenth century New Orleans voodoo queen Marie Laveau gazes over the brown-paper-lined tables, where diners dig into bowls full of chef and co-owner Julian Gaxholli’s beer-simmered, smoky red beans and rice, paired with chubby pale-golden crab cakes, or stewy jambalaya, packed with andouille sausage, crawfish, shrimp, mussels, and scallops. Some dishes blend tradition and funk, like the huge double-cut pork chop exploding with brie-lapped crawfish and topped with a tangy mix of kalamata olives, red onion, and grape tomatoes. Others, like the garlic-and-cream-cheese Creole sushi, fail. Still, the Abita beer selection, brewed in the woods north of New Orleans, makes up for most transgressions. — Amy Zavatto

Riverboat crab cakes, $23; big easy pork chop, $24