Profile

In September 2004, Kevin Walters set up shop among the dollar stores and taco shops of El Barrio in upper Manhattan. Billed as a supper club, Creole offers nearly Blue Note–worthy jazz acts on a tiny stage in view of the dining room on most nights. The kitchen plates a mix of Cajun classics and newfangled interpretations of Bayou cuisine like a blackened shrimp Napoleon. Though the music's lively, the dishes lack the same energy. "Louisiana" crab cakes whisper the faintest note of flavor; smothered chicken is doused in oversalted brown gravy; and catfish is swaddled in crispy, deep-fried batter that needs more than its dollop of salmon-colored rémoulade to up the taste. Gumbo is uncharacteristically bland, but revelers on dates and anniversary dinners seem too busy toe-tapping to notice. The décor's as ho-hum as the food; a sad string of neon lights snakes behind the bar, and a few wisps of chiffon droop from the ceiling. A caveat: A $15 to $20 cover charge kicks in after 8 p.m. on weekend nights, but it's worth it for acts like Clifton Anderson and Bobbi Henderson. — Edna Ishayik

Creole catfish strips, $10.95; hot sweet potato beignet, $6.50