Tag Archives: Sylvain

He Said:

We may have to rethink our list of the coolest places to dine al fresco in NOLA:

We dropped in on Sylvain last night, the new place at 625 Chartres, just down the street from the Cathedral, in the space formerly occupied by La  Marquise pastry shop. Sylvain is marketed as a gastropub, “historic, yet thoroughly modern,” as their tag line puts it. It’s new, it’s in our hood: We had to check it out.

The interior space is dark and cozy, with a bar along one side and tables down the other, but the killer app here has to be the very large courtyard. Really, stinkin’ nice!  Because it was, like, 80 degrees last night, we opted for inside dining. But, once it cools down the outside space is worth a visit for its own sake.

First things first: this place is loud. Loud as in, raise your voices a little bit to have conversation at your table loud. Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into. I would never suggest this as the quiet romantic place ideal for the whispering of sweet nothings. But, so what? NOLA’s got lots of those places if you want them, and this is after all a pub, even if you put the gastro-tag on the front of it. Within that context, we think the volume worked. This is a great place to bring a crew, and in fact there was a group of ladies celebrating a birthday at the table next to ours. My wife said the vibe reminded her of some places in Spain: so, think old-worldish, fun, lively, and energized.

Continue reading →