Michael Gulotta named his Old Metairie restaurant after his great-grandmother Gaetana, whom the family called Tana, and the Sicilian dishes she made famous at home anchor the menu at Tana.
Gulotta grew up in New Orleans in a Sicilian family and studied culinary arts at Nicholls State University. He cooked in northern Italy, including the Liguria region along the Italian Riviera, and in southern Germany before coming home after Hurricane Katrina. He then spent seven years as chef de cuisine at Restaurant August. He opened MoPho in 2013 and Maypop in 2016, both known for pairing Southeast Asian cooking with Louisiana ingredients.
Tana started years earlier as a pop-up at Treo, a Tulane Avenue gallery and cocktail bar that later closed. Gulotta shelved the idea and brought it back on a much larger scale with business partner Jeff Bybee, a fellow Brother Martin High School graduate who had worked beside him for two decades. The restaurant opened at 2919 Metairie Road in December 2023. When Gulotta closed MoPho and Maypop in May 2025, he said he would focus his energy here.
The building runs more than 5,000 square feet and splits into distinct rooms. A lounge with jewel-toned booths and low lighting holds a 16-seat bar. The main dining room carries wood beams and a classic Italian look. A brighter room called The Villa lets in natural light and aims for the feel of eating on the Sicilian coast. A private dining room seats up to 40, and the whole restaurant can be booked for groups of 60 or more.
The menu pulls from three places at once, Louisiana, Sicily, and Liguria. Pasta is made in house. Shrimp and pistachio ziti, radiatore cacio e pepe Siciliano, Gulf fish alla piastra, and braised meatballs all appear on the current menu, along with a Tana Burger that has picked up a following of its own. Reviewers keep naming the red snapper with peppered potatoes, the squid ink pasta, and the Gulf shrimp paccheri. The cocktail list runs to drinks like a limoncello lemon drop and a Sicilian sunrise.
The restaurant describes itself as a neighborhood family place, and it tries to act like one. Kids can watch pasta being made, and a sommelier pours a rotating selection of wines on Sundays. Happy hour brings pizzas you cannot order at other times, plus cocktail and wine specials, and it needs no reservation. The restaurant’s own site lists happy hour from 2 to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and all day Sunday, while OpenTable shows 2 to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, so call to confirm.
Regular service covers most of the week. Lunch runs Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and brunch runs Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dinner starts at 5 p.m. and runs until 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday, and until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The restaurant closes Mondays.
Metairie Road sits just across the parish line from New Orleans, about 15 minutes from the French Quarter by car. Reviewers mention valet parking, which helps on a busy stretch of road. Reservations go through OpenTable, or call (504) 533-8262.
Order a pasta, ask about the specials, and eat the way Gaetana’s family did.
