Aaron Burgau spent weekends as a boy making red gravy and stuffed artichoke with his Sicilian grandmother in Metairie, and he now runs a French restaurant on a quiet Uptown corner.
He started busing tables at Sal & Sam’s at 14. After finishing a degree at LSU, he went to culinary school, cooked in Colorado, and came home to work through more than a dozen New Orleans kitchens. Two shaped him most. Susan Spicer at Bayona taught him to use his tastebuds and think like a chef, and Gerard Maras at Gerard’s Downtown passed along charcuterie and classical French technique. He took over as executive chef at Bank Cafe in 2006, and Louisiana Cookin’ named him one of five chefs to watch that year.
In 2007 he opened Patois with Leon Touzet, a friend since their days at Jesuit High School, in a corner building that had housed Nardo’s Trattoria. The restaurant took its name from the word for a regional accent, which describes the cooking exactly. After more than a decade, Burgau bought out his partner and became sole owner.
The room reads French with local bones. White tablecloths, wooden trim, and a copper bar fill a space that feels more like a converted cottage than a dining room, which it essentially is. Windows let in enough light that lunch-hour brunch feels bright, and a patio with red metal chairs handles good weather. The restaurant sits in a residential pocket a few blocks from Audubon Park, surrounded by houses rather than other businesses, which is part of why regulars describe it as a neighborhood find.
The menu runs French technique over Louisiana ingredients, and it changes with what farms bring in. Smoked fish dip arrives with saltines. A five-spice duck confit leg comes over vegetable slaw with peanuts and herbs. Gumbo shifts by season. Pecan-crusted Gulf fish, eggplant parmesan, and a gnocchi starter that reviewers mention more than anything else fill out the rest. Past menus have included steak tartare with a soy-cured egg, pork confit rillette, and a fried oyster salad with Meyer lemon. Desserts run to crème brûlée, a key lime freeze bar, and chocolate cake.
Sunday brunch is its own thing. The kitchen puts out shakshuka, a breakfast chimichanga, a croque madame with shoestring fries, and shrimp and grits, served between 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Recognition has come steadily. Michelin includes Patois in its guide. The Times-Picayune has named Burgau’s food among the city’s best on an annual basis, Garden & Gun has featured the restaurant, and the James Beard Foundation has made him a semifinalist several times. He won the title of King of Louisiana Seafood and represented the state at the Great American Seafood Cook Off. Phaidon’s Where Chefs Eat guide, which collects recommendations from 650 chefs, includes Patois among its New Orleans picks.
Service runs five days. Dinner goes Wednesday and Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday brings brunch only. The restaurant closes Monday and Tuesday.
Reservations go through Resy or by phone at (504) 895-9441. The restaurant asks guests not to email reservation requests. It also books private parties and handles catering, and gift cards are available online.
Patois sits at 6078 Laurel Street, about fifteen minutes from the French Quarter by car. Book a table by the window, start with the gnocchi, and let the kitchen handle the rest.
