"A restaurant returned to the historic, 125-year old site of The Old Coffee Pot on Saint Peter Street yesterday, this time run by the folks behind French Quarter chain Cafe Beignet. The Old Coffee Pot’s closure in February was felt by New Orleans visitors from all over the country, as over the years the cafe had cemented its status as a French Quarter tourist destination for classic Creole breakfasts, bread pudding, and calas, a sweet rice-based fritter somewhere between a beignet and a buttermilk drop. The restaurant was the subject of an unsparing 2018 episode of “Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back,” and struggled in recent years despite its prime location next to renowned bar Pat O’ Brien’s and blocks from tourism mecca Jackson Square. Owner Dustin Palmisano, who took over the restaurant six years ago after waiting tables there, closed shop eight months after the episode aired, citing the post-makeover renovation and ongoing French Quarter construction. The group that bought the Old Coffee Pot operates three other Cafe Beignet locations in the Quarter; on Royal Street, Bourbon Street, and Decatur Street. Peter Moss, a partner in the group, told Nola.com that it worked to restore the cafe’s prior charm by repainting the walls its previous Caribbean coral colors and recreating murals that previously adorned the walls. Moss and his partners opened the first Cafe Beignet in 1990, and have a fifth planned for Canal Street in a space that was previously a PJ’s coffee shop." - Clair Lorell
