"At its new downtown home on 715 St. Charles Avenue, I saw Eric Cook revive Saint John as an homage to his Louisiana upbringing: originally opened in 2021 as a follow-up to his successful Gris-Gris, the restaurant reopened Friday, September 27—less than two weeks after Cook’s first cookbook, Modern Creole, was released. Its menu, informed by Cook and chef de cuisine Darren Chabert’s combing of 18th-century Creole cookbooks and family recipes, brings historically accurate Creole dishes into the zeitgeist while applying a modern eye and fine-dining polish; I found dishes like mirliton ceviche and banh mi au poulet sitting alongside Louisiana gumbo and redfish meunière. Cook promised to “show this city what Saint John can really be,” and the restaurant, which has taken over the former Le Chat Noir space, is open Wednesday through Monday for lunch, dinner, and happy hour." - Clair Lorell