Muriel's Jackson Square

The house

Before it was Muriel’s, this was a house Pierre Antoine Lepardi Jourdan could not bear to lose. In the early 1800s he wagered it in a poker game, lost, and took his life on the second floor rather than leave. The restaurant keeps a table set for him with bread and wine. The house does not claim he appears as a man. Staff describe a sparkle of light in the seance lounge, and a courtyard bar from which glasses have flown three times since 2001 with no one near them. You can eat serious Creole food on Jackson Square and, if you ask, sit in the room where Pierre decided the house was still his.

Turtle soup, then whatever the kitchen is doing with Gulf fish. After dinner, walk upstairs and note the place setting that is never cleared. That table is the whole story, plated.

The Ghostly Gourmet