Shucked oysters still hit the stand-up marble bar one at a time at Pascal’s Manale Restaurant, though now the traditional Louisiana oysters are joined by more refined off-bottom oysters grown around Grand Isle.
Across the lounge, the vintage bar lined by neon beer signs is as evocative as always, but people settling in for happy hour now find a better selection of wine, most of it Italian.
Dining rooms have the same contours but a nicer look between exposed beams, café curtains and flowers on the tables.
Renovation have brought a new look to the dining rooms, with views into a wine room, left, at Pascal’s Manale Restaurant on Napoleon Avenue in New Orleans. (Staff photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
STAFF PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
On the menu, next to the signature barbecue shrimp and casserole-like seafood pan roast, a roster of new dishes includes a selection of fresh pastas. Other house standards have been elevated with brighter sauces, torn herbs and a chef’s touch. That chef is Michael Sichel, and he’s new too.
The historic Uptown restaurant is one of the city’s oldest. It helped define the notion of Creole-Italian cuisine, that marriage of Sicilian traditions and a specifically New Orleans version of American abundance. The place has long felt timeless.
The vintage bar has a timeless feel at Pascal’s Manale Restaurant in New Orleans. (Staff photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
STAFF PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
But since it was bought in 2023 by the Dickie Brennan & Co. restaurant family, changes have been slowly, incrementally accruing. Today they add up to what feels like the same classic restaurant in a new chapter, and more to be written ahead.
Historic, renewed
The restaurant’s story began in 1913 when Frank Manale opened what he called Manale’s Restaurant in a former grocery. After his nephew, Pascal Radosta, took over in 1937, he added his name over the door and created the unusual linguistic construction of Pascal’s Manale (which would be repeated decades later at a different restaurant, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse).
The restaurant continued in the same family until the fourth generation sold to auto dealership magnate Ray Brandt in 2019, shortly before he died. In 2023, the Brandt estate sold the restaurant to Brennan’s company.
There’s a timeless feel around Pascal’s Manale Restaurant in New Orleans, where a renovation and new menu have quietly ushered in a new era. (Staff photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
STAFF PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
When a popular restaurant changes hands, the message to the new owners is very often “don’t change a thing.” That’s not exactly what most people mean, however.
They want their favorite restaurant to feel the way they remember. Not changing at all often means falling apart, or fading away, the last thing someone who values a restaurant wants to see happen.
The Brennan group’s changes started quietly with behind-the-scenes systems. More substantial building renovations inside and out were gradually completed without closing the restaurant, as crews worked around shorter summer hours.
People who know the restaurant by heart will find new elements all around.
Rows of new banquette seating came out of Palace Café, which closed last year, for instance.
Bunches of glass grapes decorate the wine room at the renovated Pascal’s Manale Restaurant in New Orleans, where Abby Hernandez collects a bottle for her table. (Staff photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
STAFF PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
Visible from the dining rooms is a new wine “cellar” (the New Orleans type which, like its cemeteries, are above ground). Its ceiling is composed of more than 100 clusters of glass grapes, which once decorated a long-gone version of Brennan’s Restaurant in Dallas back in the 1960s. The Manning Room, a small private dining room dedicated to Saints legend Archie Manning and his family, has been expanded and revamped.
There is more to come, including a cluster of small private dining rooms in what are now storage and office spaces hidden from view. Private dining is a hallmark of the Brennan group, and the old kitchen is now reequipped to handle more of it in this historic property.
New chef, expanded menu
At Pascal’s Manale, the longtime oyster shucker Thomas “Uptown T” Stewart has been better known through the years to most customers than the restaurant’s head chef. But now there’s a chef de cuisine who is well known in New Orleans.
Michael Sichel in chef de cuisine at historic Pascal’s Manale Restaurant in New Orleans.
Sichel, who started at Pascal’s Manale early this year, had a seven-year tenure as chef at Galatoire’s, including the time when the Creole grand dame underwent its own renovation to add the adjacent Galatoire’s 33 Bar & Steak. He competed on “Top Chef” in 2013, the same season that featured local chefs Justin Devillier and Nina Compton. Most recently, he was chef de cuisine for restaurants at Alys Beach along Florida’s scenic Highway 30A.
Now back in New Orleans, he’s leaning into his Italian family roots to expand the menu at Pascal’s Manale and refine its standbys.
Many of the pastas are now made fresh at the Brennan group’s Commissary production kitchen in the Lower Garden District.
There’s a veal Bolognese made with tender, ruffly radiatori, and spaghetti swirls around the nduja fra diavolo, a red sauce with a complex, building spicy heat.
Oysters piccata is made with fresh spaghetti at Pascal’s Manale Restaurant in New Orleans. (Staff photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
STAFF PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
Oysters piccata looks like a familiar seafood pasta with cream sauce, but the sauce reveals deep ocean flavor and a buttery umami between the pop of sautéed oysters.
The salad list, not historically a strong suit here, now has a must-try dish: the fried oyster salad. Its base is a mix of chopped kale with capers and pecorino, all lashed with Creole mustard vinaigrette for a chorus of zing under the plump, lightly coated oysters.
Gulf fish puttanesca is served over fresh capellini pasta at Pascal’s Manale Restaurant in New Orleans. (Staff photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
STAFF PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER
Fish puttanesca has a seared crust that evokes blackening, but with a seasoning that’s more about sharp black pepper, a contrast to the olive and tomato acidity of the sauce over the whisper-thin capellini (again from the Commissary).
Sichel says he’s drawn to iconic restaurants, and frames his role at this one as stewardship for a legacy.
“This is a place to create Italian food with Creole ingredients; that’s the beauty of what they’ve always done here,” he said. “But what was it like in 1913, when it was original, when mama was making the pasta by hand? We’re putting our emphasis on getting back to the roots of it.”
1938 Napoleon Ave., 504-895-4877
Dinner daily, lunch Tue.-Fri. (opening 3 p.m. Sat., Sun.)
