Willie Mae’s Opens New Restaurant in Downtown New Orleans | Eater New Orleans

"The original Treme restaurant at 2401 St Ann Street remains closed after an electrical fire in April 2023; owner Kerry Seaton-Stewart told the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate that repairs are ongoing and reopening remains at least a year off, and that the building suffered damage from an electrical fire and a sprinkler system triggered by the fire. The spot’s fried chicken has long been widely regarded as some of the best in America. Willie Mae Seaton first opened the business in Treme as a bar in 1957, where the house drink was a mix of Scotch and milk; after gaining a reputation for the food she cooked for bar patrons, she grew it into a restaurant and ran it for the next five decades. In 2005 the James Beard Foundation named it one of America’s Classics; later that year Hurricane Katrina destroyed the restaurant (and Seaton’s home), which was rebuilt and reopened in 2007 with Seaton’s great-granddaughter Kerry Seaton-Stewart leading operations. Seaton died in 2015 at the age of 99." - Clair Lorell