Creole Restaurant, New York

Not content to celebrate creole cuisine alone, the chefs at Creole Restaurant fuse their skills with the cuisine’s foundational flavors to create fusion dishes, including 20 variations of gumbo. As the kitchen heats up its service each evening, chefs frame hearty bowls of soup with small orders of classic crayfish étouffée at meals’ beginnings, sear up entrees of creole vegetarian meatloaf and crayfish roasted chicken, and fry up chocolate-sprinkled sweet-potato beignets to finish.

A wall of exposed brick backs the bar, its industrial shapes softened by swaths of colorful fabrics that sweep back and forth across the ceiling like the aftermath of school-wide parachute play day. Regular live music draws from the same regional influences that define Creole Restaurant’s food, from the upbeat, hip-swinging tunes of Latin salsa night to smooth, classic soul every Thursday evening.