In the heart of the Treme, you'll rediscover authentic Creole cuisine served in a vibrant, art-filled space at Dooky Chase's Restaurant.

“Chase’s original dishes would help pioneer the Creole food movement and her recipes for dishes like gumbo, jambalaya, and fried chicken have gone on to become kitchen staples” notes the James Beard Foundation.

Known as the “Queen of Creole Cuisine,” Leah Chase has fed Quincy Jones, Lena Horne, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Duke Ellington, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, James Baldwin, Ray Charles, Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and countless others as Executive Chef of Dooky Chase’s Restaurant — one of the best-known and most culturally significant restaurants in New Orleans.

In a town deeply divided by segregation, Dooky Chase’s Restaurant was one of the only public places in New Orleans where mixed race groups could meet to discuss strategy for the local Civil Rights Movement.

Chef Leah Chase even served as the inspiration for the character of Princess Tiana in Disney's Princess and the Frog.

The spirit of Edgar Dooky Chase, Jr. and Chef Leah Chase will remain with us forever.

Dooky's offers a delicious lunch buffet that changes daily. You can always find New Orleans' staples such as red beans and rice and hot sausage on the buffet. On Fridays we offer shrimp and lima beans instead of the red beans. You may also order Creole favorites such as Gumbo, Poor Boys, Shrimp Clemenceau, and Stuffed Shrimp.

Our "regular" menu features those Dooky Chase favorites like Fried Chicken, Shrimp Clemenceau, Chicken Creole, and Stuffed Shrimp.

Top it all off with our award winning Peach Cobbler or our classic New Orleans-styled Bread Pudding.

RSVP (504) 821-0535 or (504) 821-0600 for an incredible array of creole and soul food in a restaurant atmosphere full of local art.

Dooky Chase’s Restaurant opened its doors for business in 1941. What was initially a sandwich shop and lottery ticket outlet in 1939 blossomed into a thriving bar and later a respected family restaurant in Treme. Founded by Emily and Dooky Chase, Sr., Dooky Chase’s Restaurant soon become the meeting place for music and entertainment, civil rights, and culture in New Orleans.

In 1944, by the time Edgar Dooky Chase, Sr. was reaching his peak as an entrepreneur, his son Dooky, Jr., had already, at age sixteen, become well known for his sixteen-piece “transitional swing to modern jazz” band. Dooky’s band, with his sister Doris Chase as vocalist, was at one time the “most progressive in the South.” Dooky’s big band played the bebop sounds of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. Dooky, Jr. had his father’s entrepreneurial spirit; and at age nineteen, he promoted the first racially integrated concert at the Municipal Auditorium.

Before the United States Supreme Court reversed its 1896 decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, Dooky Chase’s Restaurant had become the hot spot for discussing issues of civil and economic rights in the African-American community in New Orleans and throughout the country. Thurgood Marshall along with local attorneys such as A.P. Tureaud, Lionel Collins, Ernest “Dutch” Morial, and Revius O. Ortique, Jr. and later freedom fighters such as Reverend A.L. Davis, Reverend Avery Alexander, Oretha Castle Haley, Rudy Lombard, Virginia Durr, and Jerome Smith propelled civil rights and protests in the courts and on the streets of New Orleans. In the 1960s, Martin Luther King, Jr. and others would join these local leaders for strategy sessions and dialogue over meals in the upstairs meeting room at Dooky’s...

In 1946, Edgar Dooky Chase, Jr. married Leah Lange Chase. Through the vision of Leah Chase, the barroom and sandwich shop grew into a sit-down restaurant wrapped within a cultural environment of African-American art and Creole cooking. Later known as the Queen of Creole Cuisine, Leah Chase would introduce one of the first African American fine dining restaurants to the Country. In addition to her signature Creole Cuisine, Leah would begin to showcase African American Art throughout the walls of Dooky’s. Dooky Chase’s Restaurant was the first art gallery for black artists in New Orleans.

The Chase Family enjoys serving its regular customers, tourists, and locals. They also remain a stopping place for politicians, musicians, visual artists, and literary giants. Dooky Chase’s has had the pleasure of serving both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama, Hank Aaron, Ernest Gaines, Quincy Jones and a list of others.

On January 28, 2016, the James Beard Foundation announced that New Orleans’ Chef Leah Chase has been named the recipient of the 2016 James Beard Lifetime Achievement award. The foundation awards the Lifetime Achievement award “upon a person in the industry whose lifetime body of work has had a positive and long-lasting impact on the way we eat, cook, and think about food in America.”

Known as the “Queen of Creole Cuisine,” Leah Chase is a chef, restaurateur, and TV personality revered by many as one of the best in her profession. In 1946, she married big band leader Edgar “Dooky” Chase Jr.; the son of Dooky Chase’s restaurant owners Emily and Dooky Chase, Sr., who originally opened the restaurant in 1941. Leah and Dooky, Jr. worked together in his parents’ restaurant shortly after their marriage. With a shared vision Leah and Dooky, Jr. transformed Dooky Chase’s, which was once a sandwich shop, barroom, check cashing and lottery ticket outlet, neighborhood gathering place, into a sit-down restaurant wrapped within the cultural environment of Creole cooking, African-American art, and jazz. Chef Chase, a patron of the arts displayed her collection on the walls of her restaurant and at one time was considered to have New Orleans’s best collection of African American art. The restaurant doubled as one of the first galleries where black artists could showcase their work in New Orleans.

Located in Historic Faubourg Treme’; the country first neighborhood for free people of color and Europeans, Dooky Chase’s restaurant was one of the only public places in New Orleans where mixed race groups even though illegal through the sixties, would meet to discuss strategy for the local Civil Rights Movement. The restaurant served as the meeting ground for black voter registration campaign organizers, the NAACP, political activists, and countless others, and Leah Chase cooked for them all. Iconic Civil Rights Leaders such as Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rev. Dr. Ralph Abernathy, Rev. Andrew Young, Attorney and soon to be U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, along with local leaders Ernest “Dutch” Morial, Oretha Castle Haley, Jerome Smith, Justice Revius Ortique, A.P. Tureaud, and others held regular planning sessions at Dooky Chase during those racially tense decades of the 40’s through the 70’s and beyond.

Other dignitaries who have dined at the restaurant includes President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama, Hank Aaron, Ernest Gaines, James Baldwin, Bill Cosby, Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, Quincy Jones, Ray Charles, Reverend Jessie Jackson, and a host of others.

As noted by the James Beard Foundation, “Chase’s original dishes would help pioneer the Creole food movement and her recipes for dishes like gumbo, jambalaya, and fried chicken have gone on to become kitchen staples.” Leah Chase even served as the inspiration for Princess Tiana in Disney’s Princess and the Frog.

As a writer of two cookbooks; And Still I Cook, and The Dooky Chase Cookbook, and winner of countless food and humanitarian awards, Chase was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America in 2010.

Leah Chase has received many other awards, including multiple awards from the NAACP, the Weiss Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the New Orleans Times-Picayune 1997 Loving Cup Award, and the Outstanding Women Award from the national conference of Negro Women. Southern Foodways Alliance presented her with a lifetime achievement award in 2000. She has received honorary degrees from Dillard University, Tulane University, Loyola University, Our Lady of Holy Cross College, Madonna College, and Johnson & Wales University. Ms. Chase is also the recipient of the Francis Anthony Drexel Medal, the highest award presented to an individual by Xavier University. In 2009 Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans named a permanent gallery in Chase’s honor.

In celebration of Chef Chase’s longstanding contributions, the New Orleans Museum of Art presented an exhibition of 20 paintings that capture Chase at work in the kitchen of her restaurant. The series, painted by New Orleans raised Gustave Blache III, captures her lifelong dedication to the Culinary Arts. One of the images was included in the collection of iconic American images in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Today the family owned restaurant remains a stopping place for politicians, musicians, visual artists, literary giants and a must stop for New Orleans tourists seeking authentic Creole Cuisine. “I am overwhelmed to receive such a prestigious award,” said Chase. “I never dreamt of receiving such an award for doing what I love to do: cook and serve others.”

Established in 1990, the James Beard Awards recognize culinary professionals for excellence and achievement in their fields and further the Foundation’s mission to celebrate, nurture, and honor America’s diverse culinary heritage through programs that educate and inspire.

Founded in 1986, the James Beard Foundation celebrates, nurtures, and honors America’s diverse culinary heritage through programs that educate and inspire. A cookbook author and teacher with an encyclopedic knowledge about food, the late James Beard was a champion of American cuisine. He helped educate and mentor generations of professional chefs and food enthusiasts, instilling in them the value of wholesome, healthful, and delicious food. For more information, please visit www.jamesbeard.org.

Dooky Chase’s has three beautiful dining rooms that can accommodate your special event. The Victorian Room is attached to a quainte parlor with a piano and can seat 60 (pre-Covid) guests for dinner. The Gold Room, is the original dining room of Dooky’s and seats up to 30 guests. The Gold Room is a wonderful room for small meetings and celebrations. The main dining room may also serve as the location for private events confirming at least 75 guests (the maximum seating is 90). Dooky Chase’s Restaurant is also available for buy outs that can accommodate parties as large as 160 people.

Chef Leah Chase customizes the menu for each private party. The host may select a plated dinner, buffet, or family style creole feast. The possibilities are endless.

For more information or to discuss the many options that our restaurant offers, please call Stella Chase Reese at (504) 821-0535.