The 10 best seafood markets in the NOLA Metro

At the turn of New Orleans' first century as a European city, if you wanted to buy food, not just seafood but any type of food, you went to the market. Every neighborhood had a market; it was the public meeting place during the week. Markets were so central to New Orleans neighborhoods that to say neighborhoods were defined by their churches and their markets would not be an exaggeration. It can also be said that New Orleans had, per capita, the most vibrant, diverse, and colorful markets in all of America. The dark side of this history in New Orleans is the slave market. Like food markets, they were numerous. More slaves entered New Orleans markets and were sold here than any other American city.


Claiborne Market, 1854


The Poydras Market, 1860s

New Orleans during the 19th century was a city that sold things. "You have to see the Special Man" may well have been the slogan of the city because New Orleans was the middle man, the city in charge of getting a product from maker to purchaser. New Orleans took as the world made. It was this reliance on others, outside New Orleans, that would have disastrous economic ramifications in the next century when containerized shipping and canals linking Chicago to the Atlantic loosed New Orleans' monopoly on shipping in the heart of America. Once New Orleans lost its stranglehold on selling, the city was bereft any real source of dependable income. The oil boom helped for a while, but its production too was not directly tied to the city. Once oil companies realized this and saw the corruption and experienced the exclusivity of the rich white elite power brokers in New Orleans, they moved their offices to business-friendly Houston.

Yes, New Orleans was in every sense a market town. The heyday of the public market was the beginning of the 20th century. Transportation had so improved, thanks to the proliferation of trains and steamboats, not to mention the nascent scourge of the car, that getting foods to the market from nearby honey holes became easier. Not only was local produce and seafood sold at these markets but also a wide variety of exotic foods from Central and South America were hocked. This period, a century ago, represents the time of best relations between the city and the Latin world, a time when both depended on each other for economic power. It was also during this time that bananas and coffee from Latin America became increasingly important. New Orleans was the world's leading importer of these two items, which would soon become an integral part of the lives of the majority of Americans.


Oyster camps in Grand Isle preparing oysters for the trip to seafood markets, 1906

In the city itself, there were no seafood-only markets. Fishermen or their purveyors would set up stands within neighborhood markets. It was not until about 1925 that markets had any sort of refrigeration, and even what they did have was elementary. By the end of World War II, refrigerated trucks would signal the death knell of the New Orleans food market. With refrigeration now in place at every step of the food chain food could be shipped and stored even longer. The end of the 1940s also gave the nation the G.I. Bill, which gave low interest, down payment loans to military veterans. Coupled with the widespread ownership of the car, the G.I. Bill created the modern suburb by allowing city dwellers who had always rented or lived in very small homes to move out of the city center and have a yard of their own, the American Dream. The expansion in New Orleans was even more pronounced because marsh that was previously uninhabitable was now dry.

These social and technological changes would all mesh to end the neighborhood markets. In their place were the large grocery stores. The largest and most significant were those owned by John Gerald Schwegmann, the German son of a grocer in the Bywater, where I propose the first New Orleans hamburger was made. In 1946, they opened their first Schwegmann Brothers Giant Super Market at Elysian Fields and St. Claude. The family would soon dominate the grocery scene, making food markets obsolete.

But even while the markets died and the city became home to the largest grocery store in the world, New Orleans maintained a vestige of that old culture. New Orleans still had neighborhood seafood markets. From Bucktown to Westwego to the 7th Ward's Seafood City, the seafood market in New Orleans may well have been the closest cousin the city had to the original markets, the French Market not withstanding. Large grocers have likely hurt seafood market business through they years, but not enough to seriously threaten their survival.

Today, there has been a resurgence in the city market, as bobos like to reclaim things of the past in their attempts to make their lives meaningful. But markets can also make sense when done correctly. St. Bernard Parish recently opened a new seafood market, probably due to the success of the two in Westwego. These large, open air markets are far more closely linked to the original market that the tony markets that set up at Broadway and in the CBD. But have no fear, the local seafood markets in your neighborhood don't look to be going anywhere. Thanks to the success of Al Scrumuzza's Seafood City, these markets now cook much of their produce, serving as both market and restaurant. While many people now judge a seafood market's quality only on its boiled crawfish, I have a broader appreciation and my list shows this. Long live the neighborhood seafood market.

As always these lists are intended to educate, elucidate, and elicit intelligent, informed conversation, much of which is often missing with the serial IMers of this forum.



10. Zimmer's, Gentilly

9. Bobby's, River Ridge

8. Big Fisherman, Uptown

7. Captain Sid's, Bucktown

6. Deanie's, Bucktown

5. Castnet, New Orleans East

4. Perino's Boiling Pot, Harvey

3. Dennis', Metairie

2. Fisherman's Cove, Kenner (Harbor Seafood)

1. Westwego Seafood Market, Westwego