Zekes in Old Metairie

In its later years it was, then they went on that stupid show and that sealed their fate. Prime Zekes was pretty good I’d say.

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My memory of it was that it was pretty average

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Same

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in the early 2000s until Katrina it was one of the best seafood restaurants in the Metro

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correct
zeke unangst was a good friend of mine and he knew how to run a restaurant...both there and at west end before that

49 years old

he worked for dickie at west end cafe

So, what’s the deal with that Porter and Luke’s place?

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Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsay

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I went to eat there while they were filming. My group and I were high AF and crushed everything we ordered so they didn't use our table for any "complaining" snippets.

#CSB

I worked there summers during high school in both the front and back. Some thoughts and memories:

-I agree with TulaneLSU in that in its prime, it was far superior to other Old Metry seafood establishments such as The Galley.

-I didn't know Zeke well, but he put his blood, sweat, and tears into that place. He had recently broken even on the whole thing before his passing shortly after Katrina.

-I loved their boil room and days we prepped all the bread pudding in the mornings because it was basically all you could eat when working in the kitchen.

-Zeke serenading the dining room weekend nights was an Old Metry cultural event.

-One time after we closed shop at about 2:30 in the morning, the head chef took me to look at something in his trunk. He had an arsenal of 50 cals and other armaments he had liberated from the Navy when he was in the service. Unsure why he rode around with those things in his trunk.

-As with most great restaurants, 2/3 of the wait staff and kitchen staff had substance addictions, which made for quite the explosive working environment and often made for nights where I ended up doing a bit of everything from manning boil room, cleaning dishes, serving, expediting depending on who showed up high or coked out.

-When I resigned to go back to high school, several of the staff were confounded over my decision.

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west end cafe

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Underrated. Bowl of seafood gumbo, shrimp remoulade salad, and some fried fish.

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Used to be a big event when Zeke would go around singing on Friday and Saturday nights.

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and there was a cook from the kitchen banging a big pot lid with a cooking spoon keeping in tune with Zeke singing.