Gautreau’s

A Former Pharmacy on Soniat, and the Quietest Fine Table Uptown

Soniat Street between St. Charles and Magazine is residential Uptown: raised houses, deep shade, and people who walk to dinner when they can. Gautreau’s occupies a former pharmacy at 1728 Soniat, a secluded corner that has been a serious dining room since 1982. Patrick Singley made it a local institution. In 2023 a new ownership group led by Bill Kearney and Jay Adams took the house forward. Katie Adams manages the floor. Her partner, Rob Mistry—trained at Commander’s Palace and at Husk under Sean Brock—cooks à la carte dinners that keep the roast chicken and the caramelized banana split while letting the kitchen think in the present tense.

The dining room is intimate, low, and kept like a private club. Business casual; no shorts, no flip-flops. Couples and professionals come here because the room does not advertise itself to the street. Service is personal. Reservations are essential. Tuesday through Saturday, half past five until half past nine. Closed Sunday and Monday. Comfort aligns with traditional values as discretion: a door you have to know, a table that stays yours, and cooking finished without a lecture.

Order the roast chicken if you want the house’s longest promise. Filet with sauce Robert, roasted duck, hamachi or tartare when they are on, and oysters treated with care show Mistry’s range. The banana split remains the playful close that keeps the room from becoming stern. A composed Coolinary-style pairing appears in season; the Diamond use of the restaurant is still choosing course by course.

You choose Gautreau’s over a busier Magazine dining room because the setting is hidden and the cooking is considered. The amenity is quiet luxury—an Uptown pharmacy turned dining room, a small staff that can see the whole floor, and a kitchen that did not throw out the chicken when the owners changed. Compared with a hotel tasting menu, this is a neighborhood fine-dining table that still belongs to the block.

The graceful considerations are the room’s size and hush. It can grow loud when every table is seated. The menu moves, so a favorite may rest. It is not a tourist landmark, which is an advantage and a reason first-time guests should reserve with care.

Gautreau’s is a Dinner Diamond because the city needed an Uptown fine table that survived a change of hands without becoming a concept. You come for the chicken, the cloth, and the feeling that dinner can still be private.