Calas are a traditional New Orleans fried rice and flour fritter, served hot and fresh. Calas Bistro, just opened at 910 West Esplanade Avenue at Chateau Boulevard in Kenner, has enhanced the culinary pleasure of the Calas and offers other exciting dishes, all created with the highest quality ingredients available form our waters and our land.

The concept and style of Calas Bistro and Wine Cellar are "cutting edge" and offer patrons many differing opportunities as to how they can enjoy great food and beverages from around the world.

The owners have surrounded their start-up operation with professionals who bring years of successful experiences in hospitality and service.

The Bistro is based in an area populated by knowledgeable connoisseurs of fine dining and gracious living.

Calas Bistro and Wine Cellar promises to fulfill the culinary and beverage desires of gourmands and oenophiles from all over the Greater New Orleans Metropolitan Area.

Calas are a New Orleans food staple from the last century. Street merchants sold these tasty treats from carts, stands, and baskets strolling throughout the City. Calas are breakfast fritters, mostly rice-based, which are sweetened with sugar, flour, and spices. The word is African/Caribbean in origin, as are many New Orleans cuisine terms, like gumbo and jambalaya.

Street vendors would sell their calas from carts or baskets, letting residents know the calas were available and hot, ready to eat, with the cry, "Calas, belle, calas tout chaud!" "Ladies, hot calas are here."

In the new Calas Bistro and Wine Cellar, we have created an exciting menu, firmly rooted in the cuisine of New Orleans. Working in conjunction with Chef Frank Brigtsen, our staff has developed dishes based in the tradition of New Orleans culture using sweet and savory Calas as the center piece. The menu at Calas Bistro will use the freshest ingredients available selected by our staff from the waters and markets in our local area.

Seafood, meats, sausages, vegetables, spices, and fruits will be used in dishes well-known to local diners, and new creations will surprise even the most jaded patron.

Among the daily offerings will be shrimp shortcake; pulled pork sandwich on ciabatta bred with roasted jalapeno cole slaw; chicken pontalba with ham, mushrooms, and béarnaise; beef brisket au jus with horseradish sour cream and garlic mashed potatoes; and pesto shrimp bisque. Daily specials will be offered and the menu will change with the season.

The calas will be offered as an appetizer course, featuring shrimp, jambalaya, and pesto vegetable variations with dipping sauces. Sweet Calas will be offered as a dessert item.

Calas Bistro and Wine Cellar, as the name implies, will also feature wine and fine beverages. But similarities to other restaurants will be noted by every patron immediately.

First of all, Calas Bistro will offer wine in a retail fashion. Bottles will be displayed in a wine store format. Lovers of fine wine will be able to directly access the bottles, to note what is available and to read the labels. The bottles can be taken home, and the wines will be sold at prices that are both reasonable and attractive.

Or the diner can take the wine to their table to enjoy with the cuisines of Calas Bistro. There will be a small corkage fee to offset service costs and glassware.

Calas Bistro and Wine Cellar will also create wine "flights" that allow the patron to enjoy and learn about grape varietals, geographic origin similarities and differences, food pairings, and stylistic distinctions.

The wine program at Calas Bistro is being developed in conjunction with Tim McNally, host of The Wine Show, heard each week on BizRadio 990; past two-term president of the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience; wine columnist for a number of local and regional publications; and wine judge for competitions in New Orleans, Destin, Florida; San Francisco, California; Sonoma County, California; among others.

Proprietors of Calas Bistro and Wine Cellar are Vickie and Bryan Krantz

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Calas Bistro New Excutive Chef

As we approach our third year of operation at Calas it is important we note the passage of Executive Chef duties. Chef Jeffrey Wagner has allowed Calas to make a notably positive mark on the landscape of New Orleans cuisine. We wish him well in his new Challenge. The transition is well under way for Executive Chef Christie Plaisance. Christie was recommended by Chef Frank Brigtsen for the position. However, we were very familiar with her work from her time in the kitchen at Calas.

Christie is a native of Lulling, upriver from New Orleans in St. Charles Parish. Her initial exposure in the kitchen came in her family run restaurant business. She attended culinary school leading her to work at Calas and then a tenure at Commander's Palace under Executive Chef Tory McPhail.

Christie now returns to Calas and has begun to pursue her goal of revamping and expanding the Classical Creole/Louisiana cooking style of Calas Bistro.

Christie's goal is to continue to develop her skills and one day open her own restaurant.

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