Mother of Pearl is a gem in more ways than one.
Chef Walker Geoffray and his wife and partner Katie Morris are behind the restaurant, a passion project that grew out of their catering business, Black Pearl, which they started in 2017. Geoffray is a native son, not just to New Orleans, but to the Riverbend neighborhood where the business is based. The location has been a few different restaurants, most recently Carrollton Market.
“I’ve been ratting around this neighborhood my whole life,” he says.
His parents still run the frame shop on Oak Street that he grew up around as a kid. And now he and Morris live on Jeannette, just a few blocks from the restaurant, which also serves as a catering commissary kitchen. It is this sense of place that informs Mother of Pearl’s mission.
“The idea was to have something in the neighborhood for the neighborhood,” he says. “We have so many great restaurants that keep the New Orleans tradition alive. I wanted to offer something different.”
The couple quietly opened the restaurant about a year ago, sharing information through their Instagram account. Because of Black Pearl’s busy weekend catering schedule, Mother of Pearl is only open Wednesday through Friday.
The space has modern, clean lines, an open kitchen and funky touches like the sassy monkey wallpaper behind the bar. Seating is limited to 35 guests, and there’s a sense that this place is for those in the know.
Geoffray sees the restaurant as a chance to flex culinary muscles not often used for catered events.
“A lot of destination wedding couples want traditional New Orleans food to be part of their menu,” the chef says. “We work within that box, with our own style, but the restaurant allows us to push those boundaries.”
The latest seasonal menu is crowded with one craveable dish after another. Chicken livers are dredged in cornmeal and fried, glazed with a spicy pepper jelly and accented with boiled peanut cream. There are collard greens stuffed with andouille with a tomato sambal, and diced avocado is topped with lemon-horseradish dressing. A prime brisket burger is topped with Asiago and Dijon aioli and served with twice-cooked fries.
The crawfish boil gnocchi seems like a dish somebody would have thought about ages ago. Potato gnocchi are topped with a creamy andouille and crawfish sauce studded with mushrooms and pearl onions, with allspice-pickled carrots on the side.
“There are all the elements of a boil on the plate, just delivered in a different way,” Geoffray says.
Castelvetrano olives are paired with artichokes and chicken, with sauteed fingerlings on the side. The lemon pesto Gulf fish is the priciest dish on the menu at $26, and it is crusted with fennel and coriander and served with fermented tomato risotto and pickled squash. Appetizers are in the $8-$16 range, with larger plates priced from $15 to $26.
There is a full bar and an evolving wine list with an emphasis on smaller producers.
Although he isn’t formally trained, Geoffray learned his craft on the job, working in catering kitchens for eight years before opening his own business. While he learned from many chefs along the way, he says working with Larkin Selman, the former chef and owner at Gautreau’s who has his own catering service, taught him the most.
“I consider him my mentor,” Geoffray says.
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Weddings are a big part of the couple’s business. Morris handles most of the client contact and turnkey customer service, while Geoffray manages the culinary side of things.
“We get couples that want New Orleans and Vietnamese food, or Indian or Chinese,” he says.
For one event, he paired crab boil braised turkey necks with a Kashmiri rajma curry, with southern-style cornbread on the side. Some of the dishes the chef and his team have created at weddings show up at Mother of Pearl.
“It’s taking something familiar and giving it a new dimension,” he says. “We aren’t going for fine dining. We want to serve good mid-week comfort food, something folks aren’t cooking at home. I’m not trying to get on top 10 lists, but I do want to be top of mind for my neighbors.”
