• IAN MCNULTY
• Felipe's Taqueria in the French Quarter. Tiki Tolteca opens upstairs.

Known for its fast-casual Mexican format and self-serve salsa bar, Felipe’s Taqueria has been upping its game lately at the bar, which serves Mexican-inspired craft cocktails and even "flights" of mezcal, the earthier, smokier relative to tequila.

Next up for taqueria outfit is a much bigger and ambitious undertaking. Tonight, at 5 p.m., Felipe’s plans to open Tiki Tolteca, a separate tiki bar and tapas-style restaurant above its French Quarter location.

Felipe’s bar manager Nathan Dalton explains that both the tiki drinks and the food will have a “Latin fusion” theme. Tiki drinks made with regional liquors like tequilas, mescal, pisco and cachaca will join the more traditional rum recipes while in the kitchen chef Marcus Graham will serve a menu of small plates blending Peruvian, Polynesian, Mexican, and Central American flavors. See the full menu below.

• IAN MCNULTY
• Traditional dining room showmanship at Arnaud's Restaurant.

There’s a certain intrigue in the long history and the labyrinthine warren of dining rooms, service bars and corridors at Arnaud’s Restaurant.

The French Quarter grande dame has been stoking that vibe lately with a series of periodic “Speakeasy Dinners,” which evoke the dark days of Prohibition when, according to restaurant lore, Arnaud’s served bootleg liquor to guests in the know.

The next dinner is coming up May 16, beginning at 7 p.m. The evening includes a four-course meal of Prohibition-era dishes with wine pairings and it costs $100. Guests are encouraged to dress in appropriate period style. Get the "secret knock" for entrance (and a reservation) at (504) 523-5433.

• IAN MCNULTY
• Kingfish, at the corner of Chartres and Conti streets.

The name Kingfish leaves little doubt that the fare at this new French Quarter restaurant will have a Louisiana focus, and indeed the menu is full of local seafood, andouille and cochon de lait. Yet none of the dishes are standards.

The crawfish salad is crossed with hoppin’ John, the BBQ shrimp is ladled over a crunchy sweet potato waffle shaped like a pirogue, the pompano is both cooked and served on a block of Himalayan salt and even the gumbo has smoked rabbit, French sorrel sausage and “dirty” basmati rice.

The direction here is somewhat less surprising when you learn the chef at Kingfish is Greg Sonnier, a veteran New Orleans chef with a long track record for robust and creative reinterpretations of Louisiana flavors. An early protégé of chef Paul Prudhomme, Sonnier and his wife Mary ran the Esplanade Avenue restaurant Gabrielle for 13 years before Hurricane Katrina hit.

• IAN MCNULTY
• The steakhouse dining room at Galatoire's 33 Bar & Steak

The drinks have been flowing for a while now in the new bar that Galatoire’s Restaurant developed in the building adjacent to its landmark Bourbon Street address, though plans for the large dining room just beyond the bar remained unclear. Now this new Galatoire’s operation has a name and the whole concept is set to debut Wednesday, April 10.

It’s called Galatoire’s 33 Bar & Steak, and it will function as a stand-alone bar and as a new steakhouse.

“It’s really a traditional steakhouse menu with just a few dishes from next door,” says Melvin Rodrigue, the restaurant’s president and chief operating officer.

That menu will feature USDA prime steaks plus a few French Creole set pieces, like shrimp remoulade, oysters Rockefeller and turtle soup. There will also be lobster maison, he says, which sounds like an up-market twist on the restaurant’s famous crabmeat maison, and a platter of appetizers, the Gouté “33,” with horseradish-crusted bone marrow and deviled eggs with crab ravigote and smoked trout. Galatoire’s executive chef Michael Sichel will oversee Galatoire’s 33 Bar & Steak as well.

• IAN MCNULTY
• Drinks — soft or otherwise — get unique twists at the High Hat Cafe.

The kitchen at the Deep South-meets-Creole diner High Hat Café prides itself on a handmade approach. So does the bar. Restaurant manager Ryan Iriarte is always mixing up new cocktail ingredients, cocktail recipes and even unique soft drinks.

Last fall, he and bartender Lauren Holton started a periodic series of cocktail events called High Hat After Hours, which basically turns the restaurant into a temporary craft cocktail bar for a night after the kitchen closes.

The next edition is scheduled for April 6, running from 10 p.m. to about 1 a.m.

Finalists will be announced March 18, and this year's awards will take place May 3 and 6 in New York City.

Best New Restaurant: Borgne
Outstanding Chef: Donald Link (Herbsaint)
Outstanding Bar Program: Cure
Outstanding Service: Brigtsen's
Outstanding Restaurant: August
Outstanding Wine Program: The Grill Room at the Windsor Court

Best Chef (South):
Justin DeVillier, La Petite Grocery
Tory McPhail, Commander’s Palace
Alon Shaya, Domenica
Michael Stoltzfus, Coquette
Sue Zemanick, Gautreau’s

Full list of nominees here.

• IAN MCNULTY
• There's new food at Perestroika at Pravda.

The new restaurants and bars that have so swiftly transformed Freret Street each have their own niche. The people who make them tick, however, often support each other and sometimes they collaborate.

The latest example is at Perestroika at Pravda (1113 Decatur St., 504-581-1112), a Soviet-themed bar (previously called Pravda) taken over late last year by the crew from the upscale cocktail bar Cure. More recently, they invited Adam Biderman, the chef behind their Freret Street neighbor the Company Burger, to run the bar’s substantial but under-used kitchen.

While Biderman made his name in New Orleans on burgers, he was trained as a fine-dining chef and he’s flexing those muscles here. He’s also clearly having fun, matching bar snacks and modestly-sized entrees with the Slavic décor of the bar’s previous incarnation.