Fritai
Charly Pierre pours clarin, the Haitian cane spirit, as a flight, and sends out plantain sandwiches with fried pork under spicy pikliz.2
Why go
Pierre grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, between a father who cooked for the Marriott group and a mother who cooked Haitian.1 He worked L'Espalier, The Aquitaine and Journeyman around Boston, moved down in the autumn of 2015, and cooked at Sucre, Angeline and Bayona before starting Fritai with Minerva Chereches.1 Pierre started Fritai as a stall in St. Roch Market. The Treme room kept the wings and the sandwiches, then added goat and grilled shrimp.2 There is a flag outside and kompa playing inside.2
Order this / avoid
- Order: the passion fruit wings and a plantain sandwich, the two dishes that came over from the market stall.2
- Order: a clarin flight, then a Kremas coconut rum punch to finish. Braden-Perry's instruction, in that order.2
- Avoid: skipping the bar. The spirits and juices come
straight from Haiti and other parts of the Caribbean.
2
What locals & experts say
- Megan Braden-Perry, The Infatuation, 24 June 2024:
The cocktails are like none other in the city, using spirits and juices straight from Haiti and other parts of the Caribbean.
2 - Braden-Perry on the food, same review:
amazing passion fruit wings, plantain sandwiches with fried pork and spicy pikliz, and smothered greens.
2 - Lev Thibodeaux, Culinary Backstreets, 27 February 2026, filed a feature on this kitchen headlined
Reviving the Haitian Foundation New Orleans Forgot.
Nothing of its argument is quoted here.3
Good to know
- Which format. This is the Basin Street restaurant. The kitchen's own about page still describes the St. Roch Market stall it grew out of, so read that page as history.1
- Booking: The Infatuation files it under walk-ins.2
- Accolades the kitchen claims: Zagat 30 Under 30, Eater National Young Guns, and a Chopped win for Pierre. None carries a year on the page, so none is recorded as pinned.1
- Hygiene: not established. New Orleans publishes no inspection register this project reads.
Verdict
should-visit — One bylined critic has written about the current room and she picks out the thing worth crossing town for: a clarin flight, poured from Haitian cane spirit alongside juices brought in from the island. Braden-Perry's verdict on the drinks is that they are 'like none other in the city', which is a comparative claim rather than praise. Charly Pierre's route to it is documented on his own site, from a Boston childhood with a Marriott-trained father and a Haitian mother through L'Espalier and Bayona to a St. Roch stall and then this corner. The rung stops short of the top because Culinary Backstreets published a February 2026 feature I could not read, so the freshest judgment on this kitchen is one I do not have.