Kristen Essig and Michael Stoltzfus, co-chefs and owners of the Garden District’s nationally-acclaimed Coquette, open their much-awaited second restaurant, Thalia, tomorrow (August 6). The 37-seat restaurant on the corner of Thalia and Constance Streets in the Lower Garden District is a more casual counterpart to Coquette, with plans to be kid-friendly, affordable, and to eventually host neighborhood events and gatherings.

Neighborhood is an apparent priority here; among Thalia’s “core tenets” are comfort, affordability, consistency, and practicality, and Essig has been helping organize volunteers for the Constance Street community garden. The pair hopes that checks ranging from $25 to $30 per person will make it the kind of place diners can visit multiple times a week.

Essig and Stoltzfus have worked together at Coquette since 2016, and have been finalists for the James Beard Award for Best Chef - South every year since (Stoltzfus was also a finalist the three years prior). Stoltzfus will remain focused on the Magazine Street restaurant, which he opened eleven years ago, and Essig will take the lead at Thalia. She’s brought over Ana Castro, currently Coquette’s sous chef, and Sean Poole, another cook at Coquette, to run the kitchen.

The couple and business partners say Thalia offers creative interpretations of familiar snacks, salads, and pastas; its small menu will be accompanied by “daily rituals,” or blue-plate specials, like Tuesday Schnitzel Night and Saturday Steak Night. Smaller plates start at $5 with larger plates in the $17 to $22 range.

The building at 1245 Constance Street is an old bar, the Shamrock Tavern, and was most recently a woodworking shop. The exterior still features fading Dixie beer advertisements, which are interspersed with bright-green doors and sky blue paneling. Essig and Stoltzfus worked with Good Wood NOLA to deck out the interior with wood, including hand-built wooden benches in the dining room and a bar made from bent and laminated maple slats. A seven foot tall, five foot wide wall mural in the dining room is by local folk artist Devin De Wulf, whose work is especially visible in the Bywater neighborhood.

Starting tomorrow, August 6, Thalia is open for dinner from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, closed Sunday and Monday. An afternoon happy hour from 3 to 5 p.m. is expected in the near future.

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