Last we heard from Farid Zadi, the French-Algerian chef behind L.A.’s cous cous festival, he had just split with Koreatown’s Spanish Fly Gastropub and was toying with the idea of adding a Guinness World Record-breaking bowl of cous cous to his legacy. Today we see that Zadi is preparing to debut a new menu concept focused on Southern and Creole cooking that will come to an existing restaurant in Downtown’s Arts District, possibly as soon as the next two weeks.
Zadi is yet to unveil the exact name and address of the restaurant. But before undergoing a search for wholesale crawfish, he tells his Facebook followers that it’s an existing business that “is already successful and fully staffed,” indicating that, “My new partner wants it to be more successful with my cooking.”
Of course, Southern food is having a bit of a moment in L.A. these days through popular places like The Hart & The Hunter, Son of a Gun, Bludsos Bar & Que, and Sassafrass. So what does a traditionally-trained European chef know about such down-home vittles? Zadi answers this question on Twitter, telling fans that the “interesting thing is that Creole can be more old school French, than the French.”
We’ll see just what he means in the coming weeks, all the while keeping a close eye on Third Street and Alameda’s Cajun restaurant, NOLA’s, just in case they’re expecting some new company.
