Chef Carl Schaubhut
Café Adelaide & The Swizzle Stick Bar

If you ask Chef Carl Schaubhut about his food philosophy, he’ll tell you without a second to waste and in true New Orleans fashion, “We’re about eating, drinking and carrying on!”

Schaubhut is executive chef for Café Adelaide and the Swizzle Stick Bar, sister restaurant to the famous Commander’s Palace. Tucked away on the first floor of Loews Hotel, Café Adelaide can be described as elaborately vibrant, jazzy and eclectic. Aptly named after Adelaide Brennan, a New Orleans favorite, the restaurant pays homage to her unique take on living the good life!

Café Adelaide’s foundation is inherently rooted in good food, good drinks and a lively atmosphere that wows its guests with a menu boasting of many twists on classic Louisianan staples, like: shrimp & tasso “corndogs”; masa crusted gulf oyster “tamales”; and Commander’s turtle soup!

Within a week on the job in 2013, Schaubhut recreated the menu so that it would emphasize a playful, but outstanding dining experience with both food and drinks at its focus. His approach to an energetic menu stems from a local-first perspective, which always includes Wild American Shrimp.

“Chef Paul Prudhomme once said that a shrimp’s sole purpose is to be eaten by someone for enjoyment. If cooked poorly, you take away its life purpose,” says Shaubhut. “To me, cooking shrimp poorly means using anything but shrimp caught from our Gulf waters.”

With several shrimp dishes on the menu, Schaubhut stays true to his local-first mentality by utilizing the whole shrimp. “It’s our responsibility as chefs to be respectful to the whole ingredient. With shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico, there’s so much flavor in the ‘meat,’ but also in the tail, head and shell. Some of the best gumbos start with a shrimp stock.”

Born and raised around New Orleans, Schaubhut knows a thing or two about using local Louisianan fare. To help elevate the flavor of every dish, he works with local farmer’s markets, distributors and fish houses to provide him with the best of the best in season – one of which is New Orleans Fish House.

New Orleans Fish House, a staple of quality and integrity, has provided restaurants with high quality seafood from the Gulf of Mexico for over two decades. They work hand-in-hand with a variety of our domestic processors to provide their customers with the best shrimp in the world!

Schaubhut’s local-first drive in menu development mixes well with the mission of New Orleans Fish House: “Never stray from the pursuit of excellence.” As a result, patrons of Café Adelaide and the Swizzle Stick Bar receive nothing but the best in every shrimp dish – Wild American Shrimp.

New Orleans is a food mecca and Café Adelaide stands out above the rest as a true depiction of New Orleans food and culture. Be sure to add it to your must-taste list the next time you are in The Big Easy!