The Old-School Restaurant Emeril Lagasse Swears By

Emeril Lagasse is synonymous with the vibrancy and color of New Orleans cuisine. And yet, one of his cherished restaurants is quite far removed from the traditional white tablecloth reality of Creole dining — although its cuisine is certainly also not shy when it comes to flavor and heat. Indeed, the star chef swears by the Phở Tầu Bay restaurant located in the Louisiana capital, praising the city's Vietnamese food scene as one of the country's finest.

In an interview with Travel+Leisure, the multi-restaurant owning chef — known for being a fixture of the Food Network, his easy-to-make classic recipes (which his son is bringing back), and his signature catchphrases like "bam" — spoke about his love for the restaurant. "I am crazy for Vietnamese food — there's a large Vietnamese population in New Orleans — and this is my favorite spot," he remarked (per The French Quarter). His go-to order is particularly revealing: chargrilled pork spring rolls with peanut sauce, chicken pho, and a grilled pork banh mi with pâté. With a rich blend of umami flavors, smokiness, savory depth, and sweeter fattiness from the nuts, it isn't hard to see why Lagasse would have this as his — reflecting a vibrant city with a rich multiethnic fabric, where Southeast Asian delicacies are now intrinsic to its food scene, as its famed Creole classics like gumbo, jambalaya, and po' boys.

Phở Tầu Bay may now be a New Orleans fixture, but the restaurant's history casts a web that ties the Louisiana city and its original Vietnamese genesis. The establishment traces its roots back to Saigon, where the family behind the business, headed by patriarch Vu Van Y, owned a series of pho shops. One of Vu's daughters, Tuyet, fell in love with an American GI, Karl Takacs, foreshadowing the family's move across the Pacific: The war ultimately put a halt to their activities and forced them to relocate to the United States. The family finally settled in a similarly humid subtropical area — Louisiana — and started selling pho from a flea market concession stand, before finally opening Phở Tầu Bay in the Westbank Expressway in 1982, keeping the same name as the original establishments.

The family business's stormy history, alas, did not end upon reaching the USA's shore. The restaurant was forced to close its original location (and two more, leaving only one still operating) following the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2004. The fourth restaurant closed in 2015. A testament to phoenix-like resilience and the power of good food, Phở Tầu Bay reopened in 2016, moving to a new location in New Orleans' Tulane Avenue, not too far from the city's thriving, historical French Quarter.

A sleek, modern establishment, it now serves a wide range of Vietnamese classics and is especially well known for its 12-to-18-hour simmered broths. And Emeril Lagasse isn't the only culinary powerhouse to have given it his chef's kiss — it also got a stamp of approval from the late great Anthony Bourdain himself, who enjoyed beer and pho at the restaurant.