A local institution just got a major shoutout from the likes of The New York Times. Zeeland Street, Stephanie Phares’ neighborhood breakfast and lunch eatery, has been named one of the newspaper’s 50 best restaurants in America.
The Restaurant List is published annually, researched by a team of reporters and editors over a 12-month period. Zeeland Street is one of two Louisiana businesses featured on the 2024 list. The other, a buzzy Mexican restaurant in New Orleans, Acamaya, opened in July.
“Even the most familiar dishes in Ms. Phares’s deep repertoire of soul-soothing staples—from the eat-with-a-spoon smothered chicken to the gently cooked, notably meatless vegetable sides—tastes of the kitchen’s pride in preparation,” writes Times reporter Brett Anderson.
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This year, 225 readers also voted Zeeland Street the city’s Best Black-owned Restaurant in the annual Best of 225 Awards.
Phares was recently diagnosed with lung cancer and has been undergoing treatment. Varsity Sports Baton Rouge held a run-walk fundraiser in August to support Phares and her efforts to keep her business open. It’s the latest challenge in a tough year for Phares, who spoke openly with 225 this summer about the rising costs and setbacks she’s recently faced with running her business—even before her cancer diagnosis.
Read the full writeup about Zeeland Street in the Times‘ The Restaurant List, published on Tuesday, Sept. 24.