For the staff at the historic, 115-year-old Bright Star restaurant in Bessemer, Ala., the annual Night in New Orleans celebration is like Christmas in August.
They can’t wait for it to get here every year, but they’re relieved when it’s over.
“The servers, the cooks, everybody, we’re all excited -- especially on Thursday (the first night),” Andreas Anastassakis, the Bright Star’s executive chef and co-owner, says. “We get all the staff together. We have a (menu) tasting with the chef and try all the meals. Everybody gets real excited and has a great time.
“But, hey, you have 2,000 guests in three nights, and it’s taxing on the staff,” he adds. “Then on Sunday, you’ve got to transition right back into Sunday lunch. And you know how busy Sunday lunch is at the Bright Star.
“It’s a tough transition, but it’s definitely worth it,” Anastassakis continues. “That’s why we keep doing it every year.”
This year’s Night in New Orleans takes place Thursday, Aug. 4, through Saturday, Aug. 6. Reservations are available from 5 to 9 p.m. each night.
The event is a Bright Star tradition that goes back 33 years, when the restaurant’s late co-owner, Jimmy Koikos, first invited Commander’s Palace executive chef Jamie Shannon to come to Bessemer and cook at the restaurant. It proved to be so popular that Shannon kept coming back year after year.
After Shannon died of cancer in 2001, Tory McPhail, Shannon’s successor at Commander’s, later served as the guest chef at the Bright Star event for six years.
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One constant at the Night in New Orleans over the years has been chef Thomas Robey, who started coming to the Bright Star when he first went to work at Commander’s Palace in the early 1990s.
Robey -- who later moved to Birmingham to become the head chef at the old Veranda on Highland before returning to New Orleans 10 years ago -- has headlined the event the past three years.
This year, Robey will part of a team of chefs from the New Orleans restaurant Gris-Gris that also includes Gris-Gris chef and owner Eric Cook and chef Bradley Marshall.
“This event is near and dear to (Robey’s) heart,” Anastassakis says. “He has the same amount of passion for the Bright Star and for the Night in New Orleans event that I have.
“When he started working at his new job at Gris-Gris, one of the first things that he brought to the table with his new boss (Cook) was bringing Gris-Gris to the Bright Star.”
In 2018, Gris-Gris won Eater NOLA’s Readers’ Choice Award for restaurant of the year, and Cook won for chef of the year. Three years later, Cook opened a second New Orleans restaurant, Saint John, and he is in the process of opening a third.
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The menu at this year’s 33rd annual Night in New Orleans will feature several dishes from the Gris-Gris menu, including chicken gizzard grillades, a double-cut pork chop, flambeaux shrimp, braised rabbit quarters and cast-iron-seared snapper.
“Tom and I discussed the menu a lot, and like Tom said, ‘It’s been 33 years; we’re running out of ideas,’” Anastassakis says. “So, we went with some of the things they do at Gris-Gris that we’re not familiar with.
“It gets us out of our comfort zone,” Anastassakis adds. “I mean, we’re doing rabbit. We’re doing chicken gizzards. And those are things that have never been introduced in the 33 years before.
“At the same time, I think it’s important that we do a snapper dish, because that’s what the Bright Star is known for.”
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In addition to a few Gris-Gris favorites, the Night in New Orleans menu will include a limited selection of the most popular dishes from the Bright Star.
“We have all the classic Bright Star items,” Anastassakis says. “We’ve got the Greek snapper, the fried snapper, the beef tenderloin and the Greek chicken. We’re going to obviously have the Bright Star gumbo and the Greek salad. And all the pies are available.”
Using previous years as a gauge, Anastassakis anticipates between 1,600 and 2,000 guests over the three nights.
“We’re getting a great response this year,” he says. “Based off of the excitement that we’re getting from our guests, I would anticipate that we will be closer to the 2,000 this year.”
A Night in New Orleans takes place Aug. 4-6 at the Bright Star, 304 19th St. North in Bessemer. For reservations, go to resy.com or call 205-424-9444. For additional information, go here.
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