Dooky Chase Restaurant: Feeding the Revolution in New Orleans

Full plate at Dooky Chase loaded with veal cutlet, salad, mac and cheese, and other items from the restaurants buffet

In January of this year I did a couple of post I entitled Feeding the Revolution. The stories focused on the role that food, cooks, and eateries played in social movements and or armed liberation movements like the war for Cuban Independence. While in New Orleans I found another eatery that like Paschal’s in Atlanta played an important role in the civil rights movement, I am referring to Dooky Chase. With $600 dollars borrowed from a local beer company Jazz musician Edgar “Dooky” Chase and his wife started the restaurant in the historic Treme neighborhood in 1936 during the Depression. The original location could be described as nothing more than a street corner stand that sold lottery tickets and po-boy sandwiches. A common story I came across in looking through WPA America Eats records, demand among white and black customers led to an expanded menu and business. By 1941, Dooky Chase became a local bar and grill selling typical down-home New Orleans soul food across the street from its original corner sandwich stand location. Edgar Chase spent more time working on his professional musical career while his wife and later his son, Dooky Jr., helped grow the business. More tomorrow.