Mr. Lake's New Orleans Forum

Maple Cafe on Oaklawn in Metairie has changed its name to La Famiglia Italian Cuisine. Don't worry, same owner, same staff, same cheery decor.

How very odd. Were they getting confused with their sister restaurant on Maple?
I have got to get back to that place, the Metairie one I mean.

I don't think there was any confusion. T. J. added several Italian dishes to his menu recently and his brother, Jameel who operates Maple Street Cafe, used to be the chef at Vincent's and one of T. J.'s chefs was at Andrea's for some time. Why not, like Frankie just told me, maybe they wanted to put a new dress on the place.

La Famiglia? As in "the family or is it someone's name? My mom's maiden name is Famiglio but has been known to be Famiglia (you know, that Ellis Island stuff with name change etc.)

Just curious

This is a place I need to try sometime. Just hard to get them all in during my visits, which unfortunately, thanks to the soaring price of gas are getting fewer and farther between.

Must be as in "the family". The owners are Jordanian and their family name is Qutob.

In my experience, a restaurant changing it's name is suicide, or a last ditch effort of saving itself. It's a sign of weakness. Hopefully not the case, I hate seeing neighborhood places go under. Everyplace they take down a Mom & Pop here, they tear down and build a CVS or Walgreens.

Another suicide deal, is keeping the name of a restaurant that failed while under previous ownership. I worked for a guy that kept the name of a failed restaurant because he didn't want the expense of buying a new sign. Needless to say the place is closed. No one could break the association with the old restaurant, which was good at the beginning and bad at the end. Keeping the name just spelled BAD.