Johnny Ryan's opens in the restaurant formerly known as Ditka's

12/17/02

By Brett Anderson Restaurant writer

The Lafayette Hotel has been home to its share of distinctive restaurants. In 1991, just after it was renovated, Mike's on the Avenue opened its doors and thrived for much of the decade. Then Mike Ditka's swooped in, transforming the space and holding on for a good while longer than its namesake. The restaurant closed just this past summer.

Ron Ryan, who opened his own restaurant -- Johnny Ryan's, named after the owner's father -- in the Lafayette Hotel Monday, characterizes each of his predecessors as a way of demonstrating how his restaurant will stand apart.

"If you say Mike's on the Avenue was kind of a Euro art gallery look, and Ditka's was a men's club look, we're a Garden District mansion look," he said. "One of the things I've learned over the years is that New Orleanians are proud of what they are. We wanted to do a New Orleans restaurant."

To that end, Ryan has installed custom chandeliers and custom-framed art work, all of it made by local craftsmen. He also brought in Sean Daigle, a chef who has done time at restaurants known for indigenous cuisine, including Mr. B's Bistro, Gabrielle and Muriel's.

Ron Ryan has never had his own restaurant in New Orleans, but his experience in the restaurant business is extensive. He has owned a string of restaurants in Tampa Bay, Fla., and worked as an executive in several large restaurant operations, including the Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You and the locally-based Semolina International Pasta Restaurants.

Ryan divested himself of his interest in the Dallas restaurant Z'Tejas Southwestern Grill to concentrate on opening Johnny Ryan's. He said he's "thrilled to death" to be opening in the Lafayette, particularly since he thought he'd lost out on the space early on.

After Ditka's closed on July 3, he approached the building's landlords, who told him they were in negotiations with Ralph Brennan. "I said, 'Well, here's my number. And lo and behold, two months later, I got a call and they said, 'Let's talk.' "

Duck spring rolls, sautéed drum dusted in crushed almond flour and rack of lamb with herb-and-mustard crust will be among the items on the restaurant's modern American menu. Ryan said he plans to be more "accommodating to women" than his predecessor, particularly with the lunch menu and its entree salads.

While Johnny Ryan's is only a day old, many New Orleanians will be very familiar with an old face in the dining room. Longtime Galatoire's waiter Gilberto Eyzaguirre is part of Ryan's staff. The waiter was fired from Galatoire's last spring after being accused of sexual harassment, and the furor that erupted in the wake of his dismissal became one of the more talked about (and bizarre) events of the summer.

Ryan said that since he was traveling most of the summer, he was unaware of Eyzaguirre's infamy. He was introduced to the waiter by his doctor, Brobson Lutz, a Galatoire's fixture and Eyzaguirre confidant.