Emeril Lagasse Closes New Orleans Restaurant After Just 15 Months

Emeril Lagasse's Portuguese restaurant was a beautiful blip on the NOLA radar, but 34 Restaurant & Bar is closing its doors on January 31. With the announcement, diners are afforded about a week to book a reservation and try the paella and bacalhau, the jamón bar, the extensive Portuguese and Spanish wine list, and The Prego Portuguese steak sandwich – and, if you're near downtown New Orleans, the experience is worth the trip. Lagasse's 34 Restaurant & Bar combines Michelin-quality cuisine with homestyle cooking. It's a place where you can immerse yourself in the beauty of Portugal, from the tile work in the dining room to the bountiful dishes on the menu.

Emeril Group released a statement noting that 34 Restaurant & Bar will shutter because it became too expensive to operate. "The restaurant has been a true labor of love, but due to the high costs of operating in the current environment, we have made the difficult decision to close," the company said (via The Times-Picayune). The announcement comes just a few months after Emeril Lagasse's Florida restaurant, Emeril's Coastal, closed in October 2025. Until its closure, 34 remains one of 11 restaurants Lagasse owns, mostly located on cruise ships, and in Las Vegas and New Orleans, which is also home to Lagasse's flagship restaurant, Emeril's.

Emeril Lagasse opened 34 Restaurant & Bar with his son E.J. Lagasse in October 2024 as a tribute to his Portuguese family heritage. New Orleans is Lagasse's favorite food city, and was a natural choice for the location of the restaurant, especially since Emeril Group already had a restaurant presence in NOLA. Everything in the restaurant was a nod to Portugal's southern coast and to the extended Lagasse family; while the green theme evoked Emeril's favorite color, a painting of a rooster symbolized good fortune in Portuguese culture. The dishes were inspired by the home cooking he grew up eating thanks to his mother Hilda's Portuguese roots, and from and the variety of Portuguese food he tasted on his visits to Portugal.

While it only lasted 15 months, 34 Restaurant & Bar hasn't been quietly sitting on the sidelines. It was a recommendation on the Michelin Guide for the American South and won Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence in 2025. In statements about the closure, Lagasse said he was grateful to share Portuguese cuisine with New Orleans, and it appears that guests who dined at the restaurant reflected his gratitude. In one social media post about the closure, a patron posted to Facebook, "Very sad to have learned today that Emeril's Restaurant 34 is closing. I felt that it was somehow not getting the attention it deserved. It will be missed by those of us who knew it."