The Alligator Café doesn't serve hurricanes, New Orleans' most popular cocktail. The chef-owned Cajun restaurant only serves beer and wine, but that's a Big Easy indiscretion easily overlooked because the food is always so damn good. Chef Ivan Pugh has crafted a spot-on menu of Cajun and Creole staples with a few unfamiliar surprises. We like to start with an order of fried green tomatoes or boudin balls and end with bread pudding or sweet potato pecan pie. For the main course, we like everything from the po-boys and gumbo to the muffalettas and jambalaya, but our favorite is the Atchafalaya (two blackened catfish smothered in a rich crawfish or shrimp étouffée). Be warned: Popular items, like the pie, tend to run out by the end of the day, but that's a small price to pay when the menu's made from scratch—even Alligator Café's root beer is "homemade." The restaurant features live music on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, and the dining area of the converted fast food joint tends to fill out faster than Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras. Luckily, even if the place is packed to the gills, there's always the drive-through.