Dolfy’s, 4508 Freret St., is continuing a family legacy with the son of a beloved New Orleans chef at its helm. Owned by Adolfo Garcia Jr. and Sophia Petrou Garcia and open since March, Dolfy’s serves up a menu with Basque flavors and inspiration.
Garcia grew up in his father Adolfo Garcia’s restaurant, Rio Mar. He later attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York. His career in New York restaurants included NoMad, Momofuku Ko, and Bergdorf Goodman.
Upon moving back to New Orleans, Garcia and Petrou Garcia opened Chi Chi’s at 4714 Freret St. in 2024. Dolfy’s was always part of the couple’s plan, with a trip to Spain inspiring the restaurant’s menu.
“We traveled to Spain with my father and we researched what would work best for Dolfy’s,” he explains. “Our menu is Basque-inspired, which is Northern Spain, so we focus on dried beef and Gulf seafood and a lot of specialties from that region of Spain.”
Garcia emphasizes how different the Basque region is from the rest of Spain, and that’s especially a point that he wants to make with his menu.
“Basque people are very similar to New Orleans in that it is a part of the United States, but culturally it is very different from the rest of the United States,” he says. “When people come to Dolfy’s they expect to see Paella on the menu. I explain to them that I want to focus on this one specific region that has a very specific cuisine.”
When it comes to the menu, Garcia first highlights Pintxos, the Basque version of the more popular Tapas, or small bites served on skewers. One of which is Gildas, the first Pintxos in the world that originated in the 1500s and features a Cantabrian anchovy, a Manzanilla olive, and a pippara pepper served on a skewer. Pintxos are designed for easy, quick sampling and Garcia encourages diners to enjoy a selection of them family-style.
Dolfy’s dried beef is a bone-in dry aged, for thirty to forty days, black angus ribeye served with fried bread, blistered lunchbox peppers, piparra peppers, and mushroom conserva. Another dish, Arroz meloso, is a seafood and rice dish made with crawfish, Gulf shrimp, Bangs Island mussels, saffron, and garlic aioli. Shrimp al ajillo, featuring shrimp in garlicky olive oil, made its way onto Dolfy’s menu after becoming famous at Garcia’s father’s restaurant, Rio Mar. The dish is special to Garcia because it was the first dish that he learned how to cook. Soon Garcia will be serving razor clams, a staple of Basque cuisine and not often found on New Orleans menus.
The restaurant’s location previously housed Ancora, a pizza restaurant with a wood-fired oven from Naples. Garcia now uses the oven to bake fresh sourdough bread daily made with a starter from Ancora.
Dolfy’s recently added Amanda Perdomo to the team to create delicious pastries for the dessert menu. Perdomo is a New Orleans native who has been making a name for herself in the New York culinary scene since 2016 and has plans to expand the restaurant’s dessert menu.
The cocktail program, run by bar manager Chandler Johnson, features a selection of drinks made with Spanish gins such as Clover Club made with gin, vermouth, lemon, raspberry, and egg white; Spanish Gin and Tonic made with gin, tonic, and botanicals; and G & Tea made with gin, Earl Grey, elderflower, lemon, and tonic.
Dolfy’s hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
