A Little New Orlenas

Back to the bucket list!

To keep our promise of trying new restaurants, we headed out to a new spot on the recommendation of one of J’s colleagues: Touché French Creole in downtown Aurora. It serves New Orleans-inspired food, and if you know us at all, you know we’ll never pass up anything that feels even remotely connected to New Orleans.

Honestly, Aurora has quietly become such a beautiful place to spend an evening over the last decade. The downtown area has really transformed into a warm, walkable little destination with a fun energy to it - kind of giving smaller-scale Naperville or Glen Ellyn vibes without quite as much chaos.

And the restaurant itself? Gorgeous. The second we walked in, it felt like stepping into a tucked-away spot somewhere in the French Quarter. Dark colors, deep reds, vintage details, low lighting - the whole place had that cozy New Orleans feel.

We started with the VooDoo Tomatoes - basically fried green tomatoes - and they were incredible. J ordered the shrimp and grits, while I went with the jambalaya… plus a completely non-traditional side of truffle fries because, honestly, if truffle fries are on a menu, I’m ordering them.

For dessert, we shared beignets and bread pudding, which felt absolutely necessary for the full New Orleans experience. J also tried a “Gold” Fashioned, which looked pretty impressive.

Overall, this is definitely a place we’d come back to. There was live music playing in the park just down the street, the weather was perfect, and it ended up being one of those simple summer nights that just feels easy and good.

Now onto the next restaurant on (or being added to) the list!