A New Orleans Restaurant in San Diego

Stationed on the ground floor of The Brick Hotel in Downtown Oceanside, Q&A Restaurant and Oyster Bar embodies the spirit of New Orleans, with a camouflage by the bar and a map of uptown on the menu. It’s the namesake restaurant for Executive Chef Quinnton ‘’Q’’ Austin, Co-Owner of Louisiana Purchase in North Park, who designed its seasonally changing menu.

Executive Chef Quinnton ‘’Q’’ Austin

"We pride ourselves on delivering flavor, and every bite either takes you to a time you visited Louisiana or a time when you ate at a person's grandma’s house who’s from Louisiana," says Austin. "It’s about feeling like home, a balance of culture past and present. This isn’t a New Orleans style restaurant it is a “New Orleans Restaurant.” 

King Creole

The cocktail menu boasts French Quarter style cocktails like the King Creole, made with a house rum blend, creole shrub, caramelized pineapple, and cinnamon. Other standouts include the Hurricane with house rum blend, fassionola, orgeat, and lime, or the Pimmps Cup with plata tequila, Pimm’s, lemon, strawberry, ginger, and cucumber ribbon.

Chicken Man

Apart from its stellar oyster menu, Q&A features NOLA classics, from Uptown Gumbo and Crawfish Etouffee Catfish, to Austin's hands down favorite, the Frenchmen Strip, because he "loves a good steak". Our favorite food finds here include the Chicken Man with three pieces of crispy fried chicken drizzled with chili garlic, and a massive made from scratch biscuit on the side, the Oysters Rockefeller with shrimp and blue cheese, or the Shrimp Creole n' Grits with melt in your mouth cheesy grits, spicy creole sauce, and bacon.

Oysters Rockefeller

Austin also highly recommends the Seafood Crepe (a French classic with a twist). "It will definitely make you rethink how a crepe is supposed to be," he says. "I worked at a restaurant in New Orleans that specialized in savory crepes. After preparing one-hundred a day, I said never again. Until I made one for Grind and Prosper’s Director of Operations, Natasha Ross, and she fell in love with it, so now I’m back making crepes all these years later."

Shrimp Creole n' Grits

Quinton says his restaurants are likened to a series or movie run. "With Louisiana PurchaseSD people are like wow! Then with Q&A you would think “man the sequel can never be better than the original” but with each episode we give different life and meaning."  -Maria Desiderata Montana

Address: 408 Pier View Wy Suite 101, Oceanside, CA 92054

Menu: shuckwitus.com

Phone: (760) 688-7249

Reservations: opentable.com