MIKE'S On The AVENUEMIKE'S On The AVENUEClick here to return to New Orleans '97
Cuisine: Modern American/Cross Cultural
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Chef Mike Fennelly's culinary style reflects the myriad influences of his upbringing, his travels and his work as an painter and sculptor.
Fennelly grew up in the small fishing town of Northport, Long Island, where shrimp, clams, bluefish and lobster were readily available.
His interest in food was cultivated in his early teen years, when a stepmother of French descent introduced him to French cuisine and such then-exotic ingredients as goat cheese, peppers and herbs.
His other great interest, painting and sculpture, blossomed while he was an undergraduate at Southampton College on Long Island. He attended the Parsons School of Design in New York City, which also provided Fennelly the opportunity to sample Manhattan's cornucopia of restaurant cuisines, while working at one time or another, in 15 different such establishments.
After graduation from Parsons, and shows at two art galleries, Fennelly worked briefly for the book publishing firm of Simon and Schuster, then traveled through Europe and North Africa. The greatest impressions were made by Spain and Morocco. The two countries influenced both his art work and his cooking.
Later, while studying architecture at the University of California at Los Angeles, he developed a fascination with Asian foods as well, especially those of China and Korea. A version of a spicy Korean sauce that he tasted at the time now appears on the menu at Mike's on the Avenue, with grilled oysters on the half-shell.
Fennelly's first paying job as a cook came in Washington, D.C, where he developed menus for a catering company.
But his main focus remained on his painting until he moved to Santa Fe, N.M., where he joined the Santacafe restaurant and soon became its executive chef.
Fennelly's eclectic, artfully presented cooking soon caught the attention of such critics as Mimi Sheraton, who included the restaurant in Conde Nast Traveler magazine's "50 Best Restaurants in the United States" for 1990. In the following year, Chronicle Books in San Francisco published his cookbook, "East Meets Southwest."
He came to New Orleans in 1991 with the aim of opening his own restaurant, a place where he could expand on his already multi-faceted cooking style with South Louisiana seafoods and spices. In New Orleans he soon met Vicky Bayley, who had just left the position of director of operations at the New Orleans Fair Grounds racetrack, and was also seeking an opportunity to open a restaurant.
Fennelly and Bayley found that their ideas for a new restaurant were very compatible, and they opened Mike's on the Avenue together in December 1991, on the ground floor of the Lafayette Hotel on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans.
Before creating Mike's On The Avenue in 1991 with chef Mike Fennelly, Vicky Bayley was director of operations for the Fair Grounds Race Track in New Orleans. From 1987 to 1990 she managed the day-to-day operation of the 115-year-old track and its off-track betting facilities.
In 1992 she was marketing director for the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials.
Ms. Bayley is a member of the boards of directors of the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation, the Contemporary Arts Center and the Louisiana Restaurant Association.