Booty’s Makes Nola.com’s Soon-to-Open Shortlist

Crispy Korean dumplings, Indian papadum, Nigerian black-eyed pea fritters: the menu in the works for Booty‘s, a new Bywater restaurant set to open early next month, reads like an adventurous backpacker’s food diary, which makes sense, considering one of its two owners is a travel editor and filmmaker.

Nick Vivion is a Missouri native who grew up in Switzerland and has hopped around the globe filing dispatches for travel companies like Lonely Planet. He teamed with Kevin Farrell to create Booty, a restaurant to reflect their wanderlust. The two also are the founders of the gay pop culture website, UnicornBooty.com.

Greg Fonseca, previously of RioMar and American Sector, came on board to create the restaurant’s menu of small plates inspired by international street food. The lineup, mostly priced below $10, will range from “food on a stick, to food in a cone and hand food, things you’d eat with chopsticks or with your hand,” Farrell said.

The bar operation promises to be equally globe trotting, with Jeremy JF Thompson, who runs the New Orleans Daiquiri Festival, concocting the cocktails.

For those who need a different kind of eye-opener, the restaurant will serve Stumptown, the much-praised Oregon-based coffee brand, and pastries for breakfast.