Rimon is my favorite place to eat on campus. It’s not a New Orleans restaurant, per say, as it’s fully a part of Tulane, inside of Hillel, and accepts Tulane dining dollars, but out of everything I’ve had to eat since moving down to New Orleans for school, it’s on my list of favorites. Because of this, I wanted to include it on my restaurant diary for my Tides project (you can read more about how I studied food this semester here!).
Because Rimon isn’t really a New Orleanian restaurant, and therefore doesn’t market itself as a crucial part of new Orleans culture and the food scene here, I wanted to apply it more to on campus life at Tulane. Rimon is pretty much the only comfort food I can find on campus. I grew up Jewish, and that’s still an important part of my identity. I’m not Kosher, and I’m not super religious, but going to Hillel to get the chicken and rice, or a turkey sandwich on HOMEMADE gluten free bread is the best comfort food I can find here. It reminds me of home.
I can find chicken and rice anywhere, and recently, gluten free bread has been getting more and more accessible, so finding a turkey sandwich or Mediterranean salad isn’t hard either. The special thing about Hillel that makes it so important to my life at Tulane (so also my life in New Orleans) is that it’s where I feel the safest eating, and it’s the best food. Probably not the best food in the city (just wait for my article about Superior Seafood) but definitely the best place on campus. It’s one of the only places on campus where I can choose what I want to eat, where I have ample options, and where I know for a fact they are going to be Celiac safe.
I know it’s not the purpose of Rimon, but this is where I feel classic southern hospitality the most throughout all of New Orleans. You could put me at the most classic southern restaurant here, known for their amazing native New Orleans creole and cajun food, with the best wait staff trained to bring southern hospitality to the tourists and New Orleans citizens eating there, and I guarantee you I would feel unsafe, Celiac wise. I know that southern food has a ton of gluten in it always, so hospitality, which has so much to do with food, wouldn’t apply to me in that situation. I feel hospitality at Rimon, where I know the food is safe for me, and I know the staff there knows what Celiac Disease is and will make sure my food is gluten free, and prepared in a safe way.
In that way, Rimon fills a hole that would otherwise be empty for me as a gluten free person in the south: comfort food.
Obviously, it’s not fried chicken and mashed potatoes, but to me, comfort food is food I don’t have to overthink about.
Maida Webster
This is fantastic! I can’t wait to join you there. How wonderful that they take such care in providing outstanding dining!