Nina Compton — the St. Lucia-born, Top Chef runner-up who won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: South — built one of New Orleans' most beloved modern restaurants inside the Old No. 77 Hotel, a former coffee warehouse of exposed brick and dim light. Named for the mischievous rabbit of Caribbean folktales she grew up reading, Compère Lapin braids her island heritage with Creole tradition and French-Italian technique: curried goat with sweet-potato gnocchi, jerk-honey fried chicken, conch, snapper escabeche. A decade in, it's become a Crescent City institution — playful, personal, and one of the best tables in town.