Welcome to George Wilkerson

Fantastic 4-star seafood restaurant on the first block of Bourbon Street and a really good employer, too. This was the epitome of "high volume." When we opened in 2002 we started out with 15 full time bartenders and around 60 servers if that helps paint a picture of the scope of the operation. There were busy nights where we served over a thousand entrees. The Bourbon House did a good job with employee education, too. We had mandatory wine tastings twice a month, and bourbon tastings too. I learned a lot here and served a lot of delicious food. It was definitely fine dining, but it was fun, too. Fine dining without being stuffy. Haute cuisine, but with Dr. John or the Meters as the background music. Of those 15 original bartenders, I was the last man standing when I left to go to St. Joe's. My last paycheck had the designation "eligible for rehire." I still eat there from time to time, and I am fan of Dickie Brennan and his restaurants. 

Now we're uptown and out of the French Quarter. St. Joe's is home of the famous Blueberry Mojito. Not exaggerating, I estimate I've made over 100,000 mojitos here in the last 11 years. St. Joe's is the quintessential neighborhood bar. No food, no live music, just good drinks and good times. I see a lot of the same neighborhood people day to day; we've always had good regulars. We make a lot of the classics, too, it's not just about the mojitos. We also do well with our beers. We have 12 taps and we choose good stuff to put on them. I guess the one thing that suffered a little bit for me when I left the Bourbon House is my wine knowledge. We've never really done a lot with wine at St. Joe's, it just isn't a big wine place. We generally stick with 3 reds and 3 whites and just roll with that. So Joe's is more about the cocktails and the beers and less about the wine. After the neighborhood restaurants close each night we get a service industry crowd, so that's our bread and butter later at night. This has been a really good place to work and I've made a lot of friends here in the last 11 years. If I find different work I can still envision a scenario where I keep a shift or two here.