Can you smell that? It’s the scent of gumbo and beignets!

Over in Disneyland’s New Orleans Square, a NEW restaurant is taking shape. Tiana’s Palace Restaurant is a new quick-service restaurant coming to Disneyland, and we cannot WAIT to take a peek inside and eat ALL THE FOOD. For now, though, we’re watching construction on the restaurant, and we’re starting to get a good look at what it’s going to look like!

Tiana’s Palace will be replacing the former French Market Restaurant. The restaurant will “offer authentic New Orleans flavors inspired by Tiana’s friends and adventures in this quick-service style restaurant.” It will be the newest restaurant on Orleans Street with “peach-colored walls and fancy green wrought-iron balconies.” Here’s the concept art that Disney released for the restaurant:

Interestingly enough, the exterior of Tiana’s restaurant in The Princess and the Frog movie was inspired by the original French Market Restaurant, so using that building as the base was an easy decision for Imagineers. At Disneyland, here’s what the restaurant looked like the last time we visited:

Here’s what it looks like NOW. The scaffolding has come down, and we can see a lot more of the exterior’s details, including the balconies that Disney mentioned.

A closer look at the front shows us something that looks even MORE like the original concept art. This building is coming along! The restaurant is set to open sometime later this year, so we’ll likely see even more progress over the upcoming months.

For further reference, here’s a look at the OLD French Market, courtesy of Davelandweb. Here, you can see that the ironwork has since been repainted, and new lights were strung along the exterior.

We’ll continue to keep an eye on Tiana’s Palace construction and keep you updated. In the meantime, have you checked our DFB exclusive graphic tees and merch? It’s super fun stuff to wear to the parks, or to rep your happy place at the grocery store! We’ve even got Tiana-inspired shirts!

Click here to visit the DFB Merch Store!

Could Tiana’s Palace Restaurant Come to Disney World?

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Are you excited about a new Tiana-themed restaurant? Let us know in the comments!

The post FIRST LOOK at NEW Tiana’s Palace Restaurant Emerges first appeared on the disney food blog.