Gambit: December 29, 2020

December 29, 2020January 4, 2021 Volume 41 Number 50

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CONTENTS

DEC. 29, 2020 — JAN. 4, 2021 VOLUME 41 | NUMBER 50 NEWS

OPENING GAMBIT

7

COMMENTARY 9

Sending Warm Wishes to you & your family in the coming New Year!

CLANCY DUBOS

10

BLAKE PONTCHARTRAIN 11

CLOSED DEC 25 - JAN 3 FEATURES

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 11

SHOW US YOUR

Mardi Gras

EAT + DRINK

18

MUSIC YEAR IN REVIEW

24

FILM YEAR IN REVIEW

25

PUZZLES 27 EXCHANGE 27

@The_Gambit @gambitneworleans @GambitNewOrleans

PHOTO BY SARAH RAVITS

RS

A 6 YE

12

2020: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

ON THE COVER: PHOTO ELEMENTS BY GETTY IMAGES

Thank God that’s over.

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Editor | JOHN STANTON Political Editor | CLANCY DUBOS

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Gambit (ISSN 1089-3520) is published weekly by Capital City Press, LLC, 840 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70130. (504) 4865900. We cannot be held responsible for the return of unsolicited manuscripts even if accompanied by a SASE. All material published in Gambit is copyrighted: Copyright 2020 Capital City Press, LLC. All rights reserved.

Making the best of 2020

BY WILL COVIELLO 2020 WAS A HARD YEAR in entertain-

ment, and perhaps there’s no better indicator than the way in which too much success wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

With bars and music venues closed due to the pandemic, Jacques Ferland’s idea of Piano in a Truck seemed just right for the times. He had mounted a white Knabe piano — a model Elvis chose for a room at Graceland — in the bed of a pickup truck. As a piano repairman, he was used to tuning it several times a week, but he could drive it anywhere for an impromptu concert. In summer, it became one of the few vehicles for live entertainment. The Maple Leaf Bar replaced pre-pandemic weekly piano nights with daytime shows out front, with fans bringing chairs and coolers to maintain physical distance.

But as word-of-mouth and social media began to draw more people eager to get out and hear music, the events were disbanded to avoid large group gatherings. Some musicians who rented Piano in a Truck avoided promoting events to keep events safe, making music into an almost guilty pleasure.

For most of 2020, musicians, actors, artists, comedians, performers and event producers adjusted to the shutdowns, looking for safe ways to reach audiences. There were many good ideas to make the best of it, but the coronavirus often dictated that there could only be so much of a good thing. Here’s a look at some of the highlights and hardships of the year.

Major festivals were cancelled, but there were new opportunities for outdoor entertainment. The return of drive-in movies and outdoor screenings was out of necessity instead of nostalgia (see “Screen saver,” page 25). The Broad Theater added Broadside, an outdoor venue for movies, concerts, comedy, drag performers and more. The annual Voodoo Music + Art Experience was cancelled, but organizers quickly sold out three drive-in concerts at the UNO Lakefront Arena, with appearances by Tank & the Bangas, Galactic and the Revivalists.

The shutdowns short-circuited the livelihoods of countless musicians,

denying the main source of income from live concerts, barroom gigs, second line parades and more. Many bands had spring album releases and spring and summer festival and tour dates pre-empted, and some used the time to finish lingering projects or record new work. PJ Morton altered a schedule of traveling to recording sessions to participating remotely in order to complete his gospel album, “Gospel According to PJ,” which recently drew a Grammy nomination.

Lost Bayou Ramblers frontman Louis Michot released several archived and new recordings on his Nouveau Electric Records label.

The pivot to online activity has been a mixed bag. Some musicians have expanded their fanbase in a world newly interested in live-streams and found some support through virtual tip jars. Music clubs have offered concerts, both live and pre-recorded, but the overall decline in business has been substantial for all involved.

Gasa Gasa closed, and Tipitina’s has held multiple benefits to try to keep the business afloat (see “Exit music,” page 24).

Theaters in New Orleans have remained largely dark, save a few events recorded onstage or streamed online. In Jefferson Parish, Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts figured out how to present shows with small casts for physically distanced audiences and had a limited

P R OV I D E D P H OTO B Y E R I K A G O L D R I N G

The Revivalists perform on the grounds of the UNO Lakefront Arena as part of the NOLA Drive-In Summer Concert Series in July.

fall season built show by show. Ricky Graham used the shutdowns to write a series of yatty murder mystery radio plays and work up cabaret shows with longtime collaborators including pianist Jefferson Turner. Jefferson Performing Arts Society brought stand-up comedy back to Westwego Performing Arts Theater and a return to holiday traditions with “The Nutcracker” at Jefferson Performing Arts Center. Le Petit Theatre launched a traveling outdoor holiday show, “NOLA Noel.” The NOLA Project released a series of original radio plays as podcasts.

2020 also showed that an unmistakable part of New Orleans culture is the effort locals make to entertain themselves. When the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival was cancelled, WWOZ created Festing in Place, broadcasting past Jazz Fest sets during the hours it would otherwise have aired live music from the festival.

Listeners here and across the globe set up outdoors with chairs, coolers, flags and in some cases food from regular fest vendors to replicate as much of the event as possible. Festing in Place has since become a recurring

event, and the next installment of concert recordings from past decades arrives this weekend. As it marked its 40th birthday, the station underscored its role in both preserving and promoting New Orleans culture.

Regardless of the recovery from the pandemic, the community has lost many beloved performers and culture bearers, many due to COVID-19. Ellis Marsalis died in April, and we also lost Lucien Barbarin and Ronnie Kole. Carol Sutton has graced local stages beginning at Dashiki Theater and film, from “Steel Magnolias” up through “Queen Sugar.” She died Dec. 10 of complications of COVID-19, and fellow actress Sherri Marina died Dec. 5. WWOZ host Jesse “The Midnight Creeper” Hathorne Sr. died in May. Sylvester Francis who documented Black culture and parading traditions at his Backstreet Cultural Museum died Sept.

1. Ronald Lewis, founder of the House of Dance and Feathers and the Big 9 Social Aid and Pleasure Club, died in March. Longtime New Orleans Film Festival artistic director John Desplas died in May. Author and former chairwoman of the board of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art Julia Reed died in August in her part-time home in Rhode Island. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Shirley Ann Grau died Aug. 3.

The local art and entertainment community was re-invigorated in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the levee failures. We’ll see if the pandemic inspires a similar response, but 2020 itself may be remembered most for what is missed.

Loose Talk SINGER SONGWRITERS LUKE ALLEN AND ALEX MCMURRAY lead the Happy Talk Band in welcoming the New Year, and Milkfish provides cabbage and black-eyed peas Friday, Jan. 1 at 4 p.m. at the Broadside. Find tickets at broadsidenola.com.

Sweet spot THE ALLSTATE SUGAR BOWL serves as a college football championship semi-final in which the Clemson Tigers battle the Ohio State Buckeyes for a spot in the final. The Sugar Bowl is at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 1, in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

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39%

The Orleans Legacy Project, with the Montgomery,

The percentage of Louisianans, as of November 2020, who are now receiving Medicaid benefits.

Alabama-based Equal Justice Initiative, dedicated a new historical marker on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard to the Black New Orleanians killed during the Robert Charles Massacre, a fourday period of white supremacist violence in July 1900. The marker was installed near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard at the location where Hannah Mabry, a 60-yearold Black woman, was killed.

Dr. John and Irma Thomas

will have recordings inducted into the 2021 class of the Grammy Hall of Fame. Dr. John’s 1973 album “In the Right Place” and Thomas’ “Time Is On My Side” are among the 29 recordings to be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, along with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” Pearl Jam’s “Ten,” “Solitude” by Billie Holiday and the Beastie Boys’ “Licensed to Ill.”

Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration will use

$500,000 from the New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund to pay for eight minutes of “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” to be broadcast from New Orleans. Though the city claims the cash will help boost tourism, it is unclear how that helps the city’s thousands of out of work musicians in a pandemic. But as City Councilmember Kristin Palmer noted, investing the $500,000 in local NGOs or direct payments would go a long way towards helping them.

P H OTO B Y K AT Y R E C K DA H L / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E | T H E N E W O R L E A N S A DVO C AT E

Hindsight is 2020: Bob Hannaford touted safety measures put into place at a swingers convention he helped organize. He later said at least 41 attendees had tested positive for COVID-19.

IN GAMBIT’S FIRST COVER STORY OF 2020, we helped you plan out how

to cheer on the LSU Tigers to victory in the National Championship Game in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. It sure worked, and many took to the city in revelry to celebrate the big win. Ah, those were simpler times — that feel more like decades ago — and we acknowledge much of the news has not been good since then.

In January, officials swore in many new hopeful faces to the Louisiana Legislature that had been elected in 2019, thanks to term limits that had, well, come to term. New Orleans legislators told Gambit in our Feb. 3 cover story of their priorities, ranging from expanding early childhood education to raising the minimum wage and bringing money back home for much-needed infrastructure projects.

But much of those priorities were put on the backburner once doctors started to diagnose local COVID-19 cases in March, causing lawmakers to suspend the legislative session just a week after it started.

Don’t worry though, they were able to make up for it with two special sessions later in the year, spending the bulk of them in a political power struggle with the governor.

On May 4, we covered attempts by national and local advocacy groups to help mitigate the spread of Covid among prisoners in state and federal facilities scattered throughout Louisiana. We reported also about the ways the groups have repeatedly stood up for prisoners’ rights and their continued fight to end mass incarceration.

A coordinated, nationwide movement urgently called on American governors to consider signing clemency requests around the same time our story published. Meanwhile, state prison officials’ promise to consider medical furloughs for nonviolent, medically compromised inmates was ultimately a short-lived initiative.

When we got stir-crazy in the early months of quarantining, before we had accepted the fact that we were probably meant to become

The number of people receiving coverage through the state and federal income-based health care program increased by more than 208,000 in the past year — a 13% increase from the previous year, according to The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate on Dec. 20. In all, nearly 1.8 million people in Louisiana received this assistance as of November, many financially crippled by the coronavirus pandemic.

C’est What

?

Are you making New Year’s resolutions for 2021?

25% YES. AFTER 2020, I NEED A FRESH START

53.8%

EH. I NEVER REALLY CARED ABOUT THEM

7.7% YES, BUT I’M JUST GOING TO RE-USE PAST RESOLUTIONS

13.5%

NO. THEY FEEL POINTLESS NOW

Vote on “C’est What?” at www.bestofneworleans.com

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one with our sofas anyway, Gambit had your back. We compiled a list of 140 public murals to view while socially distancing for our April 28 issue, from Brandan “BMike” Odums’ purple-hued portrait of Buddy Bolden’s band to Rebeka Skela’s River Queen Garden possum family in the Bywater.

On July 20, we covered pianist Joe Krown performing on a white grand piano set up in the bed of a pick-up truck, as part of a series from The Maple Leaf Bar paying tribute to James Booker.

Not too long after, in an Aug. 7 article, we gave tourists what we believe to be perhaps the best pandemic-era New Orleans travel tip yet: STAY AWAY. It just wasn’t the time for a visit, and unfortunately, it still isn’t.

We also spent late summer nights out at the protests against police brutality and systemic racism, and covered local activists’ calls to rename institutions. We decided the activism within the Lusher Charter School community was cover-worthy, especially after current and recently graduated students organized a protest on July 4. These young activists’ efforts have since drawn support from the Orleans Parish School Board and sparked conversations throughout the community and other local schools.

After an eventful summer, it was back to school, and for many students, it was the first time they’d had regular instruction since schools closed in March. For high school seniors, the sudden closure meant missing out of a lot of final year staples, like senior prom and graduation. The pandemic forced many of them to reconsider their plans for where to attend college, as Evelynn Coffie, a student journalist with the New Orleans Junior Journalism Program (JRNOLA), wrote Aug. 31.

The story was one of just several works Gambit published this year by local high school students through a partnership with JRNOLA. The immediate school closures didn’t leave school officials much time to come up with a plan for the 2020-21 school year, once it became clear the pandemic wouldn’t be over by then. For our Aug. 11 cover story, we talked with some of the unsung heroes of our local schools — the staff — as they braced for a school year during Covid. Coffie covered a story with us featuring a cafeteria worker, counselor, administrative assistant and others who rarely get the spotlight but deserve recognition for their nonstop work in our region’s public schools.

When staff and students did return to school in the fall, many did so in-person — some students for part of the week, some for the whole week. Local school districts continue to claim they have things under control, pointing to a low percentage of confirmed Covid cases overall, but our Dec. 14 cover story painted a different picture.

Jefferson and St. Bernard parish teachers said they are being given little information about what’s actually happening regarding confirmed Covid cases, often hearing from the grapevine students in their own classes tested positive. They also reported being severely overworked, along with the rest of the staff, and having to cover classes as large swaths of teachers were home quarantining.

For immigrant students in Jefferson Parish, the pandemic made an already broken system practically impossible to navigate, as we learned in our Nov. 16 cover story. Since the pandemic hit, teachers and support staff have been stretched even thinner than they were previously, whether they’re teaching students in-person and virtually simultaneously or covering for other teachers who are out, making it harder for immigrant and special education students to receive the help they need.

Months and months of the coronavirus restrictions and closures have been brutal for the hospitality and entertainment industries, and we’ve said painful permanent goodbyes and temporary farewells to our favorite hangouts.

In our Oct. 5 cover story, we explored the ways that storied music halls and our beloved bars — and their employees — have had to readapt to pandemic restrictions and shutdowns.

Some, like Tipitina’s and d.b.a. have launched live-streaming concert series and relied on merch sales and donations to help get by, while others have reconfigured their spaces to make them safer.

Bartenders, servers and other hospitality workers, meanwhile, continue to struggle with job insecurity in a once thriving industry.

We know it’s been a tough year for everyone — and a nearly impossible year for some. But through the thick of it, we hope we provided our readers with important coverage on a range of topics impacting our community, as well as some occasional levity with our swingers’ convention puns. Here’s to a better 2021, and may there be happier news to come.

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COMMENTARY the long & short of it cardigans $44 - 46

WHILE WE, LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, CAN’T WAIT to put 2020 behind us,

there are some lessons from this year we’d like to share. We hope these lessons carry over not only into 2021 but also into the years beyond.

2020’s most troublesome lesson came from our elected officials’ many failures to lead when our nation needed it most. President Donald Trump failed to meet even a minimal bar of responsibility and leadership. More disturbing was the fact that nearly every elected Republican in Louisiana merrily cheered him on. It wasn’t just about COVID-19 and science-denying. Republicans at all levels of government lined up to embarrass themselves by touting nonsensical electoral conspiracy theories.

This sad display went beyond normal disagreements over political ideology. Addressing a clear and present danger to the people you represent is the most fundamental function of elected leadership, regardless of party. Though it appears unlikely, we hope Republicans will find a way to uphold America’s defining institutions once again. It starts with accepting elemental truths.

Locally, our elected leaders were a mixed bag this year. Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s early handling of the pandemic was stellar. When the danger became clear, she took decisive action and effectively communicated the need for a lockdown, masking and social distancing. Instead of New Orleans being one of the worst hit cities — as initially predicted — we have been a rare success story. While much of that success reflected the work of citizens, Cantrell’s leadership in the early months of the pandemic set the right tone.

More recently, however, Cantrell seems to have shifted her priorities.

While her administration has kept the pressure up on locals, tourists (and the large corporate interests who make money from them) have not been held to the same standards. More than just city officials giving a de facto blessing for a swingers convention, Cantrell has encouraged people to come here despite the insistence of public health officials that travel is irresponsible during a pandemic.

Fortunately, 2020 also had some bright spots. Gov. Jon Bel Edwards demonstrated real leadership throughout the pandemic. Despite constant interference from legislative Republicans and the comically inept

pandemic hours mon - sat 10 - 5:30 7732 m a p l e 865 . 9625

S C R E E N S H OT O F B R E N N A N ’ S E ASTER VIDEO

state Attorney General Jeff Landry, Edwards made the tough decisions that, while unpopular, were clearly necessary from a public health perspective. He showed what real leadership looks like.

Perhaps the most important development of 2020 was the public’s determination to hold our institutions of power accountable. That started this summer when Black Lives Matter protesters raised their voices in our streets for weeks to demand justice and an end to systemic racism.

Significantly, those protests were led by a generation of young Black and queer New Orleanians unwilling to “wait their turn” or “work within the system.” They defiantly yet peacefully made it clear they will no longer accept the empty promise of gradual reform; they demanded real, immediate change.

Their passion was contagious.

Just a few short weeks ago, voters resoundingly rejected Cantrell’s plans to slash funding for the library system. It was a remarkable display of grassroots organizing which, combined with Jason Williams’ election as district attorney, showed that New Orleanians’ desire for change is widely held.

The people’s determination to harness their political might gives us hope for a better 2021.

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DUCK BREAST

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Those who don’t remember 2020 are doomed to repeat it

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CLANCY DUBOS @clancygambit

The Top 10 Political Stories of 2020 VETERAN COPS AND POLITICOS share

an old saying when they tell stories about the crazy things they’ve seen in the course of their careers: “We can’t make this shit up.” That pretty much sums up the year 2020 in local and state politics.

From all things Covid to a candidate for district attorney getting elected despite facing 11 federal felony counts to conservative state lawmakers legalizing hemp and expanding access to medical cannabis, this year has held more than its fair share of surprises. Truth is definitely stranger …

Herewith my annual list of the top 10 political stories.

1. ALL THINGS COVID-19 — This could easily be more than one story because Covid has impacted so many aspects of life and politics.

Local and state political leaders either showed real leadership and courage (particularly Gov. John Bel Edwards) by making the tough decisions required to get the pandemic under control in Louisiana — or they showed their contempt

P H OTO B Y S O P H I A G E R M E R / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E | T H E N E W O R L E A N S A DVO C AT E

RN Denise Friloux gives a COVID-19 vaccination at University Medical Center in New Orleans on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020.

for science and disregard for public health by grandstanding against the restrictions in a craven display of demagoguery. The most obvious examples of the latter were failed lawsuits and attempts to overturn the governor’s emergency orders by the legislative “Death Caucus” and state Attorney General Jeff Landry.

The Legislature provided little relief to individuals but granted broad immunity against lawsuits to businesses and public entities. Masking, which was universally accepted in the 1918 Flu Pandemic, suddenly became a political issue. Citizens in New Orleans answered the call

and brought the city’s infection rate down significantly, but the hospitality industry, particularly local bars and music venues, bore the economic brunt of local and state restrictions. Lawmakers expanded early voting but not by much, and hardly at all for mail balloting. Voters responded with a record turnout for early voting, even as GOP lawmakers pulled out the stops to suppress Black voter turnout. This story, of course, will continue to dominate headlines in 2021.

2. JASON WILLIAMS ELECTED DA — Staring down an 11-count federal indictment on charges of tax fraud and conspiracy, Williams managed to put together a winning coalition built around his full-throated embrace of criminal justice reforms. In the process, he turned the city’s political establishment on its ear. He got a big assist from reform advocates, who rallied behind him and made the push for criminal justice reforms a major part of the city’s ever-changing political landscape.

3. BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTS — The New Orleans protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, except when NOPD fired rubber bullets at protesters and otherwise overreacted during one evening’s march. Protesters included a broad coalition of New Orleanians who, among other things, gave a longneeded boost to efforts to rename streets and other public places that honor Confederate leaders and other racists. Much remains to be done on all fronts.

4. VOTERS REJECT CANTRELL’S MILLAGES — The mayor had a horrible year politically after previously showing significant coattails during election seasons. The biggest takeaway was “don’t mess with the libraries” as voters thumped three proposed millage renewals, particularly one that would have gutted property tax support for public libraries. Heronner also botched the French Quarter sales tax renewal.

She’s got some big fences to mend in 2021; she’s up for re-election next October.

5. TORT REFORM PASSES — The Legislature’s final product was somewhat watered down, but pressure to change Louisiana’s civil justice system has been building for decades.

Gov. John Bel Edwards held the line on some fronts for his allies in the plaintiff’s bar, but the erosion of trial lawyers’ influence is apparent — and likely to continue.

P H OTO B Y DAV I D G R U N F E L D / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E | T H E N E W O R L E A N S A DVO C AT E

Jason Williams celebrates with supporters after beating Keva Landrum in the Orleans Parish district attorney’s runoff race Saturday, Dec. 5, 2020.

6. CHARTER SUPPORTERS WIN BIG IN ORLEANS — All seven seats on the Orleans Parish School Board were up for grabs this fall, and backers of the system’s wholesale, post-Katrina shift to charter schools succeeded in electing allies to all seven seats. An added bonus: vocal homophobe Leslie Ellison, the incumbent in School Board District 4, lost to openly gay challenger Dr. J.C. Romero after garnering almost 49.9% of the vote in the November primary.

7. SPORTS BETTING LEGALIZED — In parish-by-parish “local option” referenda on Nov. 3, voters in 55 parishes representing about 95% of the state’s population gave a big thumbs up to sports betting. Passage was nearly universal across south Louisiana. Now the real politicking begins as legislators have to write the rules and decide where, and how, bets can be placed.

8. BILL CASSIDY’S BIG WIN — U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy won re-election handily in November, but more importantly he’s now positioned to be the Louisiana senator who could actually get things done.

He’s nominally more moderate than Senator Soundbite, aka John Neely Kennedy, and is poised if he chooses to play a role in some of the big negotiations that President

Joe Biden will need to have in order to get things done himself. This is particularly true if Republicans keep the Senate and as pressure builds to make Medicare available to more Americans as an alternative to private health insurance.

9. BLACK VOTERS WIN IN JEFFERSON — The election of Shaylene Jackson-Prevost as judge of Second Parish Court in Jefferson Parish is the first West Bank-wide victory for Black voters in Jefferson.

Black residents comprise a plurality on the West Bank’s electorate right now and will soon have a majority. This portends major shifts in Jefferson Parish politics.

10. HEMP AND MEDICAL CANNABIS GO MAINSTREAM — Industrial hemp finally gained a statutory foothold last year but it wasn’t until this year that the rules for growing it took full effect.

State Agriculture officials began issuing the first hemp production and handling licenses to farmers, processors and transporters, while lawmakers significantly expanded the availability of medical and overthe-counter CBD products. If 2021 is anywhere near as crazy as this year, we’ll need all the medication we can get.

Happy New Year — and good riddance to 2020.

BLAKE PONTCHARTRAIN™ Hey Blake,

®

NEW ORLEANS MOST POWERFUL DRINK®

Which is older, Café du Monde or Morning Call?

What can you tell me about their histories?

Dear reader,

Café du Monde dates to 1862, while Morning Call claims 1870 as the year of its founding. Both originally sold coffee and beignets (referred to by many New Orleanians as simply “doughnuts”) to patrons and vendors of the nearby French Market.

Later both offered carhop service, delivering coffee and beignets to customers in their cars.

In 1862, Fred Koeniger opened what was initially called The Original French Market Coffee Stand, later known as Café du Monde.

The business at Decatur and St. Ann streets was sold to Hubert Fernandez in 1942. Members of the Fernandez family continue to own the business today. Its iconic French Quarter location is famously open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, closing only on Christmas Day. Its consistency means other closures make news, including during hurricanes and this year because of the pandemic. Café du Monde has expanded to 10 locations.

In 1870, Joseph Jurisich Sr. expanded a coffee stand opened before the Civil War by his father-inlaw, Peter Barbarich. Jurisich called his business — located at Decatur and St. Philip streets — Morning Call. Open 24 hours a day, it was later run by Jurisich’s sons Joe and Peter and other relatives.

In 1974, Morning Call left the French Quarter for Metairie. The

DRINK LOCAL P H OTO F R O M T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E A R C H I V E S

The Morning Call coffee shop, which calls itself ‘New Orleans’ most famous coffee drinking place’ as seen at the lower end of the French Market in 1948. Photograph published in the New Orleans Item, Wednesday, April 28, 1948.

owners said French Market renovations were partly to blame, along with a lack of parking. “We would have to depend strictly upon the tourist trade without any parking.

It was not an easy decision to make,” manager Al Jurisich told The States-Item. It opened in a new location at 3325 Severn Ave. near Fat City, replicating the look of its original location with its neon

sign, wooden archway and mirrored counters. Morning Call remained there until 2018, owned and operated

by Al Jurisich’s stepchildren, Bob and Mike Hennessey.

In 2012, the Hennesseys opened a location in City Park’s Casino building.

That remained until 2019 and is now a Café du Monde. Morning Call soon will open a new location at Canal Boulevard and City Park Avenue.

Little Tropical Isle 435 BOURBON Tropical Isle Original 600 BOURBON Tropical Isle’s Bayou Club 610 BOURBON Tropical Isle 721 BOURBON Bourbon Street Honky Tonk 727 BOURBON Orleans Grapevine 720 BOURBON

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BLAKEVIEW

$

THIS WEEK WE WISH A HAPPY 35TH BIRTHDAY to one of

New Orleans’ biggest music stars: Trombone Shorty.

Troy Andrews, born on Jan. 2, 1986, hails from a musical family. He is the younger brother of trumpeter James Andrews, grandson of Jessie “Ooh Poo Pah Doo” Hill and cousin of musicians Glen David Andrews and the late Travis “Trumpet Black” Hill.

A musical prodigy, Andrews began playing trombone at age four, picking up his nickname because of his diminutive stature. He was leading his own band at eight, frequently performing in second line parades. He also plays trumpet, drums, organ and tuba.

After graduating from Warren Easton High School and NOCCA, he joined Lenny Kravitz’ band. Since 2009, he has toured the world with his own band, Orleans Avenue.

In 2010, Andrews’ album “Backatown” was nominated for a Grammy. He’s written a children’s book, performed at The White House and played himself on an episode of “The Simpsons” and in the HBO series “Treme.” He performed the theme for the reboot of “The Odd Couple” and his trombone provided the distinctive “wah-wah”

ONE DOZEN

Cash and carry only.

Expires January 29, 2021

METAIRIE

750 MARTIN BEHRMAN AVE (504) 833-3716

COVINGTON P H OTO B Y S H AW N F I N K / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E | T H E N E W O R L E A N S A DVO C AT E

Troy ‘Trombone Shorty’ Andrews performs at the inaugural Shorty Gras at Mardi Gras World.

voice for the adult characters in 2015’s “The Peanuts Movie.” Since 2013, Andrews and his band have held the prestigious closing spot on the main stage at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. His Trombone Shorty Foundation supports music education programs.

1415 N. HWY 190 (985) 809-9101 VILLERESFLORIST.COM

11 G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > D E C E M B E R 2 9 2 0 2 0 > J A N UA R Y 4 2 0 2 1

@GambitBlake | askblake@gambitweekly.com

HAND GRENADE

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12

It’s almost over, y’all

JOHN STANTON | GAMBIT EDITOR

EVEN BEFORE THE PANDEMIC, 2020 didn’t exactly start great. When we all woke up, hungover and sore on Jan. 1, failed real estate developer and longtime sexual harasser Donald Trump was still president; Mayor LaToya Cantrell was demonstrating an alarming inability to retrieve the bodies of three workers from the Hard Rock Hotel, which had collapsed nearly three months before; Airbnb was choking the life out of the long term rental market; and the Saints were on their way to a dispiriting first round loss to the Vikings. Oh, and Jeff Landry was, well, still Jeff Landry.

Suffice it to say, 2020 never really had a chance.

But the arrival of the pandemic turned what would have been just another bad year in the Trump Era into a historically horrendous year, not only for the country or the city, but for thousands of families across the New Orleans metro area. Overnight thousands of people were out of a job, hundreds of businesses were on the brink of collapse and the city that never stops partying was at a literal standstill. The eerie quiet that enveloped New Orleans in the early days of the pandemic was truly deafening, but few of us truly understood the impact the pandemic would have at the time.

YEAR IN REVIEW

In the months since, however, the costs of COVID-19 have become clear. An entire year’s worth of festivals simply never happened. Birthdays, weddings, hell just your run of the mill Saturday night out with friends all either evaporated entirely or became weirdly sad, long distance affairs.

We’ve lost institutions like the Circle Bar and K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen, and we won’t parades this Carnival season.

Worst of all, however, has been the human toll. As of last week, more than 49,000 people in Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes had contracted COVID-19, of which more than 1,300 had died. Entire families have been devastated by this pernicious disease. Those are lives we will never get back, and we will continue to mourn for years, if not decades, to come.

There were bright spots: from protesters peacefully demanding an end to systemic racism to dozens of mutual aid programs and initiatives to restaurants, movie theaters and other businesses finding new ways to serve their community, we have shown a remarkable resilience and adaptability.

The pandemic is far from over, and 2021 will definitely not be easy. But if 2020 has reminded us of one thing, it’s nothing can keep New Orleans down.

PHOTO BY SARAH RAVITS A protester in Duncan Plaza

New Orleans eviction crisis goes into overdrive

BY JAKE CLAPP

DESPITE A ONE MONTH EXTENSION TO A FEDERAL EVICTION MORATORIUM,

PHOTO BY JAKE CLAPP Belongings are piled outside of 3624 Urquhart St. after the family formerly living there was evicted in August.

thousands of New Orleanians are entering the New Year much like they spent nearly all of 2020 — worrying about their long-term housing situation.

The eviction ban was issued in September by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, citing the public health risk of putting people out of their homes in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. That has since been backed with evidence: A recent study by Johns Hopkins, Boston University, UCLA, Wake Forest and other universities found that when officials lifted eviction bans, cases of COVID-19 surged and led to additional deaths.

Even with Congress’ extension of the federal moratorium, which now ends Jan. 31, 2021, housing experts warn the eviction freeze is just postponing the

worst as back rent continues to pile up.

Nearly 30-40 million Americans could face eviction in the early months of 2021, according to the Aspen Institute.

Well before the pandemic, New Orleans already had a high eviction rate. The city’s rate of court-ordered evictions (5.2%) was almost double the national average (2.8%) in 2017, according to “New Orleans Eviction Geography,” a study conducted by Davida Finger of Loyola University College of Law and Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative. A JPNSI report from earlier this year also showed renters who are evicted by court order in Orleans Parish are predominantly Black, and Black women are further disproportionately impacted.

And it should be noted that “informal,” illegal evictions — when a landlord intimidates a tenant, changes the locks

13

The year of the protester

BY SARAH RAVITS

AS NATIONWIDE PROTESTS ERUPTED ACROSS AMERICA THIS SUMMER following the police killing

of George Floyd, New Orleans activists banded together by the thousands with a newfound momentum to tackle systemic racism and usher in a new, more equitable era.

In May and June, frequent, days-long protests brought New Orleanians outside to chant and wave signs memorializing victims of racist police brutality, both nationally and locally. They called on elected officials to protect society’s most vulnerable, re-allocate funding to prevent crime on the front end rather than punish people afterward, and end mass incarceration — among other demands.

The protests most often began during the afternoons or early evenings at Duncan Plaza across from City Hall, where speakers would deliver remarks or reflect on their own experiences with racism. Then, people would start marching across the city — pausing in front of monuments, historic sites and institutions that protest leaders railed against for perpetuating systemic racism.

Municipal, state and federal courthouses became reflection points, along with parks and other spots host to Confederate and other slave-owning figures. Chants of the names of deceased victims and calls for justice were interspersed with moments of silence.

At times, the protests caused major roadways to shut down temporarily, including sections of I-10 and the Crescent City Connection.

Key organizing groups included Take ’Em Down NOLA, the Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition, the New Orleans Workers Group, Voice of the Experienced and other volunteer-led organizations.

Mutual aid groups, including Southern Solidarity, and other loosely organized collectives handed out snacks, water, personal protective equipment and medical supplies.

But the goal of the protests wasn’t just to strip the city of its racist monuments and names of public spaces. It was also to examine and ultimately dismantle the white supremacy embedded in our society — both within our institutions and within ourselves — in other words, the root of why these figures were put on pedestals in the first place.

New Orleans protests were peaceful with the exception of an incident on June 3, when New Orleans police officers shot tear gas and other projectiles into a crowd. They tried to justify their actions by saying that a small group of protesters had engaged in “unrest” while attempting to cross over a barricade on the Crescent City Connection.

But the sudden deployment of these weapons caused a chaotic stampede off the bridge and drew swift condemnation from members of the City Council and civil rights groups, including the ACLU, which called it unconstitutional.

Protesters seemed undeterred after the incident, though many wore makeshift shields and additional equipment like goggles and earplugs. After a six-month investigation, NOPD admitted last week it was the wrong decision.

While the physical protests have dwindled since last spring and summer, they left a mark on the city and have helped slowly move the needle toward justice.

Since then, city leaders vowed to rename streets and parks and will consider removing additional

PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE Activists outside Orleans Parish Criminal District Court

monuments, working with city planners, historians and a panel commissioned by Council members. They also passed an ordinance to rename Jefferson Davis Parkway for Dr. Norman C. Francis, a prominent, nationally known Black leader living in New Orleans and the first lay president of Xavier Xavier University.

The Orleans Parish School Board also says it will hire historians and other experts to ensure schools are in line with its new policy barring “property named for persons who were slave owners, Confederate officials and segregation supporters.”

This decision follows action from a group of current and former Lusher Charter School students, whose efforts to rename the top-ranked school and ditch its Confederate moniker, as well as make its curriculum more inclusive, have received widespread support.

The 2020 local elections also resulted in a handful of progressive candidates winning key races, including a few judges who previously worked as public defenders. Though he is awaiting a federal trial for alleged tax fraud, Council President Jason Williams will also soon take office as district attorney, after campaigning on promises to bring reform to the criminal legal system and alternatives to incarceration.

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > D E C E M B E R 2 9 2 0 2 0 > J A N UA R Y 4 2 0 2 1

or turns off the power without gaining a court order — happen frequently, but are far more difficult to track.

In March, as the pandemic caused mass furloughs and layoffs, thousands of New Orleanians were faced with an impossible question: How am I going to pay rent?

Covid may have taken away your source of income, but it didn’t stop the bills.

New Orleans judges quickly moved to suspend residential evictions pending in First and Second City Courts — largely in an effort to clear the highly trafficked public building. Gov. John Bel Edwards soon followed with a statewide moratorium that was ultimately extended into June. The federal CARES Act also included an eviction ban into August for residents of properties with federally backed mortgage loans (although, many tenants found it difficult to find information about their landlords’ mortgages).

Still while those eviction moratoriums prevented people losing their homes through a court order, it didn’t stop “informal” evictions. Some landlords got caught — like one Metairie landlord who locked out her tenant for being four days late on rent — but there are many more that aren’t as visible.

And those moratoriums didn’t mean rent just disappeared. It just became “back rent.” As the pandemic has stretched on, and any sort of financial relief from the federal government has dried up, more people have responded that they don’t think they’ll make the next month’s rent.

From the beginning, local housing advocates — like JPNSI, Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center, New Orleans Renters Rights Assembly (which regularly hosts renters Q&As on social media) and HousingNOLA — have been sounding the alarm that a “tidal wave” of evictions was coming unless there was direct rent relief.

Inevitably, when those moratoriums expired during the summer, eviction proceedings quickly returned in force.

Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, which provides free legal aid, alone saw nearly three times the number of eviction cases as it did during the same period in 2019.

In July, the Renters Rights Assembly organized a direct action and closed down First City Court for a day as hundreds of protesters blocked the entrances in a show of community power.

Meanwhile, the state’s rental assistance fund — allotted only $24 million — received so many applications that it had to be suspended after only four days, and Mayor LaToya Cantrell in an email asked cash-strapped New Orleanians to donate to a city rental assistance fund.

In September, the CDC issued its eviction moratorium, which has given temporary relief from court-ordered evictions during the pandemic. But housing advocates again are warning New Orleans is in the midst of a crisis that will only get worse unless real financial action is taken.

Anyway, how are you spending your $600 stimulus check?

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14

Kook’s Korner: Boy, was it a year

BY KAYLEE POCHE

SCREENSHOT FROM STATE REP. DANNY MCCORMICK’S FACEBOOK PAGE McCormick’s Mask-acre THERE’S NO MINCING IT. 2020 WAS A TRULY TERRIBLE YEAR, and

SAVE THE DATES

2021

ND A L O SCHO ATION EDUCS AND SP

USE SCHEDULE SCHOOL OPEN HO OPE N HOU SES A GAMBIT

PRE-SCHOOL,

ISSUE SECTIONS ECIAL

Grades: Charles Ave. 4521 St. LA 70115 New Orleans, (504) 891-1943 a Website: ashrosary.org to schedule Call 504-269-1213 private tour.

Charter Einstein(PK-12)

Rummel Archbishop High School

Grades: (8-12)Ave. 1901 Severn 70001 Metairie, LA s.com (504) 834-5592 rairders.com6 PM Website: rummelraider 19, 2020, Email: info@rummel November Open House:

Academy Arden Cahill (Infant-12)

Grades: Blvd.

3101 Wall 70056 Gretna, LA ademy.com (504) 392-0902 2020 Website: ardencahillac to October 22, the most up Open House: website for Check the date information.

Charter Audubon (PK-8)

School

Hynes Charter (PK-8)

Benjamin Franklin School Elementary (PK-8)

Grades: (PK – 5th): Lower School St. 421 Burdettelocation) (temporary LA 70118 New Orleans, (6 – 8th): Upper School Ave. 401 Nashville LA 70115 New Orleans, n.org (504) 304-3932 Website: www.babybe

Franklin Benjamin (9-12)

High School

Grades: C. Simon Dr., 2001 Leon LA 70122 New Orleans, rg (504) 286-2600 rg Website: www.bfhsla.o Email: info@bfhsla.o House: Virtual Open 10, 2020 Tuesday, Nov. 5:30-6:30 pm

High Cabrini(8-12)

Schools

de Grades: Charter School at Village Einstein l’Est (PK-5th) Blvd – Extension 5316 Michoud LA 70129 New Orleans, T. (504) 324-7450 Middle at Sarah Einstein Charter Reed (6-8th) High Einstein Charter Reed (9-12th) at Sarah T. Blvd 5316 Michoud LA 70129 New Orleans, 503-0470 Middle: (504) 503-0749 High: (504) School Einstein Charter Forest at Sherwood (PK-5th) Marion Dr., 4801 Maid LA 70128 New Orleans, charter.org (504) 503-0110 www.einstein Website:

Grades: Campus, Lower School Uptown (PK-3rd): NOLA 70118 428 Broadway, (504) 324-7100(4-8th): Upper School NOLA 70115 1111 Milan St., 4720 (504) 324-7110 70122 Gentilly (PK4-4th): Audubon St.,New Orleans, LA Painters ncharter.com (504) 309-9434 Website: www.audubo

The Bridge

University

Health Kenner Discovery Academy Sciences (K-12)

Private School CastleBlvd.

Lake Hayne

Montessori

School

November options availa person. Virtual in the week

both campuses Christian Brothers House for Virtual Open beginning Monday,tours. on cbs-no.org Sign up for in-person October 19, 2020.

Day School Community Jewish October 18 at 12 pm. available Sunday, private tours Virtual and by appt.

Grades: Creek Drive 3113 Valley LA 70808 Baton Rouge, w.

(225) 421-2900 go to universityvie Open House: tact for more informaacademy/con an appointment. tion and schedule

School

Science and NO Charter s High School Mathematic (9-12)

Grades: Ave., 5625 Loyola LA 70115 New Orleans, h.org (504) 324-7061 Website: www.noscihig

Ridgewood School Preparatory (PK-12) Grades: Ave. 201 Pasadina LA 70001

Metairie, (504) 835-2545 Daily Open House: Call or email dprep.com rps@ridgewoo p.com for an appt.

Website: ridgewoodpre

St. Edward School the Confessor (PK1-7)

School pm in Cabrini High 2, 2020, 3:30-6:30 ble later

View Academy University Charter School) (K-12 online

Grades: (PK-12) (PK-8th) LA 70119 Lopez Campus New Orleans, 211 S. Lopez, (504) 373-6258(9-12th) Clark Campus 1301 N. Derbigny, LA 70116 New Orleans, ffschool.org (504) 355-0210 morrisjeffEmail: info@morrisje Website: https://www. school.org

Grades: (1st-7th) 70003 Main CampusAve., Metairie, La 2504 Maine (504) 233-4720 (10-12th) 70065 La Vintage Campus Dr., Kenner, 201 Vintage (504) 267-9470 70062 Campus (K) Rivertown Blvd., Kenner, La 415 Williams (K, 8-9th) (504) 267-9467 Jefferson Campus Hwy, 2012 Jefferson LA 70121 Jefferson, discoveryhsf.org Website:

Virtual: 5:30-6:30 pm

rgarten 20 Months-Kinde St. 7508 Burthe LA 70118 New Orleans, (504) 865-1659 Website: umsnola.org

Academy

Grades: Blvd.

7027 Milne LA 70124 New Orleans, 5, 2020, (504) 288-7626 November Open House: pm.

2:00-7:30 mcacubs.com Website:

Grades: Esplanade Ave. 3747 W. LA 70002 Metairie, (504) 887-4091 18 Website: jcdsnola.org Sunday, October Open House: at 12 pm. private tours available Virtual and by appt.

h School FranklinHig 10, 2020 Benjamin Tuesday, Nov.

4123 WoodlandLA 70131 New Orleans, (504) 394-7744 and virtual Website: go.uhcno.edu In-person Open House: visits available

Grades: St., 2401 HumanityLA 70122 New Orleans, nola.org (504) 324-7076 Website: www.bethune

Day School Community Jewish (Infants – Grade 6)

Thursday, demy.com most up to the ardencahillaca website for Check the date information.

of University College Holy Cross Ave.

Bethune Mary McLeodSchool Elementary (PK-8)

Community Morris Jeff

Academy 2020 Arden Cahill October 22,

6601 Franklin LA 70122 New Orleans, g (504) 267-9765 Website: eqaschools.or

3649 LA 70115 New Orleans, g (504) 267-3882 Website: eqaschools.or

Grades: Metairie Ave. 4921 WestLA 70001 Metairie, 19, 2020, (504) 888-6353 November Open House: 7:00 p.m. .com 9:00 a.m. and Website: steddyschool

12) Ursuline(1 Academy YO – Grade

Grades: Street 2635 State LA 70118 New Orleans, (504) 866-5292 anola.org Website: go.uanola.org Email: admissions@u Open House: High School11, 2020 November for Visit the website more information.

School McGehee2020 Louise S.October 15,

PK – 4th October 22, 2020 5th – 12th (8 weeks – 3 yrs.) October Little Gate 11, 2020 & 30, 2020 PK – 12th November 2021 January 7,

Academy pm.

Mount Carmel 5, 2020, 2:00-7:30 November School Preparatory Ridgewood or email rps@ appt.

Daily. Call p.com for an ridgewoodpre

Christian Victory(K3-8)

Grades: Dr. 5708 Airline 70003 Metairie, LA (504) 733-5087 Website: vcagators.net rs.net available Email: info@vcagato Private Tours Open House:– 30, 2020.

October 26

School the Confessor a.m. and St. Edward 19, 2020, 9:00 November 7:00 p.m.

Ursuline Academy

High School:11, 2020 November for more information.

Visit the website

Young Audiences School Charter(PK-12)

Burmaster Grades: Campus 1000 Burmaster LA 70053 Virgil St, Gretna, Campus 1407 Kate Middleton LA 70053 St, Gretna, Campus Little YACS Harvey, LA 70058 3400 6th St., ool.org (504) 304-6332 open Website: yachartersch Live virtual Campus Open House: Little YACS houses on and March 10, 2021, January 27

11, 6 – 7 pm. Campus – November April 10 and Burmaster 27, March 2020, January – 7 pm.

14, 2021, 6

8400 LA 70127 New Orleans,

Grades: Pershing St. 821 General

ISSUE DATES JANUARY 19

School Registration/ Spring Open House Directory

FEBRUARY 23

AUGUST 17 Back to School

OCTOBER 19

Summer Camps

Fall Open House Calendar

APRIL 13

NOVEMBER 16

Annual Guide to Schools

E

High School Rummel6 pm Archbishop 19, 2020, at November

The NET Charter – Gentilly High School Ave.

Accelerated New Orleans High School Laurel Street

al School of

AT A GLANC

1614 Oretha LA 70113 New Orleans, g (504) 267-9060 Website: eqaschools.or

Grades: (K-5th): Willow Campus St., 7315 Willow LA 70118 New Orleans, (504) 862-5110 (6-12th): LA Freret Campus St., New Orleans, 5624 Freret chool.org (504) 304-3960 Website: www.lushers

Mount Carmel (8-12)

AREA

– High School The NET Charter Central CityCastle Haley Blvd.

Charter Lusher (K-12)

Schools

NEW ORLEANS

Middle School

Ave. 2405 Jackson LA 70113 New Orleans, g (504) 931-7929 Website: eqaschools.or

Open House: 15, 2020 October 22, 2020 October 5th – 12th (8 weeks – 3 yrs.)

Little Gate & 30, 2020 November 11, 2020 PK – 12th7, 2021 January

Grades: (K-2nd): Orleans, Dixon Campus Street, New 4040 Eagle LA 70118 (504) 934-4875 (3rd-8th): Uptown Campus St., 1400 Camp LA 70130 New Orleans, (504) 654-1088 Campus (K-5th): Westbank St., 502 Olivier LA 70114 New Orleans, rg (504) 274-4571 Website: www.isl-edu.o

4600 LA 70119 Park New Orleans, (504) 488-4426City Ave. #8 Friedrichs LA 70124 New Orleans (504) 486-6770o.org Website:cbs-nVirtual Open House on cbs-no.org Open House: 19, 2020. for both campuses Monday, October beginning in-person tours.

Sign up for

S IN THE GREATER

School

Grades: St. 2343 PrytaniaLA 70130 New Orleans, ol.com (504) 561-1224 Website: mcgeheescho PK – 4th October

Grades: (9-12) St., 727 CarondeletLA 70130 New Orleans, org Phone: 504-613-5703 Website: www.ihsnola.

School

de Ecole Bilingue leans la Nouvelle-Or (PK-8)

McGehee Louise S. (Pre K-12)

al High School Internation of New Orleans

Internation Louisiana (K-8)

DIRECTO RY

AND COLLEGE

orleans.com (504) 242-6270 Website: lakecastlenew

Grades: Ave, 990 Harrison LA 70124 New Orleans, (504) 324-7160 school UNO (K-2) Hynes Charter (504) 359-7700School Coghill Hynes Charter (K-8) hool.com at Parkview Website: www.hynessc

Grades: Street 1400 Moss LA 70119 New Orleans, m (504) 482-1193 2, 2020 Website: cabrinihigh.co November Open House: in person later in ble 3:30-6:30 pm Virtual options availa the week.

Brothers Christian Canal St.

ADVERTI SER

HIGH SCHOOLS ELEMENTARY,

LA 70115 New Orleans, (504) 896-4500 . Check Website: ebnola.com Virtual/Online Open House: for updates. the website

Heart of Sacred 12) Academy (Age 1 – Grade

Guide to Giving

Ad Director Sandy Stein 504.483.3150 or sstein@gambitweekly.com

Victory Christian available Private Tours – 30, 2020 October 26

harter School on Little YACS Young AudiencesC open houses 10,

Live virtual 27 and March – Campus Campus - January pm. Burmaster March 2021, 6 – 7 11, 2020, January 27, November 14, 2021, 6 – 7 pm.

10 and April on open information For additional tours and private houses, virtual please check the schools printed appointments, updates. Information websites for as of press time. here was accurate

many Louisiana politicians seized the opportunity to somehow make a nightmare of a situation even worse — capitalizing on every moment possible to advance their political brands, no matter how inappropriate.

Unfortunately, there were plenty of such chances with the COVID19 pandemic, nationwide protests against police brutality and racism, and elections at every level. We’re only laughing to keep ourselves from crying, which seems to be a survival tactic this year.

Anything before the first local Covid cases were diagnosed in March is a blur. We might have had Mardi Gras? Schools and businesses quickly closed, and organizers canceled festivals and events one by one, as officials announced restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the deadly disease.

But according to rhetoric from many of the state’s high-ranking Republicans, these restrictions were an affront to liberty itself — perhaps because they came from a Democratic governor. The Louisiana Legislature held two in-person special sessions, during which many of them refused to mask up and social distance, even after freshman legislator Reggie Bagala, R-Grand Isle, died of the disease in April and several other members caught it, too.

Why? Well, Rep. Dodie Horton, a Haughton Republican, put it best back in May. “I don’t wear a mask because I’m a well person,” she said.

“I’m not sick.”

In July after Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins issued a mask mandate, State Rep. Danny McCormick, R-Oil City, took to Facebook to post a video of himself declaring the “Constitution is being shredded before our very eyes.” Of course,

the only one who was shredding anything was him, as he proceeded to torch a surgical mask and take a chainsaw to what appeared to be a stock image of another mask, edited in post-production.

But the mask-acres were the least of his offenses, as he then went on to compare the situation to the Holocaust. “Government needed a villain,” McCormick said. “People who don’t wear masks will be soon painted as the enemy just as they did to Jews in Nazi Germany.”

They weren’t all talk either. State Republican lawmakers and Attorney General Jeff Landry — sponsored by a hefty purse of taxpayer dollars — attempted everything under the sun to undermine Gov. John Bel Edwards’ emergency powers in the middle of a public health crisis to no avail.

One of the biggest failed attempts included a petition signed by a majority of House members to overturn Edwards’ emergency order based on a 2003 law. When Republican Judge William Morvant declared that law unconstitutional, Landry said the decision turned Louisiana “into a dictatorship under King Edwards.”

In May, a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, sparking protests nationwide and action from some local and state governments. But in the Louisiana Legislature, even a mere proposal to study law enforcement was deemed controversial.

Horton, who is white, told Rep. Ted James, a Black Democrat from Baton Rouge, “I’ve never seen a more racist document than the one you’ve brought.” The resolution mentioned Floyd and “the deaths of Black men at the hands of white police officers in recent years.”

As many pointed out, apparently she’d never heard about the threefifths compromise.

15

PHOTO BY MELINDA DESLATTE / ASSOCIATED PRESS Attorney General Jeff Landry lost many lawsuits this year, and Louisiana taxpayers footed the bill.

“Feel my spirit, I’m telling you our president won this election,” said Higgins, who had just handily won his reelection bid with 68% of the vote. “And if any American would stand by and allow the total disillusion of our republic, then you’re not an American.”

When the USA Today Network asked Higgins about this, he texted back, “Damn straight I have inside information. That’s not news. (The) news would be if I didn’t have inside information.” But, naturally, he said he’d never reveal his alleged top-secret sources.

Look, we’re not suggesting a new calendar year will magically solve all the problems that existed long before 2020 and the ones that have been alarmingly exacerbated in its wake, but we think we can speak for all of us when we say: BYE, 2020, SEE YA NEVER.

2020: the year we learned to ‘mask up’ for safety, not costumes

BY SARAH RAVITS

MARDI GRAS DAY WAS FEB. 25 — a

major last hurrah for most of us, though we didn’t know it at the time. Within two weeks, officials announced the state’s first presumptive COVID-19 case, and a month later, we were in lockdown.

Officials have correctly and repeatedly warned us it would get worse before it gets better: As of press time, more than 7,100 Louisianans have died from the virus while hospitalizations are at an eight-month high.

But there’s a bit of hope on the horizon, as more than 22,000 frontline workers have already begun to receive the first of two rounds of a promising, effective vaccine, harkening the beginning of the end of a hellish era.

New Orleans, in part due to Carnival celebrations that drew more than a million visitors, became an early hot spot for the virus, along with a handful of areas around the U.S., including Seattle and Westchester, New York.

By the end of March, all 64 Louisiana parishes were confirmed to have infections. Notably, Orleans Parish is the only one with numbers low enough (below 5% of tests are coming back positive) to allow bars to host indoor seating — a bit of a Christmas miracle for those who find comfort atop barstools.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards acted quickly early on, guided by top public health experts, when he prohibited gatherings of more than 250 people on March 13 and shut down schools statewide — first, for the month, and then, till the end of the school year. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell issued an executive stay-at-home order on March 20 after also urging residents to avoid large gatherings the previous week.

One by one, festivals announced their cancellations as we realized we’d be in this for a much longer haul than we’d hoped or expected.

The city adapted with creativity — some local breweries and other small businesses pivoted to producing hand sanitizer, while costume enthusiasts stitched masks for the pandemic rather than parades. Pop-up ventures and pick-up and delivery services became one of the only legal and relatively safe ways for struggling entrepreneurs and service industry workers to operate.

Throughout the spring, as the case and death count climbed, health officials worried about running out of ventilators, while

PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER/ THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE Registered nurse Denise Friloux with City Health Director Dr. Jennifer Avegno. Avegno received the first round of the COVID-19 vaccine at University Medical Center on Dec. 15. scrambling for medical supplies from the federal stockpile.

Meanwhile, we collectively found out we’d been washing our hands wrong our whole lives, thanks to the know-it-alls at the New York Times.

In May, after attempts to “flatten the curve” were somewhat successful, and under pressure to reopen the economy, officials loosened restrictions even while warning citizens were still “safest at home.” After an explosion of new cases in July, Edwards issued a mask mandate and tightened restrictions again.

We hoarded toilet paper, became emotionally attached to Lysol and were entirely unsurprised when Amazon sellers predictably price-gauged hand sanitizer. We talked trash in group texts about an unsettling wave of self-described constitutional experts who claim that mask mandates violate their freedom to cough on grocery store employees, or something.

Solo happy hour became acceptable way before 5 p.m., and we grew tired of Zoom after about four days. We bonded over the trashiness of “Tiger King,” tended to our sourdough starters like treasured pets and occasionally embarked on clandestine outings to score bags of elusive white powder (flour!) from friends and coworkers with Costco memberships.

Prestige television like “The

Sopranos,” more than 20 years after it first aired, helped pass the time. Perhaps you also contemplated a life of organized crime that surely pays better than unemployment benefits — while sporting your favorite robe and eating unlimited amounts of baked ziti.

And COVID-19 terms are now part of our vernacular, including the term “super spreader” — which, in the context of a swingers’ convention that led to an unsurprising outbreak, lent itself to some bad puns — along with “social distancing,” a thing we can’t wait to never do again.

Our local musicians tried to cheer us up and we tried to return the favor by tuning into their livestreams and sending virtual tips.

But they are continuing to struggle, as are bartenders, restaurant satffers and thousands of other New Orleanians who rely on in person interactions — and lots of them — for their livelihoods.

This year has been marked by constant struggles. But with the vaccine finally making its way to the most in need in our community, we’re slowly starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. And while the virus isn’t going anywhere just yet, when we finally do get back in the streets, and can safely pack into bars, remember to tip servers and entertainers. Lord knows they’ll need and deserve it.

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Then in November, we had to wait an agonizing four days before the Associated Press called the presidential election for Joe Biden.

Some Republicans, including several from Louisiana, are still waiting to acknowledge Biden won, and the fact that this is only getting a mere mention on this list shows how high — or rather how low — the bar was this year. And nobody set that bar lower than U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins.

Higgins had a busy year, between informing the masses of his wife’s midnight premonition and threatening to shoot armed Black protesters in Louisville, Kentucky, following the death of Breonna Taylor (“Nothing personal!” he said). But he still found time in the days following the presidential election to post his own take on a Fireside Chat, in which he claimed by firelight to have inside information that the election was compromised. (It wasn’t.)

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December 8-14 2020 Volume 41

New Orleans

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18

Piece de resistance New Orleans bars and restaurants react to a rugged 2020

BY B E T H D ’A D D O N O HOW TO SUM UP THE YEAR 2020 for

New Orleans restaurants and bars?

The global pandemic kneecapped hospitality and tourism worldwide, with New Orleans surely leading the pack as Queen of the Krewe of Misery. Here, dread and panic reigned supreme in a city that prides itself on its food, hospitality and cocktails. Once music festivals and events were cancelled and restaurants, bars, hotels and most retail shops shuttered in mid-March, the rollercoaster of the public health emergency wreaked economic and personal havoc.

We are exhausted, that’s for sure.

Diners and the chefs and servers who cook and take care of us, and drinkers and those that stock the bars and mix the drinks, we are all weary to the bone. Between uncertainty, social unrest, a global health care crisis, childcare issues, food insecurity and general anxiety, 2020 was horrible.

“There’s only so many times you can pivot before you end up where you started,” says chef Eric Cook, who describes operating his Lower Garden District restaurant GrisGris as being a snail crawling on the edge of a straight razor. “That’s how you have to move now. The leadership just isn’t there for us. But at the end of the day, the glimmer of hope is that we’re still New Orleans, and we’ll always take care of each other.”

That care taking remains a bright spot. Many restaurants rallied to feed out-of-work service industry folks and anybody who was hungry. Food became love in action, whether it was Isaac and Amanda Toups serving free meals to go, the owners of Blue Oak BBQ collaborating with a slew of chefs for daily drive through meals during Jazz Fest to Betty’s Bar & Bistro in the French Quarter using its kitchen in March to prepare meals for CrescentCity.com.

The Krewe of Red Beans created Feed the Front Line and Feed the Second Line, lifelines for restaurants

paid to cook meals for health care workers and culture bearers and musicians paid to deliver those meals when live music venues were silenced. Creole Cuisine Restaurant Concepts, with many of its restaurants normally geared to serve tourists, committed to giving back in ways that ranged from serving meals at the New Orleans Mission to hosting holiday toy drives and providing food for thousands of health care workers. The examples of generosity in the face of adversity are endless and the gratitude immense.

With every restaurant and bar closure, another fissure split an already broken collective heart.

We lost K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen, Bon Ton Café, Li’l Dizzy’s Café, New Orleans Cake Cafe and Mimi’s in the Marigny. Some places were put up for sale, and we’ll have to see what’s in store if new owners reopen Liuzza’s in Mid-City and the Saturn Bar in Bywater.

“To say it was a terrible year is beyond an understatement,” says Robert LeBlanc, whose company Leblanc+Smith owns Sylvain, Cavan and the newly opened Chloe, but closed Meauxbar in October. “I’d call it the hardest professional year in all of our lives.

But there are lessons learned and personal and professional growth that comes from even the hardest of challenges.”

Since the pandemic, chefs and restaurant and bar owners have lobbied for city and federal aid and help for the industry. Nina Compton of Compere Lapin and Bywater American Bistro and 32 other local restaurant owners added their voice to the 2,100 signers of a group letter to President-elect Biden, an entreaty to end tariffs on European food, wine and spirits, which also would help save jobs.

While working to stay open, restaurant owners have to balance safety of customers and staff. Chaya Conrad opted to make her temporary take out window permanent

and close Bywater Bakery to inside dining after customers on Father’s Day crowded the counter and balked at wearing masks.

Restaurants that never offered take out, places including Brigtsen’s, Galatoire’s, Brennan’s and Commander’s Palace, changed their tune and tried to make it work.

“Family meals” no longer meant feeding staff. For many enterprising chefs, offering meals for four to go became a welcome income blip and a relief to beleaguered families dealing with working and schooling at home.

Some restaurants invested in longterm improvements. Antoine’s now has an elevator, Avenue Pub has a state-of-the-art HVAC air filtration system and Boucherie built a covered patio.

In a year when it took courage to go to Restaurant Depot, an even higher bar was set by entrepreneurs who opened businesses. Shermond Esteen Jr. opened Nonno’s Cajun Cuisine and Pastries on Claiborne Avenue in June, less than a year after he was released from serving 20 years for possession of five ounces of marijuana. Jeerasak Boonlert and his wife, chef Suda Ounin, opened Thai D’Jing restaurant in Gretna. Melissa Araujo opened Alma in Bywater, chef

P H OTO B Y S O P H I A G E R M E R / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E | T H E N E W O R L E A N S A DVO C AT E

Chef Nina Compton works with her staff at Bywater American Bistro.

Julio Machado launched Tacos Del Cartel and longtime hospitality pro Danny Millan opened Cava Bistro in Metairie, to name a just a few new spots. Gifted young chefs amped up the creativity, such as Serigne Mbaye and his fine dining pop-up DakarNola, a changing menu of Creole-meets-Senegalese dishes.

For his part, LeBlanc is optimistic about 2021.

“We have three or four months ahead to really bite down and stay lean, stay the course,” LeBlanc says. “We’ve done nine months, we can do this. Everybody knows the degree of suffering there’s been, what we’ve lost. Focusing on the pain and heartache won’t help us dig out of this and redefine our future. We need to institutionalize the lessons we’ve learned. My hope is that we create great habits moving forward. We make higher profits.

I can’t wait for the day when we have the luxury of worrying about the things we used to obsess about.

Won’t that be nice.”

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Vaucresson Sausage Co. are part of many local family recipes, restaurant menus and the annual food lineup for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Vance Vaucresson, the keeper of his family’s brand, wants to make the company an integral part of 7th Ward neighborhood life again, and work is underway to redevelop the longtime home of Vaucresson Sausage on the corner of St. Bernard Avenue and North Roman Street.

The building, a rambling old grocery, has sat idle since Hurricane Katrina, and graffiti blots out murals that once advertised its Creole sausage.

By late 2021, it should once again be open as Vaucresson’s headquarters, this time with a restaurant, a meat market and a pair of affordable-rate apartments all under the same roof.

Vaucresson also hopes it will be a statement about culture and place in a changing city as a Black-owned brand steeped in New Orleans history makes a return.

“We want a business that can contribute to the neighborhood in different ways, as a market, a cafe, by employing local people, by offering housing for people who are too often getting priced out of their own neighborhood,” Vaucresson says. “When people eat here, it will be a place to get a sense of Creole culture, an education on what that means for New Orleans.”

Vaucresson has struggled to bring back the company’s one-time home while keeping the brand alive.

Working from other facilities, he has been making sausage all along to supply restaurant clients and home cooks and to cook at festivals.

This time, though, Vaucresson says the right partnership is in place. The nonprofit Crescent City Community Land Trust is co-developer on the project, and partners include Liberty Bank and Edgar Chase IV, chef at his family’s famous Dooky Chase’s Restaurant.

Chase will have an important role in the restaurant portion of the project, Vaucresson’s Creole Cafe, which will serve the company’s meats.

“It’s going to be a showcase for a lot of Creole flavor, the daube glace, the hog’s headcheese, chaurice and grits, all the sausages,” Chase said of the cafe’s menu.

Project funding is coming in part through the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, the state’s Office of Community Development, the City of New Orleans and the Louisiana State Historic Preservation Office (with historic tax credits brokered through Stonehenge Capital) and Enterprise Community Partners.

Vance Vaucresson can trace the roots of his family business back to Levinsky Vaucresson, who emigrated to New Orleans from France in 1899. Trained as a butcher, he had a stall at the St. Bernard Market, then part of a network of public food markets. That market later developed into Circle Food Store, a one-of-a-kind grocery and community hub just two blocks from where Vaucresson’s is located today.

The butcher shop business was passed from one generation to

P H OTO BY M A X B E C H E R E R , N O L A . C O M , T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E | T H E N E W O R L E A N S A DVO C AT E

Vance Vaucresson and Edgar Chase IV at a ceremony announcing the beginning of the redevelopment of the Vaucresson Sausage Co.

the next. By 1967 Vance’s father, Robert “Sonny” Vaucresson Sr. had opened a restaurant called Vaucresson’s Creole Cafe on Bourbon Street, in what later became part of Pat O’Brien’s. It was a rare example of a Black-owned business in the French Quarter.

When the first Jazz Fest got underway in Congo Square, just outside the French Quarter, Vaucresson’s Creole Cafe was one of the vendors that festival organizer George Wein tapped to showcase the flavors of New Orleans for the crowd.

Now, with a partnership in place and work underway, he’s eager to return Vaucresson Sausage Co. to its old neighborhood with more ways to serve that neighborhood.

“I didn’t want to find myself on my deathbed knowing I didn’t try,” Vaucresson says. — IAN McNULTY/ THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

OUT EAT Contact Will Coviello wcoviello@gambitweekly.com 504-483-3106 | FAX: 504-483-3159 C O M P L E T E L I S T I N G S AT W W W. B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M Out 2 Eat is an index of Gambit contract advertisers. Unless noted, addresses are in New Orleans and all accept credit cards. Updates: email willc@gambitweekly.com or call (504) 483-3106.

Notice: Due to COVID-19, dining at restaurants is impacted, with limited indoor seating and other recommended restrictions. All information is subject to change. Contact the restaurant to confirm service options.

BYWATER Luna Libre — 3600 St. Claude Ave., (504) 237-1284 — Roasted chicken enchiladas verde are filled with cheese and served with house-made cheese dip. The menu combines Tex-Mex and dishes from Louisiana and Arkansas. Curbside pickup is available. B Sat-Sun, D Wed-Sun. $

CBD 14 Parishes — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave.; 14parishes.com — Jamaican-style jerk chicken is served with two sides such as plantains, jasmine rice, cabbage or rice and peas. Delivery available. Curbside pickup and delivery available. L and D daily. $$ Eat Well — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave.; pythianmarket.com — Phoritto is a spinach tortilla filled with brisket, chicken or tofu, plus bean sprouts, jalapenos, onions and basil and is served with a cup of broth. Curbside pickup and delivery available. L and D daily. $ Kais — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave., (941) 481-9599; pythianmarket.com — A Sunshine bowl includes salmon, corn, mango, green onions, edamame, pickled ginger, ponzu spicy mayonnaise, cilantro, masago and nori strips. Curbside pickup and delivery available. L and D daily. $$ La Cocinita — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave., (504) 309-5344; lacochinitafoodtruck.com — La Llanera is an arepa stuffed with carne asada, guasacasa, pico de gallo, grilled queso fresco and salsa verde. Curbside pickup and delivery available. B, L and D daily. $ Meribo Pizza — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave., (504) 481-9599; meribopizza. com — A Meridionale pie is topped with pulled pork, chilies, ricotta, mozzarella, collard greens and red sauce. Delivery available. L and D daily. $$ Willie Mae’s — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave.; williemaesnola.com — The Creole soul food restaurant is known for its fried chicken, red beans and more. Takeout available. L and D Mon-Sat. $

CARROLLTON Mikimoto — 3301 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 488-1881; mikimotosushi.com — The South Carrollton roll includes tuna tataki, avocado and snow crab. Takeout and delivery available. L Sun-Fri, D daily. $$ Pyramids Cafe — 3151 Calhoun St., (504) 861-9602 — Diners will find Mediterranean cuisine featuring such favorites as shawarma prepared on a rotisserie. Takeout and delivery available. L, D daily. $$

B — breakfast L — lunch D — dinner late — late 24H — 24 hours

$ — average dinner entrée under $10 $$ — $11 to $20 $$$ — $21 or more

CITYWIDE Breaux Mart — Citywide; breauxmart.com — The deli counter’s changing specials include dishes such as baked catfish and red beans and rice. L, D daily. $

FAUBOURG MARIGNY Carnaval — 2227 St. Claude Ave., (504) 265-8855; carnavallounge.com — The Cozinha de Carnaval kitchen serves Brazilian street food. Frango is chicken cooked with thyme, rosemary and cumin and served with rosemary-garlic aioli. No reservations. Takeout available. D Sat-Mon. $ Kebab — 2315 St. Claude Ave., (504) 3834328; kebabnola.com — The sandwich shop offers doner kebabs and Belgian fries. A falafel sandwich comes with pickled cucumbers, arugula, spinach, red onions, beets, hummus and Spanish garlic sauce. No reservations. Takeout and delivery available Thu-Mon. $

FRENCH QUARTER Desire Oyster Bar — Royal Sonesta New Orleans, 300 Bourbon St., (504) 5860300; sonesta.com/desireoysterbar — The menu features Gulf seafood in traditional and contemporary Creole dishes, po-boys and more. Char-grilled oysters are topped with Parmesan, herbs and butter. Reservations recommended. Takeout available.

B, L and D daily. $$

HARAHAN/JEFFERSON/ RIVER RIDGE The Rivershack Tavern — 3449 River Road, (504) 834-4938; therivershacktavern.com — This bar and music spot offers a menu of burgers, sandwiches and changing lunch specials. Curbside pickup and delivery available. L, D daily. $ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 1212 S. Clearview Parkway, Elmwood, (504) 7333803; theospizza.com — There is a wide variety of specialty pies and toppings to build your own pizza. The menu also includes salads and sandwiches. Curbside pickup and delivery available. L, D Tue-Sat. $

LAKEVIEW Lakeview Brew Coffee Cafe — 5606 Canal Blvd., (504) 483-7001; lakeviewbrew. com — This casual cafe offers coffee, pastries, desserts, sandwiches and salads. Tuna salad or chicken salad avocado melts are topped with Monterey Jack and Parmesan. Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery are available. B, L daily. $ Lotus Bistro — 203 W. Harrison Ave., (504) 533-9879; lotusbistronola.com — A Mineko Iwasaki roll includes spicy snow crab, tuna, avocado and cucumber topped with salmon, chef’s sauce, masago, green onion and tempura crunchy PAGE 23

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METAIRIE Andrea’s Restaurant — 3100 N. 19th St., Metairie, (504) 834-8583; andreasrestaurant.com — Chef Andrea Apuzzo’s speckled trout royale is topped with crabmeat and lemon-cream sauce. Capelli D’Andrea combines house-made angel hair pasta and smoked salmon in cream sauce. Curbside pickup and delivery available. L, D daily, brunch Sun. $$$ Kosher Cajun New York Deli & Grocery — 3519 Severn Ave., Metairie, (504) 888-2010; koshercajun.com — This New York-style deli specializes in sandwiches, including corned beef and pastrami that come from the Bronx. Takeout available.

L Sun-Thu, D Mon-Thu. $ Mark Twain’s Pizza Landing — 2035 Metairie Road, Metairie, (504) 832-8032; marktwainpizza.com — Mark Twain’s serves salads, po-boys and pies like the Italian pizza with salami, tomato, artichoke, sausage and basil. Takeout and curbside pickup are available. L Tue-Sat, D Tue-Sun. $ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 2125 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, (504) 5104282; theospizza.com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description. $

MID-CITY/TREME Angelo Brocato’s — 214 N. Carrollton Ave., (504) 486-1465; angelobrocatoicecream.com — This sweet shop serves its own gelato, spumoni, Italian ice, cannolis, fig cookies and other treats. Window and curbside pickup. L, D Tue-Sun. $ Brown Butter Southern Kitchen & Bar — 231 N. Carrollton Ave., Suite C, (504) 6093871; brownbutterrestaurant.com — Sample items include smoked brisket served with smoked apple barbecue sauce, smoked heirloom beans and vinegar slaw. A Brunch burger features a brisket and short rib patty topped with bacon, brie, a fried egg, onion jam and arugula on a brioche bun. Dine-in, takeout, curbside pickup and delivery available. L and D Wed-Sat, brunch Sat-Sun. $$ Doson Noodle House — 135 N. Carrollton Ave., (504) 309-7283; facebook.com/dosonnoodlehouse — Bun thit is Vietnamese-style grilled pork with cucumber, onions, lettuce, mint, cilantro and fish sauce served over rice or vermicelli. The menu includes pho, spring rolls and more. Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery are available. $$ Five Happiness — 3511 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 482-3935; fivehappiness.com — The large menu of Chinese dishes includes wonton soup, sizzling seafood combinations served on a hot plate, sizzling Go-Ba and lo mein dishes. Takeout and delivery available. $$ Katie’s Restaurant — 3701 Iberville St., (504) 488-6582; katiesinmidcity.com — Favorites include the Cajun Cuban with roasted pork, grilled ham, cheese and pickles pressed on buttered bread. The Boudreaux pizza is topped with cochon de lait, spinach, red onions, roasted garlic and scallions. Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery available. L and D Tue-Sun. $$ Nonna Mia — 3125 Esplanade Ave., (504) 948-1717; nonnamianola.com — A Divine Portobello appetizer features chicken breast, spinach in red pepper sauce and crostini. The menu includes salads, sandwiches, pasta, pizza and more. Curbside pickup and delivery are available.

Service daily. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 4024 Canal St., (504) 302-1133; theospizza. com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description. $ Willie Mae’s Scotch House — 2401 St. Ann St., (504) 822-9503; williemaesnola. com — This neighborhood restaurant is known for its wet-battered fried chicken.

OUT TO EAT

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No reservations. L Mon-Fri. $$

NORTHSHORE Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 70488 Highway 21, Covington, (985) 234-9420; theospizza.com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description. $

UPTOWN Joey K’s — 3001 Magazine St., (504) 8910997; joeyksrestaurant.com ­— The menu includes fried seafood platters, salads, sandwiches and red beans and rice. Sauteed trout Tchoupitoulas is topped with shrimp and crabmeat and served with vegetables and potatoes. Takeout and delivery available. $$ Red Gravy — 4206 Magazine St., (504) 561-8844; redgravycafe.com — Thin cannoli pancakes are filled with cannoli cream and topped with chocolate. The menu includes brunch items, pasta dishes, sandwiches, baked goods and more.

Takeout available. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 4218 Magazine St., (504) 894-8554; theospizza. com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description. $ Tito’s Ceviche & Pisco — 5015 Magazine St., (504) 267-7612; titoscevichepisco.com — The Peruvian menu includes a version of the traditional dish lomo saltado, featuring beef tenderloin tips sauteed with onions, tomatoes, cilantro, soy sauce and pisco, and served with fried potatoes and rice.

Dine-in, outdoor seating and delivery available. L and D Mon-Sat., brunch Sun. $$$

WAREHOUSE DISTRICT Annunciation — 1016 Annunciation St., (504) 568-0245; annunciationrestaurant. com — The menu highlights Gulf seafood in Creole, Cajun and Southern dishes.

Fried oysters and skewered bacon are served with meuniere sauce and toasted French bread. Reservations required. D Thu-Sun. $$$ Carmo — 527 Julia St., (504) 875-4132; cafecarmo.com — Carmo salad includes smoked ham, avocado, pineapple, almonds, cashews, raisins, cucumber, green pepper, rice, lettuce, cilantro and citrus mango vinaigrette. The menu includes dishes inspired by tropical cuisines. Takeout and delivery are available. Mon-Sat. $$ NOLA Caye — 898 Baronne St., (504) 302-1302; nolacaye.com — The menu features Caribbean-inspired dishes and Gulf seafood. Seared ahi tuna is served with mango, avocado, mixed greens, citrus vinaigrette and sesame seeds. Takeout, delivery and outdoor seating available. D daily, brunch Sat-Sun. $$$ Provisions Grab-n-Go Marketplace — Higgins Hotel, 500 Andrew Higgins Blvd., (504) 528-1941; higgingshotelnola.com — The coffeeshop serves salads, sandwiches, pastries and more. Takeout available.

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WEST BANK Mosca’s — 4137 Hwy. 90 W., Westwego, (504) 436-8950; moscasrestaurant.com — This family-style eatery serves shrimp Mosca, chicken a la grande and baked oysters Mosca, made with breadcrumbs and Italian seasonings. Curbside pickup available. D Wed-Sat. Cash only. $$$ Specialty Italian Bistro — 2330 Belle Chasse Hwy., Gretna, (504) 391-1090; specialtyitalianbistro.com — The menu combines Old World Italian favorites and pizza. Paneed chicken piccata is topped with lemon-caper piccata sauce served with angel hair pasta, salad and garlic cheese bread. Takeout and delivery available. Service daily. $$

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flakes. The menu also includes bento box lunches, teriyaki dishes, fried rice and more. Takeout and delivery are available.

L and D Tue-Sun. $$

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MUSIC

Exit music Musicians took tough hits in 2020, but city’s music endures

BY JA K E C L A P P IN SEPTEMBER, AROUND THE SIXMONTH MARK of the pandemic shut-

downs, trumpeter James Andrews ended a conversation with Gambit on an optimistic note.

Earlier this year, Andrews released a book with Monique Bornstein, “Born in The Treme,” and he was touring Europe when the shutdowns began. He scrapped the tour and got one of the last flights back from France. After that, he said, it was just a “domino effect” of lost work: Music venues closed, regular gigs were canceled and then the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and French Quarter Festival were first postponed and eventually called off.

Andrews was left in a “holding pattern.” But as the months ticked by, he started to work on new material and began performing small porch concerts or dropping into neighborhoods for small, physically distanced concerts.

“Someday, the music is going to come back,” he said. “The New Orleans culture here, with our second lines and our jazz, it’s strong. It’s going to come back. I’ve been doing this my whole life, so I believe in this.

We’ve been through so much, but New Orleans music will survive.”

But, shit, has it been tested.

Virtually overnight, the coronavirus pandemic in March cut the power to New Orleans’ music community, a cornerstone of what makes New Orleans what it is. COVID-19 loves a crowd, so music venues were some of the first to close and will be some of the last to reopen.

The city’s working musicians were stripped of their sources of income — and because of gaps for self-employed and gig workers in unemployment benefit programs, many were left hanging in the early days of the pandemic until Congress passed the CARES Act and somewhat patched the system. Many New Orleans musicians, artists and culture bearers are still just scraping by, with bills piling up after a year without weekly gigs, festival performances or work from special events.

Local people and organizations stepped up to help musicians, quickly launching programs like a relief fund from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation; twice-weekly food distribution through Culture Aid NOLA; Meals for Musicians, a partnership between The Howlin’ Wolf and The New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic; Krewe of Red Beans’ Feed the Second Line; and other grassroots operations. The Music and

Culture Coalition of New Orleans also launched a low-barrier relief grant program for culture bearers.

This year started on a bad note when bounce music stalwart 5th Ward Weebie died from a ruptured artery in January. He was 42. Later that month, Preservation Hall Jazz Band trombonist Lucien Barbarin did at 63. And Feb. 1 saw the loss of Geoffrey Douville, a longtime leader of Egg Yolk Jubilee.

Jazz family patriarch Ellis Marsalis died in April at the age of 85 due to pneumonia believed to have been complicated by COVID-19. Big Al Carson, a fixture in the city’s blues community, died later that month due to a heart attack, and blues guitarist Bryan Lee died in August.

The New Orleans music community also lost percussionist Alfred “Uganda” Roberts, pianist Ronnie Kole and teacher Bert Braud, among many other musicians, in 2020. Leona Grandison, the owner of Treme’s Candlelight Lounge, died in April after contracting COVID-19. Fellow longtime Treme bar owner Andrew “Junior” Robertson and Backstreet Cultural Museum founder Sylvester Francis both passed in the same week in September. Laura Painia Jackson, business manager of the Dew Drop Inn, also died in September.

New Orleans’ music venues, already operating on tight margins, have been placed in precarious situations.

Many venues, so far, have been able to hold on, though a small number have closed in 2020, including Gasa Gasa, Circle Bar and Saturn Bar. A spot of hope for music venues: Congress last week passed the Save Our Stages Act as part of the new COVID-19 Relief Bill. The Save Our Stage Act will provide currently closed independent music venues a grant equal to 45% of gross revenue from 2019.

With music venues closed — and then barred by the city’s reopening plans completely from playing indoors or among larger groups outdoors — musicians quickly pivoted to live-streaming performances. Some, like DJ Raj Smoove, found a groove with weekly online sets, becoming a dependable outlet for bored, stressed and stuck-at-home New Orleanians.

Early in the pandemic, Sweet Crude founders Alexis Marceaux and Sam Craft remarked they had to rework their band’s music for guitar in order to perform from home, and the duo started “Bien Cool!” a charming regular online show.

Many musicians used the “adult time out,” as Tarriona “Tank” Ball once put it to Gambit, to catch their breath and check in with themselves and their art — although, the ability to sustain a break has its limits.

Some musicians finished older projects, like Brad Walker and his new album “Dockside Sessions,” or re-evaluated their goals, such as Bad Operation.

A lot of new music was released in 2020, but the pandemic disrupted the traditional model followed by many musicians: Release an album before the festival season, promote and go on tour. Things were a little more low-key this year with live-streaming release parties and coordinated music videos.

As the pandemic has stretched on, it has proven difficult for most musicians to make any kind of meaningful income from streaming gigs on Facebook, Instagram and Twitch.

There have been burgeoning experiments with new platforms — like StageIt, which features regular shows from d.b.a. — and some music venues have launched their own programs.

Tipitina’s launched Tipitina’s TV, a series of ticketed, high-quality webcasts from the empty venue, and recently wrapped its second season.

The Maple Leaf and Chickie Wah Wah have both launched their own webcasts. And Rebirth Brass Band started a weekly Tuesday livestream series from The Howlin’ Wolf.

The pandemic also saw musicians and event organizers try drive-in concerts, street concerts from a piano mounted in the back of a truck, jazz

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Joe Krown plays a show in the Piano on a Truck outside the Maple Leaf Bar.

trios performing on Bayou St. John, and limited capacity outdoor shows.

Music venue owners and musicians throughout the year have said they feel there hasn’t been clear guidance, confusing rules or a lack of care from the city and state.

Some reopening guidelines have made it prohibitive for musicians to operate in the even scant room they’re allowed. A recent example is in the city’s recent batch of reopening plans, which allows front porch concerts, but requires a permit costing around $100 — a high amount for a working musician just trying to organize a small show themselves.

Many in the cultural community have said that essentially boils down to a “pay to play” for local artists.

A new Musicians Alliance also launched this year, with the goal of addressing pay inequity within the New Orleans music community and leveraging collective power for better wages once music venues are allowed to host shows.

With the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, health experts have cautiously predicted indoor live music could be back by fall 2021. There is a long road until then, with many New Orleans musicians already under an impossible economic strain. But there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

Whether or not that’s a train remains to be seen.

FILM

The year in film

BY W I L L C OV I E L LO 2020 WAS A TOUGH YEAR to be in

the movie business. Theaters closed in the first wave of the coronavirus shutdowns. Major Hollywood studios put the brakes on the releases of many anticipated films, pushing some opening dates well into 2021, and in October, Regal Cinemas temporarily closed its entire national chain. Local film and TV crews stopped shooting for several months.

Still, there were some highlights, and many tuned out to be local developments.

Robert Brunet beat Covid twice. He recovered from illness and then, after decades running the city’s longest running neighborhood theater, he and business partner Eric Ramstead expanded. Now, Canal Place, the mall surrounded by the French Quarter, a casino and convention traffic, is home to Prytania Theatres, a multiplex with the heart of a local theater. Programming is similar to the Uptown location, but there are more screens for everything, including new releases, classics, arthouse and documentary offerings, family movies and other special themed programming.

The biggest film revival of the year was the spate of outdoor and drive-in style screenings to allow for physical distancing. A couple of drive-in screenings organized by Z Event Company in Bucktown in early spring helped channel enthusiasm for drive-in shows. New Orleans City Park presented a series of recent horror films near Popp Fountain. Jefferson Performing Arts Society screened a series of classics, including “42nd Street” and “Arsenic & Old Lace,” in a sort of preview of showsit intends to present in 2021. The New Orleans Film Festival offered its entire slate

of programming online, but for two weeks, it screened films at two spots on the Lafitte Greenway as well as the new Broadside outdoor venue.

The Broadside may be one of the lasting additions hatched during the pandemic. Owner Brian Knighten opened Broadside in response to the challenges of operating The Broad Theater. Physical distancing didn’t allow for many seats at his indoor theater, and attendance was spare regardless of what phase the city or state was in, Knighten told Gambit. The Broadside has a screen for movies and broadcast events, such as election night returns. It also has a stage for music and comedy.

Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge also added drive-in screening and charges by the vehicle.

Before the coronavirus shutdowns, there were some notable releases from local filmmakers. Director Benh Zeitlin spent years working on a follow-up to “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” and “Wendy,” his retelling of the Peter Pan story, opened early in the year. Local filmmakers Bill and Turner Ross shot their dive bar film “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” at a Terrytown bar, and it made a splash at the Sundance Film Festival.

There was an ever-expanding universe of online content before the pandemic, and that trend is accelerating. Warner Bros. recently announced it would do all of its 2021 releases at both theaters and online via HBO Max. But in 2020, some online viewing helped support local theaters.

Arthouse distributors Kino Lorber, Magnolia Pictures and Film Movement set up links to split viewing fees with local theaters, including the Broad Theater and Zeitgeist.

From the early days of theaters reopening, there were some great offerings from the arthouse distributors, and several have made multiple critics’ year-end lists of best films.

Here are a few notable films from local theaters friendly to arthouse films.

“Bacurau.” This odd action thriller set in rural Brazil is like a modern Western

laced with reality TV, sci-fi and global politics as residents of a small town cope with corrupt politicians, criminals and voracious tourists.

“Corpus Christi.” Nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 2020 Oscars, this Polish drama is driven by a young criminal, who when released from prison is mistaken for a priest and preaches his own layman’s views of devotion and penitence.

“The Wild Goose Lake.” Set in Wuhan, China, this film noir crime suspense movie from director Diao Yinan is about how a small-time gangster’s fortunes change when a motorcycle theft turns deadly.

“Mank.” Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” won only one Academy Award.

“Mank” is a lush atmospheric film set in old Hollywood about the co-writer of that film, Herman Mankiewicz, who as a drunk, compulsive gambling crank was his own worst enemy.

In a year also engulfed in political partisanship and absurdity, some documentaries were particularly timely.

“Feels Good Man.” This documentary dives into the fever swamps of anonymous online chatrooms and details how Pepe the Frog, a dufus comic character, got appropriated by web users to symbolize the toxic and

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A drive-in screening of ‘Grease’ at the Bucktown Marina in May was organized by Z Event Company.

hateful ideas harnessed in support of Donald Trump.

“Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President.” Jimmy Carter was a little-known Southern governor in 1974 when he entered an ultimately successful bid for presidency. His friendship with musicians including Willie Nelson, Gregg Allman and many others helped him win the Democratic primary, and this documentary is an amazing look at those friendships and a man who seems too genuine to have succeeded in politics.

“John Lewis: Good Trouble.” As the nation awaits a Georgia election that may hinge on voter turnout and suppression efforts, “Good Trouble” celebrates the life of longtime House Representative from a district including Atlanta, John Lewis. It’s a feel-good victory lap for the recently deceased Civil Rights leader, but it is a good reminder of how the right to vote is still an active struggle.

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64 Veg-o-Matic company 65 Boot part 68 Sightseer 69 Tennisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Andre 70 Mai â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 71 Revision issuer 72 Verb go-with 76 Actress Chaplin 77 Stomped (on) 80 Toon Flanders 81 Heftyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cinch â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 82 Bi- plus one 83 Classic autos

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > D E C E M B E R 2 9 2 0 2 0 > J A N UA R Y 4 2 0 2 1

Happy Holidays