Gambit: April 14, 2020

April 14-27, 2020 Volume 41 // Number 14

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CONTENTS

APRIL 14 -27 VOLUME 41 || NUMBER 14 NEWS

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Publisher | JEANNE EXNICIOS FOSTER

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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.

Sweet Crude’s ‘Officiel//Artificiel’ will be released on April 24.

P H OTO P R OV I D E D B Y A U G U S TA S AG N E L L I

New Orleans pop band Sweet Crude will release its second full-length album, ‘Officiel//Artificiel,’ on April 24. The album is the band’s first release on the record label Verve Forecast.

‘Officiel//Artificiel’ sweetener Sweet Crude adapts to coronavirus and prepares for an album release

BY JAKE CLAPP IT TOOK A WORLDWIDE PANDEMIC to put a guitar into Sweet Crude, vocalist and violinist Sam Craft says jokingly.

The New Orleans-based band traditionally has never incorporated the instrument into its music — and it still hasn’t really — instead relying on synths, violin, bass, brass instruments and a whole lot of drums and percussion for its high-energy, bilingual pop music. But like bands around the world, Sweet Crude is adapting to a new reality and has turned to livestreaming one- or two-person performances.

“The normal MO, the live performances have a lot of bells and whistles,” Craft says. “So we’ve been spending a lot of time individually manufacturing ways to perform Sweet Crude songs with just one person.”

It’s been an interesting and fun exer-

cise, Craft says, but also has served as a litmus test for Sweet Crude’s music. A six-person band, Sweet Crude’s sound normally is vibrant and layered.

“We made it an ambition to write the kind of music that if all the power went out in a venue, or whatever, that we could still do something, we could still sing, we could still move forward musically,” Craft says. “The result of that is figuring out that a lot of these songs, which are festooned with production that we had a blast doing, you can take it all away and just have a keyboard and voice and it works.”

If it weren’t for the COVID-19 pandemic, Sweet Crude would be playing a few festivals and tour dates this month in a run up to the release of its new album. The band’s second full-length album, “Officiel//Artificiel,” will be

released April 24 through Verve Forecast. The national record label also hosts J.S. Ondara, T Bone Burnett and fellow New Orleanians Tank and the Bangas.

Among the canceled and postponed Sweet Crude gigs were French Quarter Festival (which has been rescheduled to Oct. 1-4) and South By Southwest in Austin, Texas.

NPR Music included Sweet Crude in its annual “Austin 100” SXSW preview, which it released in the face of the massive festival being canceled, and spotlighted the band’s single “Sun Sept.” The song’s joyous music video features friends of the band — among them Big Freedia, Boyfriend, Tank and the Bangas, LeTrainiump and The Suffers — dancing and singing along to the soaring track.

It’s tough for a band to lose opportunities to build face-to-face relationships when promoting a new album, but Craft and vocalist Alexis Marceaux are optimistic about getting the Sweet Crude name out there in different ways.

“I will say, this is kind of an old school music industry way, where the album is coming out and people will get to marinate on it,” Marceaux says, “and by the time we actually get to perform, maybe they’ll know the

songs through and through. That’s kind of exciting to us.”

Sweet Crude released its debut EP, “Super Vilaine,” in 2013 and its first full-length, the bouyant “Creatures,” in 2017. For “Officiel//Artificiel,” the band — which also includes keyboardist Jack Craft, bassist Stephen MacDonald, drummer David Shirley and trumpeter Skyler Stroup — recorded with producer and engineer Sonny DiPerri, who has worked with Portugal.

The Man, Animal Collective, STRFKR and My Bloody Valentine.

The band’s upbeat, resilient vibe and Marceaux and Craft’s fluid lyrical transitions between Cajun French and English continue on the new 12-track album. But “Officiel//Artificiel” has a grittier, weightier style than Sweet Crude’s past releases.

“There are some industrial sounds, there’s found sounds, like the use of garbage and pots and pans, intense brass and distorted drums,” Sam Craft says. “We just went for it in terms of making something really intense.”

“Officiel//Artificiel” is about “trying on different outfits, seeing what works,” he adds. Many of the lyrics on the album deal with the act of self-discovery, confidence and revealing one’s true self to the world. The artwork the band has released with its singles and the album cover are collages of drawn portraits breaking apart to reveal birds, flowers, mechanical parts or a rougarou pouring out.

“Isn’t that a question that we all ask ourselves: ‘How can I be more me?’ ” Marceaux says. “I think it plays off of that metamorphosis of ‘Who am I really? How can I be my more authentic self?’ I think from the top of the record to the end, it goes through that arc. It starts a vulnerable person and then becomes this transformed human.

We’re trying to put that sort of positivity out there.”

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277,000 Blue Runner Foods has pledged to provide 1 million meals worth of red beans and rice to Second Harvest Food Bank, with 25,000 pounds of rice and dry red beans, enough for 100,000 meals, delivered April 9. The 102-year-old New Orleans company produces Creole foods, including dry and canned red beans, packaged meals and more.

Isaac and Amanda Toups, the husband-and-wife team behind Toups’ Meatery, began offering free family meals last month to people in need. In addition to distributing the free takeout meals every day at their Mid-City restaurant, the couple also is providing free meals to intensive care unit workers at local hospitals. And over Easter weekend, they gave away Easter baskets for kids.

Jrue and Lauren Holiday,

a player for the New Orleans Pelicans and a retired Olympic gold medalist and FIFA Women’s World Cup champion respectively, have been providing hot lunches to health care workers at Gretna and Marrero Priority Health Care clinics that are testing patients for COVID-19.

The couple hired a chef to create the meals, which are delivered on Wednesdays.

PAGE 8

The number of Louisiana residents who filed for unemployment between March 1 and April 4.

P H OTO B Y M A X B E C H E R 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

Mayor LaToya Cantrell, her face mask lowered during a news conference April 9, provides updates on city finances, temporary morgues and more.

MAYOR: CITY HEADING FOR BUDGET DEFICIT, TEMPORARY MORGUES AND MORE MAYOR LATOYA CANTRELL ANNOUNCED LAST WEEK that the city is facing a $150 million deficit due to the coronavirus and warned that the Sewerage & Water Board could be unable to pay its bills.

At the same time, she said, her administration was prepping new, temporary morgues to handle New Orleans’ rising death toll.

Cantrell said the federal stimulus bill was leaving out New Orleans, one of the U.S. cities hardest hit by the virus. The S&WB could be facing bankruptcy, she said, and warned the city would suffer from a massive projected loss in sales tax revenue because of rules shutting down businesses and orders for residents to stay at home.

The CARES Act, the $2 trillion federal rescue package intended to provide assistance to individuals and relief to communities amid the economic calamity caused by COVID-19, falls far short of what New Orleans will need to recover from the crisis, Cantrell said.

The law allows cities with more than 500,000 residents to apply for direct federal relief. New Orleans falls a little more than 100,000 short of the population needed to qualify. As such, New Orleans will only be able to apply for aid to cover the money it spends directly on battling the virus, not the broader economic impact of lost conventions, shuttered shops and closed bars and restaurants.

For those costs, it will need to share in the allocation given to the state.

The possibility of a bankruptcy for the S&WB was first broached in a meeting April 9 when Executive Director Ghassan Korban was asked about the public utility’s rocky finances. The agency, which was close to running out of money in 2018, had stabilized its finances in part with money from an infrastructure deal Cantrell struck with the city’s hospitality industry.

In an emailed statement, Korban said that while the S&WB antici-

By comparison, 103,000 residents filed for unemployment across the state in the entirety of 2019. The unprecedented new figure is due largely to the layoffs and work slowdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 8 , Gov. John Bel Edwards announced his office had procured federal funding through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act and would begin distributing the money April 13 to those who qualify — including gig-economy workers, freelancers and other self-employed workers. According to the CARES Act, signed into law March 27, individuals should receive $600 weekly through July 31 in addition to the amount they normally would be able to receive under state law, the maximum of which is $247 a week in Louisiana.

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Rep. Reggie Bagala dies from COVID-19

Faster tests for COVID-19 available in New Orleans

State Rep. Reggie Bagala, R-Lockport, whose constituency includes Grand Isle, died April 9 after battling COVID-19. He was 54.

Bagala’s son, Tristan, announced his father’s death through a post on Facebook. Bagala is the first member of the Louisiana Legislature to die from the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Politically, Bagala established himself while working as the Lafourche Parish administrator from 2014-17 and then two years as the Parish Council’s auditor.

In October 2019, he won a threeway race for the 54th District House seat, previously held by Jerry “Truck” Gisclair. The district is based in Lafourche but also encompasses Grand Isle on the southern tip of Jefferson Parish.

He also continued working for Lafourche’s government as the community services director under Parish President Archie Chaisson.

Bagala is one of at least two state House members to be diagnosed

Four of LCMC Health’s Urgent Care locations now are conducting rapid-results tests for patients showing symptoms of COVID-19.

LCMC urgent care locations in Metairie, Marrero, Covington and New Orleans’ Lakeview neighborhood are employing the Abbot ID NOW COVID-19 Molecular Test, which the Food & Drug Administration deemed safe for use and fast-tracked approval as part of its Emergency Use Authorization. (LCMC’s Gretna and Algiers locations have closed temporarily because of the pandemic.) According to a news release, test results can be confirmed in as little as 5 to 13 minutes.

The test’s ability to yield such timely results will help the state’s Department of Health keep track of statistics as cases in the state continue to rise.

It takes the state’s lab about 48 hours to obtain test results, while a majority of tests are conducted by health facilities that use commer-

Reggie Bagala campaign photo

with COVID-19. Rep. Ted James, 37, a Baton Rouge Democrat, said late last month that he had been hospitalized with pneumonia after testing positive for the virus. Last week, he told WAFB-TV, he was back home recovering.

— RAMON ANTONIO VARGAS/ THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

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pates a significant drop in revenue, “I do not anticipate (bankruptcy) in the near future.”

Cantrell said the city had requested 20 refrigerated units to store bodies of those who had died of the coronavirus and currently had 10 supplied by the state. The city is also establishing a temporary morgue on the property next to the Coroners’ Office and working on securing additional sites to handle the expected toll of the virus.

City officials also announced that April 10 would be the last day the drive-thru test site at the University of New Orleans’ Lakefront Arena.

That site had been one of the first set up under a federal pilot program. The city intends to replace it with a mobile testing program targeting neighborhoods where many residents have not been tested, said Dr. Jennifer Avegno, director of the city’s Department of Health.

The Alario Center in Westwego will remain a drive-thru test site.

— JEFF ADELSON/THE TIMESPICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

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nated 140 meals from Drago’s Seafood Restaurant to health care workers at Tulane Health System. Peyton Manning, former NFL quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos, said the meals were a “thank you” from his family to health care workers “making great personal sacrifices to care for the sick.” Manning, who grew up in New Orleans, is the son of former New Orleans Saints quarterback Archie Manning and brother of former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning.

ed per capita, compared to the rest of the United States.

— SARAH RAVITS

Relief fund established for area artists and culture bearers New Orleans community arts and culture organizations Antenna, Ashe Cultural Arts Center, Junebug Productions and the Weavers Fellowship have started an emergency relief fund for area artists and culture bearers during the COVID-19 pandemic The Creative Response Relief Fund is offering $2,000 individual emergency relief grants. Qualifying applicants, the fund says, must be a practicing artist of any dis-

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WE THANK YOU ALL FOR THE TRUST, LOVE, LOYALTY AND SUPPORT AT THIS TIME. THANK YOU TO THE TIRELESS EFFORTS OF OUR AMAZING TEAM. WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS, TOGETHER. LOVE, THE VILKHUS

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The United Way of Southeast Louisiana (UWSELA) is contributing

$100,000 to the Greater New Orleans Foundation Disaster Response and Restoration Fund. The money will be used for immediate relief and longterm support to an array of nonprofits — including Second Harvest Food Bank and the New Orleans and Jefferson Councils on Aging — that serve the most vulnerable residents of the seven parishes served by UWSELA.

PAGE 7

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cial testing companies, like Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp — both of which were overwhelmed in recent weeks, causing delays and headaches for public health officials studying the virus.

Meanwhile, Tulane, University Medical Center and Ochsner have announced the availability of tests with similarly fast results.

Gov. John Bel Edwards has maintained throughout this crisis that widespread testing is one of his administration’s top priorities.

At a news conference April 7, Edwards said Louisiana was now No. 1 for the number of tests conduct-

Ashe Cultural Arts Center is among arts and culture organizations that started an emergency relief fund for area artists and culture bearers.

cipline, including culture bearers, must have lived and worked in the Greater New Orleans metro area for at least 12 months, and must have been impacted as a result of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and need relief funds to cover living expenses. The application notes that “Black, Indigenous, people of color, women, and immigrant artists are strongly encouraged to apply.”

For more information and to access the application, go to www.creativeresponse.works/ collaborative-relief-fund.

The relief fund is part of ongoing efforts by Creative Response, a collaboration of New Orleans organizations supporting area artists during the pandemic. The fund currently holds $190,000, according to Creative Response.

— JAKE CLAPP

Governor may extend restrictions, says virus death rates higher among African Americans Gov. John Bel Edwards last week said he is considering keeping schools closed through the end

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determinants as “conditions in the places where people live, learn, work and play” and says these conditions affect a wide range of health risks and outcomes.

“I need you to understand it’s our job as a total society — not a black society — to protect the vulnerable,” Hebert said. “And African Americans are the most vulnerable by being disenfranchised and systematically marginalized for generations.” — SARAH RAVITS

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Call for nominations for Gambit’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2020 It’s that time of year when we pay tribute to those among us who get things done, work for the community good, excel at their passions or just have extraordinary ideas and talents in Gambit’s annual 40 Under 40 issue.

Tell us about your favorite do-gooders, over-achievers, unsung heroes and heroines or exceptionally proficient professionals. Elected officials are not eligible for the honor, and nominees must be 39 years old or younger on June 9, 2020. Submission deadline is May 18.

Nominations can be submitted via email to kgraves@ gambitweekly.com, or fill out a form at www.bestofneworleans. com/40under40nomination.

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of the school year and indicated it could “be a while” before Louisiana sees “life as you knew it before COVID-19,” implying that social restrictions, such as the stay at home order, may be extended beyond its current April 30 date.

By presstime Friday, the state’s number of COVID-19 cases had reached 19,253, with 755 deaths and 2,054 patients hospitalized.

The governor also acknowledged ongoing charity of which the state has been a recipient, including a recent donation from software company Salesforce of 500,000 N95 masks, 100,000 gloves and 50,000 shoe covers for hospital workers and first responders. A donation of 400,000 N95 masks from Apple CEO Tim Cook also arrived last week, as did almost 14,000 additional masks from AmeriCorps. Walmart also has pledged to donate 15,000 N95 masks and the Shell plant in Norco will donate 10,095 masks.

“This will go a long way to helping our health care and front-line workers,” Edwards said.

The donations were a glimmer of hope after a week in which Edwards announced that statistics showed COVID-19 is disproportionately fatal in Louisiana’s African American communities. So far, roughly 70% of the deaths attributed to the coronavirus across the state have been among black residents, who make up 32% of the state’s overall population, he said.

A day later, Dr. Corey Hebert, a professor, physician, media personality and chief medical officer at Dillard University in New Orleans, appeared at a news conference with Edwards and warned, “The soul of the state of Louisiana is being tried.”

“This is a defining moment for this generation of African Americans and Americans as a whole because we must rise to defeat this monster,” he said.

Rates of conditions such as hypertension, kidney disease, diabetes and heart disease are higher among African Americans, Hebert said, which can be a major factor in the mortality rate for COVID-19 patients. Public health experts have warned that the virus is more deadly in people with co-morbidities and among the elderly.

But Hebert also pointed out that higher rates of these illnesses also stem from living in systemically oppressed communities.

“There’s overwhelming data which points us squarely to the social determinants of health as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” he said.

The CDC defines these social

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COMMENTARY

When it comes to coronavirus, complacency is deadly IT HAS BEEN A LITTLE MORE THAN A MONTH

since state and local officials announced Louisiana’s first case of COVID-19, followed by bans on gatherings and finally a shutdown of many businesses and statewide stay-at-home orders for residents.

Even as the number of cases and deaths from the novel coronavirus continues to rise in the state, Gov. John Bel Edwards and Mayor LaToya Cantrell express optimism that the curve of infection appears to be flattening.

That’s good news, but it only means we’ve gained some ground in our fight with the worldwide pandemic. The battle is far from over — and complacency could be deadly.

In an April 9 news conference, Cantrell announced the opening of temporary morgues as the number of virus casualties swamp area morgues. She also said dwindling sales taxes due to business shutdowns is pushing the city into the red, estimating the deficit could reach $150 million.

Despite the economic turmoil, Cantrell said social distancing is stemming the tide of new cases. “We understand the sacrifice,” Cantrell said. “We have to do the right thing and stay the course.”

As of press time, New Orleans had 5,416 positive cases — about 30% of the cases statewide — and 225 deaths, putting it among the most infected areas per capita in the country. Louisiana had 19,253 cases, 755 deaths, 2,054 people hospitalized with COVID-19 and 479 on ventilators.

Edwards said his optimism is based not on fewer cases being reported but on lower numbers of people needing ventilators — and patients needing them for shorter times. “We’re seeing signs that we’re starting to flatten the curve,” the governor said. “We can’t say that it’s truly flattened yet, but every day over the last three or four we’ve seen those indications.”

Edwards warned that those numbers would only continue to improve if residents comply with social distancing guidelines. He also hinted

I M AG E B Y E VG E N I I KOVA L E V/ G E T T Y I M AG E S

that he may extend the stay-at-home order beyond April 30.

As residents braced for an Easter weekend without the normal egg hunts, crawfish boils and Sunday dinners with friends and families, Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the outbreak, finally ended its lockdown after 76 days. That country continues to monitor residents’ temperatures and enforce distancing guidelines to prevent another wave of infections.

And another wave is a concern in the U.S. as well.

“I caution everyone to understand that the number will continue to trend in a favorable direction only so long as the state of Louisiana continues to comply with the stay-athome order and hygiene practices,” Edwards said. National models that project an improvement, he said, are based on mitigation orders remaining in place through May — not just April 30.

“There is light at the end of all this darkness,” Edwards said, adding that if people continue to comply, “that light will come sooner, and the sooner we can begin to transition back to normalcy.”

Our old version of normalcy seems almost unachievable right now, but we can get there — by not going anywhere. We’ve come too far to let down our defenses now. Doing so could mean having to do this all over again — and losing even more of our family and friends.

11

BLAKE PONTCHARTRAIN™

NOLA BREWING LA LAGER

Hey Blake, Why are there words printed on the top of the Omni Royal Orleans hotel where it faces Chartres Street?

What do they say and who put them there?

Dear Bonnie,

When the Royal Orleans Hotel (now the Omni Royal Orleans) was built in the 1950s, architect Samuel Wilson Jr. incorporated some of the property’s history into a small section of the building. The word “CHANGE” that you see above a Chartres Street arch is a fragment salvaged from the original St. Louis Hotel and Exchange. That building stood on the site from the 1840s until 1916.

There have been three hotels at Royal and St. Louis streets. The first St. Louis Hotel, also called the City Exchange, was built there in the late 1830s but was destroyed by fire. A second St. Louis Exchange Hotel opened a few years later.

Featuring a distinctive rotunda surrounded by decorative

P H OTO B Y K A N DAC E P O W E R G R AV E S

Lettering above doors on the Chartres Street side of the Omni Royal Orleans Hotel hark back to when the site housed St. Louis Hotel and Exchange.

elements, the new hotel became a center of civic and social life in the city. When Henry Clay visited New Orleans during the winter of 1842-43, a lavish party was held in his honor in the hotel’s giant ballroom.

In addition to serving as a hotel, throughout the 1800s the St. Louis Exchange was the site of live auctions of goods and, unfortunately, slaves.

A well-known engraving by W.H. Brooke, dating from about 1842, depicts a live slave auction taking place underneath the rotunda.

After New Orleans was captured by Union forces during the Civil War, the hotel was used as a military hospital.

In 1874, the building was purchased by the Louisiana Legislature and used as the State Capitol. A few years later, the capital was moved to Baton Rouge and the building was renovated and reopened as the Royal Hotel.

A 1915 hurricane severely damaged the building, which was demolished in 1916. The site was a parking lot for many years before the Royal Orleans Hotel opened there in 1960.

BLAKEVIEW THIS MONTH MARKS 65 YEARS SINCE THE UNVEILING OF THE CITY’S MONUMENT TO ITS FOUNDER , Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville. After

years of unsuccessful efforts to honor Bienville with a permanent monument, a commission chaired by Richard Foster was formed in 1951.

The statue, which originally stood outside the Union Passenger Terminal on Loyola Avenue, was designed by noted New Orleans sculptor Angela Gregory.

Standing 26 feet tall, the bronze statue of Bienville was cast in Paris. On Bienville’s left is a figure of Father Athanase Douay, the monk who accompanied Bienville on his expedition here. A Native American at Bienville’s right represents the original inhabitants of this region.

Since Bienville was a Canadian of French descent, the French and Canadian ambassadors to the U.S. spoke at the statue’s April 24, 1955, dedication ceremony. Other speakers included Louisiana Gov. Robert Kennon, New Orleans Mayor deLesseps “Chep” Morrison and Archbishop Francis Rummel.

The two young sons of Kennon and Morrison, along with the daughter of the French consul in New Orleans, helped unveil the statue. In 1997, the monument was moved from Loyola Avenue to the French Quarter. For its new home, the city created Bienville Place, a triangular strip of land bordered by Decatur, Conti and North Peters streets.

NOLA Brewing’s first year-round lager was inspired by traditional European lagers, but made for those who know and love American lagers.

NOLA Brewing fully designed this to be a beer especially for those who love the Louisiana lifestyle. This beer pairs well with any occasion, whether it’s inside for some late-night live music on Frenchmen St., outside in the swamps of Manchac, or for allday drinking for tailgating in Baton Rouge or parading in uptown New Orleans.

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@GambitBlake | askblake@gambitweekly.com

Will

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12

‘ stay-at-home ’

Melanie Reupke

Bob Payne

Kaitlyn McQuin

kill dating

in New Orleans?

How New Orleans singles are connecting — without connecting — during the COVID-19 pandemic

Joe Frisard

B Y M AT T H A I N E S UNTIL VERY RECENTLY, DATING FELT LIKE THE NATIONAL PASTIME.

The Census Bureau reported in 2017 that more than 110 million adult Americans (nearly 50% of us) were unmarried.

That’s more than at any other time in U.S. history. Of that number, 12% said they were in some kind of relationship, while 30% said they were completely unattached.

That’s millions of Americans dipping at least one toe into the dating pool — until the pool was closed — or at least dramatically altered — by COVID-19.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, much of the country has been asked to shelter in place, isolated from peers and potential lovers. Locally, Mayor LaToya Cantrell closed all movie theaters, bars and restaurant dining areas on March 16 for public health reasons, essentially eliminating nearly all traditional first-date options.

On March 20, she took it a step further and issued a stayat-home mandate.

Did that order kill dating in New Orleans?

It’s certainly making romance more difficult, as are the realities of the highly contagious coronavirus itself. After having contracted COVID-19, New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton advised, “Just picture everyone’s got a hand grenade on them. ... Stay away from everybody.”

Dating apps, it appears, are filling the pandemic-fueled void. Tinder, for example, announced that March 29 was the swipe-ist day in history, with users logging an incredible 3 billion-plus swipes. A Tinder spokesperson also noted conversations on the app are up 20% around the world, with those interactions lasting 25% longer than before the outbreak.

New Orleanians have varying views on whether dating apps are a good use of their self-quarantine time, however.

“Since there’s no chance of meeting up for a drink if I like them, what’s the point of chatting over an app?” says local costume designer Julianne Lagniappe. “The thought of FaceTiming with a stranger sounds like as much fun as playing a board game. I’d rather wash my dishes.”

Lakeview writer Megan Burns is more hopeful, despite her two-month relationship being disrupted by the stay-athome mandate.

“You have to be patient and creative to make something work in this situation,” she says, “but if you can (make it work), maybe that’s someone you can seriously look at for the longer term.” She pauses before paraphrasing Rihanna, “Maybe it’s true that you can find love in a hopeless place.”

The issue becomes what to do when you “click” with that special someone. Some say it’s irresponsible to meet during these times of social distancing, while others say meeting

is OK with the right precautions.

Many opinions fall somewhere in between. This is, after all, uncharted territory.

So how is socially distanced dating different?

“Well, I don’t think I would have played an online game of Settlers of Catan on a first date under normal circumstances,” says Christopher Hines, a local non-profit administrator, “but that felt like a better option than staring at a stranger through a video chat while we drank alone in our homes.”

Societal norms around how to live amid coronavirus have changed quickly in the month since the city’s first confirmed case. Initial orders from City Hall allowed bars and restaurants to stay open with reduced seating, and maximum attendance at gatherings was gradually reduced from 250 to 50 to 10.

The norms around dating have similarly changed for many of the city’s singles.

Bob Payne, an education and political consultant, remembers being on a date at the Uptown wine bar Delachaise on March 11.

“That was the night everything changed,” he says. “In the span of one date, Tom Hanks tested positive for the virus and the NBA canceled its season!”

After that, Payne vowed to stay away from crowded places. His next date was a walk through the Central Business District, but that was nerve-wracking, as well.

The World Health Organization recommends individuals stand a minimum of 6 feet apart, but Payne wasn’t confident in his date’s ability to estimate.

“I’d walk into the street to maintain the right distance,” he recalls, “but then she’d follow me there, not realizing I was trying to distance from her. Now we’re not even supposed to walk in groups, so I’ve just given up.”

For Joe Frisard, dating during a pandemic has meant exploring new technologies. He says that his first “virtual date” was a success.

He introduced her to his dogs.

She introduced him to her cat. He showed her the backyard he was working on during the last time they messaged, and she showed

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“It’s natural during times of stress to want to be physically close to a partner,” adds Andrew Hancock, an area sex therapist and clinical social worker.

Few in the dating arena are under more stress than the city’s medical professionals. Like most of New Orleans’ nurses, Liz Fugate has faced increased work hours in an overwhelmed hospital.

She wants the support that comes from a familiar partner.

“It doesn’t feel good to have to explain how I’m feeling from scratch every time I talk to someone new on a dating app,” she says.

This is a struggle for many in the city’s single population. Entrepreneur Jake Teresi notes that couples have the luxury of entering the pandemic as a two-person unit.

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him the room in her house she was painting.

Though it went well, he says his date joked she didn’t like it when he called it a “virtual date.”

“I think she’s right,” he laughs.

The term made it sound like virtual reality. “It wasn’t,” he said. “It felt real, and this is what real dates are like right now.”

When he was younger, Frisard says, his friends occasionally would set him up on blind dates.

Before meeting, he and the date would talk on the phone to get to know each other. “This is kind of like that,” he says, “but way better — I can see her.”

Not everyone is as quick to adjust to dating’s new reality, however.

Tracy Carlson, a licensed psychologist in New Orleans and a certified sex therapist, says each person will have to deal with his or her own concerns and obstacles while trying to pursue dating in a time of social distancing. She acknowledges some might find it hard to develop intimacy at a distance, while others will struggle with loneliness.

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scheduled to end April 30 but could be extended — the more online daters will be tested. Some, like Lagniappe, believe meeting for a date could be OK if you trust one another and otherwise are staying isolated.

“At some point, can you graduate into someone else’s quarantine? Like a quarantine marriage?” she asks, saying she has a bike riding date along Bayou St. John scheduled, but is planning to stay 6 feet apart from her date.

Local comedian Kaitlyn McQuin says she’s taking social distancing seriously, but also acknowledges how sad it feels not to be hugged for a month. If she was talking to someone and it got serious, McQuin says, she might consider meeting for a date.

“I think it would be OK if I knew they were otherwise staying home — and they weren’t showing symptoms — and I knew they wouldn’t be around anyone immunocompromised,” she says.

“Maybe under those circumstances I’d meet them at a Rouses and talk to them from across several parking spots.”

But most New Orleanians interviewed admitted they would consider dropping the 6-foot restriction if they met someone they could trust to be responsible and monogamous. Though Lagniappe notes, monogamy in this case means staying away from all other people, not just other romantic partners — “Like (dealing with) an STD on steroids.”

One woman asked to remain anonymous because she worried she would be judged. She met a man on a dating app last week and within five days, they decided to spend nights together.

“My friends are against it, but they’re all partnered up” she says.

“I’m thankful to have someone to share my anxiety, boredom and rare moments of delight with — for my own sanity.

Experts like sex therapist/psychologist Carlson believe virtual dates provide ample opportunity for a relationship to progress.

She says several of her clients have appreciated that social distancing has created the opportunity to move relationships more slowly, allowing the opportunity to intimately get to know a potential partner. To foster deeper connections, she recommends books like “Eight Dates: Essential Conversations for a Lifetime of Love.”

Noting that the brain is the body’s largest sex organ, therapists say couples can find creative ways to feel connected without being together.

For couples looking to add physical touch to their relationships, Carlson references a sexual health model from the University of Minnesota that shows talking about sex is the cornerstone of sexual health — and virtual dating allows for creative and sensual ways to do that.

“On one hand, I hate that I can’t hang out or touch the person I’m dating,” Burns says. Both she and the man she had been seeing since just before the stay-at-home mandate are caretakers to family members they live with. They agreed those responsibilities should trump personal desires, but are staying in touch online and by phone.

On the other hand, Burns is hopeful this situation might allow everyone to rethink the way they see romance.

“I think we’ve created a scenario with online dating that provides so many options for variety and instant gratification. We’ve created this ‘hook up’ culture,” she ex-

Jake Teresi plains, saying it’s increasingly rare for partners to wait significant amounts of time to be physically intimate.

“But waiting used to be normal,” she says. “Maybe social distancing will remind us that patience can help us build a different kind of intimacy.”

Melanie Reupke agrees. She was set to begin a job at Preservation Hall last month until COVID-19 put thousands in the local hospitality and service industries out of work. While damaging to the economy, she’s hopeful new circumstances can forge more meaningful relationships.

“Since I can’t connect physically with someone at the moment,” Reupke says, “maybe it allows us to foster a different, truer kind of relationship? A girl can hope.”

Social distancing hasn’t just changed the structure and

pace of dating, it’s also affected what people spend their dates discussing.

Payne says he prefers to keep first encounters light and fun, but that’s not always possible now.

“My date on the walk had just lost her job because of coronavirus, and the pandemic has completely altered both of our lives,” he says. “So it’s natural we spent most of the walk talking about it. That’s not necessarily a fun conversation, though.”

“I can only be so creative responding to ‘How’s quarantine going?’ ” explains Branna Elenz, who says she gets asked the question constantly on dating apps. Elenz was surprised at how challenging conversation can be without life’s daily experiences to pull from.

“I miss being able to tell my new beau about the crazy thing that happened at school, the band I saw the other night, or the beer release I went to,” she says. “Now, there’s a 95% chance I’m chilling and watching ‘Ozark’ on Netflix … just like when you asked me four hours ago.”

For many, new stress has a way of dominating our thoughts and interactions, challenging even the sturdiest relationships.

Danielle King is an emergency room nurse who has been in a five-month relationship she described as “happy and carefree.” During her time off, she and her boyfriend, Cody, would relax at their favorite bars around the city, or take trips to places like Nashville, Tennessee, and Denver, Colorado.

With the onset of a pandemic, however, she says the relationship has changed. Because of her repeated and prolonged exposure to the virus at work, King thought they should self-quarantine separately.

“We tried,” she says, “but that didn’t last long. The prospect of being apart for months was too painful.”

Each day King comes home

15

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Self-quarantining has been difficult for most , and Lagniappe is

learning that trying to make sure potential partners also quarantine has its own challenges. She recently discovered her bike ride date got drunk and left his phone at a friend’s house.

She says she doesn’t care that he was drunk. (“We’re all day drinkers now,” she laughs.) She

Dating gives us ‘hope for the

WIN

future, and I think we all could use that right now.

’

— BOB FRISARD cares he was at his friend’s house.

“That means he lied and wasn’t quarantining,” she says. “It’s all the same bullshit. We just wash our hands more now.”

Not everyone thinks “the same old” is a bad thing.

For Frisard, dating has always provided reprieve from more monotonous aspects of life.

“We don’t have festivals or ball games or weekends to get excited about anymore,” he says, adding that one day can bleed into the next like the movie, “Groundhog Day.” “But even though dating looks different right now, connecting with someone that might care about us is still something to look forward to.”

He subdues a smile as he says he has a third chat scheduled with the woman who didn’t like the term, “virtual date.”

“Dating gives us hope for the future,” he says, “and I think we all could use that right now.”

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from work, she sanitizes all the gear she wore and leaves it in a secure place. She also makes sure to fully sanitize both herself and her car before leaving the hospital. But that doesn’t totally alleviate her worry.

“There’s so much we don’t know about the virus,” King says. “The standards are constantly changing as we learn (more about it), but that doesn’t make it any more reassuring. Every day I have the fear I’m either potentially laying down my life for someone else, or — worse — I’m laying down the lives of the people I love by exposing them.”

King says it’s left her in a regular state of fear, anxiety, worry and stress.

“I’ve noticed myself lashing out at Cody in ways I never would have before,” she says, “but I’m overwhelmed. It’s overwhelming.”

EATDRINK

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16

DURING PASSOVER , the phone is always ringing at Kosher Cajun New York Deli & Grocery (www.koshercajun.convertri.com) in Metairie. But this year, proprietor Joel Brown had to change his approach.

“Instead of one call for 100 people, it’s 50 calls with orders for two people,” Brown says.

A holiday celebrating perseverance and togetherness in the Jewish community, Passover (April 8-16 this year) arrived during the coronavirus fight.

To carry on, people have changed the logistics of the holiday’s traditional Seder feast under the mandates of social distancing. For the deli, it means narrowing the portions of once prodigious family meals and de-

Pickup boiled crawfish for socially distanced dining

BY W I LL C OV I E LLO

as he was preparing his Mid-City seafood restaurant Clesi’s Restaurant & Catering (4323 Bienville St., 504909-0108; www.clesicatering.com) for the Easter weekend.

Normally, the restaurant’s menu of boiled seafood includes shrimp and crabs, but with the restrictions imposed to fight the coronavirus pandemic, he’s selling only boiled crawfish for curbside pickup. He offered free delivery for orders of at least 20 pounds for the weekend and if it’s successful, he’ll continue to do it, he says.

Crawfish are in season and in good supply, but many seafood houses have had to adapt their service to current conditions. Locals may not be able to gather around a table covered in newspaper topped with boiled seafood, but they can still enjoy more modest piles.

Boiled crawfish have been the main attraction at Clesi’s, and orders are available by the pound, along with sausage, potatoes, lemons and garlic. He’s trimmed the menu, dropping salads and some appetizers, but diners also can pick up meat and seafood po-boys, jambalaya, burgers and more. While catering is down, he’s picked up business sending food to a hospital. The restaurant uses several delivery apps and serves food from noon to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and until 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

In Gentilly, Zimmer’s Seafood (4915 St. Anthony Ave., 504-2827150; www.facebook.com/zimmersseafood) initially closed after the city imposed restrictions in order to conduct a thorough cleaning and build a service window like a snowball stand. It reopened April 7 and offers most of its former menu (updated regularly on its Facebook page), including po-boys and sides.

From its boiling pots, diners can pick up crawfish, shrimp, Dungeness crab, turkey necks and more. Order ahead by phone or in person. Zimmer’s also sells bags of live crawfish when they’re available. It’s open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Satur- day, and stays open until 7 p.m. on Fridays.

Seither’s Seafood (279 Hickory Ave., Harahan, 504738-1116; www. seithersseafood. com) throws plenty of extras into its boils, including garlic, lemons, oranges, pineapple, sweet potatoes, carrots, celery and bay leaves. It offers curbside pickup of boiled crawfish, shrimp, snow crabs, Dungeness crabs or Lake Pontchartrain blue crabs. There’s also a short menu of fried or blackened seafood and po-boys. Seither’s is open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday. It also sets up a boiling rig at Zuppardo’s Family Market (5010 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie) Tuesday through Saturday, and it’s open from 11 a.m. until it sells out of food.

In Bucktown, Deanie’s Seafood (www.deanies.com) is offering a large menu of boiled seafood and prepared dishes for pickup at its restaurant (1713 Lake Ave., Metairie, 504-831-4141) and customers can shop in the adjoining seafood market. The menu includes boiled crawfish, shrimp and crabs, as well as New Orleans-style barbecue shrimp, fried seafood po-boys and platters and more. The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. At the Uptown location (2200 Magazine St., 504-962-7760), gumbo, crawfish etouffee, crawfish bisque and red beans and rice are available by the quart. It’s open from noon to 7 p.m.

Thursday through Sunday. The French Quarter location currently is closed.

On the West Bank, Salvo’s Seafood (7742 Highway 23, Belle Chasse, 504393-7303; www.salvosseafood.com) added phone lines for call-in orders but customers also can drive up to order and pick up food. It serves boiled seafood and some regular menu items as well as bags of live crawfish. Salvo’s is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and Saturday. It stays open until 9 p.m. on Fridays, and on Sundays, it serves boiled seafood only, from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m.

Email dining@gambitweekly.com

Passover provisions

All bayou self “WE’RE TRYING TO DO EVERYTHING WE CAN,” James Clesi said last week

FORK CENTER

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

James Clesi holds up a bigcrawfish at Clesi’s Restaurant & Catering.

P H OTO BY I A N M C N U LT Y/ T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E | T H E N E W O RL E A N S A DVO C AT E

Boiled crawfish also are available from other providers. Chef Bob Iacovone opened his gourmet-togo nook Iacovone Kitchen (5033 Freret St., 504-533-9742; www. iacovonekitchen.com) in Uptown.

He set up a boiling pot recently, and after selling out of crawfish on his first day, he plans to keep doing boils on Fridays or Saturdays. He posts his weekly menu on Facebook and Instagram, and food is available through pickup or delivery apps. Iacovone Kitchen is open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Crawfish boils have been a staple for Southern Hospitality Catering (3259 Chippewa St., 504-897-0477; www.southernhospitalitycatering. com), and founder John Rowland has flown to other states to run crawfish boil events. During spring, the company usually would be busy catering graduation events and weddings, but during the pandemic, it’s switched to pickup meal service at its Uptown location. Boiled crawfish orders can be picked up from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m Friday and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Meals packed for four or six people are available Wednesday through Saturday.

In coming weeks, it will sell favorite dishes from its festival menus.

Joel Brown takes catering orders at Kosher Cajun Deli in Metairie.

vising delivery systems for complete “Passover in a box” holiday kits.

Some synagogues are hosting virtual Seders with online video calls, and some families are doing the same to connect with loved ones in different states, or from separate homes in the same neighborhood.

Kosher Cajun catering operations had to change its game plan. The menu has whole brisket, as always, but also brisket by the pound. Dishes once portioned in increments of 10 are available individually.

Andy Adelman made similar adjustments at Casablanca Restaurant (www.casablancanola.com), his kosher Middle Eastern and Moroccan restaurant in Metairie. He shut down the restaurant rather than shift to take-out, but he kept its Kosher kitchen running for Passover catering.

“It’s just harder for people this year, and I can relate because we always go to my sister-in-law’s,” Adelman says. “We never make Passover at our house.”

Rimon (www.rimontulanehillel. com), the Kosher restaurant at Tulane Hillel, hasn’t done Passover catering

delay the moment when I have to say the show’s over.”

The statewide shutdown has cost Mawi Tortilleria (www.mawinola. com) most of its business supplying other restaurants with fresh tortillas.

Co-owner Will Avelar tried to pivot, making his own tacos and pupusas to sell at his tiny Metairie shop. It wasn’t enough to keep the wheels turning, until De Wulf called him one day with a Feed the Front Line NOLA order.

“I was doing 15 orders a day, tops, now I got a call asking ‘Can you do 100 a day?’ ” Avelar says. “If I look at the week and know I have orders on

Special order AVERY’S ON TULANE (www.avery-

sontulane.com) looks closed, like countless New Orleans restaurants during the coronavirus shutdown.

But the Mid-City po-boy shop is busy a few times a week as owners Christy and Justin Pitard cook catering orders for Feed the Front Line NOLA (www.feedthefrontlinenola.org) .

The New Orleans nonprofit then delivers the food to local hospitals, and pays the restaurant for the food.

“Honestly, it’s what’s keeping us going through this,” Justin Pitard says. “Our money is dwindling. My hope is that this will keep us at a point where, when we’re allowed to get back to business, we won’t be so far in debt that we can’t recover. It’s all we’ve got right now.”

The effort to feed frontline health care workers in the pandemic fight has become a life support system for some 40 New Orleans restaurants. Like the Pitards, many of their operators say it’s making the difference between eking along and shuttering completely.

As communities around the world grapple with the economic consequences of coronavirus shutdowns, this grassroots effort is illustrating one solution through mutual support during the crisis. The campaign itself, however, continues on a day-to-day basis as volunteer organizers struggle to find their own lifelines.

“It’s this beautiful thing in messed up times,” says Feed the Front Line NOLA founder Devin De Wulf. “The machine is operating, and the machine could continue if the money were there.”

Feed the Front Line NOLA grew out of the Krewe of Red Beans, a Carnival marching club. It now buys about 1,800 meals each day from combinations of its partner restaurants, all bound for staff at 15 area hospitals from Kenner to St. Bernard Parish.

By April 8, the nonprofit had bought 24,000 meals, accounting for roughly $250,000 in sales for the restaurants.

The funding mechanism, however, remains tenuous, mostly flowing from crowd-sourced donations through its website and a GoFundMe campaign.

“We raised $17,000 one day, which is a lot, but we spent $19,000 that day to support these restaurants and feed the hospital staff,” De Wulf says.

“Every day, if I can raise $20,000, I can nudge it across the line and

P H OTO C O U R T E S Y D E V I N D E W U L F

Dr. Annelies De Wulf and Devin De Wulf at a Krewe of Red Beans event.

three days, that means I can say we’re open for at least three more days.”

Blake Cressey knows about working with minimal resources. She started out selling hot plates from home before she was able to buy a food truck and, eventually, open Tasty Treat (www.tastytreatrestaurant.com) on North Claiborne Avenue. Now, Feed the Front Line NOLA orders are keeping the lights on.

“It’s the only steady income we have,” Cressey says. “It’s keeping a few employees working.”

There are cheaper ways to feed health care workers, but that is not the point. De Wulf created Feed the Front Line NOLA to keep restaurants in business. As the shutdown persists, De Wulf fears that many local restaurants won’t be able to rebound. Other efforts along similar lines have rapidly taken shape, connecting the needs of hospital workers and hospitality businesses.

Chef’s Brigade (www.chefsbrigadenola.org) bundles the efforts of different restaurants together to feed large teams of first responders, and has grown to three “brigades” providing meals to New Orleans police districts and Emergency Medical Services units. Individual restaurants have adopted similar campaigns themselves, with places as varied as Central City BBQ (www.centralcitybbq.com), Sofia (www.sofianola.com), Mahony’s Po-boys & Seafood (www. mahonyspoboys.com) and Atomic Burger (www.theatomicburger.com) seeking contributions to pay for meals they cook for hospital staff.

Feed the Front Line NOLA pays out-of-work musicians to deliver the food, but every other part of the

EAT+DRINK operation is run by volunteers.

Kristen Essig, who with her husband chef Michael Stoltzfus owns Coquette (www.coquettenola.com) and Thalia (www.thalianola.com), says Feed the Front Line NOLA revenue means she can continue paying health insurance for her staff, most of whom are out of work. It also is paying other dividends.

“This is keeping us sane and grounded,” Essig says. “So much of our business is about being on schedule and having discipline. This is like I have a reservation for 80 people at 7:30 every night I need to plan for.”

She credits De Wulf for meeting restaurants on their own terms, urging them to prepare meals of the same quality they’d normally serve in their dining rooms and sourcing from the same purveyors when possible to spread the support through their supply chains.

“In our restaurants, we work so hard to find the right resources, and he gets that,” Essig says. “He’s doing the same thing too, but with people.

He’s sourcing the right people to make this happen.” — IAN McNULTY / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

Direct connection WITH RESTAURANTS CLOSED AND FESTIVALS CANCELED due to social

distancing restrictions, Louisiana’s seafood industry is left with produce it would normally sell. Louisiana Direct Seafood (www.louisianadirectseafood.com), a marketing program developed by the LSU AgCenter and Louisiana Sea Grant, helps fisherman sell directly to the public, which is a financial lifeline while their normal buyers are cutting back.

The program website allows fishermen to post available seafood, information about special pop-up seafood markets and more. There also are links to fishermen, and the site allows users to search by seafood, from alligator, crabs, oysters and shrimp to individual species of fish. Frozen seafood can be shipped as well.

“Our focus right now is on shrimp,” said Robert Twilley, Louisiana Sea Grant College Program executive director, in a press release. “With inshore shrimp season opening in May-June and the freezers being full, the product has nowhere to go unless we can help connect the dots and use our established networks to create new supply chains.”

The program has four hubs spread across the coast: Southshore New Orleans; La Ter, covering Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes; Port of Delcambre in Acadiana; and Cameron in western Louisiana. The current program was launched in 2011, and Twilley developed it based on the Delcambre effort.

— WILL COVIELLO

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in the past because it’s normally too busy preparing holiday meals to be served in the Jewish student center.

With Tulane’s campus now largely empty and restaurant service on hiatus, chef Daniel Esses focused on a Passover catering menu. It included a traditional Seder dinner for one.

The Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans has organized teams of volunteers through its JNOLA network of young professionals to deliver Seder dinners from local Kosher caterers. — IAN McNULTY / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

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(www.no-hunger.org) provides meals and food supplies to people in need in 23 parishes across south Louisiana. It also focuses on addressing needs following disasters such as the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, which has closed schools and businesses and created a steep rise in unemployment. Second Harvest president Natalie Jayroe spoke to Gambit about its efforts.

How has the coronavirus pandemic affected Second Harvest?

NATALIE JAYROE: We are seeing a lot more need. We increased our distribution by a million pounds a month or 833,000 meals. That’s up about 25% over what we usually do, but the only reason it’s only up 25% is because we’ve come close to running out of food.

Not only are we serving children that aren’t in schools and supporting the NORDC system, we’re serving seniors who can’t go to the stores and shop or go to their community centers, and we’re supporting people who are recovering from the virus and are still quarantined. We’re supporting tens of thousands of service industry workers and everyone who’s affected and is left without a paycheck.

Second Harvest works through a network of partners. We have 700 partners in the southern part of the state, including churches, nonprofits, schools, hospitals, community action organizations and parish governments. Many of of the organizations are volunteer run, and we’ve lost 70 locations that don’t have the capacity to operate at this time. We have been working with (New Orleans City Council) Members Kristin Gisleson Palmer and Jay Banks in recent days in Mid-City, the 7th Ward and Algiers. We are working with Jefferson Parish. We’re at (the Shrine on Airline) doing pickup of 1,000 meals twice a week. We’re taking meals and delivering to people’s homes. With that effort, we’re focusing on seniors and people who are homebound with illness.

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We’re distributing 833,000 more meals, but the vast majority of food is going out in emergency boxes.

You have to think about the grocery store when you think about us.

A lot of food is donated by grocery stores. With all of the restaurants and the hospitality industry closed, we’re getting some of that food.

We also have a partnership with the (United States Department of Agriculture) and Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry. They got a waiver for us, which is hard to do, to be able to do household distribution in times of disaster.

How can people help?

J: There are many ways, and people can see what’s best for them on our website. People can volunteer.

We practice social distancing — everyone in the kitchen is wearing masks and gloves. They also can make a donation. That’s helpful because it allows us to stretch that dollar. Basically, $1 provides four meals. We use that to acquire food from all over the country, because a lot of food is donated, and we just have to pay the freight to get it here. There are always food drives.

People can always donate cans.

What has Second Harvest learned from this challenge?

J: Here’s what we learned from working through disasters: Our disaster plan needs to be flexible.

We enter every challenge with that principle. We ask what’s the need in the community and listen to what people say. That helps us respond.

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C O M PL 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 Notice: Due to coronavirus and COVID-19, dining at restaurants is temporarily prohibited.

The following restaurants are open for takeout, curbside pick-up and delivery.

All information is subject to change. Contact the restaurant to confirm service options.

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.

BYWATER Luna Libre — 3600 St. Claude Ave., (504) 237-1284 — Carnitas made with pork from Shank Charcuterie and citrus from Ben & Ben Becnel farm fills a taco topped with onion and cilantro. Curbside pickup is available. D Tue and Thu-Sat, brunch Sat-Sun. $ Polly’s Bywater Cafe — 3225 St. Claude Ave., (504) 459-4571; www.pollysbywatercafe.com — A grilled biscuit is topped with poached eggs, hog’s head cheese and Creole hollandaise and served with home fries or grits. $$

CBD 14 Parishes — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave.; www.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. $$ Eat Well — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave.; www.pythianmarket.com — Phoritto is a spinach tortilla filled with brisket, chicken or tofu, plus bean sprouts, jalapenos, onions and basil and is served with a cup of broth. Curbside pickup and delivery available. L and D daily. $ Kais — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave., (941) 481-9599; www.pythianmarket.com — A Sunshine bowl includes salmon, corn, mango, green onions, edamame, pickled ginger, ponzu spicy mayonnaise, cilantro, masago and nori strips. Curbside pickup and delivery available. L and D daily. $$ La Cocinita — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave., (504) 309-5344; www.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; www.meribopizza.com — A Meridionale pie is topped with pulled pork, chilies, ricotta, mozzarella, collard greens and red sauce. Delivery available. L and D daily. $$ Red Gravy — 125 Camp St., (504) 561-8844; www.redgravycafe.com — Thin cannoli pancakes are filled with cannoli cream and topped with a chocolate drizzle. Takeout available. Check website for hours. $$ Willie Mae’s — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave.; www.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/UNIVERSITY NEIGHBORHOODS Mikimoto — 3301 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 4881881; www.mikimotosushi.com — The South Carrollton roll includes tuna tataki, avocado and snow crab. Takeout and delivery available.

L Sun-Fri, D daily. $$ Pyramids Cafe — 3151 Calhoun St., (504) 861-9602 — Diners will find Mediterranean cuisine featuring such favorites as shawarma prepared on a rotisserie. Takeout and delivery available. L, D daily. $$ Vincent’s Italian Cuisine — 7839 St. Charles Ave., (504) 866-9313; www.vincentsitaliancuisine.com — See Metairie section for restaurant description. Curbside pickup and delivery available. $$

CITYWIDE Breaux Mart — Citywide; www.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 Lounge — 2227 St. Claude Ave., (504) 265-8855; www.carnavallounge.com — The menu of Brazilian street food includes feijoada, a traditional stew of black beans and pork served over rice. Curbside pickup is available. D daily. $$ Mardi Gras Zone — 2706 Royal., (504) 947-8787 — The grocery has a deli counter offering po-boys, sides and pizza. $

HARAHAN/JEFFERSON/ RIVER RIDGE Bienvenue — 467 Hickory Ave., Harahan, (504) 305-4792; www.bienvenueharahan.com — A Marrone sandwich features smoked prime rib, provolone, horseradish aioli and jus on Gendusa’s French bread. Drive-through pickup available. L daily, D Tue-Sat, brunch Sun. $$ The Rivershack Tavern — 3449 River Road, (504) 834-4938; www.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. $

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

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

LAKEVIEW Lakeview Brew Coffee Cafe — 5606 Canal Blvd., (504) 483-7001; www.lakeviewbrew.com — This casual cafe offers gourmet coffees, pastries, desserts, sandwiches and salads. Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery are available.

B,L daily, D Mon.-Sat., brunch Sat.-Sun. $ Lotus Bistro — 203 W. Harrison Ave., (504) 533-9879; www.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 flakes. Takeout and delivery are available. L and D Tue-Sun. $$

METAIRIE Andrea’s Restaurant — 3100 N. 19th St., Metairie, (504) 834-8583; www.andreasrestaurant.com — Speckled trout royale is topped with lump crabmeat and lemon cream sauce.

Curbside pickup and delivery are available. L, D daily, brunch Sun. $$$ Kosher Cajun New York Deli & Grocery — 3519 Severn Ave., Metairie, (504) 888-2010; www.koshercajun.com — This New York-style deli specializes in sandwiches, including corned beef and pastrami. Takeout available.

L Sun-Thu, D Mon-Thu. $ Mark Twain’s Pizza Landing — 2035 Metairie Road, Metairie, (504) 832-8032; www. marktwainpizza.com — Mark Twain’s serves salads, po-boys and pies like the Italian pizza.

Takeout and curbside pickup are available. L Tue-Sat, D Tue-Sun. $ Vincent’s Italian Cuisine — 4411 Chastant St., Metairie, (504) 885-2984; www.vincentsitaliancuisine.com — Corn and crab bisque is served in a toasted bread cup. Curbside pickup and delivery available. Tue-Sun. $$

MID-CITY/TREME Brown Butter Southern Kitchen & Bar — 231 N. Carrollton Ave., Suite C, (504) 609-3871; www.brownbutterrestaurant.com — 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. Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery are available. $$ Doson Noodle House — 135 N. Carrollton Ave., (504) 309-7283; www.facebook.com/dosonnoodlehouse — Bun thit is Vietnamese-style grilled pork with cucumber, onions, lettuce,

UPTOWN Joey K’s — 3001 Magazine St., (504) 8910997; www.joeyksrestaurant.com ­— This casual eatery serves fried seafood platters, salads, sandwiches and Creole favorites.

Takeout and delivery available. $$ Miyako Japanese Seafood & Steakhouse — 1403 St. Charles Ave., (504) 410-9997; www. japanesebistro.com — Miyako offers a full range of Japanese cuisine. Delivery available. $$ Piccola Gelateria — 4525 Freret St., (504) 493-5999; www.piccolagelateria.com — The cafe offers 18 rotating flavors of small-batch Italian-style gelatos and sorbettos. The menu also includes flatbreads on piadina, crepes and espresso drinks. Takeout and curbside pickup available. L and D Tue-Sun. $

WAREHOUSE DISTRICT Carmo — 527 Julia St., (504) 875-4132; www. cafecarmo.com — The menu includes dishes inspired by many tropical cuisines. Takeout and delivery are available. Mon-Sat. $$ Provisions Grab-n-Go Marketplace — Higgins Hotel, 500 Andrew Higgins Blvd., (504) 5281941; www.higgingshotelnola.com — The coffeeshop serves salads, sandwiches, pastries and more. Takeout available. Service daily. $

WEST BANK Mosca’s — 4137 Hwy. 90 W., Westwego, (504) 436-8950; www.moscasrestaurant. com — This family-style eatery has changed little since opening in 1946. Popular dishes include shrimp Mosca, chicken a la grande and baked oysters Mosca, made with breadcrumps and Italian seasonings. Curbside pickup available. D Wed-Sat. Cash only. $$$ Specialty Italian Bistro — 2330 Belle Chasse Hwy., Gretna, (504) 391-1090; www.specialtyitalianbistro.com — The menu combines Old World Italian favorites and pizza. Chicken piccata is a paneed chicken breast topped with lemon-caper piccata sauce served with angel hair pasta, salad and garlic cheese bread. Takeout and delivery available. Service daily. $$

21 G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > A p r i l 1 4 - 27 > 2 0 2 0

TAKE-OUT TO EAT

mint, cilantro and fish sauce served over rice or vermicelli. The menu includes rice and vermicelli dishes, pho, spring rolls and more. Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery are available. $$ Five Happiness — 3511 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 482-3935; www.fivehappiness.com — The large menu offers dishes ranging from wonton soup to seafood to lo mein. Takeout and delivery available. $$ Katie’s Restaurant — 3701 Iberville St., (504) 488-6582; www.katiesinmidcity.com — The Boudreaux pizza is topped with cochon de lait, spinach, red onions, roasted garlic, scallions and olive oil. Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery available. L and D Tue-Sun. $$ Nonna Mia — 3125 Esplanade Ave., (504) 948-1717; www.nonnamianola.com — A Divine Portobello appetizer includes chicken breast, spinach in creamy red pepper sauce and crostini. Curbside pickup and delivery are available. Service daily. $$

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Raj Smoove streams DJ sets throughout the week during the coronavirus pandemic

BY JAKE CLAPP RAJ SMOOVE, LIKE A LOT OF NEW ORLEANS MUSICIANS and perform-

ing artists, pivoted quickly to digital platforms once the city’s bars, music venues and clubs were ordered to close during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The DJ and producer has leaned hard into Facebook (www.facebook. com/RajSmoove) and Instagram (@ rajsmoove) in the era of social distancing. In the four weeks since New Orleans clubs shut down, Smoove has established four popular weekly live DJ sets and has regularly been featured in other online music initiatives in the area.

Smoove pulls out candles and R&B slow jams for “Quiet Storm” from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Tuesday nights. At noon Thursdays, he plays old school hip-hop for the “You GOTS to Chill” lunchtime mix — and for the latest installment, he pulled up a bandana and performed at Peaches Records.

For the “In Your House Party” from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Fridays, Smoove got approval from the city to broadcast from inside the closed House of Blues. On Sundays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., he hosts the “Mimosa on Your Sofa” brunch mix.

Each session has registered thousands — often tens of thousands — of views on Facebook and Instagram livestreams.

“I got a message from somebody on Facebook that said they were really, really down and were stressed and kind of almost on their last straw,” Smoove says, “and them getting the chance to hear music brought them out of it and gave them a little bit of light.

“That means a lot. That carries a lot of weight — I’m just like, man, I’m just gonna get online and I’m going to play some records how I normally do. … I didn’t know how people were going to receive it, I just knew that I needed to keep doing what it was that I did, and it turned into something.”

Smoove also performed inside Gallier Hall on March 27 to kick off the Office of Cultural Economy’s “Embrace the Culture” series, a City Hall initiative to showcase local artists and culture bearers during the pandemic. And he’s DJed Zoom

parties, a “virtual appreciation” event for InspireNOLA charter school system teachers, a late-night “Midnight Breakfast” event with Dillard University, and took part in the “Live from the Porch” cyber-festival on April 4 — which he technically couldn’t do from his porch due to rain.

If times were normal, fans would be able to find Smoove regularly at the House of Blues’ Foundation Room, Blue Nile and the Ace Hotel. He’s also the goto DJ for the New Orleans Pelicans and hosts a weekly show on 98.5 WYLD FM. In the early 2000s, he was the in-house producer and DJ for Young Money Entertainment — Lil Wayne called Smoove “The greatest DJ in the world.”

When the pandemic started to stretch across the U.S., DJs and producers were among some of the first acts to livestream sets and reach a national audience.

D-Nice started hosting “Club Quarantine” on Instagram Live, drawing more than 100,000 P R OV I D E D P H OTO B Y L AT I G I D P H OTO G R A P H Y simultaneous viewers — with people like Michelle Obama, Oprah New Orleans DJ and producer Raj Smoove has been hosting four popular weekly music Winfrey, Jennifer Lopez and sessions on Facebook and Instagram during the Rihanna watching. Smoove says COVID-19 pandemic he also reached out to E-Clazz, an Atlanta DJ formerly from New Orleans who started livestreaming to perform where New Orleanians early on, for some information about were: Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, starting his own streams.

Baton Rouge.

In contrast to other DJs he saw go “Now, it’s kind of the same thing, but online randomly and for extended it’s through the internet, virtually bringperiods of time, Smoove wanted to ing the party to everybody,” he says. put his shows “on a schedule, so People are socializing in the livesthat I don’t oversaturate myself,” he tream chats, Smoove says, “kind of says. “People can see me at specific immersing themselves in the fantatimes and with specific playlists and sy” of being at the club, dropping vibes, so that every party isn’t the jokes about going to the bar for a same party.” drink, someone stepping on another Smoove says he’s taken lessons person’s shoes, having to wait in line from Hurricane Katrina. Following for the bathrooms. the storm and the levee failures, his “Somebody made a post about fan base was dispersed and he endcars getting towed outside,” he says. ed up in Chicago.

“It’s an opportunity for people to “Pretty quickly, once people got kind of just forget what’s going on their feet on the ground, people and for all of us to recreate this prewere looking to hear some music,” vious reality that we all want to get he says. People wanted a social back to as soon as possible.” connection, so he started traveling

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Savant garde

Louis Michot and his Nouveau Electric label release new music

BY WILL COVIELLO FOR LOUIS MICHOT, THE LOST BAYOU RAMBLERS

frontman , the term “avant-garde” is simple.

“It means ‘never seen before,’ ” he says from his home in Arnaudville.

It might not be as clear what it means to audiences at The Stone, a New York club that curator John Zorn dedicates to experimental and avant-garde music. After participating in a four-violin group, including the Violent Femmes’ Gordon Gano and the String Noise duo of Pauline Kim and Conrad Harris , Michot was invited to do a 12P H OTO P R OV I D E D B Y LO U I S M I C H OT show cycle at The Stone.

Leyla McCalla, Conrad Harris, Pauline Kim and Louis “I was already way out Michot recorded ‘L.E.S. Douze, Vol. 2’ at The Stone. the box [for The Stone], being a Louisiana French artist,” Michot says. “Usually it’s jazz The song with the most warmth is composers and all this stuff.”

McCalla’s version of the Haitian folk In 2018, Michot created his Nouveau song “Latibonit.” The violins have a Electric Records label to release less gypsy jazz sound over McCalla’s celtraditional music by Louisiana artists. lo, but her gentle singing stands out.

He released “L.E.S. Douze: The Michot says he wrote “La Lune Est Stoned,” an album of music from The Croche” as an ode to his two muses, Stone residency, in September 2018. his wife and New Orleans. Translated, The second album, “L.E.S. Douze, the title means “the moon is crooked,” Vol. 2” will be released April 17. but in slang, “croche” means crooked For his residency, Michot peror funky, Michot says. It’s one of the formed with all of his bands, so there more uptempo, foot-stomping, fun were nights featuring the Lost Bayou songs on the album.

Ramblers, Vermillionaires, Les Freres “Cajun Noise Construction” was a Michot, the Poguetry project with one-time-only recording. It’s based Spider Stacy of the Pogues, and a on a computer program that gives night focusing on the soundtrack musicians instructions to render live, from “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” such as, “Slowly shift to G in a very The new album features Le String sublime manner, then go to G minor Noise, the renamed String Noise duo, in which Kim and Harris mostly and move together,” Michot says. play punk and experimental music by The final instrumental tracks groups such as Bad Brains, Black Flag include the least interesting of the and Radiohead. They’re also members experimental efforts: the extendof the instrumental chamber group ed single-note drone of “Unipolar Wordless Music. Due to a last minute Dance.” The version of art-punk outchange in schedule, cellist Leyla Mcfit Half Japanese’s “No More BeetleCalla joined the group at The Stone. mania” is violin-driven helter skelter, (Michot has appeared on several with precise if angsty violin work. recordings on her recent albums.)

Nouveau Electric is releasing an The second L.E.S. Douze album album per week in April. It started follows the sequence of the perforwith an EP of beguiling ambient mance. It starts with a more tradielectronic music by Lost Bayou Ramtional sounding Cajun song, “Maree blers guitarist Jonny Campos. Soul Noire,” which Michot wrote about Creole, Michot’s band with his wife the BP oil disaster. The first several songs are grounded in Cajun and folk Ashlee and accordionist Corey Ledet, released an album, and the sounds and arrangements, and the last is a collaboration between album progresses in an experimental Michot and 82-year-old accordionist direction, finishing with four instrumental tracks.

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‘Bacurau’ is a modern Western set in rural Brazil W

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“Bacurau” is meant to be one of the villages founded by escaped slaves seeking freedom far from the rest of civilization. The townspeople are an ethnically diverse group, and many seem tied to Carmelita in some way.

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“Bacurau” is available online, and viewing links from The Broad Theater (www.thebroadtheater.com) and Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge (www.zeitgeistnola.org) allow the theaters to share the viewing fee.

— WILL COVIELLO

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