Gambit: October 12, 2021

October 12-18 2021 Volume 42 Number 40

BULLETIN BOARD

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Cristina’s

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The amount indebted is $50,000.00 bearing interest at the rate of 5% per year on the unpaid balance with a maturity date of October 28, 2015. The mortgage affects the property located at 4059 Athis Court New Orleans, LA 70119. If you have any information regarding this lost promissory note, please contact Trieu Law at (504) 301-4525 or visit us at 1800 Carol Sue Avenue Suite 7, Gretna, LA 70056.

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to-day operations of a French immersion high school. Reqs: Bachelor’s degree or equiv. or higher in Education or closely related (in lieu of Bachelor’s degree, employer will accept any degree, program of study, or number of yrs of education in the same fields, domestic or foreign, that will permit the incumbent to receive cert. by French Ministry of Education or state of LA; 3 yrs’ exp. in education leadership, including some exp. in supervising Brevet and Bacc. exams; teaching cert. or eligible; knowledge of French programs & standards for grades 9-12; Native or near-native fluency in French & English. Mail resume to Marina Schoen: LFNO Inc., 5951 Patton St. New Orleans, LA 70115. Refer to job #595.

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Valid 10/13/2021 - 10/20/2021. Total Wine & More is not responsible for typographical or human error or supplier price increases. Prices may vary. Rebate offers vary. While supplies last. Limit one offer per transaction. Rebate offers valid in-store only, see store for details. It is illegal to sell alcohol below cost in the State of Louisiana. Products while supplies last. We reserve the right to limit quantities. Loyalty points not redeemable on gift cards, classes, samplings, deposits, rentals and ice. Total Wine & More is a registered trademark of RSSI. © 2021 Retail Services & Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Please drink responsibly. Use a designated driver.

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MANDEVILLE

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VOLUME 42 || NUMBER 40

nice to meet you

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OPENING GAMBIT

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CLANCY DUBOS

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NEWS GAMBIT Q & A

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hey shacket...

OCTOBER 12 — 18, 2021

CONTENTS

BLAKE PONTCHARTRAIN 13 COMMENTARY

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ice blue navy

FEATURES ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

PHOTO BY GER ALD HERBERT / T H E A S S O C I AT E D P R E S S

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S TA F F

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MUSIC CALENDAR

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MUSIC

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FILM

26

PUZZLES

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@The_Gambit @gambitneworleans @GambitNewOrleans

COVER PHOTO BY GER ALD HERBERT / T H E A S S O C I AT E D P R E S S

BUSINESS & OPERATIONS

(504) 483-3105// response@ gambitweekly.com

Billing Inquiries 1 (225) 388-0185

Editor | JOHN STANTON

Administrative Assistant | LINDA LACHIN

Political Editor | CLANCY DUBOS Arts & Entertainment Editor | WILL COVIELLO

Staff Writers | JAKE CLAPP,

KAYLEE POCHE, SARAH RAVITS

Intern | RAE WALBERG Contributing Writers | IAN MCNULTY

PRODUCTION Creative Director |

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

shop @gaetanasnola

COVER DESIGN BY DOR A SISON

Publisher | JEANNE EXNICIOS FOSTER

EDITORIAL

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EAT + DRINK

On Their Ends

Years of flooding and catastrophic storms have pushed the seafood industry to the brink

$42

olive

Rembrandt

CHARMS FOR ALL OCCASIONS!

CHARMS NEW DISPLAY IN STOCK!

ADVERTISING Advertising Inquiries (504) 483-3150 Advertising Director | SANDY STEIN BRONDUM (504) 483-3150

[sstein@gambitweekly.com]

DORA SISON

Traffic Manager | JASON WHITTAKER

Sales Representatives

Web & Classifieds Designer |

KELLY SONNIER

MARIA VIDACOVICH BOUÉ

Art Director | CATHERINE FLOTTE Senior Graphic Designer | SCOTT FORSYTHE

Graphic Designers | EMMA VEITH, TIANA WATTS

(504) 483-3143

[ksonnier@gambitweekly.com] CHARLIE THOMAS (504) 636-7438

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TUES-FRI 10AM-5PM | SAT 10AM-3PM | Curbside Pickup Available Gambit (ISSN 1089-3520) is published weekly by Capital City Press, LLC, 840 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70130. (504) 486-5900. 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 2021 Capital City Press, LLC. All rights reserved.

5101 W. ESPLANADE AVENUE | (504) 885-4956

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A R T S + E N T E R TA I N M E N T

Head Above Water

Pell contemplates success and satisfaction on new album

|

by Jake Clapp

THE DAY PELL’S “FLOATING WHILE DREAMING II” DROPPED, not a lot of

people in his hometown could easily listen to it. The album — a meaningful sequel to his breakout debut mixtape — was on the schedule for Sept. 3, but hurricanes don’t care about anyone’s plans.

Ahead of Hurricane Ida, Pell evacuated to his old stomping grounds in Los Angeles, about a year after he had moved back to New Orleans full time. But he was in good company: Dominic Scott, $leazy EZ, Chad Roby and Kr3wcial — New Orleans emcees and producers and part of the GLBL WRMNG crew — joined him on the West Coast.

“I’m just like, ‘Oh my God, this is a perfect storm,’” Pell says. “But I had all my brothers and sisters with me, and I felt like there was no need to panic. I think all of us felt the same way: Because we had each other, none of us were really in panic mode. It just made everything a little more urgent.”

In the days after the storm, GLBL WRMNG — the New Orleans music collective co-founded early this year

by Pell and Nate Cameron — used its platform to raise funds to give quick, mutual aid to Black and Brown musicians and artists impacted by Ida. The group was able to directly help more than 70 people.

The time in L.A. was productive, too. The GLBL WRMNG West Coast Team worked on individual projects and Pell opened for Big Freedia at the Fonda Theatre, playing his first solo set in two years.

“Floating While Dreaming II” hit its Sept. 3 release date.

“I feel like nothing has grounded me more than these past couple of years, with the pandemic and this new life in New Orleans that has birthed a lot of what I pay attention to and a lot of what I work on now,” Pell told Gambit recently during another trip back to L.A. “I thought I was grounded, but then I really realized I was grounded when Covid happened,” Pell adds.

“Then I moved to New Orleans. I split ties with a couple of people in L.A. as well. So I was finally standing on my own two, back in my city and working with my people.”

The move back home felt like the beginning of a new chapter for Pell.

“I felt different, more than I have since I first started,” he says. “It felt like everybody had to restart, essentially, and I was not immune to that.

Festin’ at Faubourg

JAZZ FEST ISN’T HAPPENING, BUT THERE IS FESTIN’ AT FAUBOURG at

the brewery in New Orleans East. The Creole String Beans perform Friday. Saturday brings George Porter Jr. and the Runnin’ Pardners, Alex McMurray and Honey Island Swamp Band.

Sunday’s lineup features the New Orleans Suspects, Little Freddie King and Johnny Sketch & the Dirty Notes. There are food vendors and games. Admission is free, and there’s a free shuttle from Brieux Carre. Visit faubourgbrewery.com for details.

St. Paul & the Broken Bones

ST. PAUL & THE BROKEN BONES BURST OUT OF BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA , in

PHOTO PROVIDED BY T YLER ROI

I’m treating [the new album] like the first thing I made, which the first thing I made that everyone heard was ‘Floating While Dreaming.’”

Pell released the first “Floating While Dreaming” in 2014, catapulting the then-21-year-old onto the national stage. The debut full-length project was produced

by Childish Gambino collaborator Ludwig Goransson and Thomas Barfod and was highly regarded.

Gambit in 2015 described it as “a moody meditation on dreams and bitter realities backed by ambient production full of syrupy, dreamy synthesizers and minimal textures.”

Pell made the move to L.A. the following year and released the EP “Limbo” and the full-length “Gravity.”

The tracks on the debut “Floating While Dreaming” were created between New Orleans, L.A. and Mississippi, Pell says, and he noticed his latest project was being made between the West Coast and his hometown. It sparked a lot of creative energy.

“I was channeling the sonic energy of ‘Floating While Dreaming I’ into ‘Floating While Dreaming II,’” Pell says. “I feel like there’s that energy and feeling of chasing your dreams and trying to make them a reality that I wanted to channel on the original.”

Pell glides through a seamless blend of styles on “Floating While Dreaming II.” His verses are as sharp as ever — despite a light-hearted

Pell’s ‘Floating While Dreaming II’ is a follow-up to his breakout debut mixtape. voicemail at the end of the song “Waves” in which Pell’s brother prods the emcee to write more “digestible” lyrics — as he enjoys the trip music has taken him on (“Flights”), muses on growth (“You’re Not Who You Were”) and walks into the pitfalls of success (“Wlkn Twrds D Fye”).

PJ Morton, vocalist Tonina Saputo, electro duo Big Gigantic, GLBL WRMNG alum Malik Ninety Five and more are featured on the 11-track album.

On his debut, Pell reflected on the time it takes to get from Point A, the inspiration for your dreams, to Point Z, the fulfillment — and how it can feel like you’re going through the motions, essentially floating, he says.

On this follow-up, Pell finds himself questioning the inevitable next chapter: Does success equal satisfaction?

“Once you achieve success is just another moment before you’re trying to achieve another success,” he says. “Just know it’s not about winning as much as it’s about enjoying and learning from everything that life has to offer.”

What would satisfaction look like?

“Satisfaction,” Pell answers, “would mean being able to do what I want every day I wake up and be able to support and really uplift those around me who’ve helped me and those I truly believe in.”

2014 with a retro blue-eyed soul sound enhanced by a small horn section. The group has expanded into psychedelic and funk sounds, and its forthcoming fourth album, “The Alien Coast,” will be its debut on ATO Records in January 2022.

The band pulls into Tipitina’s for shows at 9 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 14, and Friday, Oct. 15. Find tickets at tipitinas.com.

P R O V I D E D P H O T O B Y D AV I D M C C L I S T E R

St. Paul and the Broken Bones perform at Tipitina’s.

Bywater Bazaar

THE BYWATER BAZAAR IS BACK AFTER THE SUMMER AND IDA HIATUSES . In

addition to a host of vintage art and fashion vendors, this week’s bazaar will also feature BJ’s annual Saints bye-week cookoff. Most years, the cook-off requires contestants to include one random ingredient, but this go-round is a special stuffed bell pepper contest. Sign up by 2 p.m. day of. Noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 17, at BJ’s.

PAGE 26

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T HE G A MBIT Q+A

BY JOHN STANTON | Gambit editor ETHAN ELLESTAD IS THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE MUSIC & CULTURE COALITION

of New Orleans, which supports and advocates on behalf of musicians and culture bearers in the city.

He’s been involved since the organization’s inception nine years ago and became executive director around 2015 when the group achieved its official nonprofit status. A native of Madison, Wisconsin, Ellestad moved to New Orleans in 2009 to pursue graduate work in urban planning and community development.

What does your job entail?

EE: What I always say is it’s the least

sexy part of cultural work, which is looking at the zoning ordinances.

So basically, you’re the evenless-sexier version of the triangle players, is what you’re saying?

EE: [laughing] Yes, I’ll just say yes.

What are some of the challenges right now that musicians are facing in the realm of urban planning and zoning?

EE: I think there’s a real significant challenge. We’re sort of in this rolling series of disasters, for lack of a better term ... people have now experienced physical damage potentially where they live, but also just a massive amount of economic damage because there’s been so little opportunity, so many canceled gigs.

Meanwhile, the city processes are still ongoing. There are still city council meetings, there are still planning commission meetings, there are still people advocating in various aspects. So, this continuing level of our traditional work — the things that people have always struggled with — whether that be a zoning ordinance that restricts live music, particularly outdoor music [or] people that are still trying to shut down street performers during the pandemic.

One of the big things you guys have been working on obviously is this outdoor music issue.

EE: Correct. And this is a great example of the immediate needs versus the ongoing effects and how they interrelate. Because the outdoor music issues we had been working on pre-pandemic — and it goes back to early to mid-2019, when we realized somewhere along [the way]

the city had determined that outdoor live music was essentially not legal anywhere in the city without a special event permit, with one exception, which is Bacchanal.

Then, the pandemic hit and live outdoor music is more important than ever and is, in fact, one of the tools we need to be using to provide relief for musicians, and then a pathway to sustainability for small businesses.

To the city’s credit, they’ve created this temporary permitting plan, but that’s sort of nebulous and you’ve created this limbo for many businesses.

Right. I mean, that’s the irony of it … if there’s a city that is well-situated for having a lot of outdoor music, it would seem to be here.

EE: The best way that I can sort of describe it is that Spiderman meme where every Spiderman is pointing his finger at the other Spiderman.

And that’s what’s happening with our music rules. The Department of Safety and permits is pointing its finger at the council, and the city council is pointing their finger at the mayor’s office and the mayor’s office is pointing its finger at the permits office saying “no, no, you gotta fix this.”

I realize the irony of two dudes who were not born here discussing this, but that seems to fit into this broader concern folks have that the culture of New Orleans has become diluted and changed.

EE: To your point, I can give my perspective of it, which is likely different from some people that were born here and is generations deep.

But from the work that I do and the perspective that I have ... look what happens with neighborhood bars, particularly Black-owned neighborhood bars … Often, they’re the canary in the coal mine of gentrification.

It’s hard to get a liquor license for neighborhood bars, extremely hard, which certainly increases value there.

The property values are rising. And so, there’s an incentive for some of the long-term business owners to sell, because they can finally get some money.

And then there is: Who has the resources to buy? And it’s often largely people not from here. They

P H O T O P R O V I D E D B Y K AT E G E G E N H E I M E R

are often wealthy and white [people] that can come buy in a place and want to shape it into what they think is a good neighborhood spot for them, like craft cocktails. I don’t want to jump into too many cliches. But often they’re not too far off.

And I think in some ways there’s a danger there. Because when we’re losing these spaces, and because of the way that the city’s zoning codes now work, there’s not necessarily a next spot for those kinds of spaces to go. So, these neighborhoods spaces that are really the incubators of the culture, whether it be at second-line bars, whether it be a spot that has a brass band or has birthday parties on a weekend, however that goes, there just aren’t as many places where those things can happen.

Often that’s where the real creativity and culture and forward movement things happen. It’s not just about selling a ton of tickets and making money, but rather a small community gets together and just doing this thing.

And I think those are the places that are really in danger.

It almost seems like there are opposing views on what these spaces are for. Are we supporting or wanting places that make money and that’s their goal, versus places that are designed to allow the culture to happen and people to gather?

EE: Yeah, and I think they can they can do both. You could have a place that makes money that allows the culture to happen. So many spaces are fragile, and labors of love are here because

whoever the matriarch or patriarch of that place and the owner is, is keeping it alive because it matters to them and members of the community. And when those people pass, then a lot of spaces really become much more in jeopardy, because there’s not strong succession planning for the next person to take over. So, some of those places started to disappear during the pandemic. And that is something that is not necessarily replaceable.

Do you guys have anything coming up here that people should be on the lookout for in terms of projects you’re working on or things that you’re going to be pushing?

EE: We still have ongoing relief we are doing, hurricane relief, that we want to try to keep doing to provide assistance to as many people as possible, for as long as possible. We’re looking at ways that we can partner to raise money and to get people other types of assistance.

But then also, we can’t just keep going from disaster to disaster and looking at how can we raise money to support the community. Building a long-term safety net is more and more urgent. And we’ve got to figure out a way that we can coordinate that, because we know there’s never going to be enough resources coming from the federal government, from the city or from outside. We’ve got to figure out a way to leverage what we’ve got and how we can collectively create a stronger safety net, so that’s something we’ve been working on with a number of other arts and cultural organizations.

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Ethan Ellestad

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OPENING GAMBIT NEW ORLEANS NEWS + VIEWS

Can’t wait to see all the sexy piles of trash Halloween costumes you people come up with this year

#

T H U M B S U P/ THUMBS DOWN

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Gov. John Bel Edwards joined

the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s “Race to Zero” campaign, a global effort dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Edwards previously signed an executive order to reduce emissions and has been working with a Climate Initiatives Task Force to help steer Louisiana away from the worsening effects of climate change.

LSUofficialsandotherinstitutions swept multiple reports of

sexual misconduct and rape under the rug. From 2018 to 2020, LSU grad student Edouard d’Espalungue d’Arros allegedly violated multiple students but was continuously allowed to participate in on-campus activities. He was finally suspended from the university, but a judge allowed him to flee back to his native France despite pending litigation against him. The Advocate reported the police, prosecutors, judges and LSU officials “dropped the ball, sometimes on multiple occasions.” France does not extradite those accused of crimes on American soil.

10 anti-vax state lawmakers

recently signed a letter continuing to push conspiracy theories and undermine public health recommendations. Last week, they claimed that Pfizer vaccines manufactured prior to the full FDA approval aren’t authorized — even though they are. The lawmakers are also continuing to ignore data from the rigorous clinical trials demonstrating safety and effectiveness.

THE COUNT

THE NEW MINIMUM HOURLY WAGE ALL CITY EMPLOYEES WILL BE PAID UNDER A NEW PLAN RATIFIED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OCT. 7.

P H O T O 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

Entergy New Orleans CEO Deanna Rodriguez.

Entergy Reliability Fell Significantly in 2021, Even Before Ida ELECTRIC SERVICE RELIABILITY WAS SIGNIFICANTLY DOWN IN NEW ORLEANS this year even before

Hurricane Ida caused one the city’s most severe power outages in recent memory, according to a new report the company submitted to the City Council this week.

The report shows that in the first six months of 2021, New Orleans saw tens of thousands of outages above what the city experienced in the first half of any year going back to 2018 (The report doesn’t show data for earlier years.)

The reason for the rise in outages, according to the report, is more extreme weather.

“This increase in customer interruptions is due to adverse weather conditions experienced in 2021 with much higher-than-normal rainfall totals,” Entergy’s report said. “The additional precipitation was caused by an increased number of storms in the metropolitan area, which also caused the noticed increase in lightning strike customer interruptions.”

The report notes that according to the National Weather Service, New Orleans saw more than 50 percent more rain in the first half of 2021 than the average amount of rain during the same six-month period over the last 10 years.

The council began requiring Entergy to submit these reliability reports in 2017 after launching an investigation into the city’s increasingly frequent power outages. The investigation found that the system’s reliability began to fall shortly after 2015, when Entergy pulled millions of dollars from funds dedicated to maintaining and improving the grid.

The council ended up fining the company $1 million in October 2019 for the reliability failures. The company challenged the fine in court, and has so far withheld the money pending the resolution of that case. Along with the regular reliability reports, Entergy was also forced to submit a reliability improvement plan to the council and provide regular updates on its progress.

After 2017, Entergy data indicates the company made big strides towards creating a more reliable system. But after three years of improvement, the new Entergy report indicates the company’s reliability might slip backwards in 2021.

Entergy did not respond to questions for this story. A spokesperson for Councilwoman and utility committee Chair Helena Moreno said she was unavailable PAGE 11

The long-anticipated hike from the current hourly minimum wage of $11.19 will become effective next year under the new resolution. The council had adopted an ordinance this summer requiring city contractors to also pay their employees a minimum of $15 an hour by 2023. That would be a significant increase over the current $10.55 rate contractors are required to pay worker under Councilmember Jared Brossett’s 2015 “living wage” ordinance.

C’EST W H AT

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

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for an interview because she was traveling back from Washington D.C., where she met with lawmakers about securing federal funding to invest in the state’s energy grid.

The new Entergy report breaks the numbers down based on whether the outage occurred on the distribution system — the local poles and wires that bring electricity to individual homes and businesses — or the transmission system — which brings in bulk electricity from around the region.

The majority of New Orleans outages happen on the distribution system. According to the report, there were just under 140,000 distribution outages in the first six months of 2021, 29 percent higher than the first six months of 2020, and 27 percent higher than the average number of outages seen between 2018 and 2020.

The number of outages refers to the number of customers affected. The report notes that the distribution outage numbers don’t include an April outage in the Central Business District caused by an equipment fire because the “network that serves the Central Business District does not currently allow outages on the network to be captured in the automated reporting.”

The primary causes of the distribution outages were “lightning, scheduled interruptions, emergency switching, foreign objects, and crossarm failures,” the report said.

Meanwhile, the city experienced roughly 40,000 outages on the transmission grid — 130 percent higher than in the first six months of 2020 and 108 percent higher than the three-year average.

It appears the central cause of the increase in transmission outages was the February winter storm that led to blackouts throughout the region. The storm increased electricity demand above what’s normally expected while also taking some power plants offline. The imbalance threatened to create catastrophic failure on the grid.

To avoid that failure, Entergy, like other utilities in the region, intentionally disconnected some customers to avoid the catastrophic supply-demand imbalance. In New Orleans, 26,000 customers were disconnected. It was later revealed that the company shut off power to three times as many customers as they had to, sparking the council to launch another investigation into the company, which is still ongoing. — MICHAEL ISAAC STEIN / THE LENS

Uptown Bar T.J. Quills Raided

NEW ORLEANS POLICE RAIDED BAR POPULAR WITH UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

last weekend in the wake of accusations that multiple patrons had been unknowingly drugged.

NOPD along with the Loyola and Tulane Police Departments and other law enforcement agencies conducted the raid Oct. 1 at T.J. Quills, which at the time was packed with over 200 people, Loyola Police Chief Todd Warren said Tuesday.

Although “no smoking gun, so to speak” came of the raid, Warren told Gambit Tuesday NOPD had collected evidence that they now reviewing.

The use of date rape drugs such as Rohypnol have long been a concern for university officials across the country, and reports of people drugged are not uncommon.

NOPD opened the investigation after Warren received several reports from Loyola students who believed that had unknowingly been drugged while at TJ Quills the weekend of Sept. 27.

“We are concerned that students, particularly minors, may have been served illegal substances without their knowledge or consent, putting them in danger,” Warren said in an email to Loyola’s student body.

While the recent drugging incidents are not unique to one bar, Warren said this particular string of incidents led police to T. J. Quills.

However, the bar’s lawyer Tom Barbera told Gambit last week that it appeared police are investigating other establishments which cater to younger people.

Barbera also said the bar has cooperated with law enforcement officials and turned over surveillance tapes to investigators.

“While it is impossible to address unspecified claims made by unidentified persons and unidentified third-persons, TJ Quills is committed to continuing the vision of providing a fun but safe space for young adults,” TJ Quills’ attorney Tom Barbera said in a statement.

Barbera also told Gambit Wednesday afternoon that police have not presented the bar with allegations in which someone “has specifically said I went there and I woke up in someone’s house or something, on some specific day and was given a drink I think was doctored.”

What will happen with the investigation remains unclear.

“We would like to find a suspect and make an arrest,” Warren said.

— RAE WALBERG AND JOHN STANTON

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‘Risk Rating 2.0’ Hides Awful Truths About Flood Insurance POLITICIANS AND BUREAUCRATS LOVE SLOGANS AND BUZZWORDS. It spares

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them the trouble of telling the truth. This/ last week, FEMA began rolling out “Risk Rating 2.0” — a bureaucratic scrim for higher flood insurance premiums.

Like most buzzwords, Risk Rating 2.0 hides an awful truth: FEMA, at the direction of Congress, has taken virtually all of the subsidies out of subsidized flood insurance.

As a consequence, just as people across south Louisiana struggle to recover from devastating hurricanes last year and this year, most of them — close to 80%, according to U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy — saw their flood insurance rates go up on Oct. 1.

Like all seasoned bureaucrats, FEMA touted the 2.0 rollout in benign, almost glowing terms.

Consider this introduction from a FEMA website: “The (2.0) methodology leverages industry best practices and cutting-edge technology to enable FEMA to deliver rates that are actuarily sound, equitable, easier to understand and better reflect a property’s flood risk.”

I’m not saying that FEMA has lied.

It hasn’t. It just couched the truth in language that makes the impact of 2.0 less scary. For example, “actuarily sound” and “risk rating” means people who live near the floodprone coast will get slammed, even with the congressionally mandated annual cap of 18% rate increases.

Their rates will go up every year until they pay market rates.

To folks in other areas, that sounds fair, but there are two problems with that line of thinking.

First, Congress created flood insurance in 1968 (after Hurricane Betsy flooded much of New Orleans) as a subsidized program.

Property owners bought into it on that basis. Now Congress has decided to eliminate most of the subsidies, largely because they’re considered too expensive — especially as storms get more intense and hit coastal areas more frequently.

PHOTO BY GER ALD HERBERT / A S S O C I AT E D P R E S S

Second, when people settled in coastal areas, particularly in south Louisiana, their homes were high and dry for generations. Then Congress put levees along the Mississippi River and other waterways, depriving south Louisiana wetlands of their annual replenishment (which built up the land annually). Congress also allowed oil companies to carve up the coast with canals that accelerated land loss — and subsidence. Congress also enacted policies that accelerate climate change, which gave us sea level rise.

Now Congress is punishing people for living in areas that didn’t flood nearly as often before Congress made all those floodfriendly decisions.

And FEMA, which still hasn’t effectively delivered desperately needed relief to southwest Louisiana more than a year after Hurricane Laura devastated that area, has rolled out Risk Rating 2.0 with Teutonic efficiency and thoroughness.

Here’s a truth that no amount of slogans and buzzwords can hide: America subsidizes corporations, major industries and other special interests with grants, subsidies, bailouts, tax breaks and more — to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars every year. Flood insurance helps a lot more people than corporate welfare. Congress needs to save flood insurance, not price it beyond people’s reach.

Either that, or make special interests “actuarily sound” instead of dependent on federal subsidies, tax breaks and bailouts.

13

@GambitBlake | askblake@gambitweekly.com

Hey Blake,

I enjoyed your column about the origins of the name Bucktown (Sept. 21). Here’s another Jefferson Parish query for you: Where did Kenner get its name?

Dear reader,

THE CITY OF KENNER, INCORPORATED IN 1855, is named after William

Kenner, original owner of the large tract of land where the city now sits.

According to a history published by the city, William Kenner, who was born in 1776, moved to New Orleans from Virginia in 1799. A prominent businessman and sugar broker, he married Mary Minor and had seven children.

When Kenner died, his four sons inherited his land, including Belle Grove Plantation, Pasture Plantation and Oakland Plantation — all of which comprise the present city of Kenner.

In the 1840s, some of the land was purchased by railroads and other land was subdivided and formed Kennerville, the area’s original name. Following the Civil War, the area became home to many truck farms and a large population of farmers, including many Italian and German immigrants.

The city was incorporated in 1873 but there were years of disputes over its governance. In 1913, it was incorporated again as a village. Antoine Wattigny was elected the first mayor.

As the area’s population grew, a streetcar line was added between New Orleans and Kenner. It operated from 1915 until 1931.

PHOTO BY ANN BENOIT / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E

Iron Fleur de Lis and the Kiwanis Welcome to Kenner sign in the median of the intersection of West Esplanade and Power in Kenner Kenner’s biggest asset (though owned by the city of New Orleans) is the airport, opened in 1946 as Moisant Field, now known as Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. Kenner’s history also includes a tragic plane crash — the Pan Am 759 disaster in July 1982. Just after takeoff, a jet crashed near Williams Boulevard and West Metairie Avenue, killing 153 people.

With the growth of the interstate system, the city expanded in the 1960s and ’70s, at one point becoming the fifth-largest city in the state. Its population now stands at just over 66,000 according to the 2020 census.

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tury since, the cupola atop the Carondelet Street building — especially when illuminated at night — has become an icon on the city’s skyline.

Hibernia was founded in New Orleans in 1870. At the turn of the 20th century, bank leaders unveiled plans to erect a new bank building. At the time it was completed in October 1921, the 23-story Renaissance-style building was not only the tallest building in New Orleans, but also tallest in the state (until the State Capitol was built a decade later). In the 1940s, Hibernia’s height made it the perfect choice as home for WDSU-TV, the city’s first television station. In its early years, the station’s transmitting tower was located on the roof of the building, with a studio and offices inside.

Originally the bank’s cupola — 355 feet in the air — was lit as a navigation beacon for ships traveling the Mississippi River. Over the years, lighting the cupola for various holidays became a tradition. It was lit in the appropriate colors for Christmas, Hanukkah, Mardi Gras, St. Patrick’s Day, the Fourth of July and Halloween.

Capital One acquired Hibernia in 2006 and the office building closed soon after, although the bank on the first floor remained open. HRI Properties acquired the building and began a $57.3 million renovation in 2011, converting it into luxury apartments. The cupola was restored, and LED lights were added.

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14

C O M M E N TA R Y

City Council Should Expand Oversight to City Hall’s Ida Prep and Repsonse

things unfolded as they did. Such transparency also would increase citizen Oversight is key to reform trust in City Hall’s judgment and improvement. during future crises — and identify ways to improve planning and response mechanisms.

The city’s response post-Ida also should be scrutinized. There is, of course, the obvious issue of getting storm debris picked up faster. In many parts of town, debris still clogs streets and sidewalks.

In the days after Ida, many residents expressed frustration that — despite the beforehand because Ida suddenly intensified less ongoing blackout and soaring temperatures — than 72 hours before making landfall. She did urge the city waited nearly a week to begin voluntary residents to leave — but only voluntarily. evacuations. Citizens saw no clear benchmarks for That explanation has left many residents conpost-storm departures, and only after a number of fused. The city may have encountered logistical residents had died due to heat exposure or a lack challenges, such as not enough buses or shelters of power did the city suggest evacuating. able to house many thousands of evacuees. Or it On the flip side, the city’s cooling centers did an could have reflected, as Cantrell said days before excellent job, and staff worked tirelessly to help the storm, a safety concern about having masses overheated citizens. But it took several days to mobiof people caught in traffic during a powerful storm lize them, and it seems obvious in hindsight that — though that begs the question of why she urged more of them would have been a good thing. Going residents to leave voluntarily. forward, the city should look for ways to deploy Before the storm, activists also reported significant them faster — and expand the network of cooling delays and issues with finding adequate shelter for sites to better reach communities where people may unhoused people inside the city, particularly those not have cars, internet access or cellular service. who may not feel comfortable or welcome at shelThese are just a few examples. We offer them not ters run by religious groups. to point fingers but rather to increase transparency Hearings into the city’s preparations and responses — and to seek solutions to life-threatening crises would help the public understand how and why that we all know are likely to occur again.

PHOTO BY MA X BECHERER / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E

IN THE WAKE OF HURRICANE IDA, THE NEW ORLEANS CITY COUNCIL HAS BEEN FEELING ITS OVERSIGHT OATS.

The council held hearings on the city’s failed solid waste collection vendors and on the Sewerage & Water Board’s continued struggles. It also commissioned studies of Entergy New Orleans’ management, transmission and distribution systems, and pre-storm maintenance record. Oversight of public and private entities that manage critical infrastructure is one of most important functions of the council, and we applaud those efforts.

But other Ida-related issues remain. Before those issues get lost amid the din of electoral politics and the press of other important matters, the council should take them up now.

One obvious example: City Hall’s preparations for, and response to, Hurricane Ida. In particular, the 72-hour question as it relates to evacuations.

While most New Orleanians know they’re pretty much on their own for several days after a big storm if they don’t evacuate, Mayor LaToya Cantrell has said she didn’t order a mandatory evacuation

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15

Ends Years of flooding and catastrophic storms have pushed the seafood industry to the brink

P H OTO B Y G E R A L D H E R B E R T / T H E A S S O C I AT E D P R E S S

Stranded fishing boats sit against a tree on Isle de Jean Charles, a Native American community that is vanishing due to coastal erosion, in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.

BY K AYLEE POCHE

FOR SCOTT MAURER, WORKING IN THE OYSTER INDUSTRY in southeast Louisiana lately has just been hit after hit.

There are the periodic openings of the Bonnet Carre Spillway, which have happened with increasing frequency over the last several years, wiping out his Grand Isle farm each time.

Then came COVID-19, which shut down restaurants and bars for much of 2020 and tanked the demand for oysters.

Just as restaurants were reopening last fall, Hurricane Zeta swept through, destroying his farm once again.

And that was all before Hurricane Ida made landfall at Port Fourchon on Aug. 29, which decimated Grand Isle — and his farm.

“We didn’t have much to lose going into this because we already lost everything,” says Maurer, who runs Louisiana Oyster Co. “That’s the hardest thing.”

“Every event that happens cuts our production in half at least,” he adds. Before climate

change-related events started impacting him in earnest, “I was up to 3 million oysters on my farm.”

“If I have 3,000 right now, I’d be surprised.”

This time around, Ida spared only Maurer’s smallest boat. In early October, he told Gambit it’s the only one left operating in the Grand Isle oyster fleet, so he’s sharing it with other farmers who need it.

“It doesn’t matter how much I trust the other oystermen or not.

He needs to feed his family, so I gotta let him use it,” Maurer says.

“We all work together really well.

But when we all lose everything and we’re down to one boat, well, I guess that’s where the saying ‘Hey, we’re all in the same boat’ comes in ... Yeah, we’re all in the same boat right now.”

More than a month after the storm, Maurer’s story isn’t uncommon in Louisiana’s biggest fishing and seafood towns, which were hit hardest by Hurricane Ida. The storm capsized boats, obliterated equipment and

buildings, and left many without usable running water.

It’s left one of the state’s largest industries — worth an estimated $2.4 billion — in shambles and its workers uncertain about what the future holds.

Marcus Coleman, an assistant professor at Tulane University who specializes in food systems, says the state is already seeing short-term effects on seafood supply from the storm and that the industry will be dealing with long-term effects for the foreseeable future.

“Ida is a situation where the eye of the storm essentially ran right through the heart of Louisiana’s seafood industry,” Coleman says.

“The retail level impacts will be seen all across the country for those who really rely on Louisiana and Louisiana seafood production to feed their consumers.”

PATRICK BANKS, ASSISTANT SECRETARY of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, says

he predicts the state will see a decline in seafood production through the middle of 2022, which could mean higher prices.

Coleman says the industry was just starting to come back from reduced demand due to the pandemic. Now, it’s facing supply shortages due to damaged products and many fishers and catchers still unable to get back on the waters because of damaged equipment or being displaced by the storm.

Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, who heads the state’s tourism office, says Lafourche has reported 54 boats sank; in Golden Meadow, they lost an estimated 30% of the fleet.

“You had a situation where boats were damaged, you had docks where they come in are damaged, you have processing houses that were all damaged,” Coleman says. “And so that really affects the total supply chain of how we get Louisiana seafood-based products from the Gulf into other areas of the country.”

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ON THEIR ENDS Nungesser says his office estimates about 23,000 of the state’s 35,000 seafood workers have been significantly impacted by Ida. And when such a large industry is impacted, the whole state suffers, especially when you consider that approximately one out of every 70 jobs in the state is related to the seafood industry.

On top of the widespread damage, the storm also caused those in the seafood industry to lose at least a month of business. Fishers weren’t on the waters catching product and businesses weren’t able to open to sell it.

That’s particularly brutal for the shrimping industry, as September is a big month to catch large shrimp before cool fronts start moving in. Kim Chauvin, who owns several shrimping businesses in Terrebonne Parish with her husband, says typically in September they’ll process 300,000 to 500,000 pounds of shrimp to freeze and last through Lent.

“That ain’t happening this year,” she says. “We’ll be lacking some shrimp.”

Chauvin says they’re down 200,000 pounds of shrimp that they usually sell to restaurants, grocery stores and seafood markets. Terrebonne, Lafourche and Jefferson parishes, which produce much of the area’s shrimp, have been hit so hard that she predicts restaurants across the state will be affected.

Since more than 70% of seafood landed in the Gulf of Mexico comes through Louisiana, Banks says this also could lead local restaurants and grocery stores to stop carrying some Gulf seafood products, leaving a void in the market for imported seafood to fill.

“One of the things that I’m really

RELYING ON VOLUNTEERS AND THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS ISN’T A SUSTAINABLE STRATEGY IN THE LONG RUN, ESPECIALLY WITH CLIMATE CHANGE CAUSING MORE FREQUENT STORMS.

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

Oyster grower Scott Maurer holds up a bed of oysters in Grand Isle last year.

afraid of is it will allow imported shrimp and other imported seafood products to gain even more of a market share than they did already in the southeast in the country,” Banks says. “So that may be a situation that our seafood community has to continue to wrestle with.”

Lindsay Allday, who works as an oyster sommelier at Sidecar Patio & Oyster Bar in New Orleans, says they weren’t able to get local oysters for a solid three weeks after the storm. She was able to pivot to just the East and West Coast oysters also on her menu, but she says customers noticed the absence of Gulf oysters.

“People definitely ask, even right after a storm, ‘Where are the hometown oysters?’” Allday says.

“You have to say, ‘Well, we just had a Category 4 hurricane,’ but people definitely look for it.”

Meanwhile, Chauvin is saving up her own stash of shrimp to make it through Lent.

“To be honest with you, I’m putting my shrimp on the side right now so that I can make it through,” she says. “Because, oh my God, 30 days without shrimp (during Ida) about killed me.”

BANKS SAYS IT WILL TAKE MONTHS for the department to get estimates on the total damage Ida caused to the seafood industry, and that it still doesn’t have damage estimates for the 2020 storms.

But it’s bound to be a whopping total. Chauvin alone estimates her and her husband’s businesses sustained around $1.5 million in damages.

Parts of their businesses have completely disappeared. Before the storm, they moved the electrical wiring for their ice houses to

somewhere they thought would be safe from the wind, but the storm blew it all away. At their Cocodrie location, Chauvin had an office on top of the building.

Now, all that’s left is a pipe.

Chauvin says Ida damaged their ice houses and dock, totaled their supply shed, pulled their fuel pumping system out the ground and flipped over their delivery truck and smashed it. At Bluewater Shrimp Co., they had a double roof, but the storm peeled off the first layer and collapsed the second.

“We had the screws through the rafters, so then it began pulling off the wood, and we were staying as it happened, so that was scary,” she says. “My husband said that things happened here that he would have never thought would have happened.”

With so much damage sustained to expensive equipment, the Chauvins are in triage mode, trying to make decisions about which parts of their businesses to focus on getting back up and running until they can afford to make more repairs.

According to Chauvin, a lot of the people who own ice houses in the area are in their 50s and 60s.

For some, the damage is so great that it wouldn’t make financial sense to try and rebuild their businesses from scratch.

“If you’re missing any part of the structure or having to rebuild from scratch, you will never get back into this industry,” she says. “And it’s because the cost far outweighs what you’re going to make back in the years … If you had to go from the ground up and let’s say you spent $5-7 million, there’s no way for me to make that back.”

Chauvin says she’s looking at a yearslong recovery process from this storm. “I look around and there’s so much to do that it’s

going to take us some years to be able to recoup,” she says.

SO FAR, RESIDENTS AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS have been frustrated by a lack of federal government assistance after Ida. Terrebonne and Lafourche are facing housing crises because of the number of homes the storm destroyed. In those areas, people are still living in tents, tarps and under other makeshift structures.

“To see people still living in the rain under tarps, that’s killer for me,” Chauvin says. “I don’t understand where our federal government is at.”

Some who have applied for assistance from FEMA have reported being denied or stuck in bureaucratic hoops. Maurer, the oysterman, says FEMA wouldn’t approve him for a temporary hotel after the storm because they said an inspector would have to meet him at his residence in Grand Isle. At the time, the National Guard had closed the road to the island, so the inspector wouldn’t have been able to get there.

“I’m like, ‘There’s three-foot of sand on the island. It’s common knowledge. Call the National Guard, call the president, I don’t care who you call. You can’t get there,’” Maurer told Gambit earlier this month. “Three days ago, I got approved for a hotel room …

Now all the hotel rooms in my area are taken.”

Maurer has been living out of his truck and an old camper in Golden Meadow, where he says there’s power but not enough water pressure to take a shower.

Congress recently passed $600 million in relief for the storms that struck in 2020, but that will only put a dent in southwest Louisiana’s

ON THEIR ENDS Oyster Bar hosted a fundraiser for three Louisiana oyster farmers who supply the restaurant’s Gulf oysters. Allday says they raised $15,000 at the event, so each farmer will receive $5,000 apiece.

“We just don’t get help [from the government] and so we just don’t count on it,” Maurer says. “Lindsay helped us. Those are the types of efforts that actually work. Our followers and fan base and people that actually know and appreciate the craft that we put into the oysters, those people are supporting us. But we don’t really get money anywhere else.”

“When [people] see people helping them — neighbors helping neighbors, strangers helping people — it gives them that emotional boost they need to continue to fight forward,” Nungesser says.

BUT RELYING ON VOLUNTEERS AND THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS isn’t a sustainable strategy in the long run, especially with climate change causing more frequent storms.

Coleman, the Tulane assistant professor, says that as the seafood industry rebuilds from Ida and the 2020 storms, it will be crucial for the state and federal government to invest in infrastructure designed with future storms in mind.

For example, new structures should be able to sustain high level winds, and seafood producers should have alert systems so they can prepare for weather events, he says.

“We really have to be forward thinking with this and innovative with the thought that these type of weather events are going to continue to happen,” he says. “It’s more of a long-term strategic ap-

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

Lindsay Allday opens oysters at Sidecar Patio & Oyster Bar in New Orleans earlier this year.

proach more than the day-to-day tactical approach of how we make decisions based upon the industry’s success.”

Making investments in infrastructure will require significant government funding at both the state and federal levels, but not doing so just means more money will be spent in the long-run.

“In many cases, if we make the investments now we can save ourselves a lot of headache later on where future generations end up having to pay the cost of decisions that we can make now,” Coleman says.

As storms continue to hit, some seafood workers feel left behind or misunderstood by all levels of government.

“I think we’ve always been the stepchild industry in the state that government agencies don’t quite understand and legislators don’t quite understand,” Chauvin says.

Coleman says this is a familiar sentiment among many seafood producers, who he says are treated differently by the federal government than agriculture producers in terms of disaster support and assistance with property insurance. He believes both should be treated equally.

“There needs to be a look based upon the value to the overall food economy in the country,” he says. “We have to look at it and rethink equitable solutions to make sure that our seafood producers are taken care of, just like other producers.”

Nungesser says the state also needs a better plan to address housing needs for residents who are unable to live in their homes following a storm. He says many residents are having to stay in hotels hours away from their homes, which makes it harder to work to get their homes livable and their boats operating again.

Making sure it’s sustainable to work in the state’s seafood industry long-term is vital, he says.

“If we wipe out the seafood industry, what do we have different from any other state?” Nungesser says. “We’ve got great chefs, but the thing that sets us apart is this industry … If it’s gone, we go to serving barbecue and pork chops.”

MEANWHILE, THE FUTURE OF LOUISIANA’S FISHING and seafood towns remains unclear.

Banks predicts that after Ida, many mom-and-pop seafood businesses will have to close their doors for good, while some seafood vessel workers who’ve lost their homes may move away.

“I think most likely we’re going to see a smaller commercial seafood industry than we had prior to the storm,” Banks says. “How much smaller is very difficult to know.”

Maurer worries about the future of Grand Isle and whether its school will reopen again. He says the families he’s aware of who plan to return to the island could cut the population of students in half.

Without a school, he says the population will decline even more.

“If there’s no reason for people to move to Grand Isle if they have a family, there’s no reason to work there,” he says. “It doesn’t give any other fishermen a reason to be there.”

Maurer, 45, raises his oysters in cages, instead of in the wild. He says he’s trying to revitalize interest in the oyster industry among younger generations through teaching them this relatively new way of raising oysters. But he’s concerned the workforce is depleting.

It’s not an unfounded fear.

Banks says a lot of people moved out of Grand Isle after Katrina, opting to build vacation homes there instead.

“It seems pretty safe to say that some folks in those communities won’t come back,” Banks says, “and that’s always one of the many sad parts of these storms.”

Maurer knows that because it’s such a remote area — an hour off Highway 90 in good traffic and around two hours from New Orleans — convincing people to move to the island can be a hard sell, but he says the area has “some of the most magical fishing waters” in the world.

“These waters are amazing, and my biggest fear is that they just get washed away somehow,” he says. “That’s what keeps me coming back is we just have to tell this story of just how amazing these waters are.”

Down in Terrebonne, Chauvin says, the seafood industry has highs and lows, but for many of the people who work in it, it’s a calling.

“There is a passion for this industry — with the older generations for sure — like no other,” she says. “People don’t get out of this industry easily … I cannot explain it to you because I don’t quite understand it … You’re like, ‘Oh, hell no, this ain’t taking me out. Imma rebuild this.’”

“People probably think we’re crazy because some people can’t understand our love for an industry like that and what we do,” she adds. “I swear we have salt water, not blood.”

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recovery. Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration estimates the total remaining costs from Hurricanes Laura, Delta and Zeta are around $3 billion.

Banks, the LDWF official, says the area is still in “recovery mode” and has seen reduced commercial fishing activity in the last year.

“We’ve seen some commercial fishing activity certainly going on in that area over this past year, but it’s certainly not back to the level of activity that we’re used to seeing,” he says.

Nungesser says he understands “dealing with the federal government is a slow, frustrating process.” He says he’s asking Louisiana congressmen and senators for a “seafood declaration” to give money to seafood workers and help them get back on their feet. But he adds that too often “that money never comes quickly enough to help really make a difference in a timely matter.”

In his experience helping with previous storm relief efforts, Nungesser says, he’s learned that timing is crucial in the recovery process.

“We need to do all we can to get these people back as quickly as possible, because for every week that goes by, somebody gives up and just says, ‘I’m not coming back anymore.’”

Volunteer Louisiana, part of Nungesser’s office, has been sending volunteers to fishing towns and other hard-hit areas in the state to help with storm recovery, whether it’s gutting homes or feeding people.

Local businesses and other residents have also stepped in to help seafood workers as they wait on government assistance.

Last month, Sidecar Patio &

17

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18

E AT + D R I N K

Branching out

FORK + CENTER

A Covington gastropub from the chefs behind Del Porto

|

Email dining@gambitweekly.com

by Beth D’Addono

WHEN CHEF TORRE SOLAZZO PLANNED THE DAILY STAFF MEAL

for her team at Del Porto Ristorante in Covington, the last thing anybody wanted to eat was Italian food.

“We all wanted to eat the foods from our childhood, the ethnic foods that bring back good memories,” the chef says with her trademark effervesence. The accumulation of those meals now fills the menu at The Greyhound, the latest restaurant from chefs Torre and David Solazzo in downtown Covington.

Situated at 701 E. Boston St. in what was a Greyhound bus station, The Greyhound is an airy and welcoming modern gastropub. A pair of greyhound statues act as sentries at the entrance to the bar, which offers cocktails and a cooler of canned and bottled European beers, such as Estrella Galicia, a lager from northern Spain. “We have so many spots that feature local beer, we wanted to do something different,” says Torre Solazzo.

There’s a wood-burning pizza oven, subway tile walls and original art from local artist Molly McGuire (aka Magwire). Cocktails are named for the Nine Boozes, represented by whimsical, Erte-esque renditions of the nine Muses of mythology. Torre Solazzo did much of the decorating herself — on a budget. Those dog statues were finds from TJ Maxx that she painted. She snagged the lighting at a discount and the shade of aquamarine on the dining room walls is one of her favorites.

The restaurant’s opening was complicated by the pandemic and hurricane.

“We never expected to get slammed from the minute we opened and didn’t have the staff in place,” Torre Solazzo says. But the Solazzos were able to assemble a small army of young, well-trained servers. “Thankfully we have a super team in place at Del Porto, so we are both here working the line — which is a lot harder on the body than I remember it being when I was younger.”

Now open for lunch and dinner,

Deutsches treat

PLANS ARE PROGRESSING TO RESUME THE REGION’S LARGEST OKTOBERFEST

there’s an all-day menu that trots the globe, with a handful of dishes that speak to Torre’s Jewish heritage. There’s home-style chicken and matzo ball soup, a Reuben with house-made pastrami on rye bread, and “gramma Evelyn’s” chopped liver on the Butcher’s Plate, which also has shredded chicken salad made from the birds that are roasted daily for the soup.

Starters include garlicky roasted littleneck clams, fried turkey wings with blue cheese dressing and North African spiced lamb meatballs with polenta croutons. Sandwich options include a hefty BLT made with thick slices of house-made bacon, a California club and a baloney and cheese made with mortadella and provolone. A platter of Gulf fish and chips recently featured a thick slab of drum, perfectly battered and fried, accompanied by crispy fries, harissa aioli and vinegar for dipping on the side.

There’s a kids’ menu featuring grilled cheese sandwiches, cheese pizza and fries. The dessert menu’s “adult float” is made with caramel ice cream and Guinness stout. Affogato is the perfect end to a meal for those who want a little sweetness: gelato topped with a shot of espresso.

With Del Porto celebrating its

?

WHAT

The Greyhound

WHERE

701 E. Boston St., Covington, (985) 400-5828; thegreyhoundcovington.com

WHEN

Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sat.

PHOTO BY CHERYL GERBER

Chefs Torre and David Solazzo serve wood-oven pizza and more at The Greyhound.

20th anniversary next year, the Solazzos were ready to do something different.

“Covington really didn’t have a casual place where people could come multiple times a week to just hang out,” she says. “I wanted to offer the kind of food we crave.

The food you eat when you’re not working. At Del Porto, we are pigeonholed into Italian. We can’t go in another direction, even for the specials. Here we can offer an Indian dish and bangers and mash and a good old hamburger.

I love a menu that has something for everyone.”

The Greyhound has been well received from the start.

“It was clear there was a space for us in this market,” she says. “We both love to cook so much, I never worried about the food being good.

It was all the other logistics that I knew would be challenging. And they sure were.”

HOW

Dine-in

CHECK IT OUT

A new gastropub in Covington

this year with a four-weekend celebration at the German cultural club Deutsches Haus. Meanwhile, other smaller iterations of the seasonal fest are stacking up too.

At Deutsches Haus, this year’s schedule has Oktoberfest booked each Friday and Saturday from Oct. 22 to Nov. 13.

It has been two years since the last Oktoberfest at Deutsches Haus.

“We’re planning for it and moving full force to have it,” says Deutsches Haus general manager Jack Gonzales. “The questions we’re handling now are how to make sure we do it safely and in accordance with whatever city directives are in place at the time.”

Because French Quarter Festival and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival were both rescheduled from their customary spring dates to October this year, Oktoberfest was pushed back. Now, that later date

P H O T O 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

means the outdoor fest could benefit from cooler weather.

Gonzales says the smaller scale of Oktoberfest should allow it to adjust to changing rules or conditions. The outdoor festival is focused on traditional German food and drink, with local bands performing on stage and families typically setting up their own chairs and blankets around the grounds.

(Find food and beer menus at deutscheshaus.org.)

Gonzales emphasizes that public health conditions and mandates at the time will guide how the festival is conducted.

Each fall, Middendorf’s Restaurant hosts a culinary Oktoberfest, adding PAGE 19

19

FORK & CENTER

Ring cycle

THE ANCIENT NEON FIXTURES HAVE SHIMMERED BACK TO LIFE over the bar.

Space is cleared in the back room for bands to set up. And the first few pieces of new art and quizzical curios are starting to accrue around the corners and crevices.

Saturn Bar is back, after this ineffably odd, utterly New Orleans institution was almost lost to the march of time and pressures of the pandemic.

The 9th Ward bar, at the corner of St. Claude Avenue and Clouet Street, reopened Oct. 7 with new owners. Heather Lane and Phil Yiannopoulos bought the business and property over the summer from the Broyard family, who had run it for three generations.

The task before them now is to bring back a beloved local institution that no one wanted to see change, but was not going to continue in the way it had.

All the tumult the hospitality industry has faced in the pandemic convinced the Broyard family to get out of the business and sell the bar.

The new owners, a 30-something married couple, have some hospitality experience. But mostly it was their experience as customers of Saturn Bar that spurred their move.

“This place was always hard to sum up because it wasn’t any one thing, it was everything at once,” Yiannopoulos says.

The tattered corner joint looks much the same as the day they bought it, aside from damage brought by Hurricane Ida, which blew down some brick siding and shattered the sign above the door.

Over the decades, Saturn Bar had been a workingman’s watering hole, an ad hoc boxing ring, an artistic oddity, an end-of-the-night destination, and, in the years after Hurricane Katrina, a music venue.

The Saturn era began in 1960 when the late O’Neil Broyard took it over. He was the bartender and the soul of the place, a perpetual presence with an eye for the obscure. The bar’s walls were hung with a collection of paintings by Mike Frolich dating to the 1960s O’Neil Broyard died in the months after Hurricane Katrina, but his family kept the bar going until selling it in 2021. Some of the old accumulated exotica was lost after Katrina too, but the spirit of the place endured.

The new owners spent the summer making repairs and making their plan to bring the old place back. The biggest additions so far: bringing the neon rings over the bar back to working order, bringing in a new sound system for live music and a pair of new TVs for Saints games, greatly sprucing up the restrooms, and adding draft beer at the bar. In the room where bands play, they cleared out a rarely-used back bar and moved it to the front, opening more room for people to watch or dance. — IAN McNULTY/ THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

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PAGE 18

weekly-changing menus next to its Louisiana seafood dishes.

This year, despite the strife of Hurricane Ida, proprietor Horst Pfeifer assembled all the pieces to once again bring the traditional fare of his native Germany to the table.

The Oktoberfest menus are served at lunch and dinner each Wednesday and Thursday through Nov. 11. They’re available at both the original Manchac location and the second Middendorf’s in Slidell.

The kitchens offer regional German specialties for this annual tradition. This week (Oct. 13 and 14), it’s sauerbraten, a pot roast in red wine sauce, with spaetzle and a pretzel and schwarzwälderkirschtorte (aka Black Forest cake).

It always feels like Oktoberfest at Bratz Y’all on Piety Street in Bywater. The small restaurant and beer garden is slowly building back from Hurricane Ida, but on the weekends it all still comes together with live acoustic music (from blues to zydeco to the occasional polka). It can feel like a low-key, family-friendly fest all on its own.

Berlin native Sven Vorkauf got his start selling schnitzel sandwiches as a New Orleans festival vendor.

When he opened his Bywater restaurant, he drew from the beer garden traditions from back home, and that extends from the weighty steins to the colorful flower boxes to the narrow wooden tables for elbow-to-elbow swilling.

Bratz Y’all serves sandwiches, platters and pretzels baked fresh throughout the day, and there’s a kids menu. The bar pours German draft beers by the half-liter or liter, perhaps to test your arm strength alongside your tolerance.

Chef Donald Link likes to point out that andouille and many other staples of Louisiana butcher shops trace their roots to Germany.

Throughout October, his Warehouse District market and eatery Cochon Butcher highlights those connections with daily specials.

Look for flavors like currywurst with thick-cut fries or flammkuchen, the cheesy, meaty, pizza-like tart and other dishes on a rotation that changes daily.

Alongside the monthlong specials, the bar has upped its German beer selection. — IAN McNULTY/ THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

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brandy and orange liqueur. It’s served at old-line New Orleans restaurants, usually in dramatic fashion with tableside service.

Sue Strachan wrote the recently released “The Cafe Brulot,” the latest book in a series about New Orleans cocktails published

by LSU Press. Strachan has written for The Times-Picayune, The Advocate, Gambit and other local publications, and she’s a former public relations director for the Ogden Museum of Southern Art.

What do you like about cafe brulot?

PHOTO BY CHRIS GR ANGER

SUE STRACHAN: What I love about

cafe brulot is it’s a great way to end a meal and it’s theatrical. You have the flames, and the cloves smell is really good. If I have people visiting from out of town and we go to an old-line restaurant, I definitely get it at the end of the meal.

A lot of people order this in place of dessert, but you can do both.

One of my proposed chapters was “What pairs well with cafe brulot” and I asked a bunch of places, and they were like, “We serve it alone.”

It’s got such a strong flavor, I don’t know what it would pair with dessert-wise.

I have personally had it at Antoine’s, Arnaud’s and Galatoire’s.

The book also has recipes from Brennan’s, Broussard’s and Commander’s Palace. All of the recipes all call for it to be flamed.

Lighting the drink brings out the flavors of the liqueurs, the oranges and the lemons.

How did this drink become part of New Orleans restaurant tradition?

SS: With many drinks and food, the origin stories are murky. It’s gone through a couple name changes, and different places change the recipe. Arnaud’s uses coffee with chicory, which makes a difference.

There are three theories about how it got to New Orleans. They say Jean Lafitte and Dominique You, the pirates, were making

it in the early 19th century. But there’s no proof in local literature that they did it. There’s another theory that it was invented during Prohibition to mask the scent of alcohol, but that doesn’t make sense because you needed the alcohol to set it on fire. The third is what I am thinking is true.

That it came over from southern France. The main ingredient is brandy, and armagnac is a brandy made in southern France. After a distillation period, they do a festival where they make a brulot called La Flamme de Armagnac.

It’s a festival and there are dinners, and the brulot is served after coffee. They don’t put coffee in it — they put fruit and spices in it — and they do light it on fire.

The interesting thing is that you have Antoine Alciatore, who grew up in Marseilles. (The drink) is credited to Jules Alciatore, Antoine’s son, who brought it to Antoine’s (Restaurant) in the 1880s. They called it Cafe Brulot Diabolique, which I think was a marketing ploy. Add a little oomph to it. He designed a cup with a little devil on it.

You also had the Galatoires (family) from southwest France in the Armagnac region. At Arnaud’s, you had (Arnaud) Cazanave, who was born in the region too. They came to New Orleans after Jules

introduced the drink, but maybe they were familiar with it too.

Is it only made at old-line restaurants? Are there other drinks like it?

SS: These (old-line restaurants) are the only places that I know of that do it. There are no bars I am aware of that do this.

Some people make it at home.

Adler’s offers brulot sets on their wedding registry. Some people make it for special occasions.

I have never seen it in any other place in the U.S. Some places serve something similar called café diablo, and some make that with rum instead of brandy.

(Here) it’s one of a handful of flamed items. At Brennan’s, they flame bananas Foster. Antoine’s has long been known for its baked Alaska, which traditionally is flamed. You can find crepes Suzette locally. Cafe brulot is the only drink that’s flamed tableside.

Though some bars have flaming shots, like Dr. Pepper shots at the Gold Mine.

Cafe brulot will be around as long as the old-line restaurants. People embrace it as a uniquely New Orleans tradition.

C O M P L E T E L I S T I N G S A T W W W. B E S T O F N E W O 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.

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

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

NOTICE: Due to COVID-19 and Hurricane Ida, dining at restaurants is impacted. Information is subject to change. Contact the restaurant to confirm service options.

CBD Juan’s Flying Burrito — 515 Baronne St., (504) 529-5825; juansflyingburrito.com — See Uptown section for restaurant description. Outdoor dining available.

No reservations. Lunch and dinner Thu.-Tue. $$

CARROLLTON Mid City Pizza — 6307 S. Miro St., (504) 509-6224; midcitypizza.com — See MidCity section for restaurant description.

Takeout and delivery available. Lunch Thu.-Sun., dinner Thu.-Mon. $$ Mikimoto — 3301 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 488-1881; mikimotosushi.com — The South Carrollton roll includes tuna tataki, avocado and snow crab. Takeout and delivery available. Lunch Sun.-Fri., dinner daily. $$ 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. Lunch and dinner daily. $$

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

FAUBOURG MARIGNY Kebab — 2315 St. Claude Ave., (504) 383-4328; 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. Lunch and dinner Wed.-Mon. $

FRENCH QUARTER Desire Oyster Bar — Royal Sonesta New Orleans, 300 Bourbon St., (504) 586-0300; 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. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$

GENTILLY NOLA Crawfish King Seafood & Barbecue — 5321 Franklin Ave., (504) 571-5038 ; crawfishking.com — The restaurant specializes in boiled seafood and barbecue. The Gentilly Reuben features house-smoked brisket pastrami, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and house sauce on marbled rye. No reservations. Takeout and outdoor seating available. Lunch and early dinner Wed.-Sun. $$

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. Lunch and dinner 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.

Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sat. $

LAKEVIEW

The Blue Crab Restaurant and Oyster Bar — 7900 Lakeshore Drive, (504) 284-2898; thebluecrabnola.com — The menu includes sandwiches, fried seafood platters, boiled seafood and more. Basin barbecue shrimp and grits features eight jumbo shrimp over creamy cheese grits and a cheese biscuit. Outdoor seating available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $$ 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. Breakfast and lunch daily. $

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 housemade angel hair pasta and smoked salmon in cream sauce. Curbside pickup and delivery available. Lunch and dinner daily, brunch Sun. $$$ Chef Ron’s Gumbo Stop — 2309 N. Causeway Blvd., Metairie, (504) 8352022; gumbostop.com — The Seafood Platter comes with fried catfish, shrimp, oysters and crab balls and is accompanied by fries and choice of side. Delivery available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sat. $$ Kosher Cajun New York Deli & Grocery — 3519 Severn Ave., Metairie, (504) 8882010; koshercajun.com — This New Yorkstyle deli specializes in sandwiches, including corned beef and pastrami that come from the Bronx. Takeout available.

Lunch Sun.-Thu., dinner 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. Lunch Tue.-Sat., dinner Tue.-Sun. $ Martin Wine Cellar — 714 Elmeer Ave., Metairie, (504) 896-7350; martinwine.

com — See Uptown section for restaurant description. No reservations.

Lunch daily. $$ Nephew’s Ristorante — 4445 W. Metairie Ave., Metairie, (504) 533-9998; nephewsristorante.com — Chef Frank Catalanotto is the namesake “nephew” who ran the kitchen at his late uncle Tony Angello’s restaurant. The CreoleItalian menu features dishes like veal, eggplant or chicken parmigiana, and Mama’s Eggplant with red gravy and Romano cheese. Reservations required.

Dinner Tue.-Sat. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 2125 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, (504) 510-4282; theospizza.com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description. $ Short Stop Po-Boys — 119 Transcontinental Drive, Metairie, (504) 885-4572; shortstoppoboysno.com — The menu includes more than 30 po-boys along with other Louisiana staples. Fried Louisiana oysters and Gulf shrimp are served on a Leidenheimer loaf with lettuce, tomato, onions and pickles.

No reservations. Breakfast, lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat. $

WINE OF THE

WEEK

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. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $ Brown Butter Southern Kitchen & Bar — 231 N. Carrollton Ave., Suite C, (504) 609-3871; 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. Lunch and dinner Wed.-Sat., brunch Sat.-Sun. $$ Juan’s Flying Burrito — 4724 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 486-9950; juansflyingburrito.com — See Uptown section for restaurant description. Outdoor dining available. No reservations. Lunch and dinner Thu.-Tue. $$ 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. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $$ Mid City Pizza — 4400 Banks St., (504) 483-8609; midcitypizza.com — The neighborhood pizza joint serves New York-style pies, plus calzones, sandwiches and salads. Signature shrimp remoulade pizza includes spinach, red onion, garlic, basil and green onion on an garlic-olive oil brushed curst. Dine-in, takeout and delivery available. Lunch Thu.-Sun., dinner Thu.-Mon. $$ Neyow’s Creole Cafe — 3332 Bienville St., (504) 827-5474; neyows.com — The menu includes New Orleans favorites such as red beans with fried chicken or pork chops, as well as grilled or fried seafood plates, po-boys, raw or chargrilled oysters, pasta, salads and more.

PAGE 22

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Smothered pork chops with potatoes and carrot souffle at Neyow’s Creole Cafe (3332 Bienville St., 504-827-5474; neyows.com).

The Blue Crab Restaurant and Oyster Bar — 118 Harbor View Court, Slidell, (985) 315-7001; thebluecrabnola.com — See Lakeview section for restaurant description. No reservations. Lunch Fri.-Sat., dinner Wed.-Sun. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 70488 Highway 21, Covington, (985) 2349420; theospizza.com — See Harahan/ Jefferson section for restaurant description. $

UPTOWN

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Dine-in and takeout available. Lunch daily, dinner Mon.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$ Nonna Mia — 3125 Esplanade Ave., (504) 9481717; 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. Dinner Tue.Sun. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 4024 Canal St., (504) 302-1133; theospizza. com — See Harahan/ Jefferson section for restaurant description. $

CR Coffee Shop — 3618 Magazine St., (504) 354-9422; crcoffeenola.com — The selection includes Coast Roast coffees made with beans roasted in antique roasters, and the sweet vanilla cream cold brew is a signature item.

There also are pastries and snacks.

Indoor and outdoor seating, online ordering and delivery available. Open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. $ Joey K’s — 3001 Magazine St., (504) 891-0997; 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. Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$ Juan’s Flying Burrito — 2018 Magazine St., (504) 569-0000; 5538 Magazine St., (504) 897-4800; juansflyingburrito. com — The Flying Burrito includes grilled steak, shrimp, chicken, cheddar-jack cheese, black beans, yellow rice, salsa la fonda, guacamole and sour cream. The menu also has tacos, quesadillas, nachos and more. Outdoor seating available. No reservations.

Lunch and dinner Thu.-Tue. $$ Martin Wine Cellar — 3827 Baronne St., (504) 894-7444; martinwine.com — The deli at the wine and spirit shop serves sandwiches, salads and more.

The Sena salad includes pulled roasted chicken, golden raisins, blue cheese, pecans and field greens tossed with Tobasco pepperjelly vinaigrette. No reservations. Lunch daily. $$ Red Gravy — 4206 Magazine St., (504) 561-8844; redgravycafe.com — Thin cannoli pancakes are filled with cannoli cream and topped with chocolate. The menu includes brunch items, pasta dishes, sandwiches, baked goods and more. Takeout available. $$ 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. Lunch and dinner 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. Dinner Thu.-Sun. $$$ 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. $$$

WEST BANK

Asia — Boomtown Casino & Hotel, 4132 Peters Road, Harvey, (504) 3648812; boomtownneworleans.com — Restaurateur Tri La’s menu serves Chinese and Vietnamese dishes. The Lau Hot Pot for two comes with choice of scallops, snow crab or shrimp. Reservations accepted. Dinner Fri.-Sun. $$ Mosca’s — 4137 Highway 90 West, 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.

Dinner Wed.-Sat. Cash only. $$$ Specialty Italian Bistro — 2330 Belle Chasse Hwy., Gretna, (504) 391-1090; specialtyitalianbistro.com — The menu combines Old World Italian favorites and pizza. Paneed chicken piccata is topped with lemon-caper piccata sauce served with angel hair pasta, salad and garlic cheese bread. Takeout and delivery available. Lunch and dinner daily. $$

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F O R C O M P L E T E M U S I C L I S T I N G S A N D M O R E E V E N T S TA K I N G P L AC E I N T H E N E W O R L E A N S A R E A , V I S I T C A L E N D A R . G A M B I T W E E K LY. C O M To learn more about adding your event to the music calendar, please email listingsedit@gambitweekly.com Note: Due to COVID-19, events may have certain restrictions or may be postponed; we recommend checking out a venues social media sites or call before you go for the most up to dateinformation.

TUESDAY 12 BAYOU BAR AT THE PONTCHARTRAIN HOTEL — Peter Harris Quartet, 7 pm CARNAVAL LOUNGE — Leroy Jones, 7 pm; Sam Price and the True Believers, 10 pm CHICKIE WAH WAH — Russell Welch Orchestra, 7 pm CIVIC THEATRE — Lake Street Drive with Allison Russell, 8 pm DOS JEFES — Tom Hook, Wendell Brunious, 8:30 pm GASA GASA — Lisbon Girls with Dana Ives and Nile Ashton, 9 pm NEW ORLEANS JAZZ MUSEUM — Jazz Between Fests, 10 am ROCK 'N' BOWL — Javier Olondo & Asheson, 8 pm SIDNEY'S SALOON — Jazz with Steve Detroy, 7 pm TIPITINA'S — Dragon Smoke feat. Ivan Neville, Stanton Moore, Eric Lindell & Robert Mercurio, 9 pm

WEDNESDAY 13 BAYOU BAR AT THE PONTCHARTRAIN HOTEL — Peter Harris Trio, 7 pm CHICKIE WAH WAH — Sabine McCalla, 7 pm; The Railing Stains (Rolling Stones tribute), 10 pm CIVIC THEATRE — The Radiators, 10 pm DOS JEFES — Joe Krown, 8:30 pm GASA GASA — Dodie with Bone Diggers and Robert Walter, 9 pm PALM COURT JAZZ CAFE — New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra, 7:30 pm PRESERVATION HALL — Preservation All-Stars, 6:15 and 7:30 pm SANTOS — Swamp Moves with The Russell Welch Trio, 8 pm SIDNEY'S SALOON — Karaoke with Sunshine Edae, 10 pm THE HOWLIN' WOLF — Magalomaniacs Ball, 7 pm THE JAZZ PLAYHOUSE — Funkin' It Up with Big Sam, 7:30 pm TIPITINA'S — Preservation Hall Jazz Band, 8 pm

THURSDAY 14 ACE HOTEL NEW ORLEANS — Jon Cleary with special guest Charlie Gabriel, 8 pm BAYOU BAR AT THE PONTCHARTRAIN HOTEL — Peter Harris Quartet, 8 pm BOURREE — Sam Cammarata, 6 pm BUFFA'S — Tom McDermott and Aurora Nealand, 7 and 9 pm CARNAVAL LOUNGE — JJ Shreds and The Chompers and Captain Green, 10 pm

CASA BORREGA — Matt Johnson, 6:30 pm CHICKIE WAH WAH — Dayna Kurt, 7 pm CIVIC THEATRE — The Radiators, 10 pm DOS JEFES — Anna Quinn, 8:30 pm GASA GASA — Sansho, 8 pm LE BON TEMPS ROULE — The Soul Rebels, 10 pm OLD POINT BAR — Valerie Sassyfras, 8 pm PALM COURT JAZZ CAFE — Duke Heitger & Tim Laughlin with Crescent City Joymakers, 7:30 pm PRESERVATION HALL — Preservation All-Stars feat. Wendell Brunious, 5, 6:15 and 7:30 pm ROCK 'N' BOWL — Chubby Carrier & Bayou Swamp Band, 8 pm SIDNEY'S SALOON — Dark Lounge Ministries, 6 pm SNUG HARBOR JAZZ BISTRO — Davell Crawford, 8 and 10 pm THE JAZZ PLAYHOUSE — Brass-AHolics, 7:30 pm THE SPOTTED CAT MUSIC CLUB — Miss Sophie Lee, 6:30 pm THE YARD ON FRENCHMEN — Jason Neville Funky Soul Band, 7 pm TIPITINA'S — St. Paul & The Broken Bones, 9 pm ZONY MASH BEER PROJECT — The Future Of Funk Under 30 All-Stars and Eric ‘Benny’ Bloom and the Late Bloomers 7 pm

FRIDAY 15 ACE HOTEL NEW ORLEANS — Marcus Machado ft. Charm Taylor, Cavalier, Iman Omari, Cool Nasty, 9 pm BAYOU BAR AT THE PONTCHARTRAIN HOTEL — Peter Harris Trio, 7 pm BOURREE — Nexisopaya, 4 pm; Chip Wilson & Mark McGrain, 7 pm BROADSIDE NOLA — Sweet Crude with Berkley The Aritst, 7:30 pm BUFFA'S — Tanglers Bluegrass Band, 7 and 9 pm CARNAVAL LOUNGE — Vibey Fest, 7 pm CASA BORREGA — Leo Hernandez & Matt Johnson, 6:30 pm CHICKIE WAH WAH — Michael Ceveris and Loose Cattle, 8 pm D.B.A. AT PALACE MARKET — The Soul Rebels, 10 pm GASA GASA — The Ol Ghosts with Strange Roux, 9 pm JAZZ @ THE BLUE DOG — James Rivers Movement, 8 pm MORNING CALL — Valerie Sassyfras,8 am NEW ORLEANS FRENCH MARKET — Julio and Cesar, 12:30 pm PALM COURT JAZZ CAFE — Kevin Louis & Topsy Chapman with Palm Court

Jazz Band, 7:30 pm PIROGUE’S WHISKEY BAYOU — Greg Schatz and The Friggin' Geniuses, 8 pm PRESERVATION HALL — Preservation All-Stars feat. Kevin Louis, 1 and 2:15 pm; Preservation All-Stars feat. Mark Braud, 5, 6:15 and 7:30 pm ROCK 'N' BOWL — Mark Broussard, 8:30 pm SANTOS — Captra, 9 pm; Hidden Charms Records-Only Dance party, 9 pm SIDNEY'S SALOON — Sean Hobbes, 9 pm SNUG HARBOR JAZZ BISTRO — Delfeayo Marsalis Quintet, 8 and 10 pm SOUTHPORT HALL LIVE MUSIC & PARTY HALL — Maiden LA, 8 pm TERRABELLA VILLAGE — Groovy 7, 5:30 pm THE HOWLIN' WOLF — Burlesque Ballroom feat. Romy Kaye, 7 pm; Bonerama, 10:30 pm THE JAZZ PLAYHOUSE — Burlesque Ballroom feat. Romy Kaye, 9 pm THE YARD ON FRENCHMEN — Laveaux, 4 pm; Jason Neville Funky Soul Band, 7 pm TIPITINA'S — St. Paul & The Broken Bones, 9 pm

SATURDAY 16 ACE HOTEL NEW ORLEANS — "IFE" album release ft. Charm Taylor, Cavalier, Iman Omari, Cool Nasty, 9 pm BAYOU BAR AT THE PONTCHARTRAIN HOTEL — Jordan Anderson, 8 pm BOURREE — Nola Hummingbirds, 2 pm BROADSIDE NOLA — The Soul Rebels, 8 pm; The Iguanas, 12 am BUFFA'S — Sam Price and Friends, 7 and 9 pm CARNAVAL LOUNGE — Micah McKee, 6 pm CASA BORREGA — Leo & Ovi, 6:30 pm CHICKIE WAH WAH — Paul Sanchez, 7 pm DOS JEFES — The Joe Krown Trio, 9 pm GASA GASA — BD+ the Sheeks with Killer Whale and Epic Reflexes, 9 pm JAZZ @ THE BLUE DOG — James Rivers Movement, 8 pm PALM COURT JAZZ CAFE — Will Smith with Palm Court Jazz Band, 7:30 pm PIROGUE’S WHISKEY BAYOU — Little Freddie King, 8 pm PRESERVATION HALL — Shake ‘Em Up Jazz Band, 1 and 2:15 pm; Preservation Legacy Band feat. Shannon Powell, 5, 6:15 and 7:30 pm ROCK 'N' BOWL — Nashville South, 8:30 pm SANTOS — Me Nd Adam, Juno Dunes, Roy Briggs, 9 pm SMOOTHIE KING CENTER — James Taylor & His All-Star Band, 7:30 pm SNUG HARBOR JAZZ BISTRO — Herlin Riley Quartet, 8 and 10 pm

SOUTHPORT HALL LIVE MUSIC & PARTY HALL — Skin n Bones: Foo Fighters Tribute, 8 pm THE JAZZ PLAYHOUSE — The Nayo Jones Experience, 7:30 pm THE YARD ON FRENCHMEN — Will Dickerson, 4 pm; Street LYFE Band, 7 pm TIPITINA'S — Galactic, 9 pm; The Emerald Quintet, 2 am

SUNDAY 17 ACE HOTEL NEW ORLEANS — Erica Falls and The Soul Rebels, 8 pm.

BOURREE — Orphaned in Storyville, 2 pm; French Fry, 6 pm BROADSIDE NOLA — BreakFest with Andrew Duhon, The Jelly Sisters, 9 am; Big Sam & Friends feat. Skerik, John Michael Bradford, Terrence Higgins, 5 pm BUFFA'S — Some Like It Hot, 11 am and 1 pm; Leslie Cooper & Harry Mayronne with Doyle Cooper, 7 and 9 pm CARNAVAL LOUNGE — Ted Hefko and the Thousandaires, 6 pm; Skerik with Helen Gillet and Nikki Glaspie, 10 pm CHICKIE WAH WAH — Susan Cowsill, 7 pm GASA GASA — Nikki & The Phantom Callers with Dusky Waters and Anne Elise Hastings and Her Revolving Cast of Characters, 9 pm MONKEY MONKEY COFFEE AND TEA — Valerie Sassyfras, 8 am MUSIC BOX VILLAGE — Brass Brunch, 10 am PALM COURT JAZZ CAFE — Mark Braud with Palm Court Jazz Band, 7:30 pm PRESERVATION HALL — Preservation Brass,1 and 2:15 pm; Preservation Legacy Band feat. Gregg Stafford, 5, 6:15 and 7:30 pm ROCK 'N' BOWL — Ryan Foret & Foret Tradition, 4:30 pm SNUG HARBOR JAZZ BISTRO — Amina Figarova Sextet, 8 and 10 pm THE HOWLIN' WOLF — Hot 8 Brass Band, 9 pm THE YARD ON FRENCHMEN — Will Dickerson, 4 pm; Street LYFE Band, 7 pm TIPITINA'S — Dumstaphunk, 8 pm

MONDAY 18 BUFFA'S — Meschiya Lake, Tyler “Twerk” Thomson, 7 pm CARROLLTON STATION — Joe Cabral, Jeb Stuart & Chris Alford, 9 pm DOS JEFES — John Fohl, 8:30 pm SANTOS — Karaoke with Sunshine Edae, 10 pm

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MUSIC CALENDAR

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MUSIC

Album Reviews: The Nth Power and Leyla McCalla with Michot’s Melody Makers ‘Tiny Island’

F Fall

RES STAURANT GUIDE 2021

October 8-14 2019 Volume 40 Number 41

CALL NOW ISSUE DATE: OCT 19 To advertise call Sandy Stein at 504.483.3150 or email sstein@gambitweekly.com

‘Reverence’

MICHOT’S MELODY MAKERS & LEYLA MCCALLA (Nouveau Electric Records)

THE NTH POWER (Self-released)

IT’S ALWAYS EXCITING TO HEAR LOUIS MICHOT AND LEYLA MCCALLA collabo-

THE NTH POWER FORMED IN NEW ORLEANS a decade ago as a side project

rate. Both musicians are remarkable in their work not only preserving traditional music — Cajun and south Louisianan styles for Michot and Haitian folk for McCalla — but shattering any stuffy assumptions about these styles, proving they’re living, breathing and current. McCalla in 2016 joined Michot in New York City for performances as part of the fiddler and singer’s residency at The Stone, a space for experimental and avant-garde works. McCalla and her cello then appeared on the Lost Bayou Ramblers’ “Kalenda,” and last year she joined Michot’s Melody Makers at the Music Box Village as well as a few performances at the Broadside over the last months.

In March, McCalla and the Melody Makers — Michot, guitarist Mark Bingham, bassist Bryan Webre and drummer Kirkland Middleton — got together on a small island on Michot’s property, set a campfire and recorded the five-song “Tiny Island” EP. They also shot a short concert video to accompany the release. A little more intimate than the Melody Makers’ normal electric sets — the sounds of frogs and bugs can be heard in the background — “Tiny Island” features the group settling in to both traditional and original songs in Cajun French and Haitian Kreyol. It’s a charming example of the partnership among people who deeply care about folk music.

— JAKE CLAPP

while Nikki Glaspie was the drummer for Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk. While it was initially linked to funk and R&B, and at one point included keyboardist Nigel Hall, The Nth Power has coalesced into a contemporary soul music trio with Nick Cassarino playing guitar and singing and Nate Edgar on bass.

That’s abundantly clear on its late September release “Reverence,” especially with the uplifting messages and feel of songs like album opener “Reach Out” and “Joy.” There’s a bit more of a gospel feel to “Freedom,” featuring vocalist Cheryl Pepsii Riley, who also appears on the album’s new version of “Holy Rain.” “Take My Soul” is an extended bluesy jam driven by Cassarino’s guitar and tale about maintaining faith while feeling abandoned.

The album also occasionally flirts with jazzy flourishes and reggae beats — Edgar spent a few years with John Brown’s Body. “Spirits” features vocals from Neville and Nick Daniels III of Dumpstaphunk and the unmistakable funky horn of Maceo Parker. Former Tedeschi Trucks band keyboardist Kofi Burbridge, who died in February 2019, contributed to 10 of the 11 tracks.

He also contributed the flute solo on “Joy.” The album is the first Nth Power release in six years, and it’s both well polished and earnest in its messages of hope. The band is in town to perform Wednesday, Oct. 13, at the Megalomaniacs Ball at The Howlin’ Wolf.

— WILL COVIELLO

UNO students and staff work closely with local schools to help enrich the educational experience for all involved.

By Amanda McElfresh amcelfresh@theadvocate.com This article is brought to you by the University of New Orleans Strong relationships between the University of New Orleans and local school districts are allowing UNO student teachers to gain real world experience, energizing classrooms and creating a talent pipeline between the university and area schools.

To earn an education degree, a UNO student must complete a yearlong residency, where he or she works in a classroom alongside an experienced educator who serves as a mentor.

The model benefits UNO students, teachers and classroom students.

“It’s a gift to have coachable aspiring teachers in our classrooms,” said Tobi Flair, the recruiting specialist for St. Charles Parish Public Schools.

“They want to make a difference and positively transform lives. It brings about a renewal on the part of our mentor teachers and it’s refreshing for administrators to see that energy.”

Catherine Randall, a second grade teacher at Joseph Davies Elementary in St. Bernard Parish, has always embraced UNO student teachers and the chance to mentor them. Randall said she is impressed with their enthusiasm, interest in technology and willingness to learn.

“There are some things you are not going to learn in a textbook,” Randall said. “You have to be prepared for those times when you have five extra minutes in class because you don’t want to waste those. There will be times a lesson doesn’t go like you planned. I think part of being a good teacher is knowing that it’s going to be okay.

Sometimes you have to revamp things or start from scratch. You have to know that’s fine and it’s part of the process.”

Sophia Castillo, a UNO senior who is working alongside Randall this year, said the experience has helped her apply concepts she’s learned in college in areas such as lesson planning and classroom management. But by working directly with students and watching Randall

closely, Castillo is learning what it takes to have a successful day in an elementary school class.

“Particularlybecausetheyareyoung,theystart talking about something else,” Castillo said. “One big thing I’m learning is how to manage those conversations and let them have input without getting off track. It has surprised me, but it’s a big learning opportunity as well.”

Randall noted that her students also benefit from having a second teacher in the room. One may lead a small group or one-on-one work while the other teaches a lesson to a larger cohort.

Sometimes, Castillo leads a class-wide lesson while Randall communicates with parents.

“They know they have two sets of eyes on them and two teachers to help them,” Randall said. “I think they see us as a partnership. I always tell them that it’s like they are learning double because they have two teachers.”

COVIDpromptsflexibilityandadaptation The pandemic forced most schools and universities to switch to virtual formats and limit in-person contact. But it also presented an opportunity for UNO students and staff to adapt to new technology and education methods.

For example, UNO began using a digital platform where education students would record themselves teaching, then share the video with university supervisors for feedback. Previously, a supervisor would conduct such observations in person. Using a digital method, those supervisors wereabletogivespecific,time-stampedfeedback about each student’s performance.

“Wefoundthatthefeedbackwasreallydetailed and thorough,” said Melissa Nunez, UNO’s coordinator of clinical and field experiences and accreditationspecialist. “I think the quality ofthe feedbackwasevenbetterthanithadbeenbefore.”

Based on that experience, Nunez said UNO is now using a hybrid approach that will combine in-person and digital feedback for its education students.

In addition, Nunez said UNO encouraged its student teachers to work with their districts and embrace whichever technology format they use to reach students. More university classes also havefocusedonteachingeducationmajorshowto

help students collaborate if they have to socially distance or use hybrid methods.

“That was something we had to look at as instructors,” Nunez said. “A lot of this was fundamentally changing the way we educate students. They couldn’t do a lot of what we teach, depending on what was happening with the virus. We’ve tried to incorporate a lot of different things and really make sure we were being adaptable as well.”

Flair saidSt.CharlesParishworkedwithUNO to create virtual field experiences for university UNO education major Sophia Castillo leads an students. These temporarily replaced in-person elementary school lesson as a student teacher in guidedobservations,whereaschooladministrator St. Bernard Parish. would sit with a UNO student as they watched Relationshipscreatenewtalentpipeline a classroom teacher. With the virtual format, For Castillo, the idea of being an educator is Flair said St. Charles Parish set up devices in a classroom and shared the footage with UNO rewarding on multiple levels. She loves seeing students’ faces light up when they grasp a new students via Zoom.

“This allowed for a class of UNO students concept. In addition, the New Orleans native to watch a lesson in one of our classrooms, embraces the idea of giving back to the region listen to the teacher and watch the students,” she has always called home.

“Someofmyfriendstalkaboutwantingtoleave Flair said. “We took it a step further, so after the lesson, the teacher would talk to the UNO New Orleans, but I feel like I have been given this studentsviaZoom.Itreallyallowedforwonderful gift where I can give back to the community that discussion because they would ask about why built me up,” she said. “I think the chance to use a teacher handled a lesson a certain way or the tools I have been given to help the people focused on certain students. They saw those around me is really special.”

Tiffani Glapion, the principal of Joseph Davis instructional strategies unfold in real time and then ask questions. It was an amazing dialogue.” Elementary, said the school’s partnership with UNO has introduced the school to student Hynes partnership creates education teachers who may have otherwise overlooked St. Bernard Parish, meaning they may consider community UNO is partnering with schools in other ways working there full-time upon graduation.

“I’mgettingtoworkwithstudentteacherswho to improve education. One key relationship is between UNO and Hynes Charter School. When might have never stepped foot in my building,” Hynes re-opened after Hurricane Katrina, UNO Glapion said. “When I do have a position open, leaders began offering expertise and serving on I can talk to them about applying and keeping the school’s board. That collaboration deepened them in St. Bernard Parish.”

Glapionsaidsheisalwaysespeciallyinterested over the years and has resulted in the opening inhiringUNOgraduatesbecauseoftheexcitement of Hynes-UNO Charter School.

Michelle Douglas, the Hynes Charter School and perspectives they bring to her school.

“They are young and have fresh ideas. They CEO,saidtheschoolhasstudentsinkindergarten, firstand secondgradesthisyear.Itwilleventually bring more insight into what we are doing,” she become a K-8 school with a focus on science, said. “If a kid is struggling, some of them have technology, engineering and math, plus a French struggled with the same thing and will tell us about a method a teacher used to help them. I immersion pathway.

“The idea is to elevate elementary education don’t think a teacher’s toolbox is ever full, so we and bring children onto a college campus in a always embrace adding more ideas.”

To ensure that UNO education graduates safe way,” Douglas said. “This will allow us to do more programming and service work while are as prepared as possible to enter the local enriching the lives of younger kids by allowing workforce, Nunez said university leaders are them to have the space to practice the concepts in constant communication with area school districts about ways to improve, each student they are learning and work together.”

Douglas said the strong relationship between teacher’s strengths and weaknesses and how UNO and Hynes Charter has been beneficial for the university can best set them up for success.

“I feel like our districts are the biggest asset all involved. Some Hynes teachers have served as adjunct professors. Some UNO professors we have,” she said. “They help us refine these have done professional development work with teachers and turn them into the people we see Hynes teachers. Douglas has given presentations when they enter the workforce. We’re always in UNO classrooms. All of it has resulted in a having conversations with district personnel about what we are doing well and where we positive energy across the board.

“Teachers must enter this field with a growth need to improve. It benefits UNO, our students mindset,andworkingwithanationally-recognized and the local schools.”

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UNO plays key role in regional education with student teaching, partnerships and engagement with local schools

research university that stays current in educational trends is a huge benefit to help them continue their professional development,” Douglas said. “Beyond education, we’ve had opportunities to partner with UNO Athletics.

We’ve attended games and some of their teams do service work at Hynes. We try to look for opportunities that are win-win for the university and the school and where our goals are aligned.”

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A R T S & E N T E R TA I N M E N T

FILM

PAGE 5

JJ Grey & Mofro and The California Honeydrops JJ GREY & MOFRO GAINED FAME ON THE JAM BAND CIRCUIT though it

delivers a much tighter blend of Southern rock, soul and blues.

The group is joined by Bay Area blues, funk and R&B outfit, The California Honeydrops. At 9 p.m.

Thursday, Oct. 14, at Orpheum Theater. Tickets $35 and up at ticketmaster.com.

Clown Town Presents: ‘EVERYBODY DIES’

THE QUEER CLOWNS OF CLOWN TOWN ARE BACK WITH THEIR NEW HALLOWEEN SHOW, ominously

titled “EVERYBODY DIES.” Clowns are generally scary, but the rotating cast of Clown Town — which describes itself as “a little bit sideshow, a little bit vaudeville, a pinch of New Orleans charm” — terrifyingly degenerate, in the best sense of the term. Pretty much all the shows at AllWays are weird and fun, and this show will definitely be one to see. Shows at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 12. Tickets are $20-$40 on eventbrite.com.

Big Sam & Friends

TROMBONIST BIG SAM WILLIAMS LEADS AN ALL-STAR JAZZ FUNK JAM with saxophonist Skerik,

drummer Terence Higgins of Swampgrease, trumpeter John Michael Bradford, bassist Jerry “J. Black” Henderson and guitarist June Yamagishi. Doors open at 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 17 at the Broadside. Tickets are $25 at broadsidenola.com

Dark Art Market

EVERYBODY’S FAVORITE GOTH/ METAL/PUNK NIGHT MARKET IS BACK this month at Santos bar.

As usual, the Dark Art Market will feature vintage clothing and jewelry, original artwork, handcrafted jewelry and other fun stuff to make your cold, black hearts sing and your chain wallets open wide. Plus , there’s live music and a set by DJ Mange!

Tuesday, Oct. 12, from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Macumba

THE MACUMBA TRIO FOCUSES ON BRAZILIAN CHORINHO, BAIAO AND SAMBA JAZZ . It performs in the

“Evenings with Enrique” series at the New Orleans Botanical Gardens. Patrons can stroll the garden’s sculptural installations, and food and drinks are available from Kitchen in the Garden. The

Helis Foundation sponsors free admission for Louisiana residents.

From 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The series continues Wednesdays throughout October.

Toubab Krewe

NORTH CAROLINA’S TOUBAB KREWE PLAYS A GROOVING RHYTHMIC MUSIC fusing jam band vibes

and the music of Mali, led by Justin Perkins’ kora playing and other band members on various drums. The band performs at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13, at The Broadside. Tickets $20 at broadsidenola.com.

Erica Falls and The Soul Rebels

FUNK AND SOUL SINGER ERIKA FALLS CA FALLS AND THE SOUL REBELS perform a

free show at Three Keys at the Ace Hotel at 8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 17. Reserve tickets at rsvp.nola@ acehotel.com for admission.

BreakFest Day II

THE SECOND DAY OF BREAKFEST, A PRE-JAZZ FEST — WHEN JAZZ FEST HAPPENS — Sunday morning

music, food and arts festival, will feature Anders Osborne, Andrew Duhon and Tif “Teddy” Lamson and Julie Odel performing as The Jelly Sisters. The morning gets started at 9 a.m. with a yoga class set to the Radio Bird Quartet and followed by a reading by Cubs The Poet. HEY! Coffee, The Station, Monkey Monkey, Jimmy Bordelon and Big Easy Bucha offer brunch items. BreakFest runs 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Broadside. Tickets are $30 at broadsidenola.com.

Festing in Place

COMMUNITY RADIO STATION WWOZ 90.7 FM HOLDS ITS SECOND LONG WEEKEND OF FESTING IN PLACE

Thursday, Oct. 14, through Sunday, Oct. 17. During the normal Jazz Fest hours of 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., it’s broadcasting past festival performances, including a Santana show from 1999, Richie Havens from 1991, The Meters from 1970, Toots and the Maytals from 1991, Aaron Neville from 2003, Allen Toussaint from 2010, and it concludes with a Neville Brothers set from 1992. Visit wwoz.org for the schedule.

Body work

by Will Coviello

WEARING NEON GREEN FISHNETS, HIGH HEELS AND A GOLDEN BIKINI, Alexia gyrates on the hood of a Cadillac detailed with flames in the opening minutes of “Titane.” She’s working at an auto show — lit like a nightclub with exotic dancers rubbing against or on top of outrageous sports cars and custom cars.

That glitzy and titillating image is an early flourish in French director Julia Ducournau’s wild and terrifying ride of a biological horror film. It’s also a small tipoff that Alexia is on a twisted journey, marked by body modifications and manipulations of her image and others’ desires.

Throughout, Ducournau explores how disparate appearances and identity can be.

The scene also signals an unflinching story. What little is shown about Alexia’s prior life is that she survived a catastrophic injury as a little girl. From the backseat of their car, she was trying to get her father’s attention, courting the danger of distracting him, when he erupted in anger, losing control of the vehicle and spinning into a crash. Doctors implanted a titanium plate in her skull, and she still bears a large scar behind her right ear where it had been screwed in place.

As a professional dancer, Alexia is secretive, declining to share her name with other performers at the event, even as she showers with them. She’s brooding and inscrutable. She’s also volatile and quick to lash out at others. Her sexuality is enigmatic, as cars and metal seem to attract her. After viciously dispensing with an aggressive fan at the car show, Alexia careens from one victim to the next. Eventually she hits the brakes on that streak and tries to mask or alter her identity. The transformations, intentional and otherwise, are grotesque at times.

A subtitle in the film explains that titanium is a metal used in medical prostheses because it is compatible with the body. Alexia seems to have become a hybrid model, drawn to metal and machines, though some of that may pre-date her surgery.

The French film won the Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in July. Ducournau is the second woman director to win the presti-

PHOTO BY CAROLE BETHUEL / PROVIDED BY NEON

gious award. At the Toronto Film Festival, it won the People’s Choice Award for Midnight Madness, a category for underground cinema and films destined for cult followings. Its U.S. release has been limited, and some of the scars and body alterations are stark, right in line with the body horror niche. (The film is in French with English subtitles.)

Alexia is played by Agathe Rousselle, who is intense and uninhibited, both as the easily angered dancer and the agonizing and silent woman on the run.

Alexia eventually meets Vincent, an aging fireman who’s endured his own isolating trauma since his young son disappeared. Vincent is a domineering father figure to the firemen under his command.

Despite the years that have passed, he’s not giving up hope of finding his son. That may fuel his desire to freeze himself if not at a point in time then at peak masculinity, turning to steroids to pump up his physique.

Accounting for more of the film than Alexia’s performing stints, her relationship with Vincent is deceitful and bizarre — and in its perverse way caring. But it also is where Ducournau delves deeper into the issues of representations of gender and identity, frailty and strength, and the strengths of denial and delusion. They’re intriguing ideas, despite the grit and violence. The adrenaline rush slows down, but the revelations keep coming in unpredictable and harrowing turns.

“Titane” runs through Oct. 14 at The Broad Theater and The Prytania Theatres at Canal Place.

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