Gambit: September 21, 2021

September 21-27 2021 Volume 42 Number 37

e m i T t “ N ex Us, e e S u Yo e t a L o o I t 's T ” y r C o T — T H E NOR T H S I DE S K U L L A N D B ON E S G A NG

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W E LCO M E

SEPTEMBER 21 — 27, 2021 VOLUME 42 || NUMBER 37

CONTENTS

NEWS

ORDER YOUR FALL ARRANGEMENTS TODAY!

OPENING GAMBIT

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COMMENTARY

9

CLANCY DUBOS

11

BLAKE PONTCHARTRAIN 12

FEATURES

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Next time you see us, it’s too late to cry

Remembering some of those we’ve lost in the era of COVID

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Editor | JOHN STANTON

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Political Editor | CLANCY DUBOS

FILM

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PUZZLES

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Arts & Entertainment Editor |

COVER PHOTOS BY CHERYL GERBER COVER DESIGN BY DORA SISON

BUSINESS & OPERATIONS Billing Inquiries 1 (225) 388-0185 Administrative Assistant | LINDA LACHIN

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KAYLEE POCHE, SARAH RAVITS

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JASON WHITTAKER

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Gambit (ISSN 1089-3520) is published weekly by Capital City Press, LLC, 840 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70130.

(504) 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.

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Driving force

Samantha Fish takes the wheel on guitar rock album ‘Faster’ | by Will Coviello SAMANTHA FISH LAUGHS AT THE IDEA of

overthinking the song “Faster,” the title track of her latest album.

“The song is called ‘Faster’ and it’s got a car,” she says. “It’s not much deeper — there isn’t some serious Easter egg in there.”

The video for it is not subtle. It starts with Fish playing guitar in front of a muscle-y ’60s Oldsmobile Cutlass. Then she’s cruising in the car, sitting in the luxe red leather interior, singing, “Oh well, do tell, do you need some motivation / Come on, right now, ‘cause I got an inclination.” Eventually, she picks up a guy, and then lets him drive. Then the camera cuts to the parked car rocking, windows fogged and lit in red from the interior. As the camera moves in, Fish is reclining in the back seat, scorching a guitar solo.

“There are lots of gotcha moments in there,” she says. “It’s supposed to be a fun gag.”

Fish has released several albums with thematic focuses. “Chills & Fever” was built around retro rock and R&B. “Belle of the West” was stripped down, Mississippi-style blues. Her 2019 album “Kill or Be Kind” had R&B and soul overtones and a horn section. “Faster” is straight-ahead guitar rock, and a platform for Fish’s solo work. The album dropped on Sept. 10, and Fish, who had to prepare for the tour away from Hurricane Ida complications, will perform locally next at The Howlin’ Wolf on Oct. 14.

The album also is about a woman taking control. In the song “Faster,” Fish is on the prowl and taking the lead. “Loud” starts out as a song about a relationship that is stuck, but morphs into the candor of simply saying what one is thinking. And saying it loud and unapologetically.

“The songs are a little bold and a little brash, and they’re very direct,” she says. “They’re commanding — saying exactly what you want and not taking anything less. That’s a cool vibe for an album.”

That wasn’t where the album started. Fish wrote and recorded it during the pandemic. She was in Europe, halfway through a tour in support of “Kill or Be Kind,” when those countries started to close down last year. She ended up having to fly through Moscow to return before travel was restricted. Back home in New Orleans, she started working on new music, and at first, she was writing songs that reflected

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more for an Oktoberfest celebration Sept. 23-26. The Bayou Bavarians perform Thursday and Saturday, and The Brats perform Friday and Sunday. There also is a beer stein-holding contest, keg bowling and games for kids. Hours vary. Visit faubourgbrewery.com for details.

PHOTO BY KE VIN BURNS TEIN & DIANA KING

The Soul Rebels

THE SOUL REBELS HAD LINED UP A SLEW OF JAZZ FEST TIME SHOWS before

the October edition was canceled. Catch the band at Tipitina’s Saturday, Sept. 25 instead. West Virginia rock band The Company Stores opens at 9 p.m. Tickets $25 at tipitinas.com.

more ambivalent feelings and the doldrums of the lockdown.

“When I look at the collection of songs now, it’s a totally different tone than what I was going through at the time,” she says.

While she was writing, Martin Kierszenbaum, who ended up producing the album, reached out to her. Kierszenbaum manages Sting and has worked with Lady Gaga, Madonna and many others. He told Fish that he liked her music and thought she was on the right track in recent albums. They met to work on some songs at a writing room at Strange Music, the recording studio owned by rapper Tech N9ne in Kansas City, Missouri, where Fish grew up. They ended up co-writing most of the songs on the album together.

“The first thing we wrote together was ‘Faster,’” Fish says. “That kind of set the tone for our relationship.

As I am writing this song, he goes, ‘Dude, this is the opener for the album.’ I was like, ‘Alright, don’t get ahead of yourself. You haven’t even heard all the other songs.’ He was like, ‘No, this is it.’ That song became this invitation point for the rest of the album.”

Fish continued to work on the songs while Kierszenbaum went to work on an album with Sting. Fish also wrote with New Orleans songwriter Jim McCormick, who recently was nominated for co-writing one of the Country Music Awards’ contenders for Song of the Year. In December, Fish and Kierszenbaum

recorded the album in Los Angeles.

They finished 14 songs in two weeks, and Fish’s guitar blazes on most of them.

“I had so much fun playing guitar on this record,” she says. “Martin let me cut loose. It’s outlandish in some ways. It’s ballsy.”

There also are some mid-tempo songs, and Fish flashes some other skills.

“The second song we wrote was ‘Hypnotic,’” She says. “I brought this plucky riff. I really wanted to sing high falsetto, because I hadn’t done that on an album. I have this range that I never utilize — I want to mess with it.”

The album also has a guest appearance from Tech N9ne. While they were in the studio recording “Loud,” Kierszenbaum asked Fish what she thought about asking the rapper to contribute a feature. The song starts like a slow, pretty ballad before Fish kicks in with her guitar. Tech N9ne fishes the five-minute tune with his take on speaking one’s mind.

The album closes with the ballad “All the Words.” It’s thoughtful, as are most of the lyrics on the album.

Many of the songs are about a woman being more demanding or in control in relationships. But Fish had fun with the vixen image in the videos and album cover art.

“I am licking a guitar,” she says.

“That album cover says, ‘I don’t give a fuck.’ Which is what this whole album is. There is something freeing about that — as a woman being able to say, ‘This is what I want.’”

Ashton Hines & the Big Easy Brawlers

FRENCHMEN STREET REGULARS ASHTON HINES & THE BIG EASY BRAWLERS add

funk, soul and hip-hop to a brass band setup. The band performs a live show from the balcony of the New Orleans Jazz Museum at 5 p.m.

Tuesday, Sept. 21. The show also is available virtually via facebook.com/ nolajazzmuseum/live.

‘LINEAR / FUNCTION’

VETERAN LOCAL DANCER AND CHOREOGRAPHER DONNA CRUMP AND KAYLA COLLYMORE launched their

new immersive show “LINEAR / FUNCTION” in Houston and were set to perform in New Orleans this week. Instead, the multimedia show will be offered virtually at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 25. Visit linearfunction.net for details. The viewing link is available on Eventbrite.

Earth, Wind & Fire

IT SEEMED TOO CUTE TO BE TRUE THAT THE LEGENDARY FUNK, R&B and soul

band Earth, Wind & Fire scheduled a local show for Sept. 21, a date immortalized in the lyrics of its hit “September.” The show sold out before Ida, but maybe there are some spare unused tickets. At 8 p.m. Tuesday at Saenger Theatre.

Electric Yat Quartet

JOHNNY SKETCH AND DIRTY NOTES’ ANDRE BOHREN joins the Electric Yat

Quartet for a mix of classical music, jazz and pop. At 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23, at The Broadside. Find tickets at broadsidenola.com.

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

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NEW ORLEANS NEWS + VIEWS

The Sewerage & Water Board is gonna start sending $6,000 water bills to the trash maggots

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T H U M B S U P/ THUMBS DOWN

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WeRateDogs, a Twitter account

that posts top-notch dog photos, helped raise more than $43,000 for the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals after Hurricane Ida, the account tweeted last week. It posted photos of pets rescued from the storm — including a puppy named Muffin — to its more than 9 million followers along with links to donate to the LASPCA.

THE PERCENTAGE OF NEW ORLEANIANS WHO SAY THEY HAVEN’T SEEN A GARBAGE TRUCK SINCE BEFORE HURRICANE IDA HIT, ACCORDING TO A RECENT SURVEY

P H O T O B Y H I L A R Y S C H E I N U K / T H E A D V O C AT E

LDH’s Stephen Russo speaks during a press conference to address the investigation into deaths resulting from nursing home residents being placed in a warehouse during Hurricane Ida.

Republican Reps. Beryl Amedee of Houma, Kathy Edmonston of Gonzales, Valarie Hodges of Denham Springs and Dodie Horton of Haughton sent a letter

last week to state officials dangerously promoting the use of ivermectin for COVID-19 patients. The antiparasitic drug neither treats nor prevents Covid. They then falsely cried “discrimination” after the Louisiana Medicaid director announced the program wouldn’t cover ivermectin if prescribed for Covid.

The New Orleans Juvenile Justice Intervention Center evacuated

36 teenagers to a state adult prison, Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in St. Gabriel, ahead of Hurricane Ida, according to the Louisiana Illuminator. The teens, between the ages of 14 and 18, were awaiting criminal proceedings, so they hadn’t been convicted of any crimes.

The teens told attorneys they endured grueling conditions: heat, inedible food and only being allowed one shower.

THE COUNT

At least 29 Louisianans lost their lives as a result of Hurricane Ida

The online poll was conducted by Sue Mobley, director of research at Monument Lab, and Thomas J. Adams, a visiting professor at Tulane and drew 807 responses as of Sept. 15.

According to The Times-Picayune, many respondents reported that they hadn’t seen a garbage truck for weeks before Ida hit on Aug. 29 and further undermined the city’s ability to provide basic municipal services.

STATE AND LOCAL HEALTH OFFICIALS AND CORONERS HAVE CONFIRMED

at least 29 people in Louisiana have lost their lives as a result of Hurricane Ida, with the bulk of those deaths occurring due to prolonged heat exposure in the weeks since the storm hit the state.

Those death include five people in Jefferson Parish — a drowning victim, three people who died from carbon monoxide poisoning and one person who died in a warehouse that was used as a shelter for assisted living residents; two in St. Tammany — one person who fell from a roof during repairs and one person who died from lack of oxygen and at least 14 in Orleans Parish.

Of the deaths in the city, a number were people living in assisted living complexes: • Myron Jones, 65, died at Christopher Inn; • Reginald Logan and Deborah Anderson, both 74, died at Flint Goodridge Apartments; and • Clarence Washington, 79, died at Nazareth Inn. A fifth death at a complex that was evacuated, Annunciation Inn, is still under investigation, Coroner’s Office spokesperson Jason Melancon said.

Other New Orleanians who lost their lives include: • Laura Bergerol, a 66-year-old photographer whose body was found in her Bywater Art Lofts apartment. Bergerol, who had preexisting medical conditions, had expressed concern on social media about the heat amid the power outage and castigated her rental insurance company for not paying for a hotel room so she could evacuate; • David Sneed, 65, was found dead at Marais Apartments at 1501 Canal St., which is advertised as being for seniors, on Sept. 3; • Corinne Labat-Hingle, 70, was found dead at Heritage Senior Residences at Columbia Parc, a mixed-income complex. Her death was reported on Sept. 2 and is also listed as likely heat-related; • Illey Joseph, 73, was also discovered to have died of likely heat-related causes on Sept. 2 at Village De Jardin near Interstate 10 in New Orleans East, another complex for seniors. It was not immediately

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clear whether the city had reached out to residents of that building; • Keith Law, 65, was found in a home in Algiers and his death was reported on Sept. 5; • Abraham Cause, 68, was found in a home near Lakefront Airport. His death was reported on Sept. 2; • Hasan Amli, 24, who was found in a building in Freret, died of carbon-monoxide poisoning; • Giovanni Villatoro, 44, who was found in a home in New Orleans East, also died of carbon-monoxide poisoning; and • An unidentified d rowning victim who died the morning after the storm.

— JOHN STANTON AND JEFF

ADELSON & RAMON VARGAS / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

As hundreds of thousands were without power, AG Jeff Landry partied with donors ON THE EVENING OF SEPT 9, STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL JEFF LANDRY

and his top donors were gathering for the opening “VIP Dinner” of his annual gator hunting weekend and political fundraiser. Meanwhile, 220,000 Louisianans were still without power as a result of Hurricane Ida, including many people in the region who have hunted gators without paying thousands of dollars to kill reptiles alongside an elected official.

Tens of thousands of people in the River Parishes and down the bayou were also without clean water, and significant parts of the region remained largely inaccessible. To date, 28 Louisianans have lost their lives as a result of Ida. The Atchafalaya Basin-based event did not gather as many prominent national guests as it did in previous years, when right-wing celebrities like Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle flew in to show their support.

But notable guests included U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly, R-Mississippi; retired professional wrestler “Big Dan” Rodimer, who uploaded a video of himself hitting a bleeding alligator in the face with a beer can, screaming and then shotgunning it; U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Louisiana; Landry’s own solicitor general Liz Murrill; and representatives of multiple law enforcement agencies, among other elected officials.

It’s not uncommon for politicians to postpone fundraisers or even suspend campaigns temporarily in the face of tragedy: for instance, the late Republican Sen. John McCain suspended his presidential bid in 2008 amid the financial system collapse.

Other elected officials spent the weekend touring disaster areas, offering assistance and giving out supplies.

But not even a category 4 storm could keep the attorney general from firing off guns and drinking celebratory beers with his biggest supporters.

A spokesperson for Landry, Brent Littlefield, said the fourday Cajun soiree had a charitable element to it in the wake of the disaster: It raised nearly $100,000 for “support efforts related to Ida relief” though he did not elaborate on what those efforts were.

However, Facebook photographs taken by Landry’s solicitor general Murrill show that two charities benefiting from extra donations include Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical aid organization; and the anti-LGBTQ Louisiana Family Forum, which purports to have a “powerful impact on the members of the Louisiana Legislature” and was founded by former state Rep. Tony Perkins over his personal concerns about the “influence of the homosexual movement.”

It’s unclear how much money was raised for Landry’s personal campaign and Cajun PAC II, which is run by Landry’s brother Benjamin.

The price tag to attend the hunt with the attorney general isn’t cheap: Day passes start at $1,000, but top sponsors pay up to $50,000, according to the event’s website.

Some of the major individual sponsors of Landry’s gator hunt include shipping magnate Boysie Bollinger, who has a history of writing generous checks to political candidates. Another is Paul Perkins of Louisiana Workforce LLC, a work-release program that profits from prison labor. One of the event’s corporate sponsors, K-Solv, is a chemical distribution company that came under fire in April for an industrial fire that released more than 40 contaminants into the air. — SARAH RAVITS

we are open

It’s time to demand “how it’s supposed to be” for New Orleans IN RECENT WEEKS, MANY NEW ORLEANIANS HAVE PREFACED COMPLAINTS about lagging city services with the words “even by New Orleans standards …” — particularly when discussing the city’s longstanding garbage issues. It’s a common perception: “Only in New Orleans” would you have a government that can’t get the trash picked up on time. Or keep the lights on, or the flood waters down, or the murder rate low.

There’s something depressingly poetic about Mayor LaToya Cantrell choosing an indefinitely shuttered recycling facility as the site of a do-it-yourself trash dump.

Both recycling and the mayor were once seen as examples of a new era, free of at least some of City Hall’s historic waste and incompetence. Both turned out to be more image than substance, leaving the public wondering if things will ever change.

Such cynicism is understandable, but we must resist it — particularly as we rebuild after Hurricane Ida. Cynicism will always lead to the sort of “that’s just how it is here” trap that has hog-tied efforts to change things.

The problem extends well beyond timely trash collection.

Before nearly every flood of the last decade, Sewerage & Water Board officials assured citizens that the pumps would work, only to acknowledge later that they hadn’t.

Meanwhile, decades of poor management and a shocking lack of foresight have left the system dangerously under-maintained.

The city’s electrical grid is in much the same shape, which is why ratepayers have had to endure outages under blue skies as well as during hurricanes. For years, Entergy New Orleans (ENO) officials misled the public and the City Council, which regulates the utility, about the state of its infrastructure.

Yet after each hurricane or severe cold snap, ENO has hit up ratepayers for the cost of repairs and improvements the company should have been making all along.

P H O T O B Y S A R A H R AV I T S

A line of cars ascends the on-ramp to drop off trash at Elysian Fields Avenue on Sept. 15.

We are heartened to see Council President Helena Moreno and District A Councilman Joe Giarrusso stepping up oversight efforts. Giarrusso held the first in what will likely be a number of hearings on the trash scandal Sept. 17, while Moreno is launching an investigation into Entergy’s failure to properly maintain and upgrade its systems prior to Hurricane Ida. Moreno has also put ending Entergy’s hold on the New Orleans power market on the table — an appropriate step in light of recent developments.

More is needed. New Orleanians are rightfully angry. At least 11 people died from heat exposure following Ida; both Entergy and City Hall must answer for that.

The problems with trash collection predate Ida. The city should have found a way to enforce those contracts long ago — the prolonged nightmare of rotten trash in our streets has only made things worse.

In fairness, the S&WB admirably handled Ida’s rain, and thousands of line crews restored power faster than initially expected. But the city still saw flooding from Tropical Storm Nicholas, and ENO’s communications, from their public statements to their maps, consistently misled the public and officials during and after Ida. Both must be held to account.

Above all, New Orleanians must reject the old notion of “how it works here” and begin demanding “how it’s supposed to be.”

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As they stood with us, we shall stand for them

P H O T O B Y S C O T T T H R E L K E L D / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E

Clarissa Sablatura of Golden Meadow, whose home was destroyed by Hurricane Ida, scavenges for wood near Larose to help rebuild her house.

SIXTEEN YEARS AGO, IN THE AFTERMATH OF HURRICANE KATRINA , our neighbors in Bayou Country and

elsewhere rushed in to help us. Now it’s our turn to help them.

Yes, it’s still a struggle in many parts of the city and in Jefferson Parish, but our struggles are mere inconveniences compared to life in coastal areas from Plaquemines to Terrebonne, in the River Parishes, Tangipahoa Parish and elsewhere along the path of destruction left in Hurricane Ida’s wake.

Like many of you, I have friends and family in those parishes. As painful as it was to revive memories of past storms, I wanted to see for myself what they face every day. A friend who grew up in Houma drove me down to Cocodrie — “down the bayou” in Terrebonne Parish.

It didn’t take long to see the devastation. Almost as soon as we entered St. Charles Parish, we saw homes and businesses in ruins. It got worse in Lafourche Parish. South of Houma, I couldn’t find a single upright utility pole or a home without a blue tarp.

“It’s about as bad as it can get,” says state Rep. Tanner Magee, R-Houma, who has spent every day combing his district and hounding the media to shine a light on the coastal parishes. “Almost all of the houses — about 65% to 70% of them below the Houma Navigational Canal — are deemed uninhabitable.”

“Uninhabitable” only begins to describe what I saw.

“A lot of folks didn’t leave,” Magee adds. “Many of them are staying in uninhabitable dwellings. They’re making makeshift tents and putting together what they can in their homes to stay there. It’s been a significant challenge to get them food and resources — generators, fuel for generators, water — all those

things they haven’t had. It’s concerning on the humanitarian side because they’re living in some really bad conditions right now.”

It’s actually a massive humanitarian crisis, practically in our backyard. More than 200,000 people live in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes alone. Probably close to a million people have been affected when you add those in the River Parishes and the Florida Parishes from Ascension and the Felicianas to Tangipahoa.

We owe them a huge debt, and now’s a good time to repay it.

Please donate to area nonprofits that are working hard to help them, including: • The Bayou Community Foundation (bayoucf. org/disaster-recovery) has set up a special fund for Ida victims from Grand Isle to lower Terrebonne.

• United Way of Southeast Louisiana (unitedwaysela.org/hurricane-ida-relief) will send 100% your donation to its affiliates in affected parishes.

Our neighbors, who helped us after Katrina, are counting on us. If you can, please let them know we remember what they did for us — and that we’re here for them.

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Hey Blake,

How did Metairie’s Bucktown area get its name? Is it named after a person?

— Bobby

Dear Bobby,

MOST SOURCES CLAIM THAT BUCKTOWN — which developed in the mid-1800s —got its name from William “Buck” Wooley, a fisherman who operated a boat rental business in that area of Jefferson Parish in the 1880s.

According to geographer and author Richard Campanella, a 1921 New Orleans Item article claimed Wooley was the local nightwatchman, which gave him plenty “of opportunities of meeting the young blades of the place.” The area became known as “Buck’s Town,” or Bucktown.

Also known as Jefferson End and East End because of its location along the lake, the area was largely a fishing village. Like nearby West End, it became a hotspot for entertainment, with resorts and restaurants. It also played a role in the development of jazz. Jelly Roll Morton recorded “Bucktown Blues,” for example.

Bucktown also became known for prostitution, gambling and violence. A July 1896 article in The Daily Picayune called it “a notorious

PHOTO BY DONALD S TOUT / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E A R C H I V E

A crowd gathers for the Blessing of the Fleet in Bucktown resort…where riot rules the roost without being suppressed by the authorities…” Police soon promised a crackdown. “The good people of Jefferson Parish owe it to themselves to clean out that den of iniquity at the lake,” wrote an editorial in The Daily Picayune. Local leaders tried to officially change the area’s name back to East End, but the Bucktown name stuck.

The area developed into a residential community also known for its restaurants, seafood markets and fishing camps, often battered by hurricanes.

In the 1990s, Jefferson Parish reclaimed lake bottom to build Bucktown Harbor Park and Marina.

A boardwalk and pier opened in 2020. A master plan calls for more improvements next year.

BL AKEVIE W SEPTEMBER MARKS THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY of one of this city’s cultural treasures: the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. The LPO is owned and operated by its musicians and is the oldest orchestra of its kind in the United States.

The LPO has its roots in the New Orleans Symphony, which was founded in 1936 as the successor to several earlier orchestras dating back to the 1880s.

In early September 1991, the symphony shut down amid financial problems — the second such shutdown in four years. Just a few weeks later, a group called the New Orleans Symphony Players Association incorporated with plans to perform under the LPO name.

“Our goal is to keep great orchestral music alive in the New Orleans area,” violinist Charles Adams, an orchestra spokesman, told The TimesPicayune in a Sept. 28, 1991, article. “We will work our butts off to find out if there is a place in this town for an orchestra.”

All but ten of the 75 members of the New Orleans Symphony joined the LPO for its debut —a sellout performance at the Saenger Theatre on Nov. 23, 1991. The Saenger served as the orchestra’s home for its first season, but the LPO relocated to the Orpheum Theater for its second season.

Hurricane Katrina shuttered the Orpheum in 2005, forcing the LPO to perform in other venues. It returned to the restored Orpheum in 2015. In 2018, the LPO made history by performing at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Led since 2005 by musical director and principal conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, the LPO plans to open its 2021-22 season at the Orpheum on Nov. 4. During the pandemic, it has also expanded its online offerings at lpomusic.com.

13 G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > S E P T E M B E R 2 1 - 27 > 2 02 1

NEXT TIME YOU SEE US, IT’S TOO LATE TO CRY STORY & PHOTOS

BY CHERYL GERBER

May the memory of those we’ve lost be a blessing and a strength.

F

ebruary 25, 2020 is a date most of us will not soon forget. It was a cool Mardi Gras day, and while none of us realized it yet, it would be the last time New Orleans was poppin’ before COVID-19 would lay waste to much of our community, and the world. Photographer Cheryl Gerber has documented New Orleans culture and life for more than 30 years, including the lives of many of those we’ve lost in the 18 months since the first lockdowns began. The losses we’ve suffered are immense. These are but some of the people that helped make this city what is who’ve gone home.

“Get your life together, next time you see us, it’s too late to cry” — The Northside Skull and Bones

IT WAS JUST BEFORE DAWN as I ventured into the heart of Treme on a Tuesday in February 2020. It was a crisp, chilly morning, but I was slightly groggy as I walked through the stilldark streets on my way to photograph the Northside Skull and Bones Gang, the 200-year-old tradition of Black Masking that kicks off Mardi Gras.

Larger-than-life papier-mâché skulls and skeletons walked door-to-door to wake up neighbors with a message that is the very essence of Mardi Gras — that life is as precious as it is fleeting.

After capturing a few photographs of the stunning ritual, I took a moment to heed the macabre warning and decided I’d enjoy the day like I hadn’t since I was a child — to live in the moment, unencumbered by my heavy cameras.

Before heading home to drop my gear, I waved goodbye to Sylvester “Hawk” Francis, the photographer who founded the Backstreet Cultural Museum and who for years had hosted the annual ritual. I didn’t know it then, but it would be the last time I’d ever see him.

Once at home, my husband and I jumped into our costumes, and headed into the French Quarter to join the masses in communal merriment. We partied like there was no tomorrow, oblivious to the lethal contagion circulating like glitter in the wind.

Sure, the signs were there. For a moment, I regretted not having my cameras when I spotted a group of revelers dressed like Corona beer bottles with “Go Viral” on their bottle-top heads, holding handmade signs that said CDC, “Corona Drinking Club.” The ensemble was flanked by two green men holding signs that said, “Do you Want Lyme Disease with That?”

How clever, I thought.

THREE WEEKS LATER, MAYOR LATOYA CANTRELL ordered a

citywide shutdown due to the coro-

navirus pandemic quickly spreading throughout the city and the world.

Carnival, it turned out, had been a super spreader.

Soon after, the names of the dead started coming. My heart broke when I heard that Ronald Lewis, who preserved Black culture in his book and museum “The House of Dance and Feathers,” succumbed to the virus.

I first met Ronald when I photographed him after he was the first to return to live in the Lower Ninth Ward after the levees broke in 2005. We had remained friends for years.

A week later, my dear friend Rev. William Barnwell died. He was a tireless civil rights activist, whom I grew very close to when we collaborated on his book “Angels in the Wilderness,” an homage to young Black New Orleanians and their mentors.

A slew of other local luminaries followed: former Zulu King Larry Hammond; jazz patriarch Ellis Marsalis; Clancy’s maître d’ Daniel Walters; actress Carol Sutton.

Normally, one and all would have been honored with huge second lines and sendoffs befitting New Orleans royalty. But with COVID-19 menacing us all, they were laid to rest quietly, with only a handful of socially distanced mourners. Drive-by caravans waved goodbye.

In the months that followed, death rates attributed to the virus slowed.

But the deaths kept coming. The PAGE 14

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MONDAY 3:00PM - 10:30PM THURSDAY - SUNDAY 11:00AM - 10:30PM

PAGE 13

seemingly eternal Mr. Mardi Gras himself, Blaine Kern, quietly passed away. Masked mourners, though not of the apropos Carnival nature, bid him farewell during a small celebration of his enormous life at Gallier Hall.

Second Line of Big Chief Dump

ry community grieved the death of native artist and performer Adele Gautier, known as “Adella Adella the Storyteller.”

THE HITS CAME RELENTLESSLY.

IN A CITY WHERE LIFE AND DEATH are inextricably linked,

I began to notice the unusually high number of deaths of many notable New Orleanians whom I’d photographed. Though not all Covid-related, I began to wonder how much the stress of an uncertain future, loneliness and loss of friends and family had to do with some of their deaths.

Some of them were mentors, like author and journalist Bonnie Warren, who brought me into the publishing world and shared her amazing circle of female friends and colleagues. Frank Minyard, long-time coroner of New Orleans, was my French Quarter landlord, and somewhat of a father figure, for nearly a decade.

During those years, when I was a fledgling photographer, I couldn’t walk through my neighborhood without stopping for a chat with photographer Louis Sahuc, whose iconic photos made me see the French Quarter in a whole new light. On the last day of his life, a brass band serenaded him from outside his Pontalba apartment.

Lin Emery, whose large kinetic sculpture stood outside New Orleans Museum of Art for decades, passed away quietly. Mario Villa, gallery owner, sculptor and jewelry maker also left us. Soon, New Orleanians would learn of the passing of Roy Guste Jr., former owner of Antoine’s, better known as an author and fine art photographer.

A day later, an already-wea-

Still reeling from Guste’s passing, the Antoine’s family would pay tribute to executive chef Mike Regua, who worked at the famed restaurant for nearly a half century. The culinary world still hadn’t had time to process the loss of chef Michelle McRaney, long time executive chef of Mr. B’s Bistro, who broke barriers as one of the first female executive chefs.

Big Queen Kim Boutte of the Fi-Yi-Yi and Mandingo Warriors, whose petite frame could never contain her giant spirit, was just 52 years old when she was tragically killed by gun violence. Keelian Boyd Sr., Big Chief “Dump” of the Young Maasai Hunters, died of heart failure at 37 years old. Trumpeter Terry Gibson Jr. unexpectedly passed away at home at just 29 years old.

Most recently, Big Bennie Pete, sousaphonist and founding member of the Hot 8 Brass Band, died at 45 years old after a long illness exasperated by Covid. His gentle spirit belied his giant stature. Over the past 18 months, I have returned to the Backstreet Cultural Museum, which was once a funeral home, for several memorial second lines, including for Sylvester Francis. I remembered he once said he “lived for jazz funerals.”

They were our friends and family, photographers and artists, musicians and Black Masking Indians, socialites and chefs. But most of all they were the fabric of New Orleans.

15

NEXT TIME YOU SEE US, IT’S TOO LATE TO CRY

Larry King Zulu King in 2007.

Died March 31, 2020.

Ronald Lewis Historian, community leader and preserver of Black culture.

Died March 20, 2020.

Ellis Marsalis.

Musician.

Died April 2, 2020.

Blaine Kern Mardi Gras float builder.

Died June 26, 2020.

Kim Boutte Big Queen Cutie of the Fi-Yi-Yi Mandingo Warriors.

Died August 12, 2020.

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Rev. William Barnwell Author, minister and civil rights activist.

Died March 27, 2020.

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NEXT TIME YOU SEE US, IT’S TOO LATE TO CRY

GEAR UP!

Ronnie Jerome Kole Musician.

Died August 27, 2020.

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Carol Sutton Actress.

Died December 10, 2020.

Lin Emery Artist.

Died March 11, 2021.

Terry Gibson Musician.

Died April 13, 2021.

Big Chief Dump Keelian Boyd Culture bearer, community leader.

Died March 28, 2021.

Michelle McRaney Groundbreaking chef at Mr. B’s Bistro.

Died June 30, 2021.

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Bonnie Warren Author and journalist.

Died February 8, 2021.

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Artist.

Died August 10, 2021.

Edwin Edwards Former governor.

Died July 12, 2021.

Adella Gautier Actress and story teller.

Died August 10, 2021.

Bennie Pete Musician, co-founder of the Hot 8 Brass Band.

Died September 8, 2021.

Roy Guste Author and photographer.

Died Aug. 10, 2021.

Michael Stanley Regua, Sr. Chef at Antoine’s for 47 years.

Died September 8, 2021.

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Email dining@gambitweekly.com

Sizzling combinations

Zhang Bistro serves Asian dishes in the French Quarter |

by Beth D’Addono

ALTHOUGH CHINA DOESN’T BORDER THAILAND ON A MAP, the countries’

cuisines are side by side on the menu at Zhang Bistro, reflecting the culinary heritage of the restaurant’s owners and chefs.

The stylish bistro, which opened in July where Angeli on Decatur used to be, is co-owned by Peter Zhang and his fiancé, Ashley Li, who both hail from China, and their partner Lily Rueangnuy, who was born in southern Thailand. Rueangnuy came to New Orleans a decade ago for college. Zhang is a seasoned restaurateur who co-owns Geisha Sushi Bistro, Royal Sushi & Bar and Haiku Sushi. Rueangnuy met him working as a server, and the two became friends.

“Peter became like my family,” Rueangnuy says. She lived in China for four years and speaks Mandarin.

As she cycled through various restaurant jobs, Rueangnuy dreamt of having her own place. “Peter said to me one, day, ‘Why don’t we open a place together?’” Zhang had looked at the space on Decatur six years ago, but it wasn’t available.

That changed with the pandemic and Zhang leased the space.

From the beginning, the partners wanted the kitchen divided into two cooking stations, one for Chinese chefs Song He and Wei Li, who are Ashley Li’s mother and father, and one for chef Somsak Netrkaitmaneeto, an experienced Thai chef and Rueangnuy’s family friend.

Wei Li was trained as a chef in China, and the family came to the U.S. 24 years ago. They settled in Memphis, and the couple cooked at the well-regarded Mulan Asian Bistro. Ashley Li, an experienced bartender and beverage director, moved to New Orleans after meeting Zhang.

“I told my parents we need them in our new restaurant, so they moved here to cook for us,” she says. “They wanted to be close to their grandchild, too.” The couple recently had a daughter.

Wei Li’s prowess at the wok is readily apparent. Experienced in various regional Chinese cuisines,

PHOTO BY CHERYL GERBER

he recently traveled in the province of Sichuan, a journey that informs an entree called “hot wok,” a sizzling dish of onion, green pepper, cauliflower, jalapeno and garlic tossed with spicy brown sauce and served with a choice of chicken, beef, shrimp or a combination of all three.

Peking duck, which isn’t a common dish in New Orleans, is made from a Li family recipe. It’s marinated for 24 hours and then slow roasted, delivering tender morsels of duck and strips of crisp lacquered skin, served with house-made buns, scallions, house-made duck sauce and hoisin. The $45 duck is plenty for two people, or for a sample, there’s a single portion for $13. The Chinese entrees on the menu are grouped as classics and signatures — the duck is a signature while classics include kung pao chicken.

For soups, there are shrimp wonton and shrimp tom yum, and fried rice is available in both a traditional Chinese version and a spicy Thai version with chili and Thai basil.

Netrkaitmaneeto, who spent years cooking at Sukhothai in New Orleans, delivers plenty of heat in classics like red and green curry and Thai-style barbecue shrimp with bok choy in curry sauce. Rueangnuy helps out in the kitchen, practicing culinary skills she learned from her mother while growing up. Drunken

Lily Rueangnuy, Song He, Wei Li, Ashley Li and Somsak Netrkaitmaneeto serve Chinese and Thai dishes at Zhang Bistro. noodles, called pad kee mao in Thai, is one of her specialties. Wide flat noodles are stir-fried with vegetables and a choice of protein.

“They are as popular as pad thai in Thailand,” she says. All dishes can be adjusted from mild to spicy heat levels.

Ashley Li created the restaurant’s cocktail list, which features New Orleans classics and drinks like the cucumber-basil smash — a shake of cucumber vodka, freshly squeezed cucumber juice, basil leaves, lime and agave.

The space is modern and inviting, with exposed brick walls, a mix of banquettes and wooden tables and chairs, and a long side bar.

The restaurant is adding a new menu with $12 lunch specials and a happy hour to entice customers inside.

Ruenangnuy is energized despite the pandemic.

“My fiance and I bought a house in Mid-City,” she says. “We spent more time together and are planning a wedding. And thanks to Mr. Zhang and Ashley, I am co-owner of this restaurant. With his deep experience in the restaurant business to guide me, I’m sure we are going to make it work.”

?

WHAT

Zhang Bistro

21

FORK + CENTER

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1141 Decatur St., (504) 826-8888; zhangbistronola.com

WHEN

Lunch and dinner daily

HOW

Dine-in and takeout

CHECK IT OUT

Traditional and original Chinese and Thai dishes

Exhausted by Ida

AS RESTAURANT OPERATORS ASSESS THE DAMAGE wrought by Hurricane

Ida, some have determined that they have to close for good, including the LaPlace standby the Donut Hole, the Magazine Street restaurant Cavan and Porch & Patio, a family-friendly tavern in Kenner.

The storm was only one factor in these decisions. Operators of all three say that after being drained and battered by the economic toll of the pandemic, Ida’s impact proved the final blow.

None received aid from the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, a program from the federal government meant to support businesses like theirs through the pandemic.

The storm left them contending with lost business, ruined inventory and building damage, on top of the financial duress and strain of fighting through 18 months of pandemic turmoil.

“It’s just one thing on top of another,” said Kristie Planetta, owner of the Donut Hole. “It’s the culmination of everything. The staffing, the mandates, customers

P H O T O P R O V I D E D B Y K R I S T I E P L A N E T TA

Kristie Planetta with her father Jim Planetta, founder of the Donut Hole. getting upset about the mandates.

We’re living in difficult times.”

Planetta’s father Jim Planetta, started the Donut Hole in the center of LaPlace 30 years ago. It was known for fresh donuts, kolaches, biscuit sandwiches and, during Carnival season, its king cakes.

But after all the struggles, when she assessed the wind and water damage from Ida, Planetta said she could not see a way forward.

“I need my community to know we didn’t want to give up,” she said.

“I never considered this was how the Donut Hole would go out.”

After a year and a half of PAGE 22

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E AT + D R I N K

22 G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > S E P T E M B E R 2 1 - 27 > 2 02 1

FORK & CENTER PAGE 21

Photo by: K. Maher

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changing restrictions, business models and financial prospects through the pandemic, many local restaurants, bars and other venues were anticipating a busy fall to help them recover. Instead, the Delta variant surge scrubbed the New Orleans calendar of many festivals and events, and Ida hit hospitality businesses hard.

Cavan founder Robert LeBlanc said his restaurant could have made it past Ida if it had received aid his company applied for through the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.

Without it, though, the business was too vulnerable.

“It was stable and profitable up to Covid,” he said. “It’s been a really hard 18 months. Had we gotten (funding), it would have been the lifeline we needed.”

Congress approved $28.6 billion for Restaurant Revitalization Fund last spring to help hospitality businesses make it through the coronavirus crisis. That sum was quickly exhausted, and many who applied were left without funding. A survey from the Independent Restaurant Coalition found that 85% of independent restaurants received no funding from the program.

Industry leaders are now lobbying to replenish the fund, though measures to do so have stalled in Congress.

Porch and Patio opened in 2018 in the Rivertown section of Kenner. With dozens of draft beers and wines on tap, a beer garden-style patio with live music and a menu of pub grub and casual Louisiana fare, it was a different kind of venue for the area.

After Ida, owner Michael Francioni decided to reopen for a few final days this week for a last hurrah. After service on Sept. 17, he closed the doors.

“Frankly, I don’t have the strength, patience or the finances to weather this anymore,” Francioni said.

The business is for sale, and he believes another operator could make a fresh start without the hardships of the coronavirus crisis weighing on the books. — IAN McCNULTY/ THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

Harvest meals

THE AROMAS OF ROASTING MEAT AND SIMMERING GRAVY spreading

through the kitchen were hearty and homey. But the pace around the crowded room was frenetic.

This is the Community Kitchen at Second Harvest Food Bank.

This kitchen always is busy preparing hot meals for people across the region, but in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida it has been in overdrive.

The man in charge of this giant cooking operation, executive chef Matthew Taylor, knows the pace will not slacken anytime soon.

“We can’t stop,” Taylor said. “We have to make sure we’re fulfilling our mission and that people are being fed.”

While New Orleans itself is largely moving on from Ida, Second Harvest serves people in 23 parishes. The map of its service area is a tapestry of the state’s coastal community. It includes most of the parishes severely impacted by Ida, where the need for meals is critical.

The community kitchen is just one part of Second Harvest, built in one corner of the massive warehouse in Elmwood where the agency is based. The loading docks are busy, as tractor trailers arrive with pallets of food, water and other essential supplies. Since Ida, the food bank has distributed some 1.7 million pounds of this essential help.

Taylor’s kitchen produced more than 32,000 meals in the first 11 days after the storm, and it ramped up to making between 6,000 and 7,000 meals a day.

Depending on where the meals are headed and what’s needed, the Community Kitchen makes boxed sandwich lunches or hot meals in individual, sealed divider trays.

“We put a lot of heart into the food we’re providing,” Taylor said.

“It’s not just food, it’s a meal for people when they really need it.”

Taylor started this job just four months earlier. But he has been cooking for a living since he was a teenager. Now 36, he’s been banquet chef or executive chef at a progression of New Orleansarea hotels.

“It’s my passion for serving the people,” he said. “All I wanted to do in my life was be a chef. My uncle was a chef. I saw what he did. I never wanted any other career and I never looked back.”

On one afternoon last week, his staff and volunteers prepared 1,000 meals for a community feeding site in Houma, and another 100 bound for National Guard personnel stationed in Metairie.

More would go to senior centers, a feeding site in hard-hit Lafitte, and linemen from out of town working to repair the power grid.

Leaving nothing to chance has meant the chef earned certification to operate a forklift, so he can help the warehouse team move inventory when time is tight.

“If I get a delivery today, it can be a meal for someone tomorrow,” he said. — IAN McNULTY/ THE TIMES-PICAYUNE

Dan Abrams

OF THE

WEEK

Relief Operations Lead, World Central Kitchen

by Will Coviello

CHEF JOSE ANDRES’ WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN PROVIDES MEALS to people in need in areas hit by disasters, such as the recent earthquake in Haiti, hurricanes in Louisiana, and around the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic. The organization arrived in south Louisiana before Hurricane Ida made landfall. Dan Abrams has worked with World Central Kitchen for a couple of years, including on relief efforts after Hurricane Laura last year. He’s the Relief Operations Lead during Ida efforts, which are based at the New Orleans Culinary and Hospitality Institute and involve numerous local volunteers and restaurant partners.

How many meals has World Central Kitchen served following Ida?

DAN ABRAMS: Our total meals through today (Sept. 15) around Louisiana is 325,600 meals, and that includes New Orleans; it includes restaurant partners. We have activated a group of restaurants that we have worked with in the past to provide meals as a way to build up that economic engine and allow us to focus on certain areas with our own food, so that other areas in need still get support.

In New Orleans, over 100 organizations received meals from World Central Kitchen.

Now, we have shifted our focus onto the communities of greatest need that don’t have their power back. The city aligned their meal need based on when power was returning to the city. That returned much quicker than outlying River Parishes and bayou areas.

We entertain any request for need and do whatever it takes to get them meals. That includes driving to Houma before most organizations had a chance to scout it. That includes bringing hot meals on a boat across the bayou to Barataria, where the only access point was a bridge that was destroyed. We brought hot meals, sandwiches and fruit to them. We have a pretty wide reach in Louisiana. It includes Orleans, Jefferson, St. John the Baptist, St. James, St. Charles, Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes. Personally, I am happy we’ve been able to serve the tribal communities in the bayou

PHOTO BY WILL COVIELLO

Dan Abrams leads World Central Kitchen relief efforts following Hurricane Ida. and coastal region that have been severely affected by the storm. We reached out to them to let us know what they need and we’ve been working with them from day one.

How does WCK approach a hurricane relief effort?

A: We have responded to many hurricanes before, so we have a general idea beforehand how to create an operation that gets the most meals out to the most people in need. For this one, we arrived Aug. 28 — before the hurricane — found a safe place to shelter in New Orleans with a team. Then we monitored the storm and created a kitchen operation that included distribution vehicles in the most efficient place we could find. We have had this partnership with NOCHI for a couple years now and it made sense to operate out of this location and then deliver meals out to the parishes as needed.

What we generally do immediately after the storm is send out scouting teams. Chef Jose has his own scouting team. We have staff scouting teams and board member scouting teams. They look at maps, split up the affected regions and go out and talk to people and see with their own eyes what people need and how we can get it to them. The goal is to have them prepared with food that they can hand out right then and there. Generally we will make ham and cheese sandwiches with World Central Kitchen’s sauce and hand them out while we assess what the needs are. They come back with the right number of meals the same day or the next day depending on how far they are from the kitchen.

We build that out further by putting out feelers to contacts in the region.

Our community outreach tells a lot of community groups and organizations that have served as distribution

points in the past that we’re here, we’re ramping up, we’re prepared and to let us know what they need.

We come in prepared for not having power or the ability to cook in a traditional kitchen. For the entirety (of Ida), we have been cooking primarily out of our two food trucks, which are high-volume capacity kitchens on wheels that just require propane and gas to get going. Each food truck can cook up to 5,000 meals a day and we have two on site here. We also brought paella pans that similarly are high volume.

Who do you work with locally?

A: We have a mix of local paid contractors and local volunteers who do a majority of the daily production and distribution. Right now, I am the only staff person on the ground here overseeing the project.

But that is pretty recent. We bring in staff and paid contractors before the storm. As the operation comes along, we can consolidate.

Through Covid, World Central Kitchen funded 50 million meals around country, and including in New Orleans. We built long-lasting relationships with local restaurants to produce these meals. Our Covid program is called Restaurants for the People, and we activated restaurants around the country, who provided meals for people in need as a way to be an economic engine for a community who was suffering and needed some support, the restaurant community, a s a way for us to support people in need. We pay a restaurant a price per meal. They cook for us, and they deliver to a recipient we pair them to. We match need with a restaurant that can serve that need culturally and also and from a numbers perspective.

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Fresh, clean, citrus, mineral and Granny Snmith apple aroma with toasted bread notes make this a great example of Cava.

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O U T T O E AT

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.

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) 3834328; kebabnola.com — The sandwich shop offers doner kebabs and Belgian fries. A falafel sandwich comes with pickled cucumbers, arugula, spinach, red onions, beets, hummus and Spanish garlic sauce. No reservations. Takeout and delivery available. Lunch and dinner Wed.-Mon. $

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

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) 2842898; thebluecrabnola.com — The menu includes sandwiches, fried seafood platters, boiled seafood and more. The Blue Crab platter has fried shrimp, oysters, catfish and crab claws and either fried stuffed crab or soft-shell crab. 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 house-made 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) 888-2010; koshercajun.com — This New York-style 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. $ 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 Creole-Italian 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. $

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. $$ Katie’s Restaurant — 3701 Iberville St., (504) 488-6582; katiesinmidcity.com — Favorites include the Cajun Cuban with roasted pork, grilled ham, cheese and pickles pressed on buttered bread. The Boudreaux pizza is topped with cochon de lait, spinach, red onions, roasted garlic and scallions. Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $$ 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.

Dine-in and takeout available. Lunch daily, dinner Mon.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$ Nonna Mia — 3125 Esplanade Ave., (504) 948-1717; nonnamianola.com — A Divine Portobello appetizer features chicken breast, spinach in red pepper sauce and crostini. The menu includes salads, sandwiches, pasta, pizza and more. Curbside pickup and delivery are available. Dinner Tue.-Sun. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 4024 Canal St., (504) 302-1133; theospizza.com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description. $

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

UPTOWN 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) 8910997; joeyksrestaurant.com — The menu includes fried seafood platters, salads, sandwiches and red beans and rice.

Sauteed trout Tchoupitoulas is topped with shrimp and crabmeat and served with vegetables and potatoes. Takeout and delivery available. Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat., brunch Sun. $$ 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) 364- 8812; 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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2021 21 NEW O RLEANS RLEAN

SAINTS NTS NFL PREVIEW ISSUE

CALL NOW ISSUE DATE SEP 28 PROMOTE YOUR:

BLACK & GOLD MERCHANDISE GAME DAY FOOD & DRINK SPECIALS WHO DAT SPIRIT

Ad Director Sandy Stein 504.483.3150 or sstein@gambitweekly.com

Storm system

by Will Coviello

IRANIAN FILMMAKER JAFAR PANAHI HAS UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS TO oversee a collection of short films about life during the coronavirus pandemic. He created his 2011 protest project “This is Not a Film” while under house arrest, allegedly for making a film about Iranian election results. He shot the film with an iPhone from inside his house to comment on the absurdity of his situation.

For “The Year of the Everlasting Storm,” he contributed a short film and included six from directors across the globe. Films were made in the U.S., Chile, China and Thailand, and filmmakers were challenged to make their movies in accordance with CDC guidelines at the time of production. Filming was confined to the location of the filmmaker in quarantine and shooting in public spaces was not allowed.

The result is a diverse collection of films, ranging from Panahi’s family story to the nonfiction piece about surveillance, “Terror Contagion,” to David Lowery’s gritty and ominous “Dig Up My Darling.”

Singaporean director Anthony Chen’s “The Break Away” has many elements one might expect of a story about life during the COVID-19 pandemic. It takes place in the early days of lockdown in China. A couple played by Yu Zhang and Dongyu Zhou find that they’re not just shut in, but the walls are also closing in. Their toddler has too much energy to be contained inside, and the dad suddenly finds himself on the hook to parent, which his wife notices is an exercise in chaos. She begins working from home, selling internet service to people who now need home hookups. He can’t sell cars during the lockdown, and then that situation deteriorates, as expected income disappears when people cancel previous orders for cars.

Fears about the virus are forcing the young family into isolation and obsessive cleaning. With all the changes forced by Covid, much is revealed about the health of their relationship and whether it will survive the pandemic.

Panahi again made a movie in his apartment, a luxe space in Tehran that he shares with his wife and a giant iguana named Iggy.

His 90-year-old mother arrives in a hazmat suit and helmet. She’s being extremely careful about

PHOTO PROVIDED BY NEON

the virus and is concerned about everybody’s health. But for all her understanding of safety protocols, she’s afraid of Iggy, convinced that he’s dangerous, a very gentle metaphor for mistrust of the unfamiliar.

Director Laura Poitras’ documentary “Terror Contagion” is the most surprising inclusion. It’s about surveillance and the use of Pegasus, an Israeli cyber weapons company’s software, to spy on journalists, activists, business people and others who fall outside the supposed targets: terrorists and criminals.

Members of the investigative group Forensic Architecture discuss “digital violence,” and the way surveillance sometimes quickly leads to physical violence, as in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi by an assassination team from Saudi Arabia.

The group also is concerned about the use of surveillance software related to tracking the pandemic.

Malik Vitthal’s “Little Measures” uses animation and selfie videos to tell a story about a man trying to reconnect and regain custody of his children from foster care while California courts perpetually postpone hearings due to the pandemic.

Dominga Sotomayor’s “Sin Titulo, 2020” works to a poignant moment, but in such a slow and distracted way that it doesn’t pack much of a punch. The title “Everlasting Storm” comes from Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Night Colonies,” which is the most abstract film. It also is plodding, but its central idea is solid.

The filmmakers were asked to make films in the present. Several of them effectively illustrate the way the virus bridges personal health and governmental roles and how that was viewed at a strange moment in time.

“The Year of the Everlasting Storm” runs at Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge.

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PREMIER CROSSWORD PUZZLE UNTHEMED #4: FRONT-TO-BACK NINE

By Frank A. Longo

ACROSS 1 Upside-down-sleeping mammal 8 Economizes to a fault 14 Untrustworthy sort 20 One way to serve a pple pie 21 Very solitary sort 22 Monkey (with) 23 Frigid-weather readings 26 Military missions, in brief 27 Old Ford div.

28 Tennis great Chris 29 Classic Coca-Cola slogan

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3521 ENCAMPMENT STREET

39 “Son of,” in Arabic names 40 Thurman of “Kill Bill” films 41 Volcanic flow 42 Watershed draining dozens of U.S. states 53 Busy crawler 54 Make sport of 55 Cocktail party spread 56 School in England’s East Midlands 61 The Emerald Isle 62 Play — in (contribute to) 63 Heap 64 Graduate student’s position that might in-

clude conducting experiments 74 “Give — ring” 75 Plantain lily, familiarly 76 Actress Ward of “Sisters” 77 Polite cut-in words 86 Drains of color 87 Heaps 88 Tulsa-to-Topeka dir.

89 Metropolises, e.g.

94 Climb 95 — pro nobis 96 Flight guess, in brief 97 “In time the reason shall be made clear” 109 Furnish with new weapons

110 Mean Roman emperor 111 Kung — chicken 112 “The Magic Flute” composer 121 Stylish filmmaker 122 Made giggle 123 Active, as a law 124 Out of sight 125 San Fran football team 126 Music scorer

82 That, in Peru 83 Singer Carly — Jepsen 84 A cow milker tugs on it 85 H.S. juniors’ exams 90 Campaigning pro 91 Net address 92 Wash clothes 93 Untrustworthy sort 98 Have a spat 99 Pine (for) 100 “— Can Cook” (old culinary show) 101 Brain, for one 102 Food taste associated with MSG 103 Must have 104 Actress Joanne 105 Red lab dye 106 Divided 107 Drug dealer 108 Overly fond sort 112 Baby’s cry 113 Yes, to Gigi 114 British “Inc.” 115 Govt. agent 116 Of city govt.

117 Enzyme suffix 118 L-P center 119 Frequently, to poets 120 Suffix meaning “animals”

ANSWERS FOR LAST ISSUE’S PUZZLE: P 2

PUZZLES

DOWN 1 Explorer John or Sebastian 2 Letter before beth 3 Triple-time dance, in France 4 Broody rock subgenre 5 Bend at a curtain call 6 Woodworking tool 7 Swarms (with) 8 Not at all tall 9 Mustard alternative 10 Choler 11 “Delicious!”

12 One of 11 in a Christmas song 13 Carell of “The Office” 14 Knighted Ringo 15 Cappuccino alternative 16 Ostrich relative 17 Mo. in spring 18 Final letter 19 Hosp. triage sites 24 Riddle-me- — 25 KO counter 30 Some sorority letters 31 Grab — (eat quickly) 32 Al who won four Indy 500s 33 French buddy 34 Driveway-topping goo 35 Stinging hits 36 Lays into 37 Something to RSVP to online 38 More stable 42 Longtime Twins catcher Joe 43 Navel type 44 Swizzles 45 Airline to Oslo 46 Basketballer — Thomas 47 2014 Wimbledon

winner Kvitova 48 Sickly 49 Compete (for) 50 “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” musical 51 Military mission, in brief 52 Spiner of “Star Trek” films 57 Neckline shape 58 Dinosaur in Nintendo games 59 Actress Kaitlin 60 Singer with the 2007 hit “1234” 65 Whac- — (reflextesting game) 66 Of kidneys 67 Slyly spiteful 68 Engraved stone pillar 69 Divining card 70 Old JFK jet 71 “Die Lorelei” poet Heinrich 72 Actress Massey 73 Window segments 77 Baseballer Martinez 78 Stayed home for a meal 79 Washer cycle 80 Gave two pills to, say 81 Cool, in jive talk

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