May/June 2012 Issue of Inside Northside Magazine

450

$

HEAD OF THE CLASS • DEGAS HOUSE • MAYOR MIKE COOPER • COVEY RISE FARMS

MAY-JUNE 2012 VOL. 27, NO. 3

May-June 2012

Vol. 27, No. 3

The community magazine of the northshore, serving St. Tammany and Tangipahoa parishes.

Publisher Lori Murphy ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Associate Publisher Poki Hampton Editor Jan Murphy

Art Director Brad Growden

Managing Editor Katie Montelepre

Editorial Staff Writer Stephen Faure

Contributors are featured on page 12.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Business Manager Jane Quillin Advertising Account Executives Brenda Breck

Poki Hampton Candice Laizer

Jolie McCaleb Barbara Roscoe Interns Akila Ananth

Jasmine Beard Derric Boudreaux –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– For advertising information phone (985) 626-9684 fax (985) 674-7721 email sales@insidenorthside.com –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Please send items for Inside Scoop to scoop@insidenorthside.com.

Photos for Inside Peek, with captions, should be sent to peek@insidenorthside.com. Submit items for Inside Input or Dining Guide to editor@insidenorthside.com.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Contact Inside Northside P.O. Box 9148

Mandeville, LA 70470-9148 phone (985) 626-9684 fax (985) 674-7721 website www.insidenorthside.com

Subscriptions 1 Year $18 2 Years $30 email subscriptions@insidenorthside.com ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

On the cover Artist Dr. Bob –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– INSIDE NORTHSIDE MAGAZINE is published bi-monthly (January, March, May, July, September, November) by M and L Publishing, LLC, PO Box 9148, Mandeville, LA 70470-9148 as a means of communication and information for St. Tam­ many and Tangipahoa Parishes, Louisiana. Bulk Postage paid at Mandeville, LA. Copy­ right ©2012 by M and L Publishing, LLC. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without written consent of publisher. Publisher is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts and artwork.

6

Inside Northside

page 94

departments

10 Publisher’s Note 12 Contributors 18 Inside Scoop

32 IN the Arts Happenings in the arts world.

36 IN Better Health Jerry Coogan.

64 Flourishes Treasures for your pleasure. page 70

page 38

table of

contents features

85 Pets and their People Sassy.

94 Inside Look Summer Citrus.

14 Signs of the Times Cover Artist Dr. Bob.

102 Book Report The Dog Who Danced by Susan Wilson.

page 76

104 Insider Larry Rase.

23 IN the Spotlight 1 Chef Soirée.

107 Worthy Causes Suicide prevention.

127 IN Development St. Tammany Economic Development Foundation.

12 IN Love and Marriage 1 Notable northshore weddings.

133 Inside Dining 137 Ad Directory

16 IN the Spotlight 1 Mystick Krewe of Louisianians.

138 Last Bite Sala Thai.

118 Inside Peek page 86

19 IN the Spotlight 1 Falaya Fling.

38 Less is More The home of Donna and Gary Mott.

44 Head of the Class Senior class leaders of 2012.

54 Creole Ghosts of Esplanade Avenue The Degas House.

70 Not-So-Secret Garden Covey Rise Farms.

75 Evolving Creole Cuisine Restaurant R’evolution.

76 Mike Cooper Covington’s new mayor.

86 See Ireland and Italy!

Fall trips with St. Tammany West Chamber.

88 Raising the Roof for Charity The STHBA 2012 Raffle House.

medical profile 74 Northlake Periodontics after page

106.

03 Give the Gift of Books 1 Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

31 Cinco de Mayo 1 Americans celebrate Mexico.

May-June 2012 9

Time Flies

by Lori Murphy

Isn’t it amazing to see how long-neglected friendships can renew themselves in

minutes? If you’ve been to your high school reunion, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

When we were in college and just getting our careers going (back in the early

’80s!), I was a part of a great group of friends. We didn’t make a move without gathering the cast of characters! Whether we were at the beach or heading Uptown for a night out, we went everywhere together. If we couldn’t think of anything else to do, we could always play a game or two of pool at Act IV Ski Lodge.

We built up a stockpile of inside jokes and memories over those carefree years together. As we settled into lives filled with work, marriage and kids, we grew apart. Some of us see each other somewhat regularly, but it had been a long time since we were all together, like it used to be. Facebook keeps us in touch. We can see

what the kids are up to and wish each other Happy Birthday, but it isn’t the same.

So some of us decided recently that a Ski Lodge reunion was definitely in order!

Within 30 minutes of gathering, we were kids again, laughing and reminiscing

about sailing, riding in parades, late-night dining at Kershenteins and the 1984 World’s Fair. Derek even modeled his Members Only jacket and beret! When we adjourned to the game room, which was much nicer than the old pool hall, it was more of the same. It is reassuring to see 30 years can melt away so quickly!

It strikes me now how blessed we were then. Thank you, Derek and Kelly, for

reminding us. Let’s not wait so long next time—and I hope everyone can make it!

ps A tip to our 2012 graduates. Don’t wait 30 years. Stay in touch!

Contributors

Brenda Reine Bertus Brenda Reine Bertus has served as executive director of the St. Tammany Economic Development Foundation since July 2002, helping make the organization a driving force. She was instrumental in organizing regional parishes to coordinate efforts in marketing and pursuing business-friendly legislation. Prior to leading the STEDF, Brenda led the Slidell Chamber of Commerce and was co-owner of a real estate development company. She is a graduate of the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma and studied at the Institute for Organizational Management at the University of Georgia.

Derric Boudreaux Derric Boudreaux is a graduating senior at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he is majoring in English with a concentration in literature and language and a minor in publishing. As a spring intern for Inside Northside, he is able to apply his publishing classes to a real working environment. Through writing and editing stories, he has come to appreciate the level of hard work and dedication required in the publication of a magazine. When not working on his latest paper, Derric can usually be found reading or spending time with his friends.

Caitlyn Mosher Loranger native Caitlyn Mosher is a freelance photographer and artist specializing in portraits, animals and landscapes. She loves observing God’s creation and capturing it through her lens, pencil or paintbrush. Having been homeschooled her entire life, she is now a junior at Southeastern Louisiana University, where she is studying art, music and child education. Her photos have been included in City Social Magazine in Baton Rouge and The Daily Star newspaper in Hammond. A true Southern girl, Caitlyn loves her God and her family.

Contributors: Jasmine Beard, Stacey Brown, Maria Davis, Poki Hampton, Megan Hill, Abby Sands Miller, Katie Montelepre, Kelly Rudolph, Terri Schlichenmeyer, Kim Vanderbrook.

photos: THOMAS B. GROWDEN

by Stephen Faure “IT’S HARD TO KEEP THIS PLACE CLEAN,” says ‘Dr. Bob’ Shaffer, as he surveys the Bywater studio where for nearly 20 years his folk-art stylings have been produced.

If it weren’t for the brightly painted signs, kitschy knickknacks and folksy witticisms hanging or scrawled onto every inch of the walls and fences surrounding the parking lot off of Chartres Street, one could easily think it was just another architectural salvage yard or auto body shop along the industrial corridor on this stretch of

Mississippi, just downriver from the French Quarter.

The folk artist has developed a following in New Orleans. His signs commanding Be Nice or Leave (or some variant on that theme) have popped up all over the city, and Dr. Bob has been a fixture at Jazz Fest for some years now.

The first clues that Dr. Bob might have a northshore connection are warning signs featuring the Honey Island Swamp Monster (As Seen on TV) and the wild-eyed albino, Onion Head (Bonfouca Boogie Man),

Signs of the Times Cover Artist Dr. Bob greeting visitors in the studio’s parking lot. So what exactly does an iconic “New Orleans” artist like Dr. Bob know about the mysterious waterways of Slidell? It turns out he knows quite a bit.

Born in Wichita, Kan., Dr. Bob is of Crow Indian, French and German descent. His dad was an engineer for aerospace manufacturing giant Boeing Co. The family was among the first wave of “come here” high-tech workers (“missile gypsies,” as Dr. Bob calls his family) who settled in the Slidell area after Boeing won the contract to build the first stage of NASA’s Saturn V moon rocket at the Michoud plant in New Orleans East.

Coming of age at the dawn of suburban development in St. Tammany meant endless adventure >> 14

Inside Northside

Meet cover artist

Dr. Bob and see some of his favorite works on display at

The STHBA Raffle House 456 N. Corniche du Lac Maison du Lac Subdivision Covington

Thursday, May 17, 2012 5:30-7:00 p.m.

For more information, call

626-9684

Everyone’s Invited!

May-June 2012 15

to Dr. Bob. “To a kid from Kansas, it was like being in Jurassic Park down here.

Every where you turned, something moved, slithered, splashed, jumped or growled,” he remembers. “I started out discovering the secrets of the South, so to speak—all these opportunities to go fishing and hunting. Walking out your front door with a dip net and a flashlight or a frog gig made out of a nail and a broom handle—man, you could catch whatever you wanted to.”

Listen to Dr. Bob recounting his mischievous, if not misspent, youth spent in St. Tammany and it quickly becomes obvious that his time spent exploring the parish’s streams, woods and swamps has greatly shaped his art as much as his subsequent adventures later in life in New Orleans and throughout the South.

Dr. Bob’s storytelling intersects modern pop culture and the places that “ain’t dere no more” when he explains why he thinks he knows what’s behind the recent sightings of the northshore panther.

“We had a neighbor, Arthur Jones, who later on invented Nautilus fitness machines.

He owned a snake farm by the old White Kitchen on the road to the Gulf Coast.

[Reptile Jungle, where Highways 90 and 190 meet.] That’s where Jayne Mansfield was killed when her driver ran into the back of a truck. We were at Bosco’s Restaurant in Slidell when we heard that.

They took her car to Eddie’s Esso in Slidell.

I saw that,” he digresses, then gets back on track with the panther. “Mr. Jones kept wild animals and snakes in his home, too.

He had a pair of breeding jaguarundis that he kept in a bathtub with a sliding glass door he kept jammed up with a broom handle so you couldn’t slide it.”

Intrigued about the northshore panther reports, Dr. Bob did some research. “The climate is just the same as in Central America, and they describe jaguarundis as cocoa-colored—and they 16

Inside Northside

photo: THOMAS B. GROWDEN

are blackish-looking—and I’m getting tickled over all this.” He brought it up in a visit with his friend, musician Coco Robicheaux, who died last November.

(Robicheaux became known nationwide in 2010 for performing a bit of voodoo on the HBO show Treme.) “He was raised in Slidell and his real name was Curtis Arceneaux. Curtis and I used to catch snakes and lizards to sell to Mr. Arthur to feed his snakes and reptiles and stuff.

We’d get a dollar for a turtle. That’s big money in the ’60s. Before he died, Curtis and I got to talking about Arthur Jones, who moved from the middle of Slidell to Palm Lake subdivision. Did those cats get away from the old White Kitchen? Or in the move? Or when Camille passed Slidell? Somehow, people are seeing these things and I truly believe it could be those jaguarundis.”

What about Onion Head, the Boogie Man of the Bonfouca? Turns out tales of the mythological monster were made up to scare the youth of Slidell, tales equally believed as tales of the Loup Garou are by the children of Acadiana.

To paraphrase Dr. Bob and make the tale fit for print in a family magazine, he says it all became too real one evening as he and a young lady were “necking” out by Bayou Pacquet. “We were in my daddy’s ’67 Impala and a pine cone fell

and hit the roof. BAM! That was the end of that.” The girl (who will remain nameless) screamed, ‘Onion Head! Get the hell out!’ And when she screamed, you see three more cars’ lights pop on and everybody’s hauling ass out of Bayou Pacquet ’cause Onion Head’s coming.”

Dr. Bob’s Art Dr. Bob is self-taught. The first piece of art that he made and sold was as much a product of the boredom he faced in an early stint as a forest ranger in northern Louisiana as any big creative urge. “There was nothing else to do with no cable and only two TV stations. The Album Hour out of Natchez was the first time anybody heard Lynyrd Skynyrd, so we’re out there turning the antenna up on the hill trying to tape it on a cassette player. We wanted some rock ‘n’ roll, living up in the boonies.”

Going back to his days in the swamps, he carved an alligator. But it wasn’t just a wooden gator. It was a musical instrument. A “ga-tar.” “I can’t play, I can’t sing and I was told I couldn’t carry a tune in a No. 3 washtub, so I made a washtub base. I wanted the neckpiece to be like snakes.” With an alligator’s head carved into the end, he says, “I put the eyes and the teeth in it.

It’s the ga-tar, boys! Play one string at a time.” When he unveiled it, he says, continued on page 92

Longue Vue House and Gardens May 2 Merry Month of May. 11 National Public Gardens Day.

1-June 30 Fine Prints from the Permanent Collection. Landscapes, portraits and interior scenes. Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres St., New Orleans. Tues-Sat, 9:30am-4:30pm. Free.

(504) 523-4662. hnoc.org.

12 Tea for Two.

2 Merry Month of May. Creative ideas for

25-June 30 George Dunbar Exhibit.

hosting celebrations. Longue Vue House

June 10 Sippin’ in the Sun.

and Gardens, 7 Bamboo Rd., New Orleans.

Longue Vue House and Gardens,

10am-noon. $20; members, $15. Jen Gick,

7 Bamboo Rd., New Orleans.

(504) 293-4723. longuevue.com.

(504) 293-4723. longuevue.com.

2 Wine and Cheese Pairing Class. Wine specialist Nick Dischler. Slidell Branch Library, 555 Robert Blvd. 6-7:30pm. Free, registration required. 646-6470. sttammany.lib.la.us.

2-30 Board Game Night. Folsom Branch Library, 82393 Railroad Ave. Wed, 6:307:30pm. Free. 797-9728. sttammany.lib.la.us.

2-30 Covington Farmers Market. Wed, Covington Trailhead, 10am-2pm; Sat, 609 N. Columbia St., 8am-noon. Free. 966-1786. covingtonfarmersmarket.org.

INSIDE

2-July 23 Ogden Museum Exhibits. Nine the definitive guide to northshore events and entertainment

and the environment. The Ogden Museum

May

of Southern Art, University of New Orleans,

1-5 Jose Maria Cundin Solo Exhibit.

1-31 Mandeville City Hall Artist of

St. Tammany Art Association, 320 N.

the Month. David Kern. Mandeville City

Columbia St., Covington. Tues-Fri,

Hall, 3101 E. Causeway App. Mon-Fri,

10am-4pm; Sat, 11am-4pm. Free. 892-8650.

9am-4:30pm. Free. Nancy Clark, 626-3144.

sttammanyartassociation.org.

1-31 St. Tammany Porcelain Art Club 1-6 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage

Exhibit. Hand-painted porcelain by Isabelle

Festival. Fair Grounds Race Course, 1751

Moore. Causeway Branch Library, Mandeville.

Gentilly Blvd., New Orleans. 11am-7pm.

Mon-Thurs, 9am-8pm; Fri-Sat, 9am-5pm.

nojazzfest.com.

Free. 863-5364. sttammany.lib.la.us.

1-20 The Art of Thornton Dial. Dial’s

1-June 15 Salad Days 2012. Juried

paintings, drawings and sculptures.

exhibition of student art. The Slidell Cultural

New Orleans Museum of Art. Tues-Sun,

Center, 2055 Second St., Slidell. Tues-Fri,

10am-5pm; Fri, 10am-9pm. $10; discounts

noon-4pm; Sat, 9am-noon. 646-4375.

for seniors, students, children and members;

slidell.la.us.

Wed, free. (504) 658-4100. noma.org.

1-June 17 Furnishing Louisiana: 17351-29 Northshore Business Network

1835. Distinctive cabinetmaking traditions.

Meetings. Enjoy lunch and share qualified

The Historic New Orleans Collection,

leads. Acme Oyster House, Covington. Tues,

533 Royal St., New Orleans. Tues-Sat,

11:45am. john_filipowicz@us.aflac.com.

9:30am-4:30pm; Sun, 10:30am-4pm. Free.

(504) 523-4662. hnoc.org.

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I n s i d e N o rt h s i d e

exhibitions on the beauty and fragility of nature

925 Camp St. Wed-Mon, 10am-5pm. $10; discounts for seniors, students and children; Thurs, free to Louisiana residents. (504) 5399600. ogdenmuseum.org.

3 Business After Hours. East St. Tammany Chamber. Silver Slipper Casino, Blue Bayou Bar & Grill, Bay St. Louis, Miss. 5-7pm.

Members, free; non-members, $10. 6435678. estchamber.com.

3 Preparing for Childbirth Class. Lakeview Regional Medical Center, 95 Judge Tanner Blvd., Covington. 6:30-9:30pm. Free.

1-866-4LAKEVIEW. lakeviewregional.com.

4 11th Annual Goodyear Memorial Golf Tournament. Benefiting St. Tammany Cancer Fund. Money Hill Golf and Country Club, Abita Springs. Shotgun start, 1pm. Sharon Landry, 674-6949. sttammanycancerfund.org.

4 Northshore Heroes Award Luncheon.

West St. Tammany YMCA. Tchefuncta Country Club. 11:30am. 893-9622.

4 Painting Pinatas and Sombrero Snacks. Culinary Kids, 3441 E. Causeway App., Ste. G, Mandeville. 5:30-7:30pm. 7275553. culinarykidsns.com.

4-5 Inspirational Women’s Art. Mixed media on canvas paintings honoring Mother’s Day by Jax Frey. The Louisiana Artists Gallery, 813 Florida St., Mandeville. 5-7pm. Free.

Bobbie, 624-7903.

4-6 Children’s Grief Camp. Help for children dealing with the loss of a loved one. Fontainebleau State Park, Mandeville.

643-5470.

4-6 En Plein Air Art Exhibit. Landscape artwork. Abita Town Pavilion, 22049 Main St., Abita Springs. Reception: Fri, 6-9pm; exhibit and sale, Sat-Sun, 10am-5pm. Free. Lynnette Soules, 893-2418.

4-19 Romeo and Juliet. Cutting Edge Theater, 747 Robert Blvd., Slidell. Fri-Sat, 8pm. $15. 649-3727. cuttingedgetheater.com.

4-25 Friday Night Clay Night. Adult class with Laurie Pennison and Maggie McConnell; bring your favorite drink, snacks and lots of friends. St. Tammany Art Association Arthouse, 320 N. Columbia St., Covington. 5-7pm. $20; $10 clay fee as needed. Cindy Pulling, 8928650. sttamanyartassociation.org.

5 A Festival of Words. A celebration of our literary heritage and traditions sponsored by the Northshore Literary Society; storytimes, a visit from Mark Twain, book signings, works-in-progress readings and recitations of famous poems. Barnes & Noble, Mandeville.

10am-9pm. Free. Eve Brouwer, (630) 2678178. northshoreliterarysociety.com.

Y5 Baby Chat for Siblings. Helping children with questions they have about babies. Ages 3 and up, with parent. St. Tammany Parish Hospital, Covington.

10am-noon. Free. 898-4083. stph.org.

5 Carreta’s Grill Celebrates Cinco de Mayo. Music, outside food and drink specials, prizes and t-shirts; Supercharger

>>

May-June 2012 19

Inside Scoop Band, 6-10pm. 70380 Hwy. 21, Covington.

11am-til. carretasgrill.com.

5 Cinco Celebration Event. Culinary Kids, 3441 E. Causeway App., Ste. G, Mandeville.

Kid event, 11am-12:30pm; adult event, 6-7:30pm. 727-5553. culinarykidsns.com.

5 Cinco de Mayo Block Party at Carreta’s Grill. Outside food and drink specials, costume contest and live music by Weathered, 6-10pm. 137 Taos St., Slidell.

11am-til. carretasgrill.com.

5 Cinco de Mayo Gala. Mexican cuisine, open bar and music by The Wiseguys. Northshore Harbor Center, Slidell. 7pm-midnight. $75. 781-3650. northshoreharborcenter.com.

5 La Carreta of Mandeville Celebrates Cinco de Mayo. Latin 4, noon-3pm; kids’ fiesta and clown, 3-5pm; DJ, 5-8pm; live music by The Dominoes. 1200 W. Causeway App., Mandeville. carretarestaurant.com.

5 New Orleans Opera Ball. Russian opera, cocktails and delicacies. Empire Ballroom, Hyatt Regency Hotel, New Orleans. 7pm. $225. Shirley Mosely, (504) 319-8947. neworleansopera.org.

5 Northlake Newcomers Installation Luncheon and Style Show. Benedict’s Plantation, Mandeville. 10am. $25.

Reservations required. 845-0013.

5 Taste of Tammany Celebrates Cinco de Mayo. Our Lady of the Lake’s evening of good food and music. Castine Center, Pelican Park, Mandeville. 7-10pm. $60 at door; reserved tickets online, $50; reserved table of 8, $400. Mark Weisinger, 502-5935. ollparish.info.

5 Visible Faith Jewelry Trunk Show. The Mix, 4480 Hwy. 22, Mandeville. 10am-6pm.

Free. 727-7649.

5-20 St. Tammany HBA Parade of Homes. Tour new homes in St. Tammany Parish. Sat-Sun, noon-5pm. Free. 882-5002. sthba.org.

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I n s i d e N o rt h s i d e

5-26 Camellia City Market. Robert and Front Sts., Slidell. Sat, 8am-noon. Free. 2853599. camelliacitymarket.org.

5-26 Mandeville Trailhead Community Market. 675 Lafitte St. Sat, 9am-1pm. Free.

845-4515. mandevilletrailheadmarket.com.

7 Arts Round Table. Causeway Branch Library, 3457 Hwy. 190, Mandeville. 6-7:30pm.

Free. 626-9779. sttammany.lib.la.us.

7-28 Kid’s Cooking Classes. Weekly class for ages 6-12. Culinary Kids, 3441 E. Causeway App., Ste. G, Mandeville. Mon, 5:15-7:15pm. $75/month; one class, $25.

727-5553. culinarykidsns.com.

8 Slidell Art League Meeting. Christ Episcopal Church, Olde Towne Slidell.

7pm. Free. slidellartsleague@yahoo.com. slidellartleague.info.

Y8, 15, 22 Play & Learn. Parents/ caregivers and children 16 months to 4 years; 3-week session. STPH Parenting Center, 1505 N. Florida St., Ste. B, Covington. 9:3010:15am. $15 per month; members, $24.

898-4435. stph.org.

9 East St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce Monthly Luncheon. The Demo Diva, Simone Bruni. 11:30am. Members, $29; non-members, $35. 643-5678. estchamber.com.

9, 16, 23, 31 Drawing from life with Carol Ordogne. All levels welcome; easels and drawing boards included. St. Tammany Art Association Arthouse, 320 N. Columbia St., Covington. 9:30am-noon. $180; members, $160; daily, $45. Cindy Pulling, 892-8650. sttamanyartassociation.org.

Y10 Free Child Safety Seat Inspections.

STPH Parenting Center, 1505 N. Florida St., Ste. B, Covington. 9am-noon. Free.

Appointments, 898-4435. stph.org.

10 Music for a Cause. Benefits St. Tammany Parish Suicide Prevention Support Program. Landlubbers Pub and Club, 3606 Pontchartrain Dr., Slidell. Doors open, 4pm; social hour, 6pm; show 7-9pm. $10. Jaime

>>

Inside Scoop Burchfield, (504) 827-9262. unitedwaysela.org.

10am-7pm. Free. 951-8638. thebragenie.com.

E. Causeway App., Ste. G, Mandeville.

3-4:30pm. 727-5553. culinarykidsns.com.

10 St. Tammany Photographic Society

11 National Public Gardens Day. Longue

Meeting. St. Tammany Art Association, 320

Vue House and Gardens, 7 Bamboo Rd., New

12 Tea for Two. Mother-daughter pottery

N. Columbia St., Covington. 7pm. 892-8650.

Orleans. Free. Lydia Vaughn, (504) 293-4722.

workshop. Longue Vue House and Gardens,

stphotosociety.org.

7 Bamboo Rd., New Orleans. 2:30-4:30pm.

11-27 Three by Tennessee. Plays by

Members: $35 for child and adult, $20 for

Y10, 17, 24 Cuddle Buddies. Parents/

Tennessee Williams. Playmakers Theater,

additional child; non-members: $45, $25. Jen

caregivers and infants 8-15 months, STPH

Covington. Fri, Sat, 8pm; Sun (excluding

Gick, (504) 293-4723. longuevue.com.

Parenting Center, 1505 N. Florida St., Ste.

5/13), 2pm. Adults, $15; students, $10. 893-

B, Covington. 10:30-11am. $12 per month;

1671. playmakersinc.com.

members, $6. 898-4435. stph.org.

12 TerraBella Art Walk. Presented by TerraBella Village and Tripolo Gallery. Hwy.

12 Forestival 2012. Experience Louisiana’s

1085, 1 mile off Hwy. 21, Covington. 6-9pm.

11 Friday Night at NOMA: Movies in

wetlands set to live music, food, artistic

Free. terrabellavillage.com.

the Garden. Breakfast at Tiffany’s. NOMA,

demonstrations and more. 13401 Patterson

City Park, New Orleans. Food for purchase,

Road, New Orleans. 11am-5pm. Free.

12-June 2 Student Exhibition. St. Paul’s

5-8pm; music and art activity, 5-7pm;

astudiointhewoods.org.

School and St. Scholastica Academy art

comedic art tour, 6:30pm; film, 7:30pm/

students. St. Tammany Art Association,

sundown. Non-members, $6; members $3;

12 Madisonville Art Market. Water Street

320 N. Columbia St., Covington. Tues-Fri,

under 17, free. noma.org.

in Old Madisonville. 10am-4pm. Free. 643-

10am-4pm; Sat, 11am-4pm. 892-8650.

5340. madisonvilleartmarket.com.

sttammanyartassociation.org.

personal fitting and browse the expanded

12 Mother’s Day Gift Event. Kids cook

12, 26 Hammond Farmer’s/Crafts

showroom while enjoying champagne and

a healthy snack, create a crafty card and

Market. W. Thomas St. and S.W. Railroad

hors d’oeuvres. Bra Genie, Pelican Village

take home a “Dinner in a Jar” gift to cook

Ave., Hammond. 9am-3pm. Terry Lynn Smith,

Shopping Center, Mandeville. Extended hours,

for Mom’s special day. Culinary Kids, 3441

277-5680. dddhammond.com.

11 Grand Re-opening Event. Get a

13 Longue Vue Members Mother’s Day

person; $45/couple. Children’s session: $10/

Feufollet and cocktails from Old New Orleans

child (max $20/family). 898-4435. stph.org.

Rum. The Historic New Orleans Collection,

Picnic. Longue Vue House and Gardens,

533 Royal St., New Orleans. 6-8pm; doors

7 Bamboo Rd., New Orleans. 11am–3pm.

15 SBAC Seminar: Outside Sales.

open, 5:30pm. $10; members, free. (504)

Free. Christopher Bowers, (504) 293-4719.

St. Tammany West Chamber Office, 610

523-4662. hnoc.org.

longuevue.com.

Hollycrest Blvd., Covington. 7:30-9am.

Members, $10; non-members, $15. 892-

18 Sunset at the Landing Concert.

13 Mother’s Day in Mandeville Home

3216, ext. 4. sttammanychamber.org.

Columbia Street Landing, Covington. 6-9pm.

Tour. Benefits the Jean Baptiste Lang House.

Free. 892-1873. cityofcovingtonla.com.

The Gazebo, 2100 Lakeshore Dr., Mandeville.

15 Wine Tasting Series. Adam

2-5pm. $15. Adele Foster, 626-7206.

Acquistapace. St. Tammany Art Association,

18-19 Covington Brewhouse Springfest.

oldmandevillehistoricassociation.org.

320 N. Columbia St., Covington. 6-8:30pm.

Blues, barbeque and beer, hosted by Heiner

$20. 892-8650. sttammanyartassociation.org.

Brau. Covington Trailhead, 419 N. New

14 The Northshore Kiwanis 13th Annual

Hampshire, Covington. Fri, 5-9pm; Sat,

Benefit Golf Tournament. Four-person

16 Business After Hours. West St

noon-9pm. Free. Rob Mingo, 893-2884.

scramble. Money Hill Country Club, Abita

Tammany Chamber. Don’s Seafood Hut, 126

heinerbrau.com.

Springs. Shotgun start, 9am. $165; four

Lake Dr., Covington. 5-7pm. 892-3216, ext.

golfers, $600; includes cart green fees, ditty

28. sttammanychamber.org.

bags, lunch and refreshments. David Lindsey, 801-0107.

19 Abita Springs Opry. Live Louisiana roots music. Abita Springs Town Hall. Pre-show

17 Business After Hours. East St.

performance on porch, 5-6:45pm; show,

Tammany Chamber; art by artists working

7-9pm. $18. 892-0711. abitaopry.org.

Y14, 21 Children in the Middle.

through STARC. Salmen-Fritchie House,

Simultaneous two-night sessions for

127 Cleveland Ave., Slidell. 5-7pm. $10;

19 Annual Free Physical Day. Free

divorcing parents and their children. STPH

members, free. 643-5678. estchamber.com.

complete sports physical. Fairway Medical

Parenting Center, 1505 N. Florida St., Ste. B, Covington. 7-9pm. Adult session: $35/

Surgical Hospital, Covington. 8-11am. Free.

18 Concert in the Courtyard. Cajun band

373-3464. fairwaymedical.com/sports.

>>

Inside Scoop 19 Louisiana Bicentennial Celebration. St. Tammany Parish celebrates with food, music, a showcase of Louisiana culture and history and special guest Lt. Governor Jay Dardenne.

Heritage Park, Slidell. 4-9:30pm. Free. (Rain date: 5/20.) Kim Bergeron, 646-4375.

19 Site Visit: LSU Rural Life Museum.

Museum tour and lunch with director David Floyd, sponsored by the Historic New Orleans Collection. LSU Rural Life Museum, Baton Rouge. Roundtrip bus, $60; own transportation, $30. (504) 523-4662. rurallife.lsu.edu.

19 West St. Tammany Relay for Life.

Overnight event includes food, games, entertainment and fundraising activities.

Fontainebleau High school, Mandeville.

6pm-6am. Free. relayforlife.org.

20 Gospel on the Northshore. Gospel music from St. Timothy Choir. St. Timothy, Mandeville. 5pm. Free. 626-3307.

20 Land Trust for Southeast Louisiana Conservation Cup. Polo matches, fun, food and music. Leah Farms, Folsom. Auctions, 12:15pm; matches, 1-4:30pm. Adults, $25; students, $15; 10 and under, free. 2768000. ltsl.org.

20 Opry Fest. Afternoon of music and food with the Abita Springs Opry. Abita Springs Town Hall. 892-0711. abitaopry.org.

20 Third Sunday Concert Series. New Leviathan Oriental Fox-Trot Orchestra. Christ Episcopal Church, Covington. 5pm. Free.

892-3177. christchurchcovington.com.

21-22 Robin Hood. Presented by the Louisiana Center for Theatrical Arts. Greater Covington Center, 317 N. Jefferson Ave. 7pm. $5. 442-9889. lcta.biz.

22-26 The New Orleans Food & Wine Experience. Wine dinners and tastings, international cake competition and more.

Various times, locations and prices. (504) 529-WINE. nowfe.com.

23 Emerging Young Professionals. Guest 24

I n s i d e N o rt h s i d e

speaker Mark Meyer. Chesterfield’s, 1300 Gause Blvd., Slidell. 11:30am-1pm. Free.

Linda Larkin, 705-7127.

24 Newborn Care Class. Lakeview Regional Medical Center, Covington.

10am-noon. Free. Registration, 866-4LAKEVIEW. lakeviewregional.com.

24 Ponchatoula Chamber After Hours.

Ponchatoula Country Market, 10 E. Pine St. 5:30-7pm. Free. 386-2536.

25 25 Bordeauxs for $25. Sample 25 Bordeauxs from the 2009 vintage. Martin Wine Cellar, Village Shopping Center, Mandeville. 6:30pm. $25. 951-8081. martinwine.com.

25 Columbia Street Block Party. Block Party and classic car show in downtown Covington. Columbia Street, Covington. 6:309:30pm. Free. 892-1873. cityofcovingtonla. com.

25 Titan Athletic Booster Club 2nd Annual Golf Tournament. Four-person scramble and silent auction. Oak Harbor Golf Club, Slidell. Registration, 6:30am; shotgun start, 8am; luncheon, 12:30pm. $100 per player. Fred Pepper, 966-5277.

25-June 30 George Dunbar Exhibit.

Longue Vue House and Gardens, 7 Bamboo Rd., New Orleans. Tues-Sat, 10am-5pm; Sun, 1-5pm. $10; children, senior and military discounts available. Jen Gick, (504) 2934723. longuevue.com.

26 Jumpin’ Into Summer Children’s Event. Covington Trailhead, 419 N. New Hampshire St. 10am-noon. Free. 892-1873. cityofcovingtonla.com.

26-27 Memorial Day Getaway. Antiquing and shopping in downtown Ponchatoula.

Interests include: Laparoscopic surgery, pregnancy management, difficult menopausal transitions, management of significant pre-menstrual syndrome

Free. chamber@ponchatoulachamber.com.

28-June 2 Children’s Summer Drama/ Acting Camp. LCTA, 4499 Sharp Rd., Mandeville. 9am-3pm. Before 6/1, $150; after 6/1, $175; $15 off for each additional child.

517-6637. lcta.biz.

>>

985-246-1224 215 E. Gibson St., Covington May-June 2012 25

Inside Scoop 898-4435. stph.org.

28-July 27 Camp Northlake. Weekly

Second St., Slidell. Tues-Fri, noon-4pm; Sat, 9am-noon. 646-4375. slidell.la.us.

summer camp for kindergarten through sixth

31-July 13 SSA Summer Camps.

grade. Northlake Christian School, Covington.

Take your pick from sports, academics,

1-17 Furnishing Louisiana: 1735-1835.

8am-3pm, $175; 8am-5:30pm, $200.

music, dance, cheerleading and more. St.

Distinctive cabinetmaking traditions. The

campnorthlake.org.

Scholastica Academy, Covington. Kristen

Historic New Orleans Collection, 533 Royal

Blackburn, 892-2540, ext. 108. ssacad.com.

St., New Orleans. Tues-Sat, 9:30am-4:30pm;

28-August 3 Culinary Kids Summer Camp. Weeklong camps for ages 6-12.

Culinary Kids, 3441 E. Causeway App.,

Sun, 10:30am-4pm. Free. (504) 523-4662.

June

hnoc.org.

1-29 Friday Night Clay Night. Adult class

Ste. G, Mandeville. 9am-3pm; extended hours available. $275; includes all meals and

1-2 Student Exhibition. St. Paul’s

with Laurie Pennison and Maggie McConnell;

beverages. 727-5553. culinarykidsns.com.

School and St. Scholastica Academy art

bring your favorite drink, snacks and lots of

students. St. Tammany Art Association,

friends. St. Tammany Art Association Arthouse,

30 Monthly Luncheon. St. Tammany

320 N. Columbia St., Covington. Tues-Fri,

320 N. Columbia St., Covington. 5-7pm. $20;

West Chamber; former governor Edwin

10am-4pm; Sat, 11am-4pm. 892-8650.

$10 clay fee as needed. Cindy Pulling, 892-

Edwards. Tchefuncta Country Club,

sttammanyartassociation.org.

8650. sttamanyartassociation.org.

1-3 Disney’s Aladdin Jr. Cutting Edge

1-29 Mandeville City Hall Artist of

Theater, 747 Robert Blvd., Slidell. Fri-Sat,

the Month. Clariza Kern. Mandeville City

Y31-June 21 Kinder Spanish. 4-week

8pm; Sun, 3pm. Adults, $15; students, $10.

Hall, 3101 E. Causeway App. Mon-Fri,

introduction to basic Spanish for kids. STPH

649-3727. cuttingedgetheater.com.

9am-4:30pm. Free. Nancy Clark, 626-3144.

3½ -4, 9:30-10:15am; ages 2½-3½: 11:15-

1-15 Salad Days 2012. Juried exhibition of

1-30 Fine Prints from the Permanent

11:45am. Members, $40; non-members, $52.

student art. The Slidell Cultural Center, 2055

Collection. Landscapes, portraits and interior

Covington. 11:30am-1pm. 892-3216, ext. 4. sttammanychamber.org.

Parenting Center, Covington. Thursdays: ages

scenes. Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres

Covington Trailhead, 10am-2pm; Sat, 609 N.

St., New Orleans. Tues-Sat, 9:30am-4:30pm.

1-July 27 Camp Northlake. Weekly

Columbia St., 8am-noon. Free. 966-1786.

Free. (504) 523-4662. hnoc.org.

summer camp for kindergarten through sixth

covingtonfarmersmarket.org.

grade. Northlake Christian School, Covington.

1-30 George Dunbar Exhibit. Longue Vue

8am-3pm, $175; 8am-5:30pm, $200.

2-30 Mandeville Trailhead Community

House and Gardens, 7 Bamboo Rd., New

campnorthlake.org.

Market. 675 Lafitte St. Sat, 9am-1pm. Free.

Orleans. Tues-Sat, 10am-5pm; Sun, 1-5pm.

845-4515. mandevilletrailheadmarket.com.

$10; children, senior and military discounts

2 Ponchatoula City-wide Yard Sale.

available. Jen Gick, (504) 293-4723.

Maps available at the Chamber Information

2, 16 St. Tammany Senior Olympic

longuevue.com.

Booth in front of Country Market and other

Games. Seniors 50 and up. Pelican

locations. 9am-5pm. Free. 1-800-617-4502.

Park, Mandeville. 8:30am-4:30pm. $15.

ponchatoulachamber.com.

coastseniors.org.

cheerleading and more. St. Scholastica

2 Raising the Roof for Charity Raffle

4-8, 18-22 Jared Montz Pro Soccer

Academy, Covington. Kristen Blackburn, 892-

Grand Prize Drawing. Raffle House:

Camps. Pelican Park, Mandeville.

2540, ext. 108. ssacad.com.

$470,000-value home built by Integrity

9am-noon. $180. Robin Montz, 705-1770.

Builders. 456 N. Corniche du Lac, Maison

onlinesocceracademy.com.

1-July 13 SSA Summer Camps. Take your pick from sports, academics, music, dance,

1-July 23 Ogden Museum Exhibits. Nine

du Lac Subdivision, Covington. 11am. Raffle

exhibitions on the beauty and fragility of nature

tickets, $100. 882-5002. raisingtheroof.net.

and the environment. The Ogden Museum

4-25 Kid’s Cooking Classes. Weekly class for ages 6-12. Culinary Kids, 3441 E.

of Southern Art, University of New Orleans,

2-30 Camellia City Market. Robert and

Causeway App., Ste. G, Mandeville. Mon,

925 Camp St. Wed-Mon, 10am-5pm. $10;

Front Sts., Slidell. Sat, 8am-noon. Free. 285-

5:15-7:15pm. $75/month; one class, $25.

discounts for seniors, students and children;

3599. camelliacitymarket.org.

727-5553. culinarykidsns.com.

2-30 Covington Farmers Market. Wed,

4-29 Fingerprints Art Camps. Four

Thurs, free to Louisiana residents. (504) 5399600. ogdenmuseum.org.

>>

May-June 2012 27

Inside Scoop five-day sessions in two locations for ages 6-12. St. Tammany Art Association’s Art House, 320 N. Columbia St., Covington; Mandeville Trailhead, 675 Lafitte St. $220; STAA members, $200. Cindy, 892-8650. sttammanyartassociation.org.

4-29 Summer Art Camps. Weeklong camps for children 5-8 and 9-12. NOMA, City Park, New Orleans. In the Studio visual art camps, 9:30am-12:30pm; On the Stage camps, 1-4pm. Half-day: $120 for members, $150 for non-members; full day: $240 for members, $300 for non-members. Elise Solomon, (504) 658-4128. noma.org.

4-August 3 Culinary Kids Summer Camp. Weeklong camps for ages 6-12.

Culinary Kids, 3441 E. Causeway App., Ste. G, Mandeville. 9am-3pm; extended hours available. $275; includes all meals and beverages. 727-5553. culinarykidsns.com.

5-26 Northshore Business Network Meeting. Enjoy lunch and share qualified leads. Acme Oyster House, Covington. Tues, 11:45am. john_filipowicz@us.aflac.com.

Y5, 12, 19 Play & Learn. Parents/ caregivers and children 16 months to 4 years; 3-week session. STPH Parenting Center, 1505 N. Florida St., Ste. B, Covington. 9:3010:15am. $15 per month; members, $24.

898-4435. stph.org.

6-28 Young Artists Classes. Armbruster Artworks Studio, 420 N. Vermont St., Covington. Wed, ages 13-18, 3-5:30pm; Thurs, ages 8-12, 10:30am-1pm. 630-6295.

7 Ray Ban Trunk Show. The Mix, 3340 Hwy. 22, Mandeville. Noon-7pm. Free. 727-7650.

7-9 Disney’s Winnie the Pooh. Covington High Performing Arts Center Auditorium.

10am. $5. Dr. Ric Watkins, 893-9843.

Y7-21 Kinder Spanish. 4-week introduction to basic Spanish for kids. STPH Parenting Center, Covington. Thursdays: ages 3½ -4, 9:30-10:15am; ages 2½-3½: 11:1511:45am. Members, $40; non-members, $52.

28

I n s i d e N o rt h s i d e

898-4435. stph.org.

Y7, 14, 21 Cuddle Buddies. Parents/ caregivers and infants 8-15 months, STPH Parenting Center, 1505 N. Florida St., Ste. B, Covington. 10:30-11am. $12 per month; members, $6. 898-4435. stph.org.

8 Friday Night at NOMA: Movies in the Garden. The Wizard of Oz. NOMA, City Park, New Orleans. Food for purchase, 5-8pm; music and art activity, 5-7pm; film, 7:30pm/ sundown. Non-members, $6; members $3; under 17, free. noma.org.

9 Madisonville Art Market. Water Street in Old Madisonville. 10am-4pm. Free. 643-5340. madisonvilleartmarket.com.

9, 23 Hammond Market. W. Thomas St. and S.W. Railroad Ave., Hammond.

Farmers Market, 8am-1pm; Crafts Market, 9am-4pm. Terry Lynn Smith, 277-5680. dddhammond.com.

10 Sippin’ in the Sun with St. Arnold Brewing Company. Beer education class on the lawn (for those 21 and over). Longue Vue House and Gardens, 7 Bamboo Rd., New Orleans. 4pm–6pm. $10, members; $12 nonmembers. Price includes beer tasting and a snack. Reservations required; online payment encouraged. Jen Gick, (504) 293-4723 or jgick@longuevue.com.

11-15 Blue Dog Days. Summer camp for ages 3-4. George Rodrigue Foundation Education Center, 747 Magazine Street, New Orleans. 9-11am. $150. (504) 324-9614. georgerodriguefoundation.org.

12 Slidell Art League Meeting. Christ Episcopal Church, Olde Towne Slidell.

7pm. Free. slidellartsleague@yahoo.com. slidellartleague.info.

13 East St. Tammany Chamber Monthly Luncheon. 11:30am. Members, $29; nonmembers, $35. 643-5678. estchamber.com.

Y13, 20 Cheerleading Camp. STPH Parenting Center, 1505 N. Florida St., Ste. B, >>

May-June 2012 29

Inside Scoop Covington. 10:30-11:15am. $20/members,

15 Kid’s Fest. Song, dance and hands-on

$30/non-members. 898-4435. stph.org.

art projects. Slidell Municipal Auditorium.

18-22 Children’s Summer Drama/Acting

9:30am-noon. Free. Susan Schmidt,

Camp. LCTA, 4499 Sharp Rd., Mandeville.

sschmidt@cityofslidell.org.

9am-3pm. Before 6/1, $150; after 6/1, $175;

14 Music for a Cause. Benefits St. Tammany Parish Suicide Prevention Support

$15 off for each additional child. 517-6637.

Program. Landlubbers Pub and Club, 3606

15 Sunset at the Landing Concert.

Pontchartrain Dr., Slidell. Doors open, 4pm;

Concert series. Columbia Street Landing, 100

social hour, 6pm; show 7-9pm. $10. Jaime

N. Columbia St., Covington. 6-9pm. Free.

18-22 Finders Keepers: The Art of the

Burchfield, (504) 827-9262. unitedwaysela.org.

892-1873. cityofcovingtonla.com.

Found Object. Children ages 10-12 will

14 St. Tammany Photographic Society

15 The Summer of Beer. Sample over 80

Rodrigue Foundation Education Center, 747

Meeting. St. Tammany Art Association, 320

beers complemented by food from the Martin

Magazine Street, New Orleans. $150. (504)

N. Columbia St., Covington. 7pm. 892-8650.

Metairie Deli/Bistro. Martin Wine Cellar, Village

324-9614. georgerodriguefoundation.org.

stphotosociety.org.

Shopping Center, Mandeville. 6:30-8pm. $20.

lcta.biz.

make art using everyday items. George

951-8081. martinwine.com.

14-16 The Musical Adventures of Flat

18-22 Music Camp. St. Tammany Art Association; grades 6 to 9 with one year

Stanley. Covington High Performing Arts

15-30 You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown.

experience; instruments not provided.

Center Auditorium. 10am. $5. Dr. Ric

Cutting Edge Theater, 747 Robert Blvd.,

Mandeville Trailhead, 675 Lafitte St.

Watkins, 893-9843.

Slidell. Fri, Sat, 8pm. $18.50. 649-3727.

9:30am-2:30pm; final concert performance.

cuttingedgetheater.com.

$160; members, $150. Cindy Pulling, 892-

15 Concert in the Courtyard. The Historic

8650. sttamanyartassociation.org.

New Orleans Collection, 533 Royal St., New

16 Newborn Care Class. Lakeview

Orleans. 6-8pm; doors open, 5:30pm. $10;

Regional Medical Center, Covington.

18-29 Cedarwood School MADD Camp.

members, free. (504) 523-4662. hnoc.org.

7-9pm. Free. Registration, 866-4LAKEVIEW.

“Spy Kidz Mission” for first through seventh

lakeviewregional.com.

grades. Cedarwood School, Mandeville.

30

I n s i d e N o rt h s i d e

9am-4pm; extended times available.

19 Wine Tasting Series. Adam

21-October 14 Ralston Crawford and Jazz

Registration, $40; performance fee, $20;

Acquistapace. St. Tammany Association, 320

Exhibit. New Orleans Museum of Art. Tues-Sun,

session fee, $470 (not including extended day

N. Columbia St., Covington. 6-8:30pm. $20.

10am-5pm; Fri, 10am-9pm. $10; discounts for

fees). 845-7111. cedarwoodschool.com.

892-8650. sttammanyartassociation.org.

seniors, students, children and members; Wed,

Y18, 25 Children in the Middle.

20 West St. Tammany Chamber Business

Simultaneous two-night sessions for

After Hours. N’Tini’s, Mandeville. 5-7pm.

24 Northshore Literary Society Meeting.

divorcing parents and their children. STPH

892-3216, ext. 28. sttammanychamber.org.

Guest speaker, food and drinks. 4-6pm.

free. (504) 658-4100. noma.org.

Parenting Center, 1505 N. Florida St., Ste. B,

Non-members, $10; members, free.

Covington. 7-9pm. Adult session: $35/person;

21 Ponchatoula Chamber After

$45/couple. Children’s session: $10/child

Hours. Rosaryville Retreat Center,

(max $20/family). 898-4435. stph.org.

Ponchatoula. 5:30-7pm. Free. 386-2536.

27 Emerging Young Professionals.

ponchatoulachamber.com.

Reine’s Bistro, Slidell. 5-7pm. Free. Linda

19 SBAC Seminar: Inside Sales. St.

northshoreliterarysociety.com.

Larkin, 705-7127.

Tammany West Chamber Office, 610

21-23 Disney’s The Aristocats.

Hollycrest Blvd., Covington. 7:30-9am.

Covington High Performing Arts Center

28 Theology on Tap. Summer series for

Members, $10; non-members, $15. 892-

Auditorium, Covington. 10am. $5. Dr. Ric

young adults ages 21 to 35; “Putting on your

3216, ext. 4. sttammanychamber.org.

Watkins, 893-9843.

Armor: The Virtuous Life” presented by Paul George. The Abita Brewery Visitor’s Center,

19 Summer Series Brown Bag Luncheon.

21-23 Legally Blonde, the Musical.

21084 Hwy. 36, Abita Springs. 6:30pm.

Listen to local officials and learn more about

Seventh grade and older. Covington High

Michelle Seghers, 373-2656.

your community. Rotary Hut, Memorial

Performing Arts Center Auditorium. 7pm.

Park, Ponchatoula. Noon. Free. chamber@

Adults, $15; students, $10. Dr. Ric Watkins,

29 Columbia Street Block Party. Columbia

ponchatoulachamber.com.

893-9843.

Street, Downtown Covington. 6:30-9:30pm.

Free. 892-1873. cityofcovingtonla.com.

May-June 2012 31

photo: ABBY SANDS MILLER www.abbyphoto.com image: SARAH DUNN

Dew Drop Social & Benevolent Jazz Hall Friday, May 11, is your chance to see two strong female vocalists share the stage at the Dew Drop Social & Benevolent Jazz Hall in Mandeville. Meschiya Lake and her band, the Little Big Horns, will be followed by singer Sarah Quintana. The season will end on Friday, May 18, with a concert by Don Vappie and his big band, the Creole Jazz Serenaders.

This year’s spring season at the Dew Drop was kicked off by Grammy-award-winning Louisiana blues musician Chris Thomas King on March 16.

Following the King’s performance, concerts and performances were held by Friends of the Dew Drop to celebrate springtime and jazz.

The Dew Drop is a tradition in Mandeville dating back to 1885. That year, a group of Mandeville residents created the Dew Drop Social and Benevolent Association. After the early 1940s, when activity ceased at the Dew Drop, the group was replaced by a new organization and a new hall called the Sons and Daughters Hall on Marigny Avenue.

The now 113-year-old building had been virtually unused until six years ago, when the Friends of the Dew Drop began work to restore the building. The unpainted hall on Lamarque Street, nestled in a grove of ancient live oaks is now considered the world’s oldest virtually unaltered rural jazz dance hall.

Dew Drop Social & Benevolent Jazz Hall, 424 Block of Lamarque St., Mandeville. For more information, call 6243147 or visit dewdropjazzhallnew.point2pointdesign.com.

by Derric Boudreaux and Jasmine Beard

Sweet Olivier and Garcia.Dunn Gallery

In March, Covington resident Sarah Dunn and fashion designer Michelle Beatty debuted their Sweet Olivier clothing line during Fashion Week New Orleans. The line of clothes features a vibrant color palate and images inspired from gardens that are hand painted, digitally printed and screen printed on organic silks and cottons. The Louisiana Cultural Economy Foundation awarded Sarah and Michelle a grant to create the line.

Recently, Sarah and Meghan Garcia opened their Garcia.Dunn gallery at 609 Boston Street in Covington. Both have a long-standing presence in the local art scene. In 2007, Sarah’s painting for the poster of the Junior League of Greater Covington’s Harvest Cup Polo Classic was featured on Inside Northside’s cover. She is also the designer of the league’s Roux To Do cookbook. Meghan is a painter, an elementary art teacher and a leader in local arts organizations.

For more information, visit garciadunn.com.

32 Inside Northside

photo: SARAH DUNN

INthe Arts

Creating U Louisiana is the third most popular location for motion pictures and television shows in the country, creating a need for professionally trained actors and models. Creating U, a New York/California-style

acting and modeling academy, offers classes for ages 6 to 99 with oneon-one attention from professional instructors. Summer camps are available. For more information, call 7961818 or visit creatingu.com.

Festival of Words Everyone is invited to “A Festival of Words,” celebrating our literary heritage and traditions, sponsored by the Northshore Literary Society on Saturday, May 5, 2012, 10am-9pm at Barnes & Noble, Mandeville.

10am Children’s Story Hour 11am Children’s Play 1pm Poetry Out Loud Recitations 2pm Local Authors’ Book Signing 3pm Adults’ Story Hour 5pm Visit by Mark Twain 7pm Poetry Readings Contact Eve Brouwer, (630) 2678178, or Barnes and Noble, 626-8884.

Louisiana Citizens for the Arts The Louisiana Partnership for Arts Advocacy has changed its name to Louisiana Citizens for the Arts. The new name is part of the effort to preserve and promote funding for the arts in Louisiana.

Governor Jindal’s proposed budget would cut 33 percent of the state’s art funding.

To show how much the arts mean to you, join the LCA on May 16 for Arts Advocacy Day in the Capitol’s Rotunda.

Visit louisianacitizensforthearts.org and lparts.org for more information.

Salad Days Student Art Exhibit For 21 years, “Salad Days” has given students in St. Tammany Parish the opportunity to showcase their art in a formal gallery setting. The only one of its kind in the area, the juried exhibition opened April 13 in the Slidell Cultural >> May-June 2012 33

Center in City Hall and will remain on display through June 15. Of the 70 entries from 33 different 5- to 19-year-old artists, this year’s juror, artist Adam Sambola, selected 45 pieces from 25 artists.

This event fulfills the art exhibit requirement for the City of Slidell’s Cultural Explorers Club, a program created for children ages 4 to 18 that encourages exploration of the many facets of visual and performing arts.

Slidell Cultural Center, City Hall, 2055 2nd Street, Slidell. Wednesday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to noon; and by appointment for school and group tours. 646-4375. slidell.la.us.

Summer Camps/Classes Adult Summer Art Class, Hammond Regional Art Center. For 16 years and older. 9am-noon and 1pm-4pm. Registration deadline: June 15. Session 1: July 9-13; Session 2: July 23-27. 217 E. Thomas St., Hammond, 2294156. hamartguild.com.

Young Artists Classes, Armbruster Artworks Studio. For students 8-12: June 7, 14, 21, 28; 10:30am-1pm. For students 13-18: June 6, 13, 20, 27; 3pm-5:30pm. 420 N. Vermont St., Covington, 630-6295 or garmbruster1060@yahoo.com.

Children’s Summer Camps, Louisiana Center for the Theatrical Arts. In Hammond and Mandeville.

9am-3pm. $175; enroll by June 1, $150; $15 off for each additional child.

Session 1: May 28-June 2; Session 2: June 18-22; Session 3: July 9-13; Session 4: July 10-August 3. 4499 Sharp Rd., Mandeville, 517-6637. lcta.biz.

MADD Camp, Cedarwood School. For grades 1-7. Music, art, drama and dance. Two performances and art exhibit. Monday-Friday, 9am-4pm; extended day programs available. Registration, $40; performance 34

I n s i d e N o rt h s i d e

fee, $20; session fee, $470; extended day fee morning, $30. Session 1: June 18-29, “Spy Kidz Mission”; Session 2: July 9-20, “Disco Daze.” 607 Heavens Dr., Mandeville, 845-7111. cedarwoodschool.com.

Fingerprints Art Camps, St. Tammany Art Association. For ages 6 to 12. Monday-Friday, 9am-3pm. $220 for non-members; $200 for STAA members. Sessions: June 4-8, June 11-15, June 18-22, June 25-29.

Two locations: STAA Arthouse, 320 N. Columbia St., Covington; Mandeville Trailhead, 675 Lafitte St., Mandeville. Cindy Pulling, 892-8650. sttamanyartassociation.org.

Kids Theater Camp, St. Tammany Art Association. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Mandeville Trailhead.

July 9-13; 9:30am-2:30pm; final performance, evening of Friday, July 13. $185 for non-members; $175 for STAA members; includes two tickets to the performance. Cindy Pulling, 892-8650. sttamanyartassociation.org.

Summer Art Camps, New Orleans Museum of Art. For children 5-8 and 9-12. In the Studio visual art camps: 9:30am-12:30pm. On the Stage camps: 1pm-4pm. Children 5-8: June 4-8, June 18-21, July 9-13 and July 23-27. Children 9-12: June 11-15, June 25-29, July 16-20 and July 30-August 3. Half-day: $150 for non-members, $120 for members; full day: $300 for non-members, $240 for members. Elise Solomon, (504) 658-4128 or education@ noma.org. noma.org.

Music Camp, St. Tammany Art Association. For grades 6-9; one year experience required; instruments not provided. June 18-22; 9:30am-2:30pm; final concert performance. $160 for non-members; $150 for STAA members.

Mandeville Trailhead, 675 Lafitte St., Mandeville. Cindy Pulling, 892-8650. sttamanyartassociation.org.

May-June 2012 35

IN Better Health

by Katie Montelepre

with Jerry Coogan “IT WAS AN EVER-FAILING attempt to lose weight and improve my health,” Jerry Coogan says of his many dieting endeavors that began in December 2003. “I’d starve one week, lose 7 pounds, and then the next week, I’d gain 12 back.”

But it wasn’t until June 2005, when he was installing new video screens at the New Orleans Arena, that he realized his weight gain was causing 36 Inside Northside

other problems. After repeatedly going up and down stairs, he experienced shortness of breath, which he had never had before, even as an athlete in high school or as a tennis player. (Because of his weight gain, he had to stop playing tennis in 2004.)

About a year later, Jerry made an appointment with a cardiologist and discovered that most, if not all, of his health issues were weight related. He had a slightly elevated blood pressure and heart rate, an enlarged heart and a valve allowing back flow. The doctor prescribed 12 different medications, which controlled and slightly improved his condition, but one of the medications contributed to the growth of cataracts as a side effect. During this time, he also suffered from reflux, sleep apnea and snoring—“You could hear me on the other side of the house!”

Finally, in October 2010, at the suggestion of a friend, he made an appointment with Dr. Thomas Lavin of The Surgical Specialists of Louisiana to find out if he was eligible for a laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy. As it turned out, at 355 pounds and with his various medical issues, Jerry was the perfect candidate. “A large number of medical problems such as heart disease, diabetes, risk of cancer, sleep apnea and high blood pressure are treated by treating obesity,” Dr. Lavin explains.

Through laparoscopic bariatric surgery, Dr. Lavin removed about three quarters of Jerry’s stomach in an hour-long process similar to the removal of a gall bladder.

“The procedure could not have gone more

photo: THOMAS B. GROWDEN

Health Concern: Obesity and related medical problems.

Treatment: Laparoscopic bariatric surgery.

smoothly,” Jerry recalls. “I was given a prescription for pain, but I never took it.”

“This [surgery] does two things that no diet can—or ever will—do,” Dr. Lavin says. “It decreases the capacity of the stomach, and it affects certain endocrine pathways to take away certain hunger hormones.” Because the sleeve surgery eliminates the feeling of hunger and cravings, the patient is able to eat smaller portions and can easily avoid unhealthy foods.

“The recovery process changed the way I eat,” Jerry says. Starting with pure liquids and then certain vegetables and fruits, it took him about four months to get back to a regular diet. But it’s a new “regular,” with smaller portions and no fast food, no soft drinks and no sugar. “I had lived on Coca-Cola. But I don’t have a craving for it anymore!” Jerry says.

“The weight started coming off of me in the first 30 days. From the 60-day point and during the next 10 months, I saw the greatest weight loss.”

Dr. Lavin says, “The significance of this surgery is the fact that with the weight loss (usually a year-long process), all the medical problems are dramatically improved or go away.”

Jerry’s case is a prime example of this. Not only is he able to play tennis again, but he also no longer suffers from snoring, sleep apnea or reflux.

Since the operation, his vitals have been excellent, his heart size is reduced and he no longer has a leaking valve. His latest blood test and nuclear stress test came back perfect, and his cardiologist was able to eliminate two-thirds of his medications—including the one that caused cataracts—and reduce the dosages of others.

A year and a half after the surgery, Jerry is now a slim 183 pounds. And, according to his cardiologist, “I’ve added 20 years of life expectancy to my life!”

May-June 2012 37

LESSisMORE

by Poki Hampton

38

Inside Northside

photos: THOMAS B. GROWDEN

WANTING TO DOWNSIZE but also to maximize the function and livability of their new home, Donna and Gary Mott sought out Mark Malkemus and Mike Martin, who build custom homes in the TerraBella community.

“Smaller spaces have to be very livable and more manageable,” says Malkemus. “The national trend is toward 2,200- to 2,300-square-foot homes that have flexible spaces. The era of the huge separate dining room that is used twice a year is over. Ease of maintenance both inside and out is desirable.”

As described by planning designer Edison Davis, the style of the Motts’ house is “contemporary Creole with a touch of West Indies.” The stucco exterior is painted Brainstorm Bronze with shutters in Andiron over windows in Aspen Moss. Near the front entrance is an unusual feature—an antique brown granite-topped entertaining bar. “This area helps the inside blend seamlessly with the outside,” says Mark. Aluminum bar stools invite guests to sit.

Made of lightweight concrete, the fire pit of glass fire rock sits on the slate floor, surrounded by glass panels to keep the wind out.

Comfortable L-shaped seating and a trickling fountain make the space very enjoyable.

Double glass doors with transoms of single-paned Flemish

textured glass open into the home, which is stunningly simple at first glance. The open concept is sleek and stylish. The kitchen is streamlined modern, with cabinets stained in a custom combination of charcoal grey and espresso and oversized brushed-nickel hardware. Polished off-white quartz stone countertops contrast with the dark gleam of the cabinets. The kitchen’s focal point, a mosaic backsplash composed of colored glass and a mirror mosaic in a gothic pattern, establishes the feel of the room. Swarovski pendant lights and recessed lighting under, as well as inside, the cabinets create plenty of light. The walls throughout the open room are painted in Winter Gates.

“We wanted to create a wine area, so we designed the two glass-front cabinets on either side of the front window, which slides open easily to pass wine and glasses to the outdoor area. We added small cubbies on the sides to hold wine bottles. The sleek aluminum doors with glass panels and interior LED lights make that corner of the kitchen sparkle,” Donna says.

The dining room is a study in chic simplicity. The ebony table and antique silver leaf chairs with black ultra-suede upholstery sit in front of a built-in oversized custom-designed cabinet that >>

Opposite page: The open concept of the living room, dining room and kitchen in Donna and Gary Mott’s TerraBella home is sleek and contemporary. Above: A mosaic backsplash composed of colored glass and mirror is the kitchen’s focal point. Left: A French chair “upholstered” in acrylic sits in a corner of the master bedroom beneath two paintings by Riva Caldwell.

May-June 2012 39

in cabinet in the dining room holds Donna’s collection of brightly colored art glass vessels.

40

Inside Northside

sectional sofa is covered in dove velvet with throw pillows in citron and eggplant. An Annie Glass bowl sits atop the coffee table, which has an antique mirror finish.

A citron velvet chair with eggplant silk bolster completes the comfortable conversation area. A channel silk rug in a burnished steel color anchors the room.

Silk drapery panels in a moss green color give privacy from the street in the evening and can be drawn back to give ambient light during the day.

The chandelier of curvaceous ribbons of free-flowing >>

photo: THOMAS B. GROWDEN

A custom built-

showcases Donna’s collection of brightly colored art glass vessels. “We designed the cabinet to be a dramatic statement in the room.” The back of the piece is painted in pewter Venetian plaster. The thick glass shelves are held up by aluminum cables and supports. A sculpture sits to the left of the cabinet on a custom pewter stand, while a framed print by is hung to the right.

The living room is minimalist in its approach, but serene in a muted palette of grey and taupe with touches of citron green and eggplant. The custom-designed

The serene guest room is decorated in a palette of neutral grey, silver and taupe.

Murano glass spilling out of a black silk contemporary drum shade tops the room, casting an interesting pattern on the ceiling. The fireplace, faced in metalfinished porcelain tiles, holds circle fire spheres on a stainless steel base.

The guest room is the perfect combination of style and serenity. A palette of neutral grey, silver and taupe silk bedding make for a restful retreat.

Two framed pieces by Jean Geraci and simple chrome lamps complete the look with a soft-lit glow. Charcoal grey chenille with metallic threads covers the 42

Inside Northside

headboard. The silk rug is in soft natural tones with an oval design. The walls are San Antonio Grey.

The tub in the master bathroom sits under a corner window with a carved stone relief outside. Small mosaic tiles in neutral grey form the backsplash. The tub’s exterior is wrapped in the same tile as the floor, a 10"-by-20" burnished bronze porcelain tile in a natural stone look.  In a corner of the master bedroom is an antique chair Donna had for a long time; it had been recovered several

photos: THOMAS B. GROWDEN

times. “We wanted to do something special with the chair, so we asked fabricator Brent Cumpsten, who can make ideas become reality, to ‘upholster’ it in Lucite,” says Donna. He first finished it in gold leaf. The pillow is in eggplant velvet. Two abstract paintings by Riva Caldwell are stacked and pick up the colors of the bronze drapery panels, the iron arrow-legged table

by Mario Villa and a copper-colored vase.

“Working with Mark, Donna and Gary on this house from the ground up was a dream. We hated to see it end. We planned from the earliest stages exactly where to place existing furniture,” says designer Maria Barcelona. “Every person involved in this project brought their ‘A’ game.”

“Gary and I knew exactly what we wanted from the beginning, and we got it,” Donna adds.

Above: Outside the master bathroom window sits a large carved stone relief. Left: The outdoor entertaining area is complete with fire pit and granite-topped bar.

May-June 2012 43

FOR HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS, being elected class president is an honor and an accomplishment. But with this honor also comes responsibility. A senior class president is responsible for being a positive role model within and outside of the classroom. The students featured on the following pages have handled their responsibilities with enthusiasm and poise.

These students have also excelled in other areas throughout their high school careers. The graduates’ interests range from academics, athletics and politics to volunteerism, entrepreneurship and the arts. They have been involved in numerous

clubs makes you a well-rounded person, and you have a chance to do community service.”

Her volunteer work includes collecting caps for children with cancer and collecting donations for the United Way, Toys for Tots and the Covington Food Bank. She has also participated in various relays and walks for Alzheimer’s and cancer and has volunteered for Beautification Day, Clean City Contest and Habitat for Humanity.

Alivia’s most influential teacher is her class sponsor and fine arts survey teacher, Mr. Bridges. “He is a well-rounded person, and he is always there for

head class photo: JESSICA JOHNSON

organizations and have been recognized locally any student who needs anything,” she says. “He helps and nationally for their accomplishments and our class become a better class.” LSU; ophthalmology. contributions to their schools and communities.

Congratulations to the Class of 2012. We are Sara Jones proud of your achievements and encourage you to First Baptist Christian pursue your dreams in the next chapter of your life.

“The biggest part of my life is being an athlete,” We wish you much success in your future.

Sara Jones says. “It helps with Sara Jones. self discipline—you have to Alivia Vicari work hard because you won’t Covington High get better if you don’t.” As Throughout high school, Alivia Vicari volleyball and basketball captain, has been an active leader and volunteer. she has been awarded First Team As a cheerleader, she served as the junior All-District for volleyball, was the varsity co-captain and the 2010 Class C Basketball MVP and Alivia Vicari. varsity co-captain. She was a member of the All-District was elected as the City basketball team. She has also Public Relations officer participated in cross-country and at Louisiana Girls State, track and field. and she was named as a Taylor/ Sara enjoys volunteer work, and she is involved Audubon Scholar and Taylor/ in various clubs at her school, including Passion for NOMA Scholar. “Whenever Purity. “It is one of the most important clubs to me you’re involved, you have a because, as a teenager, there are lots of temptations better time and meet more that are brought to your attention and you have people,” she says. “Being in the choice to stay true to yourself or get involved in 44

Inside Northside

photos: CAITLYN MOSHER (except where noted)

of the

demoralizing activities.”

Mrs. Brenda Ziegler, her Bible teacher, has influenced her most throughout high school. “Learning scripture is really important to me, and she always has encouraging words to say to us.” SLU; education.

John “Jake” Chapman Fontainebleau High As senior class president, Jake Chapman learned to listen to the

in Student Council throughout high school as class president for three years. A member of the football and soccer teams, Billy also participated in Tangipahoa Parish Leadership TRACC and did volunteer work for the local nursing home.

“Being a part of many school organizations has allowed me to work closely with others and develop leadership qualities,” he says. “I hope to one day become a lawyer, and my ultimate goal is to be involved in politics. My dream is to

Chapman.

John “Jake”

by Jasmine Beard and Katie Montelepre

Senior Class Leaders of 2012 suggestions of his peers and then plan the best route to meet the needs of the majority. One of his achievements as class president was the promotion of the PTA’s mark events, which are judged by class participation. For the Thanksgiving food drive, the senior class managed to collect the most items by going door to door for donations.

Jake also has leadership roles in various school clubs, including president of Key Club, vice-president of Student Council, homeroom ambassador and the junior class treasurer.

Jake won Most Outstanding TV Production on Bulldog TV, the school’s broadcast channel. Mrs. April Jarrell, his speech and broadcasting teacher, made the largest contribution to his high school career.

“Mrs. Jarrell’s class has taught me how to work with a team, see tasks through to completion, meet project deadlines and take criticism in stride—all skills that are valuable beyond the classroom.” Loyola University; marketing.

Billy Williams Hammond High Magnet

become the president of the United States one day!”

Billy earned awards for leadership and community service and was elected Upward Bound Class Favorite all four years. “As the first graduating class of Hammond High Magnet School, we have Shelby Guinot. laid a good foundation for other classes to follow,” he says.

“Mrs. Deborah Martin, Mrs. Quinn Navarra and Mrs. Gigi Westmoreland are always keeping me accountable regarding grades, school, college and being the best person that I can possibly be,” Billy says.

“HHMS principal Mr. Chad Troxclair has shown me the true meaning of being a leader and a friend to all.” SLU; political science and criminal justice.

Shelby Guinot Archbishop Hannan High Shelby Guinot has been a member of Student Council since eighth grade and has attended

Billy Williams was an active leader Billy William s.

>>

May-June 2012 45

MJ Hernandez, Co-president Lakeshore High

Sara Stinson.

46

As co-president of his senior class, MJ Hernandez has helped the Student Council organize events such as pep rallies and food drives to encourage school spirit and class competition. “I’ve learned you have to step aside and take your opinion out of the equation; MJ Hernandez. you’re not representing yourself, you’re representing them.” MJ believes that his class—the first graduating class at Lakeshore High School—has left a legacy of school spirit for “The Swag Pack” and Titan Pride. “The seniors put so much effort into that!” he says.

MJ was involved in many school activities, including the All-District cross-country team, longdistance track and talented theatre, in which he co-directed a production of Winnie the Pooh. Outside of school, he attended Boys State and the Hugh O’Brien Youth conference. He also participated in various speech contests, winning second place in the district for the American Legion Audio Speech Contest.

“Ms. Sphar, my seventh-grade teacher, had the most influence on me,” MJ says. “She really showed

Inside Northside

me the beauty of English and how powerful it is to write.” LSU; political science.

Sara Stinson, Co-president Lakeshore High Sara Stinson, senior class co-president, is no stranger to leadership. A member of the dance team throughout high school, she was captain for two years and co-captain one year. “Being an officer, I’ve learned teamwork and how to make the right choices for the team,” she says.

Sara has developed her culinary skills through ProStart, a program for advanced food nutrition, through which she participated in team competitions, building and presenting a unique restaurant concept.

Sara has given back to her community by cooking for underprivileged children in the Caritas Early Learning program. “Twice a week, I would make red beans and rice, vegetables, bread and dessert for 29 people—it’s a home-cooked meal that they don’t receive often,” she says. Sara also has her own cake pop business, Sweets by Sara.

Sara says Judy Achary, the ProStart teacher, is her most influential teacher. “I can relate to her, and she encourages me to do well.” LSU or Alabama; broadcasting and journalism.

Sam Ingalls Mandeville High When his participation in football and wrestling ended after five concussions, Sam Ingalls turned his focus to developing Sam Ingalls. leadership skills. He not only served as class president for three years, but also fostered other interests including music, theater, debating and politics.

Sam has represented his school and Louisiana at many leadership and youth government conferences and programs, receiving numerous prestigious awards.

In the summer of 2010, he served as a page for the Senate Republicans in the U.S. Capitol. “It was one of the

photos: CAITLYN MOSHER

the Southern Association of Student Councils. “I’ve gained so many leadership skills, working closely with the moderators to prepare for events,” she says, adding that she has been able to utilize those skills as a member of Campus Ministry and as the lead tour guide as a student ambassador.

Shelby served as captain of the dance team and as the parliamentarian for the National Honor Society. She also volunteered her time for Habitat for Humanity and the Covington Food Bank. Other notable accomplishments include the Coach’s Award for Soccer, the Scholastic Athlete Award and the Tulane Book Award.

Shelby says her history teacher, Charles Baird, is her most influential teacher. “He’s always supportive and there for me. He has guided me and helped me become a better leader.” LSU; nursing.

most amazing experiences a young political nut like me could have had,” he says.

“The people that I’ve met and the leadership qualities that I’ve gained will continue to push me in my future career. I would love to run for office.

Nothing would please me more than to serve the people of this community, this state and this country that have given me so much over the years.”

Ms. Marina and Ms. Decker, who sponsored clubs that Sam was involved in, were his most influential teachers.

“Their support for me within and outside of the classroom throughout my high school career has made me who I am,” he says. Finance or accounting and political science.

Annie Reed.

Annie Reed Northlake Christian As captain of the dance team, Annie Reed has learned how to work well with different personality types and different ages. She has been named an American All-Star Dancer at dance team camp for four years and was selected for American All-Star Staff for the summer, when she will travel to different dance team camps to help teach and to be a “big sis” mentor to the participants.

A member of the leadership team at Hosanna Lutheran Church, Annie has attended mission trips to Jamaica and Michigan, and she did service >> May-June 2012 47

work in New Orleans post-Katrina. “Work with church has been really influential to me and going on mission trips opened my eyes to the world around us,” she says.

“Mr. Haindel, who taught me Bible and AP Government, is also the sponsor of our Leadership Council and our senior class,” says Annie. “He has taught me how to be a good leader, and I’m very thankful for him because I can take the skills that he has taught me this year and use them in the future.” LSU; business management.

Lauren Connolly Northshore High

Lauren Connolly.

As senior class president, Lauren Connolly has organized many meetings to allow senior students

to brainstorm on ways to win spirit sticks at the school. “My goal as senior class president is to lead my classmates to victory and win the Spirit Picnic.”

Lauren is also a member of Delta Club, an all-girls group that attended a self-defense class and participated in benefit walks. As a member of Interact, Lauren is no stranger to community service, which is the focus of the club. She was also an intern at Walgreens Pharmacy. “Being so involved has helped me to multitask, and I think that is going to help me in college,” she says.

“My English 2 teacher, Mrs. Annie Verzwyvelt, has had the biggest influence on me. Her husband lost his battle with cancer in 2010, and Mrs. Annie has handled his passing with such grace. She taught me valuable lessons on life and I think very highly of her.” ULL; kinesiology.

Bailey Blanchard Pearl River High As president of both the Student Council and the senior class, Bailey Blanchard feels humbled by

taught her to strive always to be a better person.

“She instilled a good work ethic in me and taught me that it’s important to be comfortable with who you are and to appreciate history.” LSU; biology.

Austin Fairchild Pope John Paul II Catholic High A class officer for three years, Austin Fairchild was also a member of choir and served as a student ambassador. “As an ambassador, you’re not only helping your school, you’re helping the school’s future,” he says. “Seventh and eighth graders come in timid and shy, but then we ask them if they play Austin Fairchild. sports, and we encourage them to join clubs.”

Austin was involved in many sports, including

photo: TRACY BOUDOIN

photos: CAITLYN MOSHER (except where noted)

her various leadership experiences. “Being a leader taught me how to deal with pressure, because people look to you for answers,” she says. “It gave me experience in trying to make the majority happy.”

Bailey Blanch ard.

Through WorldStrides, Bailey took an educational trip to Washington, D.C., last summer with American history teacher Melissa Simpher. “Going to D.C. and seeing all the monuments first hand struck a sense of patriotism in me,” Bailey recalls. “It made me have pride in my country and made me understand what it really means to be an American.” The trip also inspired her to establish a club at her school called Pearl River High School Supports American Troops (PSAT).The club participated in Operation Christmas Cards to Afghanistan and has sent care packages overseas.

Bailey is grateful to Melissa Simpher, who also

>>

May-June 2012 49

power lifting and football, becoming captain his senior year. He also participated in track and field and was named most valuable player for hurdles his junior year. Austin won the Kevin Haynie Award, an annual award for a sophomore athlete who demonstrates what Pope John Paul II looks for in a student—the qualities of a role model.

His most influential teacher was Coach Daniel Hanlon. “He always wanted to see me do better in everything I did, not just in football,” Austin says.

LSU; kinesiology.

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50

Inside Northside

Jade Beverly.

Throughout her high school career, Jade Beverly found a balance among athletics, club activities and volunteer work. She was a member of the softball team and the volleyball team and did power lifting during her senior year.

Jade was elected class representative her freshman and junior years, and as an upperclassman she was chosen to mentor freshmen students. “We are assigned four or five students and meet with them every week to tutor them or answer any questions they may have,” she explains.

Mrs. Kelly Kellum, volleyball team head coach, softball assistant coach and Geometry and Algebra II teacher, has encouraged Jade throughout high

school. “We’ve become close over my years in high school, and I can go to her with anything.

She pushed me to be a better athlete and a better student.” LSU; architecture.

Gavin Toussaint Slidell High

photos: CAITLYN MOSHER

Gavin Toussaint was elected class president his freshman, sophomore and senior years. “Being the leader of the class helped me Gavin Toussaint. to build good people skills and problem solving skills,” he says.

“My class has known each other since seventh and eighth grade, and we’ve watched each other make mistakes and make changes to be where we are now.”

As a defensive end for the football team, Gavin was a three-year starter and captain of the team his senior year. He is a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, which he describes as “a good character-building club.” As a member of the Art Club, Gavin also enjoys drawing and sketching.

“The teacher that I feel had the greatest impact on me would have to be Ms. Hart, my talented art teacher,” he says. “I have grown a lot because of her guidance. In addition to the many lessons about art she taught me, I learned lessons about time management, balance in my personal and social life and how to act in certain situations.”

William Jewel College; Liberty, Mo. business/marketing.

To sharpen her leadership skills, she attended a leadership conference at Xavier University in 2010 and the Louisiana Association of Student Councils Convention in 2011. At the St. Tammany Parish High School Film Festival, she was awarded first place overall and first in animation. Lauren’s interests also include swim team and traveling.

The two teachers that have influenced Lauren throughout high school are Coach Pete Bertucci and Bridget O’Conner. “Coach did not let me give up or doubt myself; he pushed me toward my goal and accomplishing my dreams,” she says. “Ms. O’Conner gave each student individual attention, respected you and treated you as an adult. I look up to her a lot.” Undecided.

Samuel Tanner St. Paul’s

Among his various duties as senior class president, Samuel Tanner.

Sam Tanner organized pizza days to raise money to help students who wanted to go to prom. The class also decided to give a personalized gift to Brother Ray and to their school—a book of each senior’s favorite memories at St. Paul’s.

Sam was also active in sports, participating in cross-country, soccer and track and serving as the captain of the Lauren Giambelluca ultimate Frisbee team. He says that his St. Scholastica involvement in sports helped him gain Academy good social skills and become friends with . ca llu Lauren Giambelluca has been many of the students. be Lauren Giam recognized for her leadership Brother Richard Kovatch has made abilities by being awarded the Hillary Lanaux the most impact on Sam’s life. “Not only is he Greve Memorial Scholarship. As an officer in various a great teacher, he is definitely the nicest man clubs, she says, “The benefit that I’ve taken out of around,” he says. “It is truly a blessing to witness being a leader in high school is that I can do anything the love this man has for his students.” LSU; I aspire to do—all I have to do is believe in myself.” mechanical engineering. >> May-June 2012 51

y.

Alden St. Mar

Alden St. Mary Student Council president St. Stanislaus College One of the highlights of Alden St. Mary’s high school years has been his participation in the Youth Legislature conference put on by the YMCA in Jackson, Miss., at the capitol building.

“You learn everything you need to know about the legislative branch, and you debate on the floor of the capitol following parliamentary procedure,” he says. This year, he was elected lieutenant governor by over 800 delegates from around the state.

Alden has been an active leader both in and out of school. He was one of the students to represent Mississippi at the Conference on National Affairs; he attended an Apex Leadership Summit at Ole Miss; he went on a mission trip to a Navajo reservation in Klagetoh, Arizona; and he participated in a number of sports and clubs. “Being Student Council president has taught me to be more personable and more understanding and how to take charge to be the leader that some people need.”

Alden’s most influential teacher is Coach Erich Hoffer, who had stopped teaching to pursue a law degree from the University of Notre Dame. But two years later, Alden says, he returned to St. Stanislaus because of his love for teaching. Ole Miss; mechanical engineering.

52

Inside Northside

Tony Miller Student Council president St. Thomas Aquinas High In addition to serving as class representative for two years, Tony Miller serves his entire school as president of the Student Council.

“Being on Student Council helped me stay involved in my school and be aware of what’s going on and what needs to change,” he says, adding that through council-organized fundraisers, the students raised $2,500 to help a local baby fight a rare disease. Tony was also a member of the football and track teams all four years, lettering in both sports.

photos: CAITLYN MOSHER

Tony Miller.

Tony has gone far beyond the school’s service hour requirement, helping serve his community in many ways. Despite his busy athletic schedule, he is not only an active member in his church but also an entrepreneur. Three years ago, he started iPhixiPhone.com, a successful iPhone repair business.

Tony says his most influential teacher, Dr. Shannon Resweber, taught him calculus, advanced math and much more. “She has been a great teacher and guide, helping us if we have any problems. She’s just great!” Tulane or SLU; athletic training.

May-June 2012 53

Creole Ghosts of Esplanade Avenue 54

Inside Northside

GHOSTS OF OLD NEW ORLEANS make their presence felt at the haunting, if not haunted, Degas House. Remnants of the lives of residents long dead, the portraits of its one-time occupants—painted by Edgar Degas, one of New Orleans’ most famous visitors—hang on the walls, stand on easels and watch as you wander through the restored home on Esplanade Avenue.

Opposite: Woman Seated Near a Balcony.

Louisiana Roots The house was once home to the New Orleans branch of French artist Degas’ family, the Mussons, one of the most well regarded of New Orleans’ Creole families. (While “Creole” has taken on many meanings, here it refers to descendants of French or Spanish colonial subjects born in the Americas.)

(Ordrupgaard Museum).

The iron railing in the background is visible in Adrian Persac’s ca. 1850 rendering (below) of the Esplanade home and is part of the house today.

The Degas House

by Stephen Faure

Degas’ mother, Célestine Musson, and her brother Michel were born in New Orleans but were sent to France to be educated when young. Célestine married Auguste De Gas and remained in France, while Michel returned to New Orleans after completing his studies. (Auguste changed their name from Degas to De Gas, but Edgar re-adopted “Degas” later in life).

Michel became a very wealthy cotton and silver merchant in the 1820s. As a businessman, he had dealt favorably with both the old Creole guard and the American businessmen who had begun arriving in the city after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. He had even built a grand home in the Garden District, or, as it was known, “the American Sector,” one of the first Creoles to do so.

During the Yankee occupation of New Orleans in >> May-June 2012 55

A reproduction of Degas’ painting Children on a Doorstep (close-up of painting, right) is located in a hall near the doorway he painted nearly 140 years ago.

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the Civil War, Michel sent his wife, Odile, and daughters Désirée and Estelle to France, where they got to know their cousin Edgar and his brothers René and Achille.

While Edgar completed some portraits of his aunt and cousins during their time in France, his brother René was falling in love with Estelle. René writes at one point, “She inspires so much sympathy, she has so much sweetness in her sadness that she made us all become attached to her in an instant.”

He and Achille leave France to find their fortunes in Louisiana once the war is over, and, in a move that would be shocking today but wasn’t uncommon then, René and Estelle become husband and wife.

René and Achille formed their own import/ export firm in New Orleans and joined Michel’s cotton factoring operation. Factors were commissioned agents working in the city who handled the business end of buying, selling and exporting cotton for the rural growers and plantation owners who were spread throughout the region.

Michel’s fortunes went into steady decline after

Inside Northside

the war. He had gone “all in” for the South and invested heavily in Confederate war bonds, which, of course, were worthless after the war. He sold his Garden District home and moved the family into the rented mansion on Esplanade in 1869.

Rendered by architectural artist Adrian Persac shortly after it was built in 1858, the home on Esplanade Avenue appears as a large, stately, welllandscaped mansion occupying the river-side end

of the block, taking up, as the formal description states, “two fine lots of ground.” A wing is attached to its side; there are a couple of detached buildings alongside the property and a pigeonnier in the garden to the rear of the house.

The state of the Musson family fortune made life in the home more like a bunkhouse than a mansion. Upwards of 16 people lived there, at least six of them energetic kids, with the parlors partitioned off and serving as bedrooms for the unmarried adults; the married couples and children were in the bedrooms upstairs.

“Louisiana must be respected by all her children ... and I am almost one of them.”

—Edgar Degas René Degas traveled to France in 1872 to buy costumes for the next year’s Comus Mardi Gras proceedings. (The secretive organization’s 1873 ball and procession became perhaps the most famous of all time, with the theme “Darwin’s Origin of Species” providing cover for the satiric skewering of the Union

conquerors, carpetbaggers and reconstructionists who ruled Louisiana at the time.) His mission on behalf of the Mistick Krewe completed, René convinced Edgar to come back with him to New Orleans for a visit.

While his works now fetch millions of dollars on the open market, Degas was struggling for recognition in the formal salons of Paris, and, like the Mussons, he was at a difficult point in his life when he came to visit in the fall of 1872.

David Villarrubia, who has owned the Degas House since 1993 and has endeavored to restore it to its Creole roots, has spent years researching Degas’ life. He explains, “Degas is 38, just out of the FrancoPrussian War and just got kicked to the curb by his girlfriend. He’s hurting, he’s down, he lost his best friend in battle and he realizes he’s going blind— that’s a hell of a thing for a painter who is not really famous. He’s a little bit popular in Paris, but he’s not the Degas we’ve come to know.”

Degas’ eyes gave him fits in New Orleans. While fascinated with the scenery and diversity of possible subjects on the riverfront and in and around the market’s stalls, the glare hurt his eyes too much for >>

An upstairs bedroom restored

by David Villarrubia; now called the Estelle Suite.

May-June 2012 57

Portrait of Estelle Musson Degas.

Its acquisition by the New Orleans Museum of Art sparked city-wide interest in the museum and inspired thousands of future acquisitions.

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him to spend enough time to make any drawings.

“One does nothing here, it lies in the climate, nothing but cotton, one lives for cotton and from cotton. The light is so strong that I have not yet been able to do anything on the river. My eyes are so greatly in need of care that I scarcely take any risk with them at all. A few family portraits will be the sum total of all my efforts,” Degas writes.

Despite his complaints, Villarrubia notes, “New Orleans was a very pivotal point in time for his art. He does re-group here. He’s with family. His letters explain a tremendous amount of what he was going through when he arrives here. He hadn’t been painting, so he starts painting again.”

Degas does get to paint some family portraits and manages to incorporate life’s great topic, cotton, into a couple of paintings that will make him famous. “What he accomplishes while he’s here is pretty amazing,” says Villarrubia. Regarded as one of Degas’ most cherished masterworks is an unlikely family portrait that appears to be an observational picture of some men at work in an office. “Portraits in an Office at the New Orleans Cotton Exchange—which was done on Factor’s Row, not the Cotton Exchange—is 14 people, and they’re recognizable. You could hold a photograph up and we know who they were,” says Villarrubia. “His brothers René and Achille, cousin-in-law William Bell, Oscar Chopin and his uncle’s business partners, all included in this fantastic painting of his uncle’s cotton office, which is going defunct.”

Degas’ painting Children on a Doorstep depicts several of Degas’ young cousins and nieces and nephews, along with one of the household’s nurses, framed in a doorway leading out to the back garden, the family dog in the garden and a neighbor’s home in the background.

There are 18 paintings in all attributed to Degas’ time in New Orleans. His cousins Estelle and Mathilde are certainly subjects. He didn’t always identify his subjects or state whether their depictions

Inside Northside

were to be portraiture or used as models to which he applied his own spin on a figurative work. It’s been the job of experts to speculate who may or may not be the person depicted in some of his New Orleans portraits. While some are definitely of Estelle, and at least one definitely Mathilde, there is no consensus whether unmarried cousin Désirée is in any of the paintings.

Tragedies “Ah! my friend, how I have also wept—even though at my age, and given how much I have already wept, the stream is nearly dried up.”

—letter from Michel Musson to Edgar Degas, 1883.

Michel Musson, Degas’ uncle and paterfamilias of the New Orleans branch of the family, continued to suffer misfortune after misfortune in the years after Edgar returned to Paris in 1873.

Musson corresponded with Edgar for years, with no success, in an attempt to have him send to New Orleans the portrait of his daughter Mathilde, probably the painting now known as Woman Seated Near a Balcony. (The piece is now in the collection of the Ordrupgaard Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, as is Children on a Doorstep.)

In 1878, Edgar’s brother, René, had an affair and then ran off with America Olivier. She was the children’s music teacher and had been hired to read to Estelle, who was by then blind. The Oliviers were close friends of the family.

In a legacy made permanent through Edgar’s art, America Olivier had also been the lady of the house that is seen in the background of his painting Children on a Doorstep.

“America was married, they took her children with them and got ‘quickie’ divorces and ‘quickie’ married, and they were off to France. He had left

Estelle blind, with six children, so nobody was very happy with him,” says Joan Prados, a tour guide at the Degas House and a descendant of Estelle Musson and René Degas. One of their children was Prados’ grandfather, Gaston Degas, who was the godson of the Oliviers. In the coming years, four of Estelle’s children with René died. Michel adopted the two surviving children, Gaston and Odile, replacing the now-despised Degas name with his own.

By the time Michel Musson died in 1885, he had also seen the death of his daughter Mathilde, Josephine Balfour (Estelle’s daughter from her first marriage) and his brother, Henri.

The Degas family was not without difficulties.

In France, Degas’ father dies, leaving him to deal with the family’s bank that had failed, in no small

part, due to investments in the Confederacy made at the behest of Michel. It didn’t help that René had lost thousands of dollars of the bank’s money in a series of unsuccessful business dealings prior to his abandoning Estelle for America Olivier.

“It took Degas about 10 years to pay off the bank’s debt, and he did it by painting ballet pictures, for the most part,” Prados says. “That’s one reason he became known as a painter of artists and dancers over anything else. They say about half of his work was dancers, so he did a lot of other things people don’t know him for.”

The Degas House parlor.

Inset: A bronze horse, cast from a Degas model after his death and donated by Joan

Restoration

Prados’ family to

Villarrubia grew up in the neighborhood and was familiar with the home on Esplanade and its historic >>

the New Orleans Museum of Art. May-June 2012 59

marker, which had been placed in the ’70s, but didn’t know a whole lot more.

As an airline pilot, he had spent time in Europe enjoying art museums, including the Monet House in Giverny, France. In 1993, he took a break from flying due to illness in his family. Villarrubia recalls that one day, “I passed the house and it had a ‘For Sale by Owner’ sign. I called a friend of mine who was in real estate to come see the house with me.

“I was curious about where Degas had painted. Having traveled a lot in Europe, I knew that if this were in Europe, it would be a museum house. So we came through the house, and the owner didn’t know anything about Degas, except to say the name on the marker was ‘Dee-gas,’ who’s actually in the encyclopedia.

“The house was in terrible shape. It had been remodeled with drop ceilings added, and there was termite damage throughout. “The architectural detailing was there; it was just hidden. The ceilings had been lowered; they were acoustical tile and really had not been done well,” Villarrubia remembers. Concerned that the home was to be featured in the next day’s real estate section of the paper, he asked his friend to make an offer on the house right away.

“We got a contract late that night and started this adventure.” Villarrubia says he wasn’t sure what he was going to do with it; he just knew that he didn’t want the property to keep going in the direction it had been going. It was a favorable price because the owners were looking to dump it, not knowing exactly what they had.

He didn’t necessarily intend to keep and restore the house himself, just to preserve it until the right person came along. “I didn’t think it would be my adventure. I thought the museum would be interested, or the City of New Orleans, but nobody really understood.”

His adventure, it turns out, involved 60

Inside Northside

even more research about the painter and his family, a quest to solve an architectural mystery and a lot of hard work.

What researchers believed was that the house with the historical marker in front of it (the second house from the corner of N. Tonti and Esplanade) had an additional wing during Degas’ time that had since been demolished. Villarrubia had a revelation of sorts when he went to talk to his neighbor across the street. She told him, “Well, they write their books and their newspaper articles about the house, but they never ask for my perspective.”

“I was patronizing her,” Villarrubia says, “thinking she was probably lonely, so I asked, ‘What is your perspective?’ She said to get up on the stoop and she would show me. I got up there, she turned me around and faced me towards house on the corner and the one with the marker, and she said, ‘Look at the roof lines.

That wing wasn’t destroyed, it was just moved.’”

He remembers, “It hit me like a train, because I could see it. The guillotine windows were still in the front behind glass jalousies and yellow brick that had been used to modernize the building.”

Villarrubia dug deep into the property’s history and found that after the Mussons moved out in 1880, the home became the Markey-Picard Institute for Girls, a young ladies’ finishing school, until 1917, when Madame Picard died. Her succession wasn’t complete, he says, until 1920, when her heirs sold it to a developer, who split the property into six different lots of ground.

“The dividing line for lots one and two went through the parlor. So they simply moved it and re-did it as a more modern house. They got rid of the high doorways and enclosed the parlor into several apartments. It became a six-plex.” The house was cut

in two at the left side of the doorway in the center of the house and both sides moved to the centers of their newly defined lots. The wing that had been on the side was moved and attached to the rear of the main section.

Villarrubia has restored the house that was traditionally believed to be the Degas House into an elegant and formal space in a manner as close as possible to its appearance during Degas’ visit. The bedrooms upstairs have been converted into charming rooms and

suites that form part of the home’s latest incarnation—it is now a bed and breakfast.

He acquired the corner property as well, which had undergone several additions and modernized touches over the years, rendering it, as he explained earlier, almost unrecognizable as part of the same home. “It’s the second project we’ve taken on, never to be as formal as the other. We don’t want to Disney-fy this one and make them matching twins.

We use this more for the offices of our non-profit and for the tours. People who come for tours see this more as the museum and classroom side, and over there it’s more elegant and finished.”

Joan Prados points out that the door itself where the children were standing in Children on a Doorstep >>

A reproduction of Degas’ Portraits in a Cotton Office hangs in the parlor.

It was the only piece sold by him to a museum while he was alive, the Musée des BeauxArts in Pau, France.

May-June 2012 61

is now part of the wing that had been added to the main house when the property was divided. It still looks out to the back courtyard, which, at the time it was painted, was a garden that extended completely across the block to the next street. The home in the background was where the Mussons’ close friends, the Oliviers, lived. It still stands on N. Tonti; today, however, there are several other houses between it and the Degas House.

Ghosts of Residents Past Villarrubia says the property is not an art museum and he doesn’t ever intend it to be one. It is home, however, to quality reproductions of the paintings attributed to Degas during his time spent there. He says, “Our focus is history. The reproductions are there as a backdrop to the history and the stories that we tell.

You get a sense of how beautiful these paintings are without traveling the rest of the world; they’re in the context of where they were actually painted.”

Traces remain, like the doorway where the children once stood and Degas painted them. In the background of Mathilde’s portrait on the balcony is the sketchy shadow—an impression— of the iron railing that still rings the balcony today. A print of a painting of a pregnant Estelle, sitting on a daybed, her blind eyes fixed on nothing, stands on an easel under the main stairway. A print of The Song Rehearsal, a painting that depicts a man resembling his brother René at a piano with two ladies singing, hangs in the front parlor. “The picture,” Prados says, “was done in this room. It doesn’t have all the features of the room, but Degas says, ‘painting is not copying.’ You have René playing piano. Degas put the pocket doors on a different side, and then he changes it into a single door.”

A reproduction of the portrait of 62

Inside Northside

Estelle, the largest of his New Orleans works, hangs over the fireplace in the center room. Depicting a pregnant Estelle arranging a vase of flowers, it is, for the city of New Orleans and, it turns out, the Degas House itself, the most important of all. Portrait of Mme René De Gas, née Estelle Musson now resides in the New Orleans Museum of Art. How it became a cornerstone of the collection is a great story that in no small measure inspired Villarrubia to become the steward of the home where it was painted, just a few blocks away from the museum.

“In 1965, the then Delgado Museum [New Orleans Museum of Art] was empty. They had to lure people from the Quarter to an empty museum. The director at the time, James Byrnes, took on the challenge of putting something in the museum done by the most famous painter that ever lived in New Orleans, Edgar Degas.

He found a painting on the market, the portrait of Estelle, went on a public campaign to raise enough funds to buy it and was able to do that through a campaign called ‘Bring Estelle Home.’

As a campaign, it involved every layer of society. The city put up some money, corporations put up some money, Junior League, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, bake sales at schools, everybody participated.

On the final day, he was $5,000 short.

He went back on radio and TV making a further appeal. Late into the night, he got a call from an anonymous donor who put up the money so they would not have to re-crate the painting and send it back to London.”

With the restoration of the Degas House and the success of the campaign to “Bring Estelle Home,” the historic connection between New Orleans and Edgar Degas—one of Louisiana’s “almost” children—is perpetuated for generations to come.

May-June 2012 63

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1. Touched by Midas. Golden iridescent decorative oval bowl, $325. EMB Interiors, Mandeville, 626-1522.

2. Glass with personality. Kosta Boda decorative glass pieces by Göran Wärff: small, $300; medium, $325; large, $350. Arabella, Mandeville, 727-9787.

3. Remember your hometown, vacation or state of mind. Hand-embroidered 19”

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square pillows made in India, $139. Outdoor Living Center, Covington, 893-8008.

4. A father’s favorite. Personalized hand-carved cypress full-sized ice chest with bottle opener, $229.99. Mandeville Party Company, 674-1605. 5. Dream a little 9

dream. Decorative bottle with colored glass top, $12. Stone Creek Club & Spa, Covington, 801-7100. 6. Unite U LUXURY Argan Oil with natural UV and thermal protection, $39.95. Downtown Chic Salon, Covington, 809-3860.

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7. Cuddle up! Matouk “Lowell” King monogrammed duvet cover, 600-thread-count Egyptian cotton from Italy, $648. Hestia Luxury in Linens, Covington, 893-0490. 8. Bring nature to the table. One-of-akind leaf serving piece by Beatriz Ball, $78.75. Purple Armadillo Again, Slidell, 643-2004. 9. Accent and illuminate! Hand-forged iron lamp with gold leaf, starting at $400. Rug Chic, Mandeville, 674-1070.

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Inside Northside

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May-June 2012 65

1. Add drama to your table. Guillot accent bowl by Benjamin Burts with antique gold leaf finish and silver bottom, $255.

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Pine Grove Electric, Mandeville, 893-4003. 2. Endless options.

Dupioni silk pillow in brown, champagne hand-painted damask design, duck and down insert; available in 200 shades and custom sizes; $99. Simply Southern, Covington, 871-1466.

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3. Polly want a cracker? 16” Majolica-style parrot, $24.95.

Florist of Covington, 892-7701. 4. Perfect for garden or porch! Twoseat garden bench, $108; handmade pillows by local Louisiana artisans, $36. Discoveries Furniture & Finds, Hammond, 345-2577.

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5. Indulge yourself. Crabtree & Evelyn new Avocado, Olive & Basil shower gel, body lotion, body butter and hand therapy. The Grapevine, Covington, 893-2766.

6. A refreshingly light summer white! Añjos de Portugal Vinho Verde 2011, medium-bodied, crisp and a touch of spritz, $6.99.

Martin Wine Cellar, Mandeville, 951-8081. 7. Every Southern girl needs pampering. Shelley Kyle fragrances and indulgences, $15-$40. Welcome Home and garden, Covington, 893-3933.

8. Get grillin’ and chillin’ in style! Many varieties of Weber grills, $399-$949. Mandeville Ace Hardware, 626-3113.

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Inside Northside

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Make today… the happiest day of your life.

Manufacturing & Distribution Direct Importers of Certified Diamonds and Fine Colored Stones.

2602 FLORIDA STREET• MANDEVILLE, LA (985) 674-0007 • WWW.DEBOSCQJEWELRY.COM Photo by Rick King Photography © 2008

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Inside Northside

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1. Oo-la-la! French-inspired soft aqua papier-mâché box: small, $65; large, $95. Melange by KP, Mandeville, 807-7652. 2. Complete your dining room. Ellery server from Bernhardt Interiors, $2,047. Exclusively at Georgian Furnishings/Berger Home, New Orleans, (504) 733-4141. 3. Shed some light. Antiqued mercury glass candlestick, $36. Studio MV, Covington, 867-5601. 4. Raining cats and dogs! Black and red umbrella stand with metal drip tray, $479.99. American Factory Direct, Mandeville, 871-0300. 5. Lovebirds! Salt and pepper shakers, $28. deCoeur Gifts & Home Accessories, Covington, 809-3244. 6. 12 years at LSU, hasn’t graduated and never missed a party!

Mike Malloy’s Frat Man hand-carved poplar sculpture; custom order, $835. Louisianan Artists Gallery,

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Mandeville, 624-7903. 7. The first-ever elliptical bicycle, The Elliptigo. Workout inside or out; no impact on joints; indoor stand sold separately. Fitness Expo, Mandeville, 624-9990. 8. Dish it out!

Glass bowl with gold design, available in six styles, $48. the french mix, Covington, 809-3152.

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IF YOU WANT FRESH VEGETABLES to grace your dinner table every night, you don’t have to look far. Located about 30 miles northwest of Lake Pontchartrain, Covey Rise Farms offers vegetables that are fresh and local. During each harvest season, these vegetables are delivered weekly to a pick-up location in Covington—a much shorter distance than most of the veggies in the grocery stores have to travel!

Through the farm’s Community Supported Agriculture program, local consumers can sign up to receive fresh, vine-ripened vegetables, which are not picked until they’ve reach their peak quality.

“It thrills us to be growing for the families in this

equipment during the non-shooting part of the year and to encourage guests to visit the lodge for “fieldto-table” dinners. (This summer’s dinners with Covey Rise chef J. Zink and guest chefs will be held June 23, July 21 and August 11.)

The first vegetable seeds were planted in March 2010 after a consultation with John Besh and his staff about which varieties would be most beneficial for local chefs. By May, the vegetables were harvested and delivered to New Orleans restaurants. As Covey Rise built up its clientele, which now totals 35 restaurants, it also increased the farm’s acreage to 35.

In the fall of 2010, Covey Rise Farms officially began the CSA produce subscription service

community,” says Anne Sharp of Covey Rise Farms.

“We provide fresh, local heirloom varieties, and everything has been harvested that day or the day before.”

The produce farm and the CSA are relatively new to Covey Rise, which opened in 1999 as a shooting preserve and corporate retreat with just one lodge facility. Today, their property includes eight cabins and 400 acres of woods, water and fields.

Originally covering 13 acres, the vegetable farm was meant to utilize Covey Rise’s land and

that encourages seasonal eating of a wide variety of vegetables. By becoming CSA “members” or “subscribers,” customers create a relationship with the farm and receive locally grown produce, fresh and ripe from the fields.

Rebel Caplinger of Slidell has been a CSA member from its inception. “It’s fresh and it’s local— it’s better to eat closer to where you live,” she says. “I have a cabin up at Covey Rise, so the farm is in my backyard. It’s really pretty, especially when the garlic and the baby artichokes are blooming.” >>

Covey Rise farm manager Grady Seale.

May-June 2012 71

purple carrots and purple cauliflower, which are unbelievable—they’re beautiful. The heirloom tomatoes, dark plum tomatoes and green tomatoes— they’re spectacular.”

Simplee Gourmet in Covington became the pick-up location in the spring of 2011. “We do a cooking class the following day around 11 to show people how to use the vegetables,” says owner Melissa Whittington, recalling a vegetable quiche made out of many different varieties. “I had never seen a blood tomato—you can eat it like an apple!

And the varieties of eggplant are endless.”

Members are also encouraged to share recipes with each other since the assortment of veggies varies each harvest. “You don’t know what you’re going to get

CSA member Claire Dipol asks a question about kale while picking up her vegetables at Simplee Gourmet.

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During the spring and fall seasons, which are about 10 to 12 weeks each, Covey Rise CSA members receive six to eight varieties of veggies weekly—enough to feed a family of four. “There’s always a little something extra, such as flowers or herbs,” Rebel says. “And unique things like

Inside Northside

CSA members get a tour of the farm at a Field-to-Table Dinner last summer.

that week—it makes you think,” Rebel says, adding that juicers make the greens go a long way.

Rebel’s two children enjoy visiting Simplee Gourmet after school each week to collect their share of the harvest.

Besides eating more veggies than ever before, they have also participated in a Farm Day at Covey Rise. CSA members and their families visited the farm to see where their vegetables were coming from, picked flowers and enjoyed wagon rides through the fields. (CSA members can participate in this season’s Farm Day on June 10.)

Though the 2012 CSA spring/summer season started mid-April, it’s not too late to sign up to receive fresh veggies for only $30 per week. “I think for the price it’s a wonderful value,” Rebel says.

“We are hoping to reach 100 members this

year,” Anne adds. “It’s all about eating seasonally— what we are able to grow at the time.”

Joys of the harvest— carrots, golden beets, spring onions, scarlet

For more information, call Anne Sharp at 974-0031 or visit coveyriselodge.com.

red turnips and collards.

May-June 2012 73

M E D I C A L

P R O F I L E

Periodontal Health and the Battle of the Sexes.

PERIODONTAL DISEASE and its associated

Both men and women should strive for

complications affect both men and women, so it’s

periodontal health by brushing twice each day,

important that both sexes are doing everything they

flossing at least one each day, and seeing a

can to maintain their periodontal health.

dental professional, such as a periodontist,

However, research published in the Journal of Periodontology suggests that women are more proactive in maintaining healthy teeth and gums than men. In fact, the study found that women are almost twice as likely to have received a regular dental check-up in the past year, and women in the study also had better indicators of periodontal health, including lower incidence of dental plaque than men.

Certain life stages may increase women’s susceptibility to periodontal disease, which may require special attention: · Puberty: Studies show that elevated hormone levels may cause an increase in gum sensitivity and lead to a greater inflammatory

Dr. Marija LaSalle

reaction, which can cause gums to become

regularly. Additionally, it’s a good idea to get a

swollen, turn red, and feel tender.

comprehensive periodontal evaluation every year.

· Menstruation: During menstruation, some

A dental professional, such as a periodontist, can

women may experience menstruation gingivitis,

conduct this exam to assess your periodontal

which may cause gum bleeding, redness,

disease status.

or swelling of the gums between the teeth. · Menopause: Hormonal changes may cause women to experience discomfort in their mouth, including pain, burning sensations in the gum tissue, or mouth sores.

Men have special periodontal health considerations, as well. A June 2008 Lancet Oncology study found that men with periodontal disease may be more likely to develop kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, and blood cancers.

Periodontal disease has also been linked to higher risk of developing prostate cancer.

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Inside Northside

To schedule a consultation with Dr. LaSalle at Northlake Periodontics, L.L.C., please call (985) 727-1133. She is located at 1580 West Causeway Approach, Suite 5 in Mandeville.

THROUGH HIS RESTAURANTS, cookbooks and cooking shows, Chef John Folse became a celebrity chef de cuisine long before the Food Network began cranking them out by the dozens. He’s been an unsurpassed ambassador for Louisiana culture and cuisine over the years, having brought his brand of down-the-bayou cooking to the people and heads of state in Japan, Beijing, Hong Kong, Moscow and the Vatican, prompting the Louisiana Legislature to give him the title of “Louisiana’s Culinary Ambassador to the World.”

Chicago chef Rick Tramonto, is a celebrity in his own right, having appeared as a challenger on Iron Chef America and Top Chef Masters and as guest judge on Top Chef. He’s also the author of four cookbooks and chef and owner or co-owner of several Chicago-area restaurants. He and Chef Folse have joined together to create Restaurant R’evolution, opening in June as the flagship restaurant of the Royal Sonesta Hotel in the French Quarter.

Restaurant R’evolution combines Chef Folse’s Louisiana roots (the “swamp floor pantry” as he calls it) and Chef Tramonto’s stylings in new American cuisine. “Death by Gumbo,” a traditional dark-roux, rice-stuffed quail dish, shares menu space with an updated take on shrimp and grits—the shrimp prepared with an Asian touch, stir fried with ginger and chilies.

House-made pastas nod in homage towards New Orleans’ Italian and Sicilian immigrant traditions. P&J oysters and Creole tomatoes are accompanied in a variety of dishes with ingredients such as Manila clams, goat cheese and lobster roe, further separating the Italian fare from the stereotypical spaghetti noodles and “red gravy.”

Ingredients come as much as possible from local sources, including greens from Covey Rise Farms, seafood from P&J Oyster Co., rabbit from Mississippi’s Rabbit Man Farms and dairy products from Folse’s own Bittersweet Plantation Dairy.

Libations from NOLA Brewing and northshore beer producers Abita Beer and Heiner Brau join a comprehensive wine list and cocktail menu that

Evolving Creole Restaurant Cuisine R’evolution

by Stephen Faure

includes resurrected classic favorites such as the Presse, the Cobbler and the Absinthe Cocktail.

Abita’s Turbodog lends its dark richness to one of the desserts, a Turbodog Stout Chocolate Cake.

The seven dining rooms and the bar area were designed with local color in mind. The Market room, with its exposition kitchen, is inspired by Solari’s Delicatessen, an institution in the French Quarter for nearly 100 years. The formal parlor dining room showcases a magnificent 1840s chandelier and hand-painted murals depicting the “ladies of the evening” of New Orleans’ 19th-century Storyville red-light district.

The bar takes its design cues from French Quarter carriageways, with custom gas lanterns and cypress wood ceiling beams.

Restaurant R’evolution is located at 777 Bienville Street in the Royal Sonesta Hotel. Call (504) 553-2277 for reservations, or visit revolutionnola.com.

May-June 2012 75

Covington Mayor

Mike Cooper ALTHOUGH HE’S JUST NOW settling into his first term as Covington’s mayor, Mike Cooper is no stranger to Covington politics. His father, Ernest J. Cooper, was the city’s mayor for 24 years before retiring in 1991.

“As a life-long resident of Covington, I like to say I’m very proud of being the mayor of my home town,” says Mayor Cooper.

His education and experience have laid a great foundation for his new role. A St. Paul’s graduate, he has a degree in city and regional planning

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Inside Northside

from USL, now ULL, the University of Louisiana in Lafayette. His experience includes work with St. Tammany Parish’s zoning and planning department and Covington’s planning and zoning commission (10 years, five as chairman) and stints in the corporate world in real estate sales and communications.

“Everything I’ve done up to this time has prepared me to serve in this office. I know the people and the community; I have life-long friends here and I know the city inside and out,” he says.

photo: STEPHEN FAURE

by Stephen Faure

Mayor Mike Cooper with his father, Ernest J. Cooper, longtime mayor of Covington, who is seen below at the

photo courtesy of MIKE COOPER

photo courtesy of MIKE COOPER

opening of a new business in the 1960s.

When we caught up with him, the mayor had been in office for eight months. He’s now able to catch his breath.

He’s been busy laying the groundwork for a variety of projects aimed at increasing Covington’s profile by bringing in new businesses and enhancing its livability. “The first six months were a whirlwind,” he says. He had to begin work immediately on a budget proposal for the next fiscal year. Public safety, livability and economic development are foremost in his agenda.

One of the first issues that arose when he took office was the boat landing in Menetre Park on the Bogue Falaya, continued on page 79

May-June 2012 77

architect Peter Trapolin of New Orleans, a veteran of several successful historic hotel renovations.

Mayor Mike Cooper is especially excited about the

the drawing board, Ward

new ownership of the Southern Hotel property in the

says, “It’s going to have

heart of downtown Covington.

41 rooms and a restaurant

The hotel was built in 1907 during the glory days

on the New Hampshire

of the “Ozone Belt,” when the area enjoyed immense

corner. We’re looking for an exciting restaurateur to

popularity as a resort. The cool air flowing out of

work with on the build-out.” She hopes her plans for

the piney woods was welcome in the days before air

the property spark as much interest in what the area has

conditioning, and area waters, whether from springs or

to offer today’s visitors as the elements did at the turn

deep wells, were reputed to be medicinal. The Southern

of the century. “I want people to come here and enjoy

Hotel and others on the northshore thus attracted guests

things like the bike path—we’re going to have bikes

from all over the country.

available and kayaks for the river.”

Lisa Condrey Ward purchased the Southern Hotel

Renovations include facilities that Covington

along with her husband, Joseph, her brother Ricky

residents will be able to take advantage of as well as

Condrey and his wife, Gayle, in 2011. She is familiar

the hotel’s guests. “We’re going to have a ballroom and

with its history, noting, “It catered to northerners during

space for business meetings.” Ward notes the building is

the winter and New Orleanians during the summer.”

in the shape of a “u” that opens onto the alley that runs

They purchased the building

from New Hampshire to Vermont. “We’re going to close

last November, but it had

that in and have the ballroom and all those spaces spill

been on her mind since she

out into a really beautiful courtyard. It will be a very nice

first saw it. “We moved here

party space. The hotel bar will be open to everyone, and

from New Orleans in 1999.

that’s going to have access to the courtyard, too.”

I started talking about it,

Echoing Mayor Cooper’s optimism in the project’s

probably the day after we

role in the revitalization of downtown Covington,

moved here, ‘Gosh, why

Ward says, “I think there’s going to be a renaissance.

hasn’t somebody turned that

Covington is already a great little town. My personal

back into a hotel?’”

vision is to expand the types and diversity of businesses to

into something similar to what Magazine Street has in

renovate the mission-style,

New Orleans. If we put that together, get the movie

34,000-square-foot building

theater open—and hopefully the hotel will be an ideal

and open it as a boutique

catalyst for that—it will become a really wonderful,

hotel.

pedestrian-friendly city that has a lot to offer.”

Their

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Inside Northside

plans

Ward

has

are

hired

images courtesy of RUSTY BURNS

While it’s still on

The Southern Hotel

Cooper

from page 77

at the end of 4th Street. Replacing the decaying wooden structure with concrete piers not only solved a safety issue but also insured its use by the public well into the future. The project brought to light an opportunity Mayor Cooper didn’t hesitate to act on.

“While doing this project, a square of property abutting the park came on the market. To preserve it, I put in an offer to buy it on behalf of the city. It’s basically wetlands with cypress, palms and palmettos.

The sale went through, I’m glad to say. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t developed in any way in order to buffer this valuable asset.”

A priority he had set going into the election was to see to the conclusion of a long-running dispute between the city and Fire District No. 12. Annexation of unincorporated parish property created double taxation issues and blurred the lines of responsibility between the Covington’s fire department and the fire district.

Working with St. Tammany Parish leaders, the fire district and Covington’s city council, an agreement was reached in early 2012.

“We negotiated a solution that was mutually agreeable to the City of Covington and Fire District 12. It establishes a service-area boundary line so that all areas are served with the best possible response times.

From a tax collection standpoint, the agreement is basically revenue-neutral.

That was one of my priorities before taking office. It’s now resulted in the dismissal of lawsuits, and there is a working relationship between the two departments.”

Mayor Cooper is determined to give downtown streets an overhaul, >> improving city-owned streets and May-June 2012 79

Cooper working with the state on the Boston Street and Columbia Street corridors.

Columbia Street is actually a state highway, part of Hwy. 437 until its merger with the 190 Bypass. Boston Street is part of Hwy. 21. The state improvements complement the mayor’s downtown-wide improvement plan, which includes repaving certain city streets and opening up another ox lot for parking.

“I felt that some of our streets in downtown Covington were deteriorating. As I indicated in my budget message, my priority in the capital improvement program was to improve the downtown streets and alleys,” says the mayor. To help pay for the road work, his budget froze the purchase of new vehicles for all city departments and the city negotiated the Columbia Street improvements with the state, which agreed to pay for those in exchange for the mayor and city council’s agreement to assume the roadway’s maintenance within city limits in the future.

Boston Street is the target of two initiatives, the state Department of Transportation Boston Street Beautification Project and a signalization project. Mayor Cooper says the city is participating in the project to improve the sidewalks, trees and planters along Boston Street from the Bogue Falaya River to Theard Street. “They’re going to re-do the sidewalks on both sides and do new tree plantings and put in above-ground planters,” he says. The signalization project will see new traffic signals installed on ornamental posts rather than on wires hanging across the street, and, he hopes, better synchronization of the lights.

Overall, “What I can promise to 80

Inside Northside

the downtown property and business owners is that the streets are going to get a facelift. That’s what people look at when deciding to locate or remain in a location.”

The mayor is very optimistic about revitalizing downtown Covington. He was involved in finding new ownership for the Southern Hotel on the corner of Boston and New Hampshire streets. The new owners, he says, are committed to its rapid development and restoration as a downtown meeting place. (See sidebar.)

As a newly appointed board member of the St. Tammany Economic Development Foundation, Mayor Cooper is plugged directly into one of the best resources available. “Because we don’t have our own economic development department, I know the importance of a municipality partnering with an organization like STEDF for the support and resources they can provide.”

On the economic development front, Mayor Cooper saw early success with the annexation into the city limits of property on Hwy. 190 that was part of a development agreement with retail giant Walmart to build one of its Neighborhood Market grocery stores there. “They required water and sewage, which they probably could have obtained staying outside the city limits, but we negotiated a win-win situation.” Also, across 190 from that location (now a vacant automobile dealership), the mayor says Rainbow Northshore is completing its new offices and auto showroom.

Putting the city’s best foot forward and making it easier for citizens to interact with government were the goals behind the mayor’s overhaul of the Covington website, >> May-June 2012 81

Cooper CityofCovingtonLa.com. “My overall goal is to have a website that is robust, easy to navigate and informative,” he says. Residents can pay their municipal water bills online and easily access government information. A local business directory is also part of the city’s website re-design.

Looking to the Future to Celebrate the past Covington will celebrate its 200th birthday on July 4, 2013. One of Mayor Cooper’s first initiatives was to commemorate this fact by adding a banner touting the bicentennial to the city’s seal. It features the Native American Tammanend, who was immortalized and anointed into sainthood by Gov. Claiborne, if not the church, 200 years ago when he named St. Tammany Parish after him. “The Indian logo is the long-time logo of Covington. We’ve added the banner for the bicentennial,” says the mayor. Since the city’s founding coincides with the national celebration of independence, the mayor hopes to combine all of the celebrations and has appointed a commission to begin planning those activities.

While preparing for Covington’s next big milestone, Mayor Cooper reflects on the journey that’s led him to be the city’s leader. The 2011 election was not the first time he gave it a shot; he had run eight years earlier. “I didn’t think I was going to run again, but once the seat came open, I decided to put my best foot forward. I think it was the right time for Covington as well.

“Growing up in Covington, growing up in politics—it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I feel fortunate to be sitting here today.”

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images courtesy of RUSTY BURNS.

What’s in YOUR Attic?

As we prepare to celebrate the bicentennial of the City of Covington, we are gathering family histories and photographs to be shared with historians Sally Reeves and C. Howard Nichols. The celebration will include the publication of a hardcover book, lectures and tours emphasizing Covington’s early history.

Contributions and submissions can be sent to covbicentennial@insidenorthside.com.

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Pets

and their

People

Sassy: A Special Gift

by Derric Boudreaux

SASSY ISN’T your run-of-the-mill dog.

She has the ability to sense changes in blood sugar.

In 2003, Sassy was adopted by Jane, a resident of Mandeville. As Jane grew older, she realized that she would not always be around to take care of Sassy.

She told her daughter, “Sassy is a special dog. If anything ever happens to me, I want you to give her to a child who might also benefit from her special talent.”

Not long after, Jane was diagnosed with a terminal illness. It was time for Sassy to find a new home. Honoring her mother’s last wish, Jane’s daughter posted flyers in local doctors’ offices advertising the 7-year-old Black Pomeranian mix. It wasn’t long before Debbie saw the flyer and remembered

her daughter’s wish for a dog.

Like any 8-year-old girl, Kristen wished for a dog more than anything else. In addition, she had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

Despite her parents’ initial trepidation, Sassy’s blood-sugar-detecting gift was too much to pass up.

Debbie says, “The day I went to meet Sassy, I was told, ‘She is very spoiled and she loves boiled chicken, ice cream, walks and car rides.’” They agreed to take Sassy home for a trial run, but it didn’t take long for the entire family to fall in love with her.

While Sassy may have a talent for sensing changes in blood sugar, her real gift has been making two wishes come true.

See Ireland and Italy!

Fall trips with St. Tammany West Chamber

Italy’s beautiful Amalfi coast.

IN THIS EVER-EXPANDING GLOBAL ECONOMY, Chambers of Commerce across the United States are now coordinating international trade missions with first-hand learning opportunities about international economic cultures. These trips are not only a great way to educate business leaders about cultural differences in other countries; they also offer an opportunity to open doors for potential trade

Dublin’s ha’penny bridge.

86

Inside Northside

opportunities and business relationships. The trips are open to non-Chamber members, so everyone is invited to see the world with neighbors, co-workers and friends.

This past fall, the St. Tammany West Chamber offered its first international trip, which was a smashing success. Thirty-five travelers from throughout St. Tammany and surrounding areas ventured on a nine-day tour of Tuscany, Italy. With a base hotel in Montecatini Terme, they explored beautiful and historic areas, including Florence, Siena and San Gimiganano. Not only did several business leaders make the trip, but many took advantage of the incredible savings to travel with family or friends—including a mother-son duo, a father-daughter duo, sisters, best friends and retired couples. Many who could not go expressed interest in future trips.

The Tuscany tour was so well received that the Chamber will offer two trips this fall—one to Ireland in September and another to the Amalfi coast of Italy in October. For less than $3,000 per person, the 10-day package to Ireland—departing

Blarney Castle.

on September 3—includes roundtrip airfare from New Orleans, first-class hotel accommodations for nine nights, daily breakfasts and several dinners.

Travelers will visit Dublin, Killarney and Limerick, with day excursions to Blarney Castle, the Ring of Kerry and the Cliffs of Moher. For those interested in the business aspects of the trip, a visit to the Waterford crystal factory and a whiskey factory will be included.

Departing on October 29, the nine-day package to the Amalfi coast, approximately $2,700, includes roundtrip airfare from New Orleans, first-class hotel accommodations in Sorrento and day trips to Ravello, Pompeii and Naples. Daily breakfasts and several dinners are included.

Some optional tours are available, including a harbor cruise to Capri, a cooking tour in the countryside and a visit to a mozzarella cheese factory. An optional two-night Rome extension is also available.

Everyone is invited to join one (or both!) of these Chamber-sponsored journeys. Chamber membership is not required. For more information, contact Michelle Biggs at michelle@ sttammanychamber.org.

May-June 2012 87

The STHBA 2012 Raffle House

Raising the Roof for Charity

EACH YEAR, St. Tammany Home Builders Association members pool their time, expertise and energy to design, build and present a home of exceptional quality to raffle off for local charities.

Since its inception in 1994, proceeds from the STHBA raffle have donated an astounding $4.24 million to community charities.

STHBA uses the money raised from the sale of raffle tickets to fund the construction of the house, marketing and other expenses incurred. The money left after expenses is divided among the year’s charities. Last year, the charities split $165,000.

The 2012 charities are The Good Samaritan Ministry, Habitat for Humanity St. Tammany West, Support Our War Heroes, The Tammany Trace Foundation and The St. Tammany HBA Charitable Trust.

The Raffle House is always constructed by the previous year’s president of STHBA. This year’s house, by Integrity Builders, LLC, is located at 456 N. Corniche du Lac in Maison du Lac subdivision in Covington. Wainer Companies donated the lot.

“Building the house was a great experience. So many people have helped by donating time and talent,” says Kenny Adams. “We wanted to use natural cypress beams in the great room, so we had to go all the way to Lafayette to get them. The whole project has turned out beautifully.”

This project could not have been completed without the donations of time, energy and products from many northshore businesses, including Resource 88

Inside Northside

Bank, which provided the funding, and Murphy Appraisal, which appraised the house for $470,000.

Cabinetry throughout the house was provided by Milltown Cabinets. Pinegrove Electric supplied the interior light fixtures. Plumbing supplies were given

by Southland Plumbing. The finishing touches to the exterior were provided by Bevolo Gas & Electric Lights. Adding to the beauty of the home are interior furnishings by American Factory Direct and carpeting

by Carpet Showcase.

The winners of the 2011 Raffle House were Brandt and Lindsay Quick. “We got a phone message from Kenny Adams, asking us to call him right away,” says Brandt. “Lindsay said we must have won a cruise or a gift certificate. When I called Kenny back and he said we had won the house we were shocked beyond belief. We quickly checked the number on the ticket and then headed over to the house.”

The Quicks have lived in the house since September and love the neighborhood. “We are incredibly blessed to live with our family in such a wonderful house in a great neighborhood,” says Brandt.

Raising the Roof raffle tickets are $100; a maximum of 7,000 will be sold. The drawing for the winner will be held at the Raffle House on June 2, 2012, at 11am. For information on purchasing tickets, see raisingtheroof.net.

Dr. Bob

from page 17

“Everyone laughed. It turned into my first piece of art and sold to a New York collector. Last time it changed hands was 15 years ago for $5,000, and it’s in a private collection in New Jersey now. ” Dr. Bob has since carved two more of these alligators in a labor- and time-intensive process. It takes hours and hours of sanding, he says, and adds that, “Once I get through with the sanding, I do the steel wool and get that down to 0000, which is really fine.

After getting the wax on, it’s like butter.” The carved gators serve as demonstration pieces at art shows, where Dr. Bob shows off their finish. “I like to take a rag and just throw it and it slides down the gator, it’s so slick. I take a lot of pride in making it.

It’s dangerous. A piece can go wrong after you spent months on it, bust it all to hell.”

He uses real alligator teeth in the alligator and dog pieces. “I get the eyes from anywhere that deals with glass or marbles; the guys at Studio Inferno around the corner are good at keeping me supplied. I buy my alligator teeth by the pound. People ask how I get ’em. I say, ‘Very carefully.’”

Found objects are the basis for much of his art. In an ironic twist, the storm that nearly killed him has ensured a steady supply of discarded signs, lumber, doors and window frames to forage in the decimated areas around his studio. “After the hurricane, I scoured the neighborhoods for what little bit of old New Orleans was left.”

Many of the bottle caps that he uses to bejewel his creations come from the Abita Brewery. He also has a stash of

Barq’s root beer bottle caps and wood from the old Barq’s crates with the slogan “Drink Barq’s—it’s good!” stenciled on the sides. Dr. Bob recalls the old Conti St. warehouse. “It smelled intoxicating; that raw sassafras and birch just permeated that building. To this day, you walk in there and it knocks you over.

“The things that mean the most to me are things that come to me by magic,” Dr. Bob says. He has two rescued Union Beer signs from one of New Orleans’ first commercial breweries that are waiting to become part of some artwork, and, he says, “One of the only Dr. Nut signs in existence. It was on the gable-end of a building.” Dr. Nut, a local soft drink that ceased existence in the 1970s, is etched in literary history as the favorite beverage of Ignatius Riley in Confederacy of Dunces. Dr. Bob has cut an alligatorshaped portion out of the sign and, after adding eyes and teeth, will incorporate it into a piece assembled in tribute to the character.

“I was thinking, I’ve got Ignatius done, and I want to make up some Dr. Nut bottle caps if I can’t find them online. I have to get the right eyeball to put on him to keep an eye on Ignatius.”

Be Nice or Leave Even Dr. Bob’s catch phrase, “Be Nice or Leave,” has a back-swamp backstory. It started when Dr. Bob and some of his fellow St. Paul’s students took to the river to do some fishing on a holiday.

“We’d get a six-pack of Dixie, a pack of Marlboros and go out and act like

photos: THOMAS B. GROWDEN

we’re 14-year-old men. I drew the short straw, so I had to go get the beer,” says Dr. Bob. A Pearl River dive bar behind the St. Joe brick works was where the underage artist-to-be entered to buy the day’s “refreshments.”

“It was called Working Man’s Paradise, owned by a man named Edgar Ducre; it was painted red with black and white dice on the building and spelled ‘paradise’ for ‘pair of dice.’ It just intrigued me.” The scene inside the bar made an even bigger impact on Dr. Bob. “The interior was painted this turquoise blue that makes you feel like you’re in Haiti or something. On one wall was this big painting of Edgar Ducre’s son who went to LSU. He’s in his uniform riding Mike the Tiger and throwing a football. It’s awesome; it’s painted really good.”

Then he says, “That’s where I saw ‘Be Nice or Leave.’ It was written with a Marks-A-Lot on a piece of a cardboard beer box. When I got my order and turned to leave, the back of the sign said, ‘There’s Nothing in the World Worth Getting Killed Over.’ It hit me that I didn’t belong there, that I could get killed.”

His Be Nice or Leave signs can be found hanging all over the city, and he’s constantly commissioned to make signs with a personalized spin on the phrase. He has his own versions on sale as well. Be Nasty and Stay, Shut Up and Fish and Shut up and Eat are variations, and he paints Be Nice or Be Bitten signs that he donates to local animal shelters for them to give to donors and people adopting pets.

Dr. Freakin’ Bob How did Dr. Bob, a man of no obvious medical training, get the name Dr. Bob? He’ll be happy to tell

you. It was at the birth of the S.O.B.—the son of Bob, his boy Isaac. “My nickname came when I was helping deliver him at Lakeside Women’s Hospital. Lamaze failed, and we had to do an emergency C-section. I was in the sterile field, so I assisted with it. The nurse, Margie Vanderbeck, who I went to school with, said ‘Well, doctor freakin’ Bob,’ and that was it.”

Dr. Bob participates in many charitable endeavors in the New Orleans area and Bay St. Louis, where the first gallery to carry his work is located, and in Memphis and Washington, D.C. When Mr. Okra, a beloved New Orleans’ roaming vegetable vendor, needed a new truck, neighbors and businessmen rallied to help, as Mr. Okra had become a necessity in Katrina-ravaged neighborhoods after so many local grocery stores had closed. Dr. Bob helped organize the benefit and provided the decorative painting for the new truck. “My piece-de-resistance,” he says.

His work is now found in many private collections and museums throughout the South. Dr. Bob is a regular participant in the Kentuck Festival of the Arts in Tuscaloosa, Ala. A piece was featured in the Smithsonian Magazine in 1999; the Smithsonian’s affiliate, the Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, also includes one of his pieces in its collection.

“I did it! I used to tell my friends, ‘Screw you, I’m going to be in the Smithsonian, and then I’m going into the Louvre!’” he says, with only one more internationallyknown institution to go.

Dr. Bob’s work can be found at drbobart.net.

May-June 2012 93

2

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1

SUMMER CITRUS

4

1. 1.16cttw GIA-certified yellow diamond

pendant set in 18K white gold surrounded by .35cttw yellow and white diamonds, $12,580; 18” 14K white Italian gold Spiga chain, $533. De Boscq, Mandeville, 6740007. 2. Sweetheart chemise in lemon, $58. Bra la Vie!, Hammond, 662-5065. 3.

Citron bridesmaid mini-dress with Rachel neckline and Heart skirt, $280. Olivier Couture, Mandeville, 674-6994.

5

4. Bright yellow flower petal top, $148; yellow and white patterned short shorts by Trina Turk, $229.

Fleurt, Covington, 809-8844. 5. Quilted neon citrus yellow bag with gold chain by Big Buddha, $52. OSpa Lifestyle Store at Franco’s, Mandeville, 792-0270. 6. The Fixation wedge by Naughty Monkey, $79. Shoefflé, Covington, 898-6465; Baton Rouge, (225) 761-1105.

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Inside Northside

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May-June 2012 95

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Inside Northside

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SUMMER CITRUS 1. Citrine and .75cttw diamond necklace in 14K gold, $1,395. DeLuca’s Expressions in Gold, Covington, 893-2317. 2. Orange/fuchsia block sleeveless dress, $42. Apricot Lane, Lakeside Shopping Center, Metairie, (504) 849-0900. 3. Color block strapless dress by Flavio Castellani, $479. The Mix, Mandeville, 727-7649.

4. Calypso bathing suit tops in tropical colors in halter or balcony style, starting at $56; matching bottoms in three styles, starting at $44. Bra Genie, Mandeville, 951-8638.

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5

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5. Neon orange seamless sports bra by Splits 59, $38. Pure Barre, Mandeville, 674-7577. 6. Summer

7

fabrics made into an adorable outfit for your little one.

Precision Sewing, Covington, 249-6156. 7. Virgins, saints and angels! Sterling silver ring with 24K gold plating, Antigua signature lace style and clear crystals, $273. Izabella’s Villa, Slidell, 649-5060. 8. Leatherinspired orange hobo bag with interior pockets, $69.

Laurier, Covington, 875-0823.

May-June 2012 97

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SUMMER CITRUS 1. Sterling silver and 18K yellow gold Mandarin onyx and clear quartz crystal diamond pendant 6

by Tacori, $2,210; sterling silver chain, $100.

Boudreaux’s Fine Jewelers, Mandeville,

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626-1666. 2. Maui Jim Lighthouse LSU sunglasses; Costa del Mar Isabella sunglasses in salmon; $169 each. Ban Soleil, Covington, 875-9109. 3. Orange Brighton wallet with silver butterfly embellishment, $69. Accents & Things, Slidell, 649-4273. 4. Techno Marine watch featuring a silicone gel strap with 200-meter depth, $425. Lowe’s Jewelers, Mandeville, 845-4653. 5. Banded striped dress with fun pleated skirt from Plenty by Tracy Reese, $198. The Villa, Mandeville, 6269797. 6. Laser-cut orange dress, $48. Paisley, Mandeville, 727-7880. 7. Get ready for the beach! Large tote, $24. Perino’s Garden Center, Metairie, (504) 834-7888.

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Janome • Brother • Pfaff • Fabric • Notions • Patterns Classes • Repairs • Sewing Cabinets • Industrial Machines

3997 Hwy. 190 E. Service Rd., Covington • 985.249.6156 www.sewingmachineoutlet.com

May-June 2012 99

ACTIVITIES Horseback Riding Swimming Ropes Course Tennis Canoeing Golf Basketball Gymnastics Dance Archery Arts & Crafts Outdoor Living Campfire Fun Rope Swing Volleyball Soccer Riflery Aerobics Chorus & Drama Trip Day Counselors-In-Training Climbing Tower River Water Blob Cheerleading Flag Twirling Sports Riverview Camp for Girls is a community where your daughters grow in confidence and maturity - all while having a great time in a safe, carefree and wholesome environment.

Susan and Larry Hooks, Owners and Directors • For more information, call (800) 882-0722. Riverview Camp for Girls, P.O. Box 299, Mentone, AL 35984 www.riverviewcamp.com

LONG-TERM SESSSIONS 1st Session: June 10-June 22 2nd Session: June 24-July 6 3rd Session: July 8-July 20 4th Session: July 22-August 3 SHORT-TERM SESSIONS M Session: June 3-June 8 A Session: June 10-June 15 B Session: June 17-June 22 C Session: June 24-June 29 D Session: July 1-July 6 E Session: July 22- July 27 F Session: July 29-August 3

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SUMMER CITRUS

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1. Lady’s white 14K fashion ring with one princess cut faceted table peridot and 18 round brilliant diamonds, $425.

Champagne Jewelers, Slidell,

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643-2599. 2. Fun, bold printed spring dress with open shoulder and elastic waist, $64. Columbia Street Mercantile, Covington, 809-1789. 3. Haute Hostess aprons by Elizabeth Scokin, $200. Simplee Gourmet, Covington, 8928370. 4. Printed dress with elastic top, $28.99.

Private Beach, Mandeville, 237-6040. 5. Allcotton, no-wrinkles men’s dress shirt with pocket, $87.50; green dot 100% silk tie, $69.50. Jos. A. Bank, Mandeville, 624-4067. 6. Peridot ring set in 14K white gold accented by .06cttw diamonds, $1,380. Moseley’s Jewelers, Mandeville, 626-5098.

7. Kiwi one-shoulder cocktail dress with mirror-like jewels, sequins and beads and mini-length fitted skirt; also available in silver, orange and gold; $428. Southern Bridal, Mandeville, 727-2993.

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Book Report

by Terri Schlichenmeyer

The Dog Who Danced

by Susan Wilson WHO COULD RESIST that little urchin face?

The dog staring at you from your computer screen sure was a cutie. He was a stray, found wandering nearby and nobody came to claim him. Tempting. But wasn’t someone missing that sweet boy? How could anybody refuse those please-love-me eyes?

Alice and Ed Parmalee couldn’t, that’s for sure. It was easy to fall in love with the Sheltie dog, and he was obviously abandoned. But in the new novel The Dog Who Danced by Susan Wilson, keeping him might be a delicate ballet.

Justine Meade was certain that the phone call had been just another obligation. Her stepmother, Adele, must have gritted her teeth when she dialed the number. For nearly 40 years, she’d made it crystal clear that she didn’t want a stepdaughter.

But there she was on the phone, summoning Justine, telling her that her father was dying.

Justine didn’t want to go. She’d barely spoken to her father in years, because there was nothing to say. Still, there she was, riding 102

Inside Northside

shotgun with a bad-tempered trucker, heading for what was once home.

At least she had Mack with her. Justine hadn’t wanted to go to the East Coast, in part because she didn’t want to leave her dog. Mack was everything to her: protector, best friend and dancing partner. She and Mack loved performing and they loved being together. Justine knew he would be the perfect buffer between her and the family she barely knew.

But then the unthinkable happened. The trucker, who’d complained about Justine’s presence and said she was the reason he was running late, got fed up. He left her behind in a truck stop. He left—with Mack still in the cab.

Ed Parmalee saw the dog as he drove past the cemetery, but he didn’t stop. The graveyard held bad memories and the body of Ed’s daughter, neither of which Ed wanted to visit any time soon. He thought that must’ve been the dog Alice mentioned, the one she figured was lost. The one she was going to “rescue.” They should try to find the Sheltie’s owner. They didn’t need a dog.

Ed hadn’t seen that hopeful look on Alice’s face in a long time.

I did a little dance myself when I got this book. Author Susan Wilson’s last novel, One Good Dog, is one of my favorites, and I was eager to see if The Dog Who Danced could top it. The answer is not quite. But close.

There’s no doubt that The Dog Who Danced will do a little two-step on your heart. Wilson is, paws-down, a master at character development.

It’s uncanny how she gets inside the furry heads of her smallest characters. This book is all about the biggest fear of every dog lover, and Wilson plays it well.

Yes, it’s a little predictable. Yes, it’s a little mushy. And yes, you’ll love it anyhow. And if you share your life with a dog, this is a book you want. For you, The Dog Who Danced simply can’t be missed.

Encouraging Kids to Read

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library OPEN A CHILD’S EYES to the wonders of reading! You can help a young child in St. Tammany Parish develop a love for reading and establish a solid reading foundation by giving them the gift of books through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

The program encourages parents to read with their children during their preschool years, giving them a big boost toward a successful education. Time spent reading with children opens their minds to faraway places and exciting adventures and sets them on the pathway to an interest in lifelong learning.

Through the United Way of Southeast Louisiana, the Imagination Library provides new, carefully selected, ageappropriate books to children every month for the first five years of their lives at no cost, regardless of the family’s income.

With a donation of only $30 per year, 12 hard-back books will be delivered directly to a child’s door. Providing a child with books is a wonderful investment in their future and the future of our community.

Donations can be sent to United Way of Southeast Louisiana, St. Tammany Regional Office; 800 N. Causeway Blvd., Suite 1B; Mandeville, LA 70448. For more information or to register a child, call 875-3026 or visit unitedwaysela.org/imaginationlibrary.

May-June 2012 103

Larry Rase

grandsons Nicholas and Larry.

Adam Aucoin and Michael Rase.

To help us honor Father’s Day, Mandeville resident Larry Rase shared memories of his father and his own experience of fatherhood.

“MY FATHER WAS an uneducated man and a disciplinarian, but he always participated in what we kids did,” Larry remembers. He adds that, despite the fact that his father’s job required much traveling, “He had a strong influence on us. We didn’t have a dad who was with us every night, but when we had him, we had him. When I was swimming [in a high school competition], he’d fly 104

Inside Northside

by Katie Montelepre

Back row: Lance Rase,

in from out of town to Shreveport or wherever I was.”

As a father, Larry mimicked his own father in the time he gave to his children. “Although single for 12 years, I stayed very close to my sons [Lance and Michael] through college,” he says.

Even though he preferred golfing, Larry chose to be more present in his boys’ lives, whether as their baseball coach

or basketball coach—or both. “I didn’t know what I was doing [as a coach], but I was out there with them,” he laughs.

When he remarried, Larry became the father of a 4-year-old boy, Adam. He was a baseball coach for him, too, but Adam was more interested in art. “He’s a tremendous artist and a computer whiz.

We supported his interests.”

Larry also made an effort (which many say was a successful one) to instill gentlemanly qualities in his sons. He recalls teaching them to respect others, especially their elders. “It doesn’t matter who they are—you treat people with respect, and in return, you will be respected.” And this legacy lives on—“If you ever get around my grandkids, you’ll hear it.”

After his own kids were grown, Larry didn’t stop giving to children.

“I always said that when I was done raising my kids, I was going to take five years and give back.” As a member of 4th Ward Recreation, Larry played a significant role in the group that obtained funding and a land lease to build Pelican Park. “Now, 26 years later, my grandkids are playing there.”

Today, Larry works on the frontline of sales with Zen-Noh Grain/CGB in Covington. His family now includes two daughters-in-law and six grandchildren.

At 93, his mother continues to be the strong matriarch of the family, which often gets together to have fun. “We’re all huge LSU fans; even my 4-year-old grandkid is in the stands,” Larry says.

“We have weekend barbecues, crawfish boils, whatever is in season.”

Many people ask Larry how he handles his four granddaughters, since he never had a daughter of his own. He says the answer is simple—“I do exactly what they tell me to do!”

photo: STACEY PARETTI RASE

INsider

Front row: Larry Rase (center) with

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Worthy Causes

St. Tammany Parish Suicide Prevention Support Program

“TOMMY AND TIMMY were best friends. They did everything together,” begins Tim Lentz, chief deputy of the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office. “But on Timmy’s 16th birthday, his best friend committed suicide. Timmy hadn’t even known his friend was fighting depression.”

After a pause, he adds, “I’m Timmy.”

Like many people, Tim had not talked much about his personal experience with suicide because of society’s “hush, hush” attitude toward the subject. But in 2010, Kevin Davis, then parish president, made an effort to change that mindset by initiating the St. Tammany Parish Suicide Prevention Support Program with the slogan “It’s OK to talk about it.”

That’s when Tim decided it was time to share his story with others. He hopes that by speaking out,

by Katie Montelepre

others in the community will become aware of the warning signs of suicide as well as the high suicide rate in our parish. “There’s been a hole in my heart as a result [of Tommy’s death], so I know the effects of suicide,” he adds. “It’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about, but no one is immune to this. Every single day in St. Tammany parish, someone tries to kill himself.”

With 34 suicides in 2011 and 11 as of March 2012, St. Tammany Parish has one of the highest suicide rates in Louisiana. (In contrast, there were only six homicides in the parish in 2011, and one to date in 2012.) As St. Tammany’s suicide rate rose 30 percent from 2005 to 2010, Davis decided to take action.

In October 2010, members of the parish government met with other concerned leaders to >> May-June 2012 107

determine a course of action. From this meeting, the St. Tammany Parish Suicide Prevention Support Program was born, with the goal of lowering the suicide rate by providing adequate resources to parish residents.

“Just as one single factor did not create today’s situation, one entity cannot solve it,” says Pat Brister, St. Tammany’s current parish president. “It will take many partners to return the necessary mental health services to our area.”

Currently, the St. Tammany Parish Suicide Prevention Support Program brings together representatives from many organizations, businesses and agencies who meet quarterly to discuss the most efficient and effective ways to reduce St. Tammany Parish’s high suicide rate and to provide resources for residents in need.

United Way/2-1-1

John Tobin, Rebecca Thees and Tim Lentz.

108

John Tobin, director of St. Tammany’s Department of Health and Human Services, was part of the suicide prevention task force from its inception. “At the first meeting, they decided they needed a single point of entry—one call,” he says.

It was decided to use 2-1-1, which was already available. It is now the primary contact for all parish residents in need of counseling and resources for any crisis, including suicide.

The 2-1-1 information and referral line, currently funded by United Way, offers trained crisis-

Inside Northside

intervention and suicide-prevention specialists as well as multi-lingual counselors. These professionals are on call 24/7 to provide counseling and information about community resources. They can transfer callers directly to the appropriate 9-1-1 operators if necessary, and 9-1-1 operators throughout the parish can transfer callers to 2-1-1 when needed.

From October 2011 through March 2012, the 2-1-1 line in St. Tammany Parish fielded 1,648 calls, 29 percent of which were identified as “crisis/ suicide calls.” Out of the 10 parishes served by 2-11, St. Tammany has the highest percentage of crisis calls, with Tangipahoa and Washington following close behind.

Besides giving free help to residents in need, the 2-1-1 line provides a valuable service to the law enforcement officers in the parish by fielding calls that would have otherwise gone to 9-1-1. In 2011, the sheriff’s department alone—which does not include the municipalities of Covington, Mandeville, Slidell, Madisonville, Pearl River, Folsom or Sun— responded to 543 suicide-attempt calls.

“Anytime someone dials 9-1-1, even if it was a mistake, my deputies are going, but some people really just need someone to talk to,” Tim Lentz says.

“Many of the calls to 2-1-1 are calls that we don’t have to go to, but it still hasn’t slowed down. As of [late March], we have responded 127 times to attempted suicide calls in 2012.” (The numbers for the entire parish are even higher because the sheriff’s office only receives calls from unincorporated St. Tammany.)

“My men spend more time dealing with mental health calls than with traffic enforcement. It consumes us. We recognize the mental health crisis and we try to give our guys the best mental health training. But at the end of the day, we went to cop school. We’re not mental health professionals, but we are being forced into that role.”

Volunteers of America/Crisis Response Team In response to the realization that most police officers are not properly equipped to handle suicide-attempt calls, the task force created a crisis action team through a partnership with the Volunteers of America. Using public health millage

dollars, the parish government funded the Volunteers of America’s Crisis Response Team, which came online in August 2011.

“Our mission is two-fold,” says Rebecca Thees, Crisis Response project director. “When an officer calls, we respond immediately and go to the scene of an attempted suicide, and then we provide follow-up.” The team has five full-time and eight part-time licensed counselors who are on call 24/7 to respond to crises reported by the sheriff’s department.

Each deputy contacts the Crisis Response Team while on the way to the scene of an attempted suicide; at least one counselor meets the deputy and consults with everyone involved, including the individual in crisis and the family. The counselor evaluates the person’s condition and offers support and guidance. “Every situation is extremely different,” Rebecca says. “We are one of the first people they see, so we try to be a calming presence.”

After making an assessment and helping the deputy make a decision about the next step for the person, the counselor begins case management services, which are tailored to the individual’s needs. This last step is important because research shows that immediate support and a thorough follow-up will prevent subsequent attempts.

“We will stick with a family as long as we need to, helping them get resources and making sure they go to doctor’s appointments and counseling,” Rebecca says. “We try to get them longterm solutions to become stable and maintain that stability.” This dedication has paid off—none of the people who participated in the follow-up program with the Volunteers of America have made a second suicide attempt. >> May-June 2012 109

In the first three months of 2012, the response team was called out 144 times. Rebecca notes that this number only reflects the suicide attempts reported to the sheriff’s office, which does not include other police departments in the parish.

“It’s obvious that the need far exceeds our ability to respond.

It would be great if we could expand our services to provide assistance to all who have a mental health crisis.”

Nevertheless, the work that the Crisis Response Team has been able to do thus far has been invaluable. “They have been a godsend,” Tim says.

Mental Health Services The severe lack of funds, facilities and professionals that are equipped to provide mental health services in St. Tammany posed a third problem to the original suicide prevention task force.

“The sad part about it is there’s just not enough help for these people, especially as there are more cutbacks for mental health in the state,” Tim says, adding that emergency rooms— where they have to bring many mentally ill residents—are not equipped to handle most cases.

While 2-1-1 and the Crisis Response Team were being set up, the parish took a more immediate course of action in January 2011 by funding two one-time grants totaling $75,000—one to St. Tammany Outreach for the Prevention of Suicide and one to the Mental Health Association of St. Tammany. These organizations used the funds to offer counseling to residents who could not afford it.

This was only a temporary solution, however. The parish government began working with the St. Tammany Community Health Center, a federally qualified health center in Slidell. The center, a 501(c)3 that handles about 5,000 cases each month, provides physical and mental services based on a sliding scale and also accepts Medicaid, making its services available to virtually anyone in the parish.

In September 2011, the parish solidified its partnership with the health center by supplying a grant to add a full-time social worker and a part-time psychiatrist to the staff. The grant was used to fund the new employees’ salaries, allowing the center to expand its much-needed counseling services.

At the beginning of 2012, again with help from the parish, a second full-time social worker was hired, and there are plans to hire a third by the end of the summer. In the first three months of 2012, the center provided behavioral health services to 648 patients.

In keeping with the goal of providing for the mental needs of the community, Judge Peter Garcia of the 22nd Judicial 110

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Court initiated a behavioral health court in October 2011. This court operates with the knowledge that rather than serving time in jail, some offenders need intensive supervision to make sure they see their doctors and take their medications. “It has worked really, really well,” Tim says.

Suicide Prevention Resources Research shows that suicide survivors—those who are left behind when a loved one has committed suicide—are twice as likely to commit suicide. One local organization that plays a key role addressing this issue is the St. Tammany Outreach for the Prevention of Suicide.

STOPS’s Local Outreach to the Survivors of Suicide team is one of the first of its kind in the nation, says Lynnette Savoie, administrative coordinator. The LOSS team is comprised of survivors of suicide who are on call 24/7 to meet with others who have recently lost a loved one to suicide. “They suffered losses in their own life, so they speak with their hearts,” says Tim, a founding member of STOPS. The organization also hosts a Survivors of Suicide support group twice a month for follow-up and support from other suicide survivors as well as a licensed clinical social worker.

Education about the warning signs of suicide and the appropriate courses of action is of paramount importance to the goal of preventing suicide in St. Tammany. STOPS offers two types of training: SafeTALK, a three-hour suicide alertness program; and Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training, an intensive two-day course about prevention and intervention.

“We are teaching people how to pick up on the signs and how to react to the signs,” Lynette says. Upcoming ASISTs are planned for June 14-15 as well as September 6-7 and 27-28.

STOPS volunteers are also available to speak about suicide prevention to churches, schools, businesses and other groups.

St. Tammany’s chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness is also a partner in the parish’s suicide prevention, and some of the programs are supported by the healthcare millage. John Tobin recommends NAMI St. Tammany for those who need information on how to care for mentally ill family members and friends.

For more information about the St. Tammany Parish Suicide Prevention Support Program, visit itsoktotalkaboutit.org. Donations to the overall effort can be made to United Way at unitedwaysela. org. Donations for the crisis response team can be made to the Volunteers of America at voagno.org. For more information about STOPS, visit stops-la.org. For more information about NAMI St. Tammany, visit namisttammany.org.

May-June 2012 111

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M A R R I A G E

Chopin-LeBouef

Christie Leigh Chopin, daughter of Brian and Lori Chopin, and Mathew Louis LeBouef, son of Thomas and Melodie Barthel Jr. and

L O V E

Gene LeBouef, celebrated their wedding at Beau Chêne Country Club. The evening ceremony took place in the ballroom, which was decorated with candles, lighted branches and rose petals along the aisle. The Honorable Phillip Lynch, Justice of the Peace, officiated and

I N

brought the guests to tears when he invited the bride and groom’s two young sons to be included in the vows.

The bride wore an ivory strapless Maggie Sottero gown with lace overlay and crystal accents. She embellished her look with a collection of “something blue” accents, from her royal blue shoes and garter to her sapphire and diamond jewelry, including a headpiece from Southern Bridal. Her sister’s rhinestone-studded veil and an antique diamond watch from her mother-in-law were stunning “something borrowed” items.

The bride and her bridesmaids carried bouquets of various blooms, including purple and blue anemones and hydrangeas. The groom and groomsmen wore fleur de lis boutonnières custom-made by the bride. The bridesmaids’ floor-length strapless navy blue gowns complemented the groomsmen’s grey tuxedos, navy vests and ties.

The bride added special touches to the reception décor, including table numbers that showed the bride and groom at each age and matchstick escort cards, an acknowledgment of the couple’s meeting on match.com. Guests danced the night away and enjoyed taking pictures for the guest book in a photo booth. The three-tiered dark blue wedding cake by Nonna Randazzo’s of Covington featured sparkling crystal accents on the layers of wedding cake and chocolate (the bride and groom’s favorite). as friends and family waved sparklers, wishing them well for their honeymoon in Key West, Fla. They reside in Pearl River with their two children.

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photos: Steve Randon

The newlyweds made their get-away in a white limousine

May-June 2012 113

Stacklin-Templet Duncan-Carruth M A R R I A G E

Mr. and Mrs. David Derbes and Mr. and Mrs.

wedding at the Fleur de Lis

III, son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Louis Carruth

Event Center in Mandeville.

Jr., were united in marriage in a candlelight

The bride’s dress from Southern

ceremony at Tchefuncta Country Club. Mimi

Bridal was bridal pewter with

A N D

and Mr. Donald Davenport and the late

complemented by her bouquet of anemones, white hydrangeas,

Norman Duncan. Robert is the grandson of

silver leaves and black feathers

Mrs. Ann Alexis Ryan and the late Mr. John

from Florist of Covington. The

Alexander Ryan and Mrs. Maria Carruth and

bridesmaids wore black strapless

The bride wore a dress of ivory Alençon lace over champagne charmeuse. Her bridesmaids’ strapless navy blue dresses were complemented by champagne satin shoes from Shoefflé. photo: Oscar Rajo

black tulle accents. Her dress was

Mrs. Lynne Lafaye Duncan and Mr. William

the late Mr. Robert Louis Carruth Sr. L O V E

Templet celebrated their evening

William Duncan, and Robert Louis Carruth

is the granddaughter of Ms. Louise Davenport

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Lauren Stacklin and Charlie

satin dresses with side ruching, also from Southern Bridal. After the ceremony, the newlyweds and members of the bridal party stunned the guests with a

Guests danced the night away in the silk-draped

choreographed first dance to MC

ballroom to the music of Four Unplugged. After

Hammer’s U Can’t Touch This.

honeymooning in the British Virgin Islands, the

The couple is enjoying their new

couple now resides in Covington.

home in Covington.

photo: Images By Robert T.

Sara Lafaye “Mimi” Duncan, daughter of

photo: Bray Danielle

Neyland-Pursell The wedding of Amelia Neyland and Jonathan Pursell was officiated by the bride’s father, Robert Neyland, in front of the grand mansion at The Nottoway Plantation in White Castle, La. The bride wore an ivory Jasmine Couture taffeta gown from Southern Bridal that featured taffeta roses with baby pearls and crystals in every bloom and a Tiffany train. She held a bouquet of light pink and white roses. Family and friends danced the night away in the plantation’s Randolf’s Ballroom, which glistened with elaborate chandeliers and beautiful candlelit table centerpieces.

The couple honeymooned at The Royal Hideaway in Playacar, Mexico, before making their home in Madisonville. Amelia is a processing assistant at NOLA Lending Group, and Jonathan is the owner and broker of Pursell Realty.

IN the Spotlight Mystick Krewe of Louisianians

The Mystick Krewe of Louisianians welcomed guests Feb. 9-11 to the Washington Hilton for its 64th Washington, D.C., Mardi Gras. The theme, “200 Years with Oysters and Beers,” celebrated Louisiana’s Bicentennial.

Reigning over the three days of festivities were Her Majesty Queen Jayne Michon Champagne and His Majesty King Tommy S. Cvitanovich. Congressman Steve Scalise served as chairman of the events.

The Main Ball and Presentation on Saturday evening, which featured a surprise appearance by the Howard University marching band and the 610 Stompers, was followed by the Queen’s Breakfast. Thursday’s “Louisiana Alive” cocktail party showcased Louisiana’s food and culture. Four Unplugged provided the music for Friday’s dinner dance.

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PHY RA Y PHOTOG

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HERT ITLIN DOUG photo: KA

OGRAPH HELTZ PHOT photo: ERIN

photo: ERIN HELTZ PHO TOGRAPHY

INside Peek

ag n Burga, M Lola Simpso a, rg . u B er g n h in Jo Das ichele Tusa Saari and M

Jim Henderson, To ny LeMon and Margaret Or r at the Children’s Museu m of St. Tammany’s Celeb ration of Innovation.

John and C heryl Murph y.

Y PHOTOGRAPH photo: KAITL IN DOUGHERTY

oodard.

Rachelle W Dr. Jim and

photo: KAITL IN DOUGHE RT

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mage with hristiane Gam Scott and C er. ah M y Tamm Michael and

Shelly Scoggins and Rebecca Doughe rty.

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PHOTOGRAPH

musician Ben Sandmel and lebrate the ce Allen Toussaint l’s book, me nd Sa of release B Emperor R& e Ernie K-Doe: Th Historic the at , ns lea Or of New . on cti lle New Orleans Co

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The first meeting of the Covington/M andeville Phi Mu Alumnae Chapter. e Go Red for men attended th ns Northshore wo n in New Orlea lto Hi e th at show n. tio Women fashion cia so As t American Hear to support the

Mike and Lisa Du gger of Runners Choic e at the La Magno lia Tri fundraiser fo r Magnolia School.

Send your submissions to peek@insidenorthside.com.

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Inside Northside

up two family made The Hrapman lia Tri. no ag M La the relay teams in

IN the Spotlight Falaya Fling

St. Scholastica Academy’s 28th annual Falaya Fling was held in the Castine Center. The evening began with a Patron Party, which was followed by the New Orleans-themed gala.

The silent and live auctions featured many valuable prizes ranging from student artwork, food and wine to weekend getaways and game jerseys signed by Drew Brees, Jimmy Graham and Darren Sproles.

Guests also enjoyed food from area restaurants, dancing and a cash raffle.

SSA’s 2012 charity was the Samaritan Center, which received a direct donation from the proceeds of the Fling to fulfill SSA’s strong belief in their Benedictine tradition of giving back to the community.

The majority of the proceeds from Falaya Fling are used to enhance SSA’s projects and programs for the students.

May-June 2012 119

INside Peek Brian and Pam Moore with Ch arlotte Russell Bradford and Rebecca Brad ford at Simply Southern’s Sp ring Open Ho use.

Tommy Ray and Beth Seamon with with ures pict take ba Froe e Alic and and Plum r Silve at the Easter Bunny e.

Sho My kle Buc 1, 2

n, wn Brow ohler, Da r Christa K e h eau and C Donia Rid at Rug ine Tharp ta n Boisfo le book ble to Tab Chic’s Sta . g in nd tast signing a Robin Pe rkins wit h H2U Dire ctor Lauri e Spurlin d uring the H2U sen ior health and welln at Lakevi ess progra ew Regio nal Medic m al Center.

Send your submissions to peek@insidenorthside.com.

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an is, Devon Nol rris, Joey Ferr Fe of k oo ue C ag al Cryst Junior Le ckfield at the p. om St g rin Sp and Karson Lo gton’s Greater Covin

Stacey SSA alumnae ge id dr an St Penick a ic ss Je r.

D d an at Brown Ulmer . ay D r ee ar C

om SSA’s Members fr te 87 celebra class of 19 ast fe s a’ ic st la St. Scho Johnson day: Leslie Dr. Lisa , ls ae h McMic llegrini, Pe Hernandez omey, To ze o B Dr. Michelle ter e tt arco Stal Michelle M Koon ca ec eb R and Walker.

d oises an James M ek at the h c ti o M Betty en of nal Wom g Professio tin e e m any St. Tamm ealth h e about th of wine. benefits

Lisa Alphonso, owner Celeste Hart and April Stolf at the U. grand opening of Creating

Stefanie, Nick , Elizabeth, Steve and Barb ara Canatella with Alicia Nu ccio in front of the St. Joseph ’s Altar they helped prepar e at SSA.

May-June 2012 121

IN the Spotlight Chef Soirée 2012

The 28th annual Chef Soirée was grand and green! The official theme was “Geaux Green,” and event sponsors and attendees were all on board—raising dollars while enjoying the environment. Chef Soirée began with dramatic pyrotechnic special effects and streamer-and-confetti cannons followed by a parade led by the New Orleans Hornets Drumline. White tents filled Bogue Falaya Park in Covington, while guests enjoyed the sweet sounds of Twilight, Hurricane Levee Band, The Wagners and Gypsy River.

With more than 85 of the northshore’s finest restaurants and beverage purveyors, the 3,000 guests attending the event were wined and dined, sampling savory cuisine in the spirit of giving. The Chef Soirée raffle offered multiple prizes, including a $10,000 cash prize. Special appearances of the evening included the New Orleans Hornets Buzz Patrol, retired WWL sports anchor Jim Henderson and Cajun fiddler and singer Amanda Shaw.

Tom and Mary Ann Fitzmorris were the honorary event chairs of Chef Soirée, which is the annual fundraising gala for the Youth Service Bureau.

May-June 2012 123

INside Peek Lauren and Ellen Bajon with IN Co ver Artist Marcia and Mary Lee Ho Holmes lmes at Inside No rthside’s Meet the Party at EMB Interi Artist ors.

Husband Kelly and Hot . ro ce Ci Lo Duke

he and Todd LaBic Paulette Guidry sh wa w to teach children ho erly at the Kids their hands prop Expo hosted by Day and Family Center. l Fairway Medica

Julie Moreau. with Jim and Jill Burbrink

Ricia Nofziger with Vikki and Hot Husband Chris tian Shofstahl.

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Inside Northside

Send your submissions to peek@insidenorthside.com.

Aaron Cap deBoscq o f De Boscq Jewelers tr aveled to S outheast A select colo sia to red gemst ones.

The Tchefuncta Sk i Team hit the Snowbird slopes in Park City, Utah , in early March. Front row: Jimmy Hingle, Mi ke Rase, Tom Lavin, Dean Lacy and John Dowdle.

Back row: Tommy Cros by, Kelly Gibson, Chris Vaccari, Jimmy Re dmann, Brent Ward, Greg Pelligrini, Chav Pie rce and Charlie Barne tt.

Paul Mancu so and Marie Growden at Louisiana A rtist Gallery ’s reception fo r artist Gretchen A rmbruster.

Gary and Patti Ellish.

Payton, oach Sean ints Head C Sa nding , Le rf o d LA n O Kelly Becke n Noel at N to sh A efiting d ner an ament ben .

Karen Heg tennis tourn g Lakehouse in e is Th ra d at n Group’s fu Foundation d ar rw Fo ay It Payton’s Pl

Gary Ellish (front and cen ter) celebrated his 60th birthday with family and friends on the roof of the Baton Rouge Hilton for dinner at the Viking Cooking School .

INside Peek

Rich Mauti and Lisa Cousin .

Lindsey at dell and Tim y, Laurie Wad se ic hosted by ss nd la Li C n is re Ka ch Mauti Tenn Ri l ua nn A the 15th Club & Spa. Stone Creek

, Montecino Ball, Windy an ri B l, al B .

Kristy Beam and Melissa Brett Custer

Jan Autin an d Gregg Wad dell.

eth usa, Elizab n.

Beth Gend y DuBuisso ar M d an Lamulle

tymiest Parsons S e Suzanne t th a Davis a and Mari Award s rt City A BRAVO! . reception

eoghegan, Dr. Ashley G penter, Todd ar C Dr. Shaun affett.

Melinda Sh Shaffett and

Kevin Davis, John Smith, Sam Caruso Sr. and Martha Caruso .

stacia Cooper, Ana Mayor Mike and n ai m ff St. Ro Bergeron, Je abitat for H at itz w ko Jennifer Mos West’s . Tammany Humanity St ent. ev s y’ an ff Ti Breakfast at

Stephanie Brou ssard and Sephanie M orvant at Northshore Sp ecialty Hospital’s gala event, which introduced The Institute for Advanced Wou nd Healing.

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Inside Northside

Katie Kumprey, Sar ah Eddy and Cheryl Klein.

IN Development

by Brenda Reine Bertus

Working for St. Tammany’s Tammany Economic economic future St.Development Foundation AS THE ST. TAMMANY ECONOMIC Development Foundation goes into the second quarter of 2012, we are looking back with pride at our recent accomplishments and with enthusiasm for what lies ahead. Last year saw more than $100 million in economic impact from our projects, and we are approaching a measurable $1 billion in economic impact on the St. Tammany Parish economy over the last 10 years.

In 2011, we saw several major projects come to fruition, including the groundbreaking of the Associated Wholesale Grocers warehouse in Pearl River, a 720,000-square-foot facility that will bring 300 permanent jobs to our parish when it opens later this year. Indeed, economic data—which we track and publish quarterly in our Trends Report—show we have fared much better than the state and nation during the recent recession. While unemployment hit double-digits in many places, it remained at or near a healthy level here. Business startups continue apace, and the housing market is beginning to show signs of growth.

But we don’t rest on the successes of the past.

At any given time, we have about 40 projects in progress, and some, such as AWG, take years to fulfill.

More than ever, we are focused on business retention. Keeping our economy healthy and our job growth steady involves more than just reaching out to new businesses and encouraging them to locate here, although that is vital to our mission. It also involves nurturing the businesses

that are already here, helping them succeed by navigating state incentive programs, offering free educational opportunities and coordinating with municipal, parish and state officials as advocates for local businesses of all sizes.

Our biggest goal for this year is to expand St. Tammany’s inventory of certified sites, which are parcels of land that are ready for development.

Louisiana Economic Development has already certified two such sites in St. Tammany, and two more are under review. Additionally, Cleco, which in 2010 launched its SmartSites program, is working to certify land at St. Joe Industrial Park in Pearl River.

Sites successfully completing Cleco’s program will be promoted by Cleco nationwide as available, fully served and developable. We are also working with local landowners and developers to identify 100- to 250-acre tracts of land to keep the process virtually continual; our goal is to have six certified sites before year’s end.

While many of our efforts are behind the scenes, the impact can be seen everywhere in St. Tammany, from major construction projects to increased housing sales as new families move here to follow new jobs. Of course, nothing exists in a vacuum, and responsive local governments, comprehensive rezoning, low crime and quality education are all factors in our work—factors to which we contribute in a variety of ways.

Brenda Reine Bertus is the executive director of the St. Tammany Economic Development Foundation.

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May-June 2012 129

DRINK SPECIALS • GREAT FOOD • FOLK DANCERS • DJ • PRIZES & SHIRTS

of the H omearg arit as Be st M

IN SLIDELL - BLOCK PARTY WITH LIVE MUSIC BY “WEATHERED” 6-10PM IN COVINGTON - OUTSIDE FOOD AND DRINKS WITH LIVE MUSIC BY “SUPERCHARGER” 6-10PM

Happy Hour Weekdays 2-6pm $3 Small Margaritas

IT’S A COMMON MISCONCEPTION—among Americans, at least—that Cinco de Mayo commemorates Mexico’s independence. In fact, Mexico’s true Independence Day is September 16.

On May 5, 1862, the Mexican army defeated French forces in the Battle of Puebla. The underdog victory, however, is not widely honored in Mexico outside the state of Puebla. Carlos Valencia of Carreta’s Grill says, “The holiday is not really celebrated in Mexico like it is in the states. Americans have embraced the holiday and the Mexican culture.”

Originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, Carlos moved to the United States in 1986 and now owns restaurants in Metairie, Slidell and Covington. He says, “A couple of years ago, Carreta’s Grill in

Cinco de Mayo

Slidell expanded the celebration into a festival atmosphere, with anticipation growing throughout the spring. What started as a small party has grown to an enormous event where patrons even bring lawn chairs.” Just as everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, the food, music and spirit of the Mexican culture take over on Cinco de Mayo.

Local distributor Champagne Beverage Co. features a variety of Mexican beers for northshore residents to enjoy throughout the year— but especially on Cinco de Mayo. Favorite brands include Corona Extra, Corona Light, Modelo Especial, Negra Modelo and Pacifico.

Leticia Rubio and her family moved to the northshore about 15 years ago to open Hammond’s La Carreta with her brother, Saul. They both hail from Queretaro, Mexico. She and her staff at the Mandeville location spend a whole year preparing for Cinco de Mayo, booking bands and adding staff. In an industry that is built around serving up entertainment, Leticia knows that this has become an excellent opportunity to showcase her homeland.

La Carreta’s other locations include

by Megan Hill

Amite, LaPlace, Denham Springs and Baton Rouge.

“It’s the biggest celebration of the year for the restaurant. American people love it. They want everything Mexican—including their beer! Everyone wears festive colors and has fun with sombreros— even dance around them and drink beer from them.

I love that, because it’s in touch with our culture,” says Leticia. She adds that with an overflowing parking lot and a packed house, the day feels like a Mexican Mardi Gras. We can certainly rally around that concept!

For Carlos’ and Leticia’s relatives back home in Mexico, May 5 is just another day.

However, Mexico’s Independence Day, September 16, is celebrated a lot like July 4 in the United States—fireworks, outdoor parties, mariachi bands and often a much needed holiday the next day.

Maybe if “Dieciséis de Septiembre” had the same kind of festive ring to it as “Cinco de Mayo,” we would all celebrate in the fall. Or, perhaps we should consider adding another celebration to our repertoire!

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Taste of Tammany Celebrates Cinco de Mayo Saturday, May 5, 2012 The Castine Center at Pelican Park Patron Party sponsored by Juniper Restaurant 6pm – 7pm Gala & Auction, 7pm – 10pm Dressy Casual - Fiesta attire encouraged Entertainment by Overboard Over 30 restaurants Local Cuisine-Beer-Wine-Sangria-Margaritas

Top Tastes of Tammany Judging of top dish and top dessert courtesy of Louisiana Cookin’ Magazine.

Live and Silent Auctions New this year: Original art by OLL alum/SSA Junior Camille Ehrhardt used for the first Taste of Tammany poster.

Other auction items include: Two-week camp sessions at Rivercamp Camp and Camp Laney, autographed Saints jerseys and footballs, autographed LSU baseball and championship poster, 50-yard line suite tickets for four Saints game, strand of pearls, golf foursomes.

Admits available online ollparish.info/festival.aspx. $50/admit or $400 for a reserved table of 8. No tickets—all reservations at the door. Admits at the door $60.

New this year . . . .

Online Raffle. All winners will be announced at the Taste Event. Winners need not be present to win. Only 5,000 tickets will be sold. Visit ollraffle.org for more information.

Grand Prize: Choice of one of the following: 2012 Jeep Wrangler Sport 4x4, 2012 1500 Crew SLT 4x2, 2012 Grand Cherokee Laredo 4x2, or 2012 Grand Caravan SXT Second Prize: Hurricane SunDeck Sport SS 188 OB Third Prize: Six-night/seven-day all-inclusive stay at the Dreams Resort and Spa in Puerto Aventuras, Mexico Fourth Prize: Saints Blue Dog print signed by artist George Rodrigue and Saints Head Coach Sean Payton Fifth Prize: LSU Blue Dog print signed by artist George Rodrigue and LSU Head Coach Les Miles Proceeds from this event provide funding to Our Lady of the Lake Roman Catholic Church school, church, youth programs and various ministries.

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INside Dining MCC: Major credit cards accepted ME: Menu Express delivery RR: Reservations recommended

dinner and Sunday brunch. Online take-out orders at copelandsofneworleans.com.

MCC, ME, RR.

ABITA SPRINGS Abita Barbecue, 69399 Hwy. 59, 8920205. Ribs, brisket, chicken, pulled pork and boudin. MCC.

Dakota Restaurant, 629 N. Hwy. 190, 892-3712. Contemporary Louisiana cuisine using local and seasonal ingredients. MCC, RR.

Abita Brew Pub, 72011 Holly St., 8925837. On the Trace. Good food, great beer. Lunch, dinner. MCC.

Del Porto Restaurant, 501 E. Boston St., 875-1006. Northern Italian cuisine.

MCC, RR.

Abita Springs Café, 22132 Level St., 867-9950. Southern cooking for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tue-Sun. MCC.

Di Martino’s, 700 S. Tyler St., 276-6460.

Great food and reasonable prices. Lunch, dinner. MCC.

Breakaway Cafe, 71667 Leveson St., 809-8998. Tue-Sat 10am-5pm.

DiCristina’s Restaurant, 810 N. Columbia St., Suite C, 875-0160.

Conveniently located next to the new Covington Courthouse. Italian and seafood.

MCC.

Camellia Café, 69455 Hwy. 59, 8096313. Traditional seafood and New Orleans cuisine. MCC. Mama D’s Pizza & More, 22054 Hwy. 59, 809-0308. Great pizza, sandwiches, pasta, fresh homemade bread. Lunch, dinner.

COVINGTON 407 North, 407 N. Columbia St., 8093131. Seafood, steaks, sandwiches. Lunch and dinner Mon-Fri; dinner Sat. MCC. Acme Oyster House, 1202 Hwy. 190, 246-6155. Established 1910 in New Orleans, 1995 on northshore. Seafood, sandwiches, local favorites. Lunch, dinner.

MCC. Albasha, 1958 Hwy. 190, 867-8292.

Mediterranean cuisine. MCC. Annadele’s Plantation, 71518 Chestnut St., 809-7669. Yellow fin tuna, domestic lamb & much more. MCC, checks.

Bear’s Restaurant, 128 W. 21st St., 8922373. Best po-boys in the world.

Buster’s Place, 519 E. Boston St., 8093880. Seafood, po-boys, steaks. Lunch, dinner. MCC. Carreta’s Grill, 70380 Hwy. 21, 871-6674.

Great Mexican cuisine and margaritas served in a family friendly atmosphere for lunch and dinner. MCC. Cheesesteak Bistro, The, 528 N. Columbia St., Covington, 875-9793.

Original cheesesteak sandwiches, soups, salads, gumbo and super spuds.

Breakfast, lunch. All under $10. MCC, checks.

The Chimes, 19130 West Front St., 8925396. Lunch and dinner. MCC. Coffee Rani, 234-A Lee Ln., 893-6158.

Soup and salad specialists.

Columbia St. Seafood, 1123 N. Columbia St., 893-4312. Seafood platters and po-boys.

Columbia St. Tap Room & Grill, 434 N. Columbia St., 898-0899. Daily specials, appetizers, sandwiches, salads, soups and burgers. Live music Thurs-Sat nights.

Lunch, dinner. MCC, ME. Copeland’s, 680 N. Hwy. 190, 809-9659.

Authentic New Orleans cuisine. Lunch,

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Don’s Seafood Hut, 126 Lake Drive, 3277111. Lunch and dinner. MCC. El Portal, 1200 Business 190, 867-5367.

English Tea Room, The, 734 Rutland St., 898-3988. Authentic English cream teas. Special event teas, English scones, crumpets and cakes. Serving breakfast and lunch. Mon-Sat 7:30am-6pm. englishtearoom.com. MCC, RR. Four Seasons Chinese Buffet, 600 N. Hwy. 190, 893-3866. MCC. Gallagher’s Grill, 509 S. Tyler St., 8929992. Lunch and dinner, Tue-Sat. MCC. RR. Isabella’s Pizzeria, 70452 Hwy. 21, Suite 500, 875-7620; 1331 Hwy. 190, 8091900. Salads, gourmet pizza, sandwiches, paninis, calzones and pasta.

Italian Pie, 70488 Hwy. 21, 871-5252.

Pizza, salads, pasta, sandwiches. Dine in or carry out. MCC, checks.

Jerk’s Island Grill & Daiquiri Bar, 70437 Hwy. 21, 893-1380. JerksIslandGrill.com.

Lola, 517 N. New Hampshire St., 8924992.

Mattina Bella, 421 E. Gibson St., 8920708. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. MCC, checks.

McAlister’s Deli, 206 Lake Dr., Suite 15, 898-2800. Great sandwiches, salads, overstuffed potatoes. MCC, checks.

Megumi of Covington, 1211 Village Walk, 893-0406.

Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers, 1645 Hwy. 190, 327-5407. Salads, pizzas, calzones. MCC. mellowmushroom.com.

Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt, 104 Lake Dr. #1, 898-6362. menchies.com.

New Orleans Food and Spirits, 208 Lee Ln., 875-0432. Grilled fish, smothered rabbit and voodoo crawfish rolls. Family owned and operated. MCC. Nonna Randazzo’s Italian Bakery and Caffè, 2033 N. Hwy. 190, Ste. 5, 8931488. Italian bakery items, luncheon salads, soups and sandwiches. MCC.

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Dining Guide North Island Chinese, 842 N. Collins Blvd., 867-8289.

Northshore Empress, 31 Louis Prima Dr., 871-6975.

Cocoa Bean Bakery and Cafe, 910 E. Main St., 345-2002. Specialty cakes, pastries. Serving breakfast and light lunch.

Specials. thecocoabeanbakery.com.

MCC.

Osaka 21 Japanese Restaurant, 70340 Hwy. 21, 809-2640.

Don’s Seafood & Steak House, 1915 S. Morrison Blvd., 345-8550. MCC.

Osaka West Japanese Restaurant, 804 N. Hwy. 190, 871-8199.

Jacmel Inn, 903 E. Morris St., 542-0043.

Casual fine dining. Dinner, Tues-Sun; lunch, Wed-Fri; Sunday Brunch; closed Mondays. jacmelinn.com. MCC, checks.

Pat’s Seafood Market and Cajun Deli, 1248 N. Collins Blvd., 892-7287.

Jambalaya, gumbo, stuffed artichokes.

MCC, checks, ME. PJ’s Coffee & Tea Co., 70456 Hwy. 21, 875-7894. Catch your morning buzz at this convenient drive-thru! Catering. MCC. Pizza Man of Covington, 1248 N. Collins Blvd., 892-9874. Checks, ME. Renaissance Antiques & Gifts with the Original Soda Fountain & Café Cabaret, 322 N. Florida St., 892-7220.

Nostalgic soda fountain for lunch and after school, six days a week.

Sage Café, 501 N. Hwy. 190, 801-0092.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner prepared from scratch with attention to detail. Drink specials. MCC. Sala Thai, 315 N. Vermont St., 249-6990.

Schwing’s Restaurant, 1204 W. 21st Ave., 893-1899. Fresh seafood and home cooking. MCC. Sicily’s Pizza, 301 N. Hwy. 190, 8930005. Pizza, lasagna, salad bar, dessert pizzas. MCC, ME. Sweet Daddy’s, 420 S. Tyler St., 8982166. Pulled pork, brisket and ribs. MCC, ME. Thai Chili, 1102 N. Hwy. 190, 809-0180.

Thai Spice, 1581 N. Hwy. 190, 809-6483.

Thai Taste, 1005 N. Collins Blvd., 8097886.

Thai Thai, 1536 N. Hwy. 190, 809-8905.

Tony Bosco’s at TerraBella, 141 TerraBella Blvd., 612-7250. Authentic Italian cuisine. Lunch, dinner, private meeting room, catering. tonyboscos.com.

Vasquez Seafood & Po-Boys, 515 E. Boston St., 893-9336. Cuban sandwiches and more. MCC, checks, ME. Yujin Japanese Restaurant and Sushi Bar, 323 N. New Hampshire St., 8093840. Japanese cuisine and sushi in a casual atmosphere. MCC. Zea Rotisserie & Grill, 110 Lake Dr., 3270520. Inspired American food. MCC. HAMMOND Adobe Cantina & Salsa, 1905 W. Thomas St., 419-0027. Fine Mexican cuisine, good spirits, great friends and fun. Ceviche (marinated fish) and Mexican pasta. Live band. adoberestaurant.com. MCC. Brady’s, 110 Southwest Railroad Ave., 542-6333.

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Kirin Sushi, 221 E. Cate St., 5428888. First Japanese sushi restaurant in Hammond! Dragon roll, Kirin roll, sake.

MCC. La Carreta Authentic Mexican Cuisine, 108 N.W Railroad Ave., 4199990. Festive Mexican atmosphere, fresh food from traditional recipes, outstanding service and value. Live music. Lunch, dinner, seven days a week. MCC. Old MacDonald’s Smokehouse, 1601 N. Morrison Blvd., 542-7529. BBQ brisket, ribs, chicken and sausage. MCC, checks.

Pepper Tree Grill and Bar, 2037 W. Thomas St., 345-5525. MCC, checks.

Tommy’s on Thomas, 216 W. Thomas St., 350-6100. Pizza, pastas. Lunch, dinner. MCC, checks.

Tope là, 104 N. Cate St., 542-7600.

Contemporary delights. MCC. Trey Yuen Cuisine of China, 2100 N. Morrison Blvd., 345-6789. Innovative quality Chinese food served in Imperial surroundings. MCC, checks.

VooDoo BBQ & Grill, 2108 W. Thomas St., 345-1131. “Taste our Magic.” MCC. Yellow Bird Café, 222 E. Charles St., 345-1112. A great place to start your day.

Breakfast, lunch. MCC, checks.

LACOMBE Janie Brown’s Restaurant, 27207 Hwy. 190, 882-7201. Casual dining with a great atmosphere. MCC, checks.

La Provence Restaurant, 25020 Hwy. 190, 626-7662. Owner John Besh combines hospitality with French cuisine and welcoming hearths. Dinner, Sunday brunch. MCC, checks. RR. Sal & Judy’s, 27491 Hwy. 190, 8829443. Great food and line of retail products.

Family owned for 27 years. Veal is the house specialty. MCC, RR. MADISONVILLE Cafe Madisonville, 410 Covington Hwy., 792-4506. Soups, salads, sandwiches and lunch specials.

Coffee’s Boiling Pot, 305 Old Covington Hwy., 845-2348. Boiled seafood in a family atmosphere.

Friends Coastal Restaurant, 407 St. Tammany St., 845-7303. Key West meets New Orleans in this island casual dining atmosphere. Lunch, dinner. MCC. RR. Frog’s Pizzeria, 302 Hwy. 22, 845-9500.

i Keith Young’s Steakhouse, 165 Hwy. 21, 845-9940. Steak, crab cakes. Lunch Tues-Fri, dinner. MCC. Morton’s Boiled Seafood & Bar, 702 Water St., 845-4970. Relaxed atmosphere, seafood, daily specials.

Lunch, dinner. MCC, checks.

Water St. Bistro, 804 Water St., 8453855. Casual ambiance on the Tchefuncte.

Lunch, dinner Wed-Sun. MCC. MANDEVILLE Barley Oak, The, 2101 Lakeshore Dr. 727-7420. Serving 130 styles of beer, call and premium liquors and lunch and dinner. thebarleyoak.com. MCC. Bear’s Grill & Spirits, 1809 N. Causeway Blvd., 674-9090. Bear’s po-boys and more. MCC. Benedict’s Plantation, 1144 Lovers Ln., 626-4557. Traditional New Orleans cuisine.

Dinner, Sunday brunch. MCC. Bosco’s Italian Café, 2040 Highway 59, 624-5066.

Broken Egg Café, 200 Gerard St., 6243388. Excellent choice for brunch! Pasta, specialty salads, sandwiches. MCC. Café Lynn Restaurant and Catering, 3051 E. Causeway App., 624-9007.

Casual fine dining for lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch by Chef Joey Najolia.

MCC. Casa Garcia, 800 N. Causeway Blvd., 951-8226. Redefining Mexican food one meal at a time. MCC. Causeway Café, 527 N. Causeway Blvd., 626-9997. MCC. Chili’s Bar & Grill, 3420 Hwy. 190, 7272771. Fajitas and the Awesome Blossom.

Lunch, dinner. MCC, ME.

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Kickstand Café and Bike Rental, 690 Lafitte St., 626-9300.

La Carreta Authentic Mexican Cuisine, 1200 W. Causeway App., 624-2990. Festive Mexican atmosphere, fresh food from traditional recipes, outstanding service and value.

Live music. Lunch, dinner, seven days a week. MCC. La Madeleine French Cafe, 3434 Hwy. 190, 626-7004.

The Lakehouse, 2025 Lakeshore Dr., 626-3006, events 807-5014.

Restaurant and special events venue open 7 days for private events.

Dinner, Thurs.-Sat. Sunday brunch.

Lakehousecuisine.com. MCC Little Tokyo, 590 Asbury Dr., 727-1532.

Louie & The Redhead Lady, 1851 Florida St., 626-8101.

Macaroni Grill, 3410 Hwy. 190, 7271998. Penne rustica, pasta Milano, other Italian favorites. Lunch, dinner. MCC, ME.

Maw Maw’s, 1461 N. Causeway Blvd., Ste. 11, 727-7727. Soups, salads, stuffed potatoes, sandwiches, po-boys.

Hong Kong Restaurant, 2890 E. Causeway App., 626-8222. MCC.

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K. Gee’s, 2534 Florida St., 6260530. Featuring Louisiana seafood. kgeesrestaurant.com. MCC.

Country Kitchen, 2109 Florida St., 6265375.

Gio’s Villa Vancheri, 2890 E. Causeway App., 624-2597. Sicilian specialties by 5-star chef Gio Vancheri. Lunch, dinner Mon-Sat. MCC. RR.

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Juniper, 301 Lafitte St., 370-8713.

Progressive Creole cuisine. Lunch, dinner, brunch. MCC, checks.

Mandina’s, 4240 Hwy. 22 in Azalea Square Shopping Center, 674-9883.

Seafood, Creole and Italian. Lunch, dinner Mon-Sat.

George’s Mexican Restaurant, 1461 N. Causeway Blvd., 626-4342. Family owned. Fajitas, George’s nachos, Carne al la Parrilla. Best top-shelf margaritas in town.

MCC, ME.

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Izumi, 2660 Florida St., 624-8664. Sushi, Japanese specialties. MCC.

Coscino’s Pizza, 1817 N. Causeway Blvd., 727-4984. New York hand-tossed pizza and Italian foods cooked on stone using the finest ingredients. MCC.

Franco’s Grill,100 Bon Temps Roule, 792-0200. Fresh organic foods for breakfast, lunch and takeout. MCC.

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Italian Pie, 4350 Hwy. 22, 626-5252.

Pizza, salads, pasta, sandwiches. Dine in or carry out. MCC, checks.

Mande’s, 340 N. Causeway App., 6269047. Serving breakfast and lunch, daily specials.

Fazzio’s Seafood & Steakhouse, 1841 N. Causeway Blvd., 6249704. Fresh fish daily, aged beef, traditional Italian. Lunch, dinner.

MCC, ME, RR.

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Isabella’s Pizzeria, 2660 Florida St. (in the Florida Street Market), 674-5700. Salads, gourmet pizza, sandwiches, paninis, calzones and pasta.

Coffee Rani, 3517 Hwy. 190, 674-0560.

Soup and salad specialists.

Fat Spoon Café, 68480 Hwy. 59., 8092929. Breakfast, lunch, Tues-Sun. MCC.

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Megumi Japanese Cuisine, 4700 Hwy. 22, Suite 11&12, 845-1644. Yakimono and sushi bar. Lunch, dinner.

MiMamacita’s New Mexican Cuisine, 2345 Florida St., 674-1400. Great food and margaritas. Lunch, dinner, catering.

MCC. Monster Po-Boys, 1814 N. Causeway App., 626-9183. Lunch, dinner.

N’Tini’s, 2891 N. Hwy. 190, 626-5566.

Steaks, martinis. Lunch specials. Mon.-Sat. MCC. Nuvolari’s, 246 Girod St., 626-5619. In Old Mandeville. Gnocchi, escargot, filet mignon, linguini fruta di mare. Dinner. MCC. nuvolaris.com.

Pal’s Ice Cream and Yogurt

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Dining Guide Shop, 2201 Eleventh St., 626-0293.

“Only 8” all-natural no-fat yogurt, banana splits, smoothies. Soups, sandwiches. MCC. Petunia’s Place, 2020 Hwy. 59, 6743436.

PJ’s Coffee & Tea Co., 2963 Hwy. 190, 674-1565. Catch your morning buzz at this convenient drive-thru! Catering. MCC. Rag’s Old Fashioned Po-Boys, 4960 Hwy. 22, 792-1744. Herbie roast beef with Swiss and ham, muffalettas. MCC, checks, ME. Rip’s on the Lake, 1917 Lakeshore Dr., 727-2829.

Ristorante Carmelo & Pizzaria, 1901 Hwy. 190, 624-4844. Family-oriented Italian cuisine. Lunch and dinner. MCC. Rusty Pelican, 500 Girod St., 778-0364.

Lunch, dinner. MCC. Sake Gardens Japanese Restaurant, 1705 Hwy. 190, 624-8955.

Sesame Inn, 408 N. Causeway Blvd., 951-8888. Finest Chinese cuisine.

Shuck & Jive, 643 Lotus Drive, 626-1534. shucknjivemandeville.com. MCC Smoothie King, 1830 W. Causeway App., 626-9159. Smoothies. MCC, checks.

Subway, 1665 Hwy. 190, 674-0733.

Sandwiches, salads. Low-fat available.

MCC.

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Sweet Daddy’s, 2534 Florida St., 6260208. Pulled pork, brisket and ribs. MCC, ME. Taqueria Noria, 1931 Hwy. 59, 7277917. Lunch, dinner.

Times Bar & Grill, 1896 N. Causeway Blvd., 626-1161. Famous hamburgers, starters, steaks and more. Lunch, dinner.

ME, MCC. Trey Yuen Cuisine of China, 600 N. Causeway Blvd., 626-4476. Quality China cuisine with Louisiana flair. Lunch, dinner.

MCC, checks.

Vianne’s Tea House, 544 Girod St., 624-5683. A full café menu with over 120 loose leaf and speciality teas. Breakfast, lunch. MCC. Vigroux Po-Boys, 2625 Florida St., 2317314. Lunch, dinner.

VooDoo BBQ & Grill, 2999 Hwy. 190 E., 629-2021. “Taste our Magic.” MCC. PONCHATOULA Middendorf’s Seafood Restaurant, 30160 Hwy. 51, 386-6666.

Rockefeller’s, 147 N.W. Railroad Ave., 370-0930. Fresh, global, vibrant cuisine. Open 7 days a week. rockefellersrestaurant.com. MCC. Sister’s Coffeehouse & Cafe, 18440 Hwy. 22 E., 370-9424. Warm, friendly atmosphere, unique food, gourmet coffees, teas. MCC, checks.

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Inside Northside

Taste of Bavaria Restaurant & Bakery, 14476 Hwy. 22, 3863634. Charming Bavarian bungalow, European-style breakfast, German-style lunch. MCC, checks.

SLIDELL A Touch of Italy Café, 134 Pennsylvania Ave., 639-0600. Seafood, veal, steaks, daily specials. Lunch, dinner. MCC, checks.

Assunta’s, 2631 Hwy. 190 W., 649-9768.

Italian food, extensive wine selection.

Dinner. MCC, checks.

Bear’s Grill & Spirits, 550 Gause Blvd.

201-8905. Bear’s po-boys and more.

MCC. Bistro de la Reine, 2306 Front St., 2884166. Sunday brunch, live entertainment, fine wines and spirits. Open seven days a week. MCC. Camellia Cafe, 525 Hwy. 190, 649-6211.

Traditional seafood and New Orleans cuisine. MCC. Carreta’s Grill, 137 Taos St., 847-0020. Great Mexican cuisine and margaritas served in a familyfriendly atmosphere for lunch and dinner. MCC. Eddie D’s, 39510 Hwy. 190 E., 847-1000.

Java Jungle, 1071 Robert Blvd., 6490380. Specialty coffees, casual dining, lush tropical setting. Breakfast, lunch, dinner.

MCC, checks.

KY’s Olde Towne Bicycle Shop, 2267 Carey St., 641-1911. Casual dining in former bicycle shop. Kids’ menu. Lunch, dinner. MCC, checks.

La. Pines, 1061 Robert St., 641-6196.

Meet under the water tower for Ahhhfullwaffles, Sugar Watcher specials. Breakfast, lunch. MCC, checks.

Michael’s, 4820 Pontchartrain Dr., 649-8055. Steaks, seafood, veal, duck, eggplant au gratin. Extensive wine selection. Dinner.

Palmettos on the Bayou, 1901 Bayou Ln., 643-0050.

Phil’s Marina Café, 1194 Harbor Dr., 641-0464.

Shenanigans Irish Pub & Fare, 2165 W. Gause Blvd., 288-5286. Authentic Irish food, drink and entertainment in a traditional pub atmosphere.

Smoothie King, 150 Northshore Blvd., 781-3456. Low-fat health drinks. MCC, checks.

Steak Out, 1325 Gause Blvd., 645-8646.

Eat in or delivered to you. MCC. Tacos and Beer, 2142 Front St., 6414969. Lunch, dinner and late-night.

Times Bar & Grill, 1st St., 641-4969.

Famous hamburgers, starters, steaks and more. Lunch, dinner. ME, MCC. Wine Market, The, 2051 E. Gause Blvd., 781-1177. Deli restaurant, lunch, 11-3pm.

Sandwiches, soups, salads, wraps. MCC and checks.

Young’s Restaurant, 850 Robert Blvd., 643-9331. Steaks, seafood, nice wine selection. Dinner. MCC, checks.

Directory of Advertisers ADVERTISER...........................CONTACT INFO PAGE 10/12 Properties.................... 985-626-8200 133 AbbyPhoto, LLC...................... 985-951-8868 WIB-20 Accents & Things.................... 985-649-4273 6 Advanced Hand Specialists..... 985-674-4170 62 Agena, Dr. Gary M. - OB/GYN... 985-845-7121 19 Air Blow Dry Bar & Salon........ 985-626-1402 WIB-16 Al’s Plumbing Co.................... 985-845-9390 82 American Factory Direct.......... 985-871-0300 48 Amplify - PA Camp................. 985-727-7110 84 Angelo’s Lawn-Scape of Louisiana ................................. angeloslawnscape.com 27 Apricot Lane.......................... 504-849-0900 95 Arabella Fine Gifts.................. 985-727-9787 68 Armbruster Artworks Studio.... 985-630-6295 WIB-19 Askhimbooks.com..............askhimbooks.com 33 Asset One.............................. 985-727-2894 50 Bamboo Gardens......... bambogardensla.com 106 Ban Soleil............................... 985-875-9109 49 Bar Method Covington........... 985-871-1131 110 Bedico Creek Preserve............ 985-845-4200 120 Bella Cucina........................... 985-626-7886 68 Benchmark Investment Group... 985-635-0770 26 Benefits of Home, The............. 985-276-6845 34 Bevolo Gas & Electric Lights... 985-249-6040 21 Billiot Pest Control.................. 985-893-5083 63 Blue Williams LLP................... 985-626-0058 63 Bookkeeping by Stacy............. 504-217-4508 53 Boudreaux’s Fine Jewelers...... 985-626-1666 41 Bra Genie............................... 985-951-8638 99 Bra la Vie .............................. 985-662-5065 WIB-9 Brown Family Orthodontics..... 985-626-8297 WIB-14 Café Lynn............................... 985-624-9007 110 Caitlyn Mosher Photography... 985-507-1185 84 Cardio Vascular Associates...... 985-871-0735 WIB-8 Carreta’s Grill......................... 985-871-6674 130 Champagne Beverage Co. ............................. champagnebeverage.com 4 Champagne Jewelers............. 985-643-2599 19 Chris Whitty Construction, LLC... 985-847-9417 111 Christwood Retirement Community ......................................... christwoodrc.com 16 Columbia Street Mercantile.... 985-809-1789 95,WIB 15 Compounding Corner............. 985-792-5041 92 Crawfish Mambo............crawfishmambo.com 84 Creating U............................. 985-796-1818 23 Culinary Kids.......................... 985-727-5553 109 De Boscq Jewelry................... 985-674-0007 67 deCoeur...................................... decoeur.net 96 DeLuca’s Expressions in Gold... 985-892-2317 113 Designs in Windows............... 985-209-1689 136 Dimitri Dermatology............... 985-892-5497 15,WIB-10 Discoveries Furniture and Finds.... 985-345-2577 79 Downtown Chic..................... 985-809-3860 99 Eduardo Jenkins Landscape Architect and Planner ............................................. 225-343-0571 52 EMB Interiors......................... 985-626-1522 WIB-4 English Tea Room, The............ 985-898-3988 134 Etan Enterprises..................... 985-966-7042 22 Fairway Medical Surgical Hospital ......................................fairwaymedical.com 20 Fat Spoon Café....................... 985-809-2929 135 Fitness Expo........................... 985-624-9990 62 Fleurt..................................... 985-809-8844 96 Florist of Covington................ 985-892-7701 35

ADVERTISER...........................CONTACT INFO PAGE Franco’s Athletic Club............. 985-792-0200 BC Freedom Boat Club................. 985-792-5115 111 French Mix, The...................... 985-809-3152 17 Georgian Furnishing Berger Home... 504-733-4141 31 GNO Property Management... 504-528-7028 129 Gomez Pine Straw.................. 985-264-3567 136 Grapevine.........grapevinegiftsandgallery.com 113 Hammond Air Center.............. 985-345-3030 5 Heart of Fashion..................... 985-898-4171 87 Hestia Luxury in Linens........... 985-893-0490 WIB-9 Historic New Orleans Collection... 504-523-4662 60 Home Bank....................... home24bank.com 124 Honda of Covington............... 985-892-0001 IFC,WIB-19 Huntington Learning Center... 985-727-0000 WIB-IFC Integrity Builders Inc............... 985-626-3479 79 Istre Hearing Care.................. 985-845-3509 81 Izabella’s Villa........................ 985-649-5060 3,WIB-BC Jim Stone Co.......................... 985-882-5907 65 Jos. A. Bank............................ 985-624-4067 81 K. Gee’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar ............................................. 985-626-0530 135 KentJacob Color Salon............ 985-845-8011 114 Kids Wanna Help.............kidswannahelp.com WIB-7 Kristin and Heather Photography .................................. kristinandheather.com 28 La Carreta.............................. 985-624-2990 80 La Pavers............................... 504-382-3750 129 Lake After Hours..................... 985-375-9979 52 Lakehouse, The....................... 985-626-3006 10 Lakeview Regional Medical Center ............................................. 985-867-3800 IBC Lakeshore Surgical Specialists..... 985-892-8959 29 Latter & Blum, Jennifer Rice... 985-892-1478 129 L’auberge Casino & Hotel.... lbatonrouge.com 25 Laurier................................... 985-875-0823 99 LCI Workers Comp.................. 985-612-1230 73 Louisiana Artists Gallery, The... 985-624-7903 106 Louisiana Bicentennial Celebration ............................................. 985-646-4375 90,91 Louisiana Heart Center........... 985-649-2700 24 Louisiana Heart Hospital ............................ louisianahearhospital.com 11 Lowe’s Jewelers..................... 985-845-4653 33 M. Celeste Lagarde, MD......... 985-898-0589 28 Magnolia Obstetrics & Gynecology... 985-230-7650 WIB-17 Mandeville Ace Hardware....... 985-626-3113 106 Mandeville Party Co................ 985-674-3983 68 Martin & Malkemus................ 985-635-4421 34,37 Martin Wine Cellar................martinwine.com 30 Mauti, Meredith & Scoggin..... 985-893-3500 34 Mélange by KP....................... 985-807-7652 WIB-10 Mix, The................................ 985-727-7649 WIB-18 MoreSmiles-Dr. Jim Moreau ... 985-809-7645 121 Moseley’s Fine Jewelers.......... 985-626-5098 12 Nancy Robbins Interiors.......... 985-727-4565 WIB-16 Newman Comprehensive, OB/GYN....985-246-1224 25 NOLA Lending Group, LLC...... 985-951-8479 13 North American Insurance Agency ............................................. 985-871-5480 83 NORTH Institute, The.............. 985-871-4114 105 North Oaks Health System........northoaks.org 80 North Shore Square Mall........ 985-646-0664 8 Northlake Periodontics........... 985-727-1133 74 Northshore Dermatology ....... 985-792-5959 87

ADVERTISER...........................CONTACT INFO PAGE Ochsner Medical Center - Northshore .................................................. ochsner.org 122 Olivier Couture, A Bridal Boutique ............................................. 985-674-6994 WIB-6 Outdoor Living Center............ 985-893-8008 50 Paisley................................... 985-727-7880 96 Pan American Power............... 985-893-1271 WIB-5 Paretti Jaguar......................... 866-751-0237 53 Perino’s Garden Center........... 504-834-7888 35 Pilates Plus Covington............ 985-892-4958 47 Pine Grove Lighting & Electrical Supply ............................................. 985-893-4003 129 Pinnacle Mortgage Group, LLC.... 985-727-0755 128 Play and Learn Northshore Academy ............................................. 985-674-7744 84 Precision Sewing Machines..... 985-249-6156 99 Private Beach......................... 985-237-6040 95 Pure Barre.............................. 985-674-7577 77 Purple Armadillo Again.... purplearmadillo.net 115 Rab, Dr. Tahseen..................... 985-340-7868 65 Rehab Dynamics .................... 985-871-7878 WIB-11 Resource Bank...............bankonresource.com 82 R’evolution Restaurant - Royal Sonesta ............................................. 504-553-2277 37 Riverview Camp for Girls........ 800-882-0722 100 Rodan & Fields Dermatologists..... 985-966-6475 136 Ruffino Custom Closets.......... 985-809-7623 60 Rug Chic................................ 985-674-1070 125 St. Joseph Abbey......... saintjosephabbey.com 20 St. Tammany Parish Hospital... 985-898-4000 117 St. Tammany West Chamber ... 985-892-3216 WIB-21 Saks Fifth Ave......................... 504-524-2200 WIB-12,13 Sala Thai................................ 985-249-6990 134 Secure Access, LLC................. 225-206-4366 77 Seven Wonders...................... 985-674-1447 15 Shoefflé.....................................shoeffle.com 96 Shofstahl Law Firm................. 985-674-1801 136 Simplee Gourmet................... 985-892-8370 113 Simply Divorce....................... 985-327-3024 WIB-20 Simply Southern..................... 985-871-1466 65 Slidell Memorial Hospital........ 985-643-2200 109 Southern Bridal...................... 985-727-2993 113,WIB22 Southland Plumbing Supply, Inc. ............................................. 985-893-8883 72 Speedway Printing.................. 985-626-0032 WIB-15 State Farm Insurance, CJ Ladner.985-892-5030 68 Steve’s RV.............................. 985-882-9911 47 STHBA........................................... sthba.org 128 Stone Creek Club and Spa...... 985-801-7100 7 Stone Source.......................... 985-892-0695 6 Studio MV.............................. 985-867-5601 34 Summers Neurosurgery, LLC... 985-419-7767 WIB-IBC Swine Krewe................................................. 85 Tchefuncte River home for sale... 225-933-4604 128 TerraBella.......................terrabellavillage.com 42 United Way............................ 985-875-3026 103 Venous & Arterial Surgery Clinic ............................................. 985-893-5958 106 Villa, The................................ 985-626-9797 95 Village Executive Office Suites, The ............................................. 985-727-6700 65 Wash House Hair Studio, The.... 985-624-5004 WIB-6 Welcome Home and garden... 985-893-3933 WIB-22 Youth Service Bureau.............. 985-893-2570 89 May-June 2012 137

Last Bite

Chok and Sumalee Noibanchong of Sala Thai

by Stephen Faure

A PAIR OF OIL INDUSTRY VETERANS deciding to open a restaurant after retiring might not seem like a far-fetched idea, but for Chok and Sumalee Noibanchong it was a decision taken far from home.

During his career as an earth scientist for Chevron, Chok travelled the passion: cooking and sharing the food of their native Thailand, a move equivalent to a Louisiana native settling down and opening a gumbo and jambalaya joint in Bangkok.

“We travelled around the world and did research on Thai and western foods,” Chok says. The couple’s passion for cooking native Thai specialties came naturally, as Chok’s grandmother cooked for the Thai royal family, and Sumalee’s mother was a chef for one of Bangkok’s five-star hotels. “So we have the recipes—the authentic

to serve the busy and often time-pressed downtown Covington business people and the courthouse crowd. It’s also been a great way, Sumalee says, for people to become familiar with Thai dishes.

“They don’t want to try other dishes because they don’t know what they’re going to get. The buffet is a better way. You can come and taste a little bit of each thing, and every day we change the menu.”

Sala Thai is located at 315 N. Vermont St. in Covington; 249-6990.

138

Inside Northside

photo: STEPHEN FAURE

recipes—passed along to us.”

Sumalee’s Bangkok culinary resources aren’t limited to her mother’s experience as a chef; she completed a Thai cooking training program there.

Her experience and resources combine with Chok’s to make unique cuisine that stands out in a fairly competitive northshore Thai food market.

“What we like to do is not a business—we want to do it like art. The real homemade Thai food,” Chok notes.

“Our Pad Thai is totally different than the others,” says Sumalee of the Thai noodle-based dish. “I got this recipe from my mother. Of all the dishes we have on the menu, I think it’s the best we can cook.” Thai food has a reputation as a fiery cuisine, but what stands out for Sala Thai are the fresh spices and herbs used in their dishes— lemongrass, galangal, ginger and key lime leaves round out the heat in the curry dishes they serve.

Thai food novices take note: Sala Thai now offers a lunch buffet, which started as a better way

450

$

HEAD OF THE CLASS • DEGAS HOUSE • MAYOR MIKE COOPER • COVEY RISE FARMS

MAY-JUNE 2012 VOL. 27, NO. 3