January-February 2012 Issue of Inside Northside Magazine

450

$

PRESBYTERE • PAT BRISTER • FRIENDSHIP OAK • ROY ROBINSON

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2012 VOL. 27, NO. 1

January-February 2012

Vol. 27, No. 1

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

Contributing Photographer Abby Sands Miller 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 Alexis Gennusa –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 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 Ryan Perea –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 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.

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Inside Northside

departments 10 Publisher’s Note 12 Contributors 18 Inside Scoop 26 IN the Arts Happenings in the art world.

34 IN Better Health Sharon Cooper.

71 Book Report The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak, by Randy Fertel.

81 Flourishes Treasures for your pleasure.

84 IN Fashion With Beverly McQuaid.

contents table of

page 36

page 87

features

87 Inside Look Great grays.

92 IN Good Company Martin Wine Cellar.

14 Meeting the Challenge Cover Artist Ryan Perea.

95 IN Love and Marriage Notable northshore weddings.

28 Heart to Heart Heart transplant recipient Jamie Outlaw Napolitano.

114 IN Great Taste Local favorites to try at home.

115 Inside Dining 121 Ad Directory 122 Insider Stephanie Cerise.

page 98

36 It’s Carnival Time at the Presbytere!

Preserving Mardi Gras history.

43 Kevin Davis St. Tammany’s Road Warrior.

48 Louisiana Children’s Discovery Center

Bells and whistles; squeals and giggles.

52 Roy Robinson Portrait of the young caricaturist at 90.

56 St. Tammany’s New Leader An exclusive interview with Pat Brister.

63 Southeastern’s Friendship Oak Campus courtship central.

page 56

72

01 IN the Spotlight 1 Fostering Angels Holiday Classic Tennis Tournament.

103 Inside Peek

98 Fitness Trends Shaping up in the New Year.

110 IN the Spotlight St. Tammany’s Ozone Camellia Festival.

112 Northshore Living Good news.

The Northshore Community Foundation

Celebrating five years of building a beautiful future.

medical profiles page 63

102 Cardiovascular Associates 111 Northlake Periodontics January-February 2012 9

HAPPY New Year!

by Lori Murphy

As I write this on a cold and rainy day in December, I feel

a touch of winter doldrums. It is easy to do if we think only about the weather and the fact that it gets dark way too early in the afternoon.

Looking at my calendar, however, I realize that the next two

months are anything but doldrums! When we wish each other “Happy New Year!” January 1, we can certainly put the emphasis on the “Happy!”

Following our New Year’s Day celebration, the red and green

of holiday décor gives way to purple and gold. What is bringing more joy and excitement than the eagerly anticipated LSUAlabama BCS Championship game on January 9? Football fans will also cheer the Sugar Bowl game January 3 and the Super Bowl on February 5.

On Twelfth Night, January 6, we on the northshore officially

become part of “The city that care forgot,” as we add green to our purple and gold decorations and launch into Carnival. Beads appear everywhere from the mirrors in our cars to around our necks. The good times will roll and the cries of “Throw me something, Mister!” will be heard non-stop until Mardi Gras Day, February 21.

And, of course, we can’t forget Valentine’s Day on February 14.

Nothing says “Happy” as well as chocolates, roses, a lovingly prepared dinner—or maybe jewelry!

As February draws to a close and March ushers in spring, the

doldrums danger is passed. Living in South Louisiana, we are lucky to have so many winter highlights to get us through.

May the New Year bring you good health and an abundance of

happiness.

ps … If you haven’t sent in your Hot Husband nomination, there’s still time. Send it and a picture to editor@insidenorthside.com by January 9!

Contributors

Erin Cowser Erin Cowser represents Southeastern Louisiana University in public and legislative arenas, receiving national accolades for her work as the university’s executive director of public and governmental affairs. She serves on the Louisiana Children’s Discovery Center Advisory Board and as chair of Hammond Chamber of Commerce’s Governmental Affairs Committee. Erin earned a degree in mass communication from LSU and is pursuing a master’s in organizational communication from Southeastern. She and her husband, C.A., have two smart and beautiful daughters, and they enjoy cheering on their favorite football teams—any that have gold as one of the team colors!

Jasmine Beard Jasmine Beard, a freshman at Delgado Community College, is majoring in mass communication with a minor in psychology. She plans to transfer to Southeastern Louisiana University this fall, where she will continue to pursue her bachelor’s degree.

During her internship at Inside Northside, Jasmine has appreciated the opportunity to gain a better understanding of what it takes to publish a magazine while getting handson experience. When not studying or working, Jasmine enjoys spending time with her friends and family.

Webb Williams Whether his subject is the historical or the hysterical, the famous or the infamous, Webb Williams adds wit and pizzazz to every article he writes. He wears many hats in addition to his trademark chapeau—he loves writing, festivals, carnival and creative pursuits. Formerly Popeyes’ national creative director, he now freelances as an advertising copywriter/ producer. Spare time finds him gardening as well as tending his green egg-laying chickens, a pair of lovebirds (Rhett & Scarlett) and a cockatiel named Elvis. Webb and his wife, Cathy, enjoy their Houltonville home called “Beau Swamp.”

Contributors: Brenda Breck, Maria Davis, Karen Gibbs, Poki Hampton, Abby Sands Miller and Roy Robinson.

photo: HEATHER BURBRINK www.kristinandheather.com

by Stephen Faure ARTIST RYAN PEREA has set a worthy challenge for himself: to make a living as a painter. He’s off to a great start. After training with some very skilled portrait artists in New York City, the Franklinton-area native has moved back to the northshore, where he continues to learn and practice his chosen craft.

a marching band would be a good idea, really—just Mardi Gras in general.”

Ryan says he always had a knack for drawing and was in the talented art program in high school.

He went to Southeastern Louisiana University but did not major in art. After graduating in 2003,

Meeting the Challenge Cover Artist Ryan Perea

“As long as I’ve been painting, I’ve been a portrait artist. It’s been people, people, people,” says Ryan.

This month’s cover is an example of Ryan’s meticulous style. While it’s a departure from the straight portrait perspective—he didn’t have anyone sit or pose for him—it’s still an exercise in capturing on canvas the person behind the image. He says it came about partly out of simple economics.

“The problem is that people don’t really want to buy paintings of faces that they don’t know,” says Ryan. “I was trying to think of a way where I could still do a face or a figure but make it so people— anybody—would want to have it.” Recognizing that many local artists, no matter what their normal focus might be, paint Mardi Gras scenes, he says, “I thought 14

Inside Northside

he moved to New York. There, he encountered a serendipitous situation.

“It’s funny. I was living in a loft in New York around 2007. It was a slummy place, full of graffiti; it had character, though—it was neat,” he says, recalling the bohemian environment. “One time, I was taking trash to the trash room and there were three or four big canvases sitting in the trash with a bag of paints.

I hadn’t painted in six years or done any drawing.

When I saw that, I said, ‘I can’t pass this up.’ So that’s how I started. I had no idea what I was doing, but I loved it. It stuck.”

Not happy with the results he was getting, Ryan decided he needed some training. He found Rob Zeller, an artist who is originally from New Orleans, >>

Meet the cover artist

Ryan Perea and see some of his favorite works on display at

Martin Wine Cellar 2895 Highway 190 (Village Shopping Center) Mandeville, LA Thursday, January 19, 2012 5:30-7:00 p.m.

For more information, call

626-9684

Everyone’s Invited!

January-February 2012 15

living in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn, near Ryan’s loft. “Rob studied with Jacob Collins in New York. Collins is a worldrenowned figurative and portrait artist, a classical realist. Rob took everything I knew and said, ‘All right. We’re starting from scratch. I’m going to show you how to do this correctly.’ It’s all based on classical 17th- and 18th-century European drawing and painting techniques.”

After three years of study, Ryan left New York. He says, “I decided to move home just to focus on painting. New York’s pretty expensive. I taught talented art for a year when I got back because I needed a job. But painting full time was where my heart was sitting, and I said if I really want to do this, I can’t be doing two things at once.”

Upon coming home to Louisiana, Ryan realized that with the change in geography came a change in the artistic environment. New York City has seen a revival in classical realism, the genre that best represents his artistic focus. “Coming down here, I didn’t see as much of that; it was more whimsical, colorful things—which is great, but I didn’t see anybody in a more classic style until I saw one of Gretchen Armbruster’s nudes at Mo’s Art Supply. I said, ‘That’s the person I need to be talking to.’”

He ended up getting in touch with Gretchen (whose work has been featured on the cover of Inside Northside) and took some of her classes. Gretchen introduced him to Bobbie Chassaignac at the Louisiana Artists Gallery in Mandeville, which now features his work.

He has one still life of apples there, but mostly there are portraits or figurative work that he’s painted from photos of his good friends. “I try to do other things, too, but nothing grabs me like doing people,” he says. He’d rather paint from life, but 16

Inside Northside

notes laughingly that his friends won’t sit still for eight or 10 hours.

The conundrum facing Ryan is, given that buyers seldom purchase portraits of people they’re not connected to, how do you make a living painting people before having a steady stream of portrait commissions? He’s finding the answer in creating images like his cover piece.

“Coming back to New Orleans, I noticed a lot of Mardi Gras scenes. I don’t want to fall into the same-old, same-old New Orleans scene. But if I do one, it has to be a scene that really grabs me, I’ll have to really feel it and I’ll have to ‘bring it’ whenever I paint it. I don’t want to run on the coattails of other people.”

With the cover painting, which is his interpretation of a photo of the Warren Easton High School marching band, Ryan certainly did “bring it.”

“When I saw the photo, I was ‘Whoa, that’s a great image!’ Those guys made me feel like I was there, and that’s what I wanted to portray,” Ryan says.

The meticulously detailed painting took several weeks to complete, with, he says, at least two weeks spent getting the reflections in the marcher’s helmets just right. “Any time I’m doing something, I hear Rob Zeller’s voice saying, ‘You’ve got to keep going; you’ve got to keep going.’ That’s what makes me excited about painting—to try to get the person to be there, to be real. And to get their personality. It doesn’t do it for me if I can’t capture that,” says Ryan.

“There’s something about being able to portray a person on canvas that excites me to death.”

And that, for any young portrait artist, says it all.

Ryan Perea’s work is featured at the Louisiana Artists Gallery, 813 Florida St., Ste. A, in Mandeville. 624-7903. ryanperea.com.

January-February 2012 17

Carnival Calendar January 22 Krewe of Claude. Slidell, 1pm.

29 Krewe of Slidellians. Slidell, 1pm.

February 4 Krewe of Blige. Slidell, noon.

5 Krewe of Perseus. Slidell, 1pm.

5 Pearl River Lions Club Parade. Pearl River, 1:15 p.m.

10 Krewe de Paws. Slidell, 6pm.

10 Krewe of Eve. Mandeville, 7pm.

10 Mona Lisa & Moon Pie. Slidell, 7pm.

11 Krewe of Push Mow. Abita Springs, 11am.

11 Krewe of Olympia. Covington, 6pm.

11 Mystic Krewe of Titans. Slidell, 6:30pm.

12 Krewe of Dionysus. Slidell, 1pm.

12 Krewe of Tchefuncte. Madisonville, 2pm.

17 Krewe of Selene. Slidell, 6:30pm.

17 The Original Krewe of Orpheus. Mandeville, 7pm.

18 Krewe of Bush. Bush, 9am.

18 Krewe of Salt Bayou. Slidell, 2pm.

21 Lions Parade. Covington, 10am.

21 Krewe of Chahta-Ima. Lacombe, 1pm.

21 Krewe of Covington. Covington. After Lions parade.

21 Krewe of Skunks. Lacombe, 1pm.

NOTE: Mardi Gras parade schedule subject to change.

INSIDE January 1-29 Prospect.2. Prospect New Orleans showcases new artistic practices from around the world. Venues throughout New Orleans. WedSun, times vary by location. Day, $10; week, $20; season, $30. prosepctneworleans.org.

1-29 The 18th Star: Treasures from 200 Years of Louisiana Statehood. Historic New Orleans Collection, Williams Gallery, 533 Royal St., New Orleans. Tues-Sat, 9:30am-4:30pm; Sun, 10:30am-4:30pm. Free. (504) 523-4662. hnoc.org.

the definitive guide to northshore events and entertainment

leads. Acme Oyster House, Covington. Tues, noon. john_filipowicz@us.aflac.com.

Medical Center, Covington. 6:30-9:30pm. Free.

Registration, 866-4LAKEVIEW.

3-31 Wine Tasting. Nuvolari’s Ristorante, 246 Girod St., Old Mandeville. Tues, 6pm. $25; $30 on 1/17 and 1/31. Reservations, 626-5619. nuvolaris.com.

7 Breastfeeding Class. Lakeview Regional Medical Center, Covington. 10am-noon. Free.

Registration, 866-4LAKEVIEW.

3-March 3 In Katrina’s Wake: Restoring a Sense of Place. Photographs by Stephen Wilkes. Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres St., New Orleans. Tues-Sat, 9:30am-4:30pm.

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

1-Feb 26 Wayne Gonzales: Light to Dark/ Dark to Light. New Orleans Museum of Art. Tues-Sun, 10am-5pm; Fri, 10am-9pm. $10; discounts for seniors, students, children and members; Wed, free. (504) 658-4100. noma. org.

4-25 Botox Wednesdays. Indulge yourself with the gift of youth. Dr. Kelly Burkenstock’s Skin•Body•Health, 2040 N. Causeway Blvd., Mandeville. Limited appointments available. $265/area, $665/whole face. 727-7676.

2-31 Mandeville City Hall Artist of the Month. Maria Holthauser. Mandeville City Hall, 3101 E. Causeway App. Mon-Fri, 9am-4:30pm. Free. Nancy Clark, 626-3144.

4-28 Covington Farmers Market. Wed, Covington Trailhead, 10am-2pm; Sat, 609 N. Columbia St., 8am-noon. Free. 966-1786. covingtonfarmersmarket.org.

3-24 Northshore Business Network Meeting. Enjoy lunch and share qualified

5 Preparing for Childbirth. Birth process and postpartum care. Lakeview Regional

18

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

7-28 Camellia City Market. City parking lot at Robert and Front Sts., Slidell. Sat, 8am-noon.

Free. 285-3599. camelliacitymarket.org.

7-28 Exhibit by Artists Jean Flint and Sarah Wiseman. Henry Hood Gallery, 325 E. Lockwood St., Covington. Thurs-Sat, noon5pm; also by appointment. 789-1832.

7-28 Mandeville Trailhead Community Market. 675 Lafitte St. Sat, 9am-1pm. Free.

845-4515. mandevilletrailheadmarket.com.

10 The Health Benefits of Wine.

Professional Women of St. Tammany luncheon.

Speaker James Moises. Beau Chêne Country Club, Mandeville. 11:30am. $29; members, $24; register by 1/7. pw-st.org.

Y10, 17, 21 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. $24 per month; members, $15.

898-4435.

12 Installation and Awards Banquet with Auction. West St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce. Fleur de Lis Event Center, 1645 N. Causeway Blvd., Mandeville.

6-10pm. $60. Registration, 892-3216, ext. 4. sttammanychamber.org.

12 Newborn Care Class. Lakeview Regional Medical Center, Covington. 7-9pm. Free.

Registration, 866-4LAKEVIEW. 12 St. Tammany Photographic Society Meeting. St. Tammany Art Association, 320 N. Columbia St., Covington. 7pm. Free. 8928650. stphotosociety.org.

Y12, 19, 26 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.

13 Acoustic Show by Christian Serpas and Ghost Town. K. Gee’s, 2534 Florida St., Mandeville. 6-9pm. Free. 626-0530.

13 All-Mozart Concert. Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto and violinist Yossif Ivanov. First Baptist Church, Covington. 7:30pm. Tickets start at $20. (504) 523-6530. LPOmusic.com.

13 Fine Wines for Canines. All-inclusive, five course meal benefiting the St. Tammany Humane Society; fine wine pairing with each course. Annadele’s Plantation, 71518 Chestnut St., Covington. 7-10pm. $85. Reservations by Jan. 6, 809-7669.

13 Northlake Newcomers Luncheon.

Reservations required. 845-0013.

13 Tchefuncte River Foundation Fundraiser. Live music by Four Unplugged, open bar and silent auction; catered by The Chimes, N’Tinis and Morton’s Seafood Restaurant. Champagne Beverage Co., 1 Bud Place, Madisonville. 7-11pm. $25; 8-top tables with special items, $400. Shawn Keller, 3736442.

13-14, 21 Greater Tuna. Comedy. Cutting Edge Theater, 747 Robert Blvd., Slidell. Fri, Sat, 8pm. $18.50. 649-3727. cuttingedgetheater.com.

13-15 Wildlife Art Show. The Towers Building,>>

Inside Scoop 520 Old Spanish Trail, Slidell. Fri, 7-9pm; SatSun, 10am-5pm. slidellartleague.info.

13-28 The Wizard of Oz. The Swan, 70326 Hwy. 59, Abita Springs. Fri, 7pm; Sat, 2pm and 7pm. 590-3645. dramaandmusic.com.

13-Feb 10 Mixed Media Juried Art Exhibit.

Slidell Cultural Center, 2055 Second St. Tue-Fri, noon-4pm; Sat, 9am-noon. Free. 646-4375. slidell.la.us.

14 Festival of Life. Live music, food, raffle and silent auction; benefits Danielle Inn and youth trip to March for Life rally in Washington, D.C. St. Peter Catholic Church, 134 Temperance St., Covington. 5-9pm. Adults, $7; children 3-9, $3; 3 and under, free; family package, $35. Audrey Seghers, 705-4513.

14 Madisonville Art Market. Water Street in Old Madisonville. 10am-4pm. Free. 624-7216. madisonvilleartmarket.com.

15 Third Sunday Concert Series. Duet piano performance by Robin Williams and Kadisha Onalbayeva Coleman. Christ Episcopal Church, 120 S. New Hampshire St., Covington.

5pm. Free. 892-3177.

Y16, 23 Family Fitness. Parents/caregivers and children 2-5 years. STPH Parenting Center, 1505 N. Florida St., Ste. B, Covington.

11:00am-noon. $10 per parent/child couple; members, $5. 898-4435.

18 Monthly Luncheon featuring Senator David Vitter. St. Tammany West Chamber of Commerce. Beau Chêne Country Club, 602 N. Beau Chêne Dr., Mandeville.

11:30am-1pm. Members, $30; nonmembers, $35. Registration, 892-3216, ext. 4. sttammanychamber.org.

Y18 Organ Wise Guys. Interactive session with Hardy Heart, Luigi Liver, the Kidney Brothers, Peter Pancreas, Madame Muscle and Calci M. Bone; children 2-5 years. STPH Parenting Center, 1505 N. Florida St., Ste. B, Covington. 10-11am. Free. 898-4435.

18 Wine Dinner. Wines from Alexander Valley Vineyards and 5-course dinner from Chef Tony Husted. Nuvolari’s Ristorante, 246 Girod St., Old Mandeville. 7pm. $85, inclusive of tax and gratuity. Reservations, 626-5619. nuvolaris. com.

19 Business After Hours. East St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce. Homewood Suites

by Hilton, 175 Holiday Blvd., Slidell. 5-7pm.

Members, free; non-members, $25. 643-5678. estchamber.com.

19 Family and Friends CPR Class.

Lakeview Regional Medical Center, Covington.

7-9pm. $25. Registration, 866-4LAKEVIEW. 20-Feb 5 The Importance of Being Earnest, a Trivial Comedy for Serious People. Play by Oscar Wilde. Slidell Little Theatre, 2024 Nellie Dr. Fri, Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm (except Jan. 22). Adults, $14; children, $7.

641-0324. slidelllittletheatre.org.

21 Ricky Graham and Friends. A night of real New Orleans comedy and music.

Covington Fuhrman Center, 317 N. Jefferson Ave. 8pm. $25. Brian W. Johnston, (504) 250-5537.

21 Shen Wei Dance Arts. Mahalia Jackson Theater, New Olreans. 8pm. (504) 522-0996. nobadance.com.

21 Walk in the Woods. Hike through diverse ecosystems with Master Gardener Rod Downie. Northlake Nature Center, 23135 Hwy. 190, Mandeville. 9am. $5; members, free. Rue McNeill, 626-1238. northlakenature.org.

22 Krewe of Claude. Slidell, 1pm.

Y23, 30 Children in the Middle.

Simultaneous two-night sessions for divorcing parents and their children. STPH Parenting Center, 1505 N. Florida St., Ste. B, Covington.

7-9pm. Adult session: $35/person; $45/couple.

Children’s session: $10/child (max $20/family).

898-4435.

25 Becoming American: The Musical Journey. Concert with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. St. Louis Cathedral, Jackson Square, New Orleans. 7:30pm. (504) 523-4662. hnoc.org.

25-28 Camino Real. Play written by Tennessee Williams. Covington High Performing Arts Center Auditorium. 7pm. Students, $5; adults, $8. 893-9843.

25-Feb 15 Beginner’s Wine Course. 8 wines each class with artisan cheese and other treats. Martin Wine Cellar, 2895 Hwy. 190, Ste. A, Mandeville. Wed, 6:30pm. 4-week course, $100. 951-8081. martinwine.com.

26-28 Arabella 10th Anniversary Event.

Special promotions, door prizes, champagne >> January-February 2012 21

Inside Scoop and more. 3902 Hwy. 22, Mandeville.

10am-6pm. 727-9787.

St. Joseph Abbey, Covington. Sat, 7:30pm; Sun, 2pm. (504) 885-2000. jpas.org.

27 Champian Fulton Quartet. Columbia Theatre, Hammond. 7:30pm. $30-36. 5434371. columbiatheatre.org.

29 Krewe of Slidellians. Slidell, 1pm.

27-29 School House Rocks Jr. Cutting Edge Theater, 747 Robert Blvd., Slidell. Fri, 8pm; Sat, 2pm, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. $15 plus tax.

649-3727. cuttingedgetheater.com.

28 Louisiana at 200: In the National Eye. 17th Annual Williams Research Center Symposium. Hotel Monteleone, 214 Royal St., New Orleans. Limited seating. Registration, (504) 523-4662. hnoc.org.

28 The Bar Method Grand Opening. Visit from Bar Method founder, Burr Leonard (also guest teaching classes). The Bar Method, 5217 Pinnacle Pkwy., Covington. Check website for class times. Single class, $20; class packages available. 871-1131. covington.barmethod. com.

28-29 Nunset Boulevard: The Nunsense Hollywood Bowl Show. Presented by the Jefferson Performing Arts Society. Benet Hall,

31 3rd Annual Wine Dinner. Benefiting the St. Tammany Cancer Fund. LaProvence Restaurant, 25020 Hwy. 190, Lacombe.

Sharon Landry, 674-6949.

February

1-10 Mixed Media Juried Art Exhibit. Slidell Cultural Center, 2055 Second St. Tue-Fri, noon-4pm; Sat, 9am-noon. Free. 646-4375. slidell.la.us.

1-26 Wayne Gonzales: Light to Dark/ Dark to Light. New Orleans Museum of Art. Tues-Sun, 10am-5pm; Fri, 10am-9pm. $10; discounts for seniors, students, children and members; Wed, free. (504) 658-4100. noma. org.

1-29 Botox Wednesdays. Indulge yourself with the gift of youth. Dr. Kelly Burkenstock’s Skin•Body•Health, 2040 N. Causeway Blvd., Mandeville. Limited appointments available. $265/area, $665/whole face. 727-7676.

1-29 Covington Farmers Market. Wed, Covington Trailhead, 10am-2pm; Sat, 609 N. Columbia St., 8am-noon. Free. 966-1786. covingtonfarmersmarket.org.

1-29 Mandeville City Hall Artist of the Month. Susannah Leaming. Mandeville City Hall, 3101 E. Causeway App. Mon-Fri, 9am-4:30pm. Free. Nancy Clark, 626-3144.

1-29 Northshore Business Network Meeting. Enjoy lunch and share qualified leads. Acme Oyster House, Covington. Tues, noon. john_filipowicz@us.aflac.com.

1-March 3 In Katrina’s Wake: Restoring a Sense of Place. Photographs by Stephen Wilkes. Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres St., New Orleans. Tues-Sat, 9:30am-4:30pm.

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

2 Business After Hours. East St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce. Holiday Inn Hotel and Suites, 372 Voters Rd., Slidell. 5-7pm.

Members, free; non-members, $25. 643-5678. estchamber.com.

Y2, 9, 16 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.

4-25 Mandeville Trailhead Community Market. 675 Lafitte St. Sat, 9am-1pm. Free.

845-4515. mandevilletrailheadmarket.com.

10 Hairspray. Musical presented by the Jefferson Performing Arts Society. Columbia Theatre, Hammond. 7:30pm. $30-36. 5434371. columbiatheatre.org.

5 Krewe of Perseus. Slidell, 1pm.

3-5 The Importance of Being Earnest, a Trivial Comedy for Serious People. Play

by Oscar Wilde. Slidell Little Theatre, 2024 Nellie Dr. Fri, Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Adults, $14; children, $7. 641-0324. slidelllittletheatre.org.

3-March 15 The Oak Street Gallery February Exhibition. Artists Ben Diller, Martin Needom, Cassandra Complex and Dr. Andy Leonard. The Oak Street Gallery, 111 N. Oak St., Hammond. 345-0251. theoakstreetgallery. com.

4 Geaux Arts Ball: Bringing Art to Life.

Art tableaux, food, silent auction, music. St. Tammany Art Association, 320 N. Columbia St., Covington. 7-11pm. $40 in advance; $50 at door. 892-8650. sttammanyartassociation.org.

10 Krewe de Paws. Slidell, 6pm.

5 Pearl River Lions Club Parade. Pearl River, 1:15 p.m.

10 Krewe of Eve. Mandeville, 7pm.

Y6, 13 Family Fitness. Parents/caregivers and children 2-5 years. STPH Parenting Center, 1505 N. Florida St., Ste. B, Covington.

11:00am-noon. $10 per parent/child couple; members, $5. 898-4435.

10 LRMC Volunteer Auxiliary Bake Sale.

Money Tree raffle and Parade of Prizes.

Lakeview Regional Medical Center, 95 Judge Tanner Blvd., Covington. 8am-1:30pm. Raffle tickets, $2; 3 tickets, $5. 867-3800.

Y7, 14, 28 Play & Learn. Parents/caregivers and children 16 months to 4 years; 3-week session. STPH Parenting Center, 1505 N. Florida St., Ste. B, Covington. 9:30-10:15am. $24 per month; members, $15. 898-4435.

10 Mona Lisa & Moon Pie. Slidell, 7pm.

8 Opera Returns to Bourbon Street. The Inn On Bourbon’s Puccini Bar, 541 Bourbon St., New Orleans. 7pm. Free. (504) 524-7611.

10 Northlake Newcomers Luncheon.

Reservations required. 845-0013.

10-12 Rouge Orleans. 100+-mile marathon and team relay that starts in downtown Baton Rouge and finishes at Audubon Park in New Orleans. rougeorleans.com.

4 Krewe of Blige. Slidell, noon.

4-25 Camellia City Market. City parking lot at Robert and Front Sts., Slidell. Sat, 8am-noon.

Free. 285-3599. camelliacitymarket.org.

9 St. Tammany Photographic Society Meeting. St. Tammany Art Association, 320 N. Columbia St., Covington. 7pm. Free. 8928650. stphotosociety.org.

11 Krewe of Push Mow. Abita Springs, 11am.

11 Krewe of Olympia. Covington, 6pm.

>>

Inside Scoop 11 Krewe of Orpheus Coronation Celebration. You don’t have to be a member!

Castine Center. 7pm. $200/couple. Tickets at Lowe’s Jewelers. Brett Lowe, 705-2245.

11 Madisonville Art Market. Water Street in Old Madisonville. 10am-4pm. Free. 624-7216. madisonvilleartmarket.com.

11 Mystic Krewe of Titans. Slidell, 6:30pm.

11 Newborn Care Class. Lakeview Regional Medical Center, Covington. 10am-noon. Free.

Registration, 866-4LAKEVIEW. 11-March 10 Exhibit by Artist Michael Ledet. Henry Hood Gallery, 325 E. Lockwood St., Covington. Thurs-Sat, noon-5pm; also by appointment. 789-1832.

12 And the Ball and All.... A hilarious show featuring Becky Allen and Amanda Hebert.

Fuhrmann Auditorium, Greater Covington Center, 317 N. Jefferson St., Covington. 6pm. $25. (504) 250-5537.

12 Krewe of Dionysus. Slidell, 1pm.

12 Krewe of Tchefuncte. Madisonville, 2pm.

Y13, 27 Children in the Middle.

Simultaneous two-night sessions for divorcing parents and their children. STPH Parenting Center, 1505 N. Florida St., Ste. B, Covington.

7-9pm. Adult session: $35/person; $45/couple.

Children’s session: $10/child (max $20/family).

898-4435.

15 Business After Hours. West St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce. Zen-Noh Grain Corporation, 1127 E. Hwy. 190 Service Rd., Covington. 5-7pm. Members, $10; nonmembers, $15. Registration, 892-3216, ext. 4. sttammanychamber.org.

16 Annual Women of Infinite Possibilities Membership Introduction and Lunch.

Christwood Retirement Center, Covington.

11am-1pm. Free. Reservations required. womenofwip.org.

16 Business After Hours. East St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce. Pope John Paul II Catholic High School, 1901 Jaguar Dr., Slidell.

5-7pm. Members, free; non-members, $25.

643-5678. estchamber.com.

17 Krewe of Selene. Slidell, 6:30pm.

17 The Original Krewe of Orpheus.

24

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

Mandeville, 7pm.

18 Krewe of Bush. Bush, 9am.

18 Krewe of Salt Bayou. Slidell, 2pm.

21 Lions Parade. Covington, 10am.

21 Krewe of Chahta-Ima. Lacombe, 1pm.

21 Krewe of Covington. Covington. After Lions parade.

21 Krewe of Skunks. Lacombe, 1pm.

22 Opera on Tap. Casual 90-minute concert of opera, Broadway and more. Abita Brew Pub, 72011 Holly St., Abita Springs. 7-8:30pm. Free.

(504) 529-3000. neworleansopera.org.

24-March 3 Hansel and Gretel and the Big Woods. The Swan, 70326 Hwy. 59, Abita Springs. Fri, 7pm; Sat, 2pm and 7pm. 5903645. dramaandmusic.com.

24-March 10 God of Carnage. Cutting Edge Theater, 747 Robert Blvd., Slidell. Fri, Sat, 8pm. $18.50. 649-3727. cuttingedgetheater.com 24-March 30 Amy Guidry: Hyperreality. A unique blend of photorealism and surrealism.

Slidell Cultural Center, 2055 Second St. Tue-Fri, noon-4pm; Sat, 9am-noon. Free. 646-4375. slidell.la.us.

24-June 17 Furnishing Louisiana: 17351835. Distinctive cabinetmaking traditions developed during the 18th and 19th centuries in the Mississippi River valley. The Historic New Orleans Collection, 533 Royal St., New Orleans. Tues-Sat, 9:30am-4:30pm. Free. (504) 523-4662. hnoc.org.

25 3rd Annual Northshore Gumbo. Live music and great food; presented by Slidell Little Theatre and the National Association of Women in Construction. City of Slidell Administration Buildings, 2055 2nd St., Slidell. 11am-3pm. $10; 10 and under, free. 960-1177 or 285-0737.

25 Of Mice and Men. Presented by the National Players. Columbia Theatre, Hammond. 7:30pm. $30-36. 543-4371. columbiatheatre.org.

28 National Pancake Day. Receive a free short stack of buttermilk pancakes and donate to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and other local charities. IHOP, Covington, Hammond, Slidell. 7am-10pm. ihoppancakeday.com.

January-February 2012 25

Some of the displays are Daughters of Edward Darley Boit by John Singer Sargent, presented by Mandeville Middle School; Portrait of Mrs. Mary Sigall by Salvador Dali, presented by Fontainebleau High School; Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly by Mary Cassatt, presented by Lakeshore High School; The Three Marys at the Empty Tomb, presented by St. Scholastica Academy and St. Paul’s School; and Little Dancer of Fourteen Years by Edgar Degas, presented by Covington High School student Melanie Smith.

Southeastern Louisiana University instructor Jeff Mickey and his students will construct frames made from wood donated by Poole Lumber Company.

the Arts IN STAA’s Geaux Arts Ball

Above: Tom Sawyer brought to life at the Geaux Arts Ball.

Right: Geaux Arts Ball committee members: Seated: Maggie McConnell, Geaux Arts Ball co-chairperson; Roberta Bruck. Back: Steve Dwyer; Anne Wilson;

The Geaux Arts Ball will feature musical entertainment, including local student violinists Griffin and Riley Wiemelt of Fontainebleau High and Junior High, food by local restaurants, an open bar and a silent auction.

STAA’s goal is to highlight the Geaux Arts Ball as its flagship event, says Cindy Pulling, education coordinator. All proceeds will support artists and art education in the community.

“This event is the very epitome of our mission statement,” says Mary Monk, Art House coordinator.

“It involves artists from children to professionals working together to make art accessible to everyone.”

Tickets ($40 in advance, $50 at door) are available at the Art House, 320 N. Columbia St., Covington, or by calling 892-8650. sttammanyartassociation.org.

Art will come to life at the seventh Geaux Arts Ball, Louisiana’s only living art tableau. The St. Tammany Art Association’s premier event will be held at the Art House in Covington Feb. 4 from 7 p.m. until 11 p.m.

Local students will portray paintings and sculptures in live exhibits that are connected to this year’s theme, There’s Something About Mary.

Each piece will have been created by or about someone named Mary. In addition to acting in each tableau, students will prepare backdrops, props and costumes. “When you see what the kids can do, it’s unbelievable; the artistry is phenomenal,” says Laurie Pennison, president of the STAA and Artist-inResidence at Mandeville Middle School.

Cindy Pulling; Mary

LPO’s Sound Education

Monk; Laurie Pennison; Nancy Ross; Reggie Badeaux, Geaux Arts Ball co-chairperson; Deborah

Jessica Boudreaux and Stephanie Schoen.

Opposite page: The LPO’s Early Explorers Concert.

26 Inside Northside

photo: MARK ST. JAMES

Nolan. Not pictured:

Over 200 students from First Baptist Covington Preschool, Lyon Elementary and Christ Episcopal School attended an Early Explorers Concert by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra at First Baptist Church in Covington last fall.

“The concert was a wonderful cultural learning experience for our Pre-K students,” says Vickie Stermer, a Pre-K teacher at Lyons Elementary. “We

photo: JASMINE BEARD

look forward to attending [it] yearly.”

The Early Explorers Concerts and the Young People’s Concerts are two of the interactive experiences included in the orchestra’s Sound Education program. The theme of the Early Explorers Concerts, which are directed toward students in pre-kindergarten through first grade, is “Orchestra ABCs.” The Young People’s Concerts are geared towards students from second through eighth grades. The theme of the concerts is “A Musical Delivery,” offering students an opportunity to learn about the “Elements of Music.” Students can bring their instruments to the concerts to play along with the orchestra. Many northshore schools are planning to attend the Young People’s Concert Jan. 18 at the First Baptist Church in Covington.

Northshore students are also participating in another component of the LPO’s educational outreach in which students learn soprano recorder through Carnegie Hall’s Link Up program and then perform with the LPO at a Young People’s Concert of their choice. Through the Bachto-School program, schools can invite small ensembles from the LPO for a private performance. Also, middle and high school students are especially encouraged to attend open rehearsals of the orchestra on the southshore Feb. 3, Feb. 9, March 8, March 23 and April 19.

For more information, call (504) 523-6530, ext. 115. For a listing of the LPO’s Covington Series, visit lpomusic.com.

7th Annual President’s Arts Awards Nine residents of St. Tammany Parish were recognized for their dedication to the development of the arts in the parish at the 7th Annual President’s Arts Awards: Performing Artist of the Year, Frank Levy; Visual Artist of the Year, Ed Whiteman; Culinary Artists of the Year, Chefs David and Torre Solazzo of Ristorante Del Porto; Lifetime Achievement Award, the Dynamic Smooth Family; Literary Artist of the Year, Robin Wells; Musical Artist of the Year, Frank Bua; and Patrons of the Year, Trudy Williamson and Dottie Severson.

January-February 2012 27

Heart to Heart

by Karen B. Gibbs

DIAGNOSED AS AN INFANT with terminal heart disease, Jaime Napolitano credits excellent medical care, unbounded optimism and the donor heart of a 19-year-old with her being alive and well 36 years later. Jamie is one of six women chosen to represent this year’s Go Red campaign for the American Heart Association. As a Go Red spokesperson, Jamie can now share her story with millions—and what a story she has to tell!

Jamie was a seemingly healthy baby. At 3 months, however, a spell of repeated coughing reduced oxygen in her body and caused her to turn blue. Her grandmother, a nurse, suspected a serious problem and asked her physician husband to check out their granddaughter. “My grandpa did an EKG and diagnosed heart trouble,” Jamie says, her bright

28 Inside Northside

blue eyes and healthy glow a stark contrast to the frail baby she was describing.

“Jamie’s heart was too large for her chest cavity and was beating more than twice the normal rate.

Pediatric cardiologists diagnosed the infant with endocardial fibroelastosis. (Endocardial fibroelastosis is characterized by an overgrowth of fibrous tissue in the heart muscle that leads to congestive heart failure and early death.) The only course of action was medication, and doctors told Jaime’s parents not to expect her to live past the age of 2.

Jamie’s parents were determined that their baby girl would survive. Their optimism proved prophetic; at first, Jamie was an active child who had no problem keeping up with her peers. “I didn’t know I was different until I was around 11 and wanted to

photo: ABBY SANDS MILLER www.abbyphoto.com

Heart transplant recipient Jamie Outlaw Napolitano.

run track,” Jamie shares. Although they monitored her closely over the years, doctors denied her participation in track and other endurance sports but gave the energetic youth the okay to play lessdemanding sports like doubles tennis.

By the time she entered college, Jamie felt fine and thought she’d beaten her heart disease. She even stopped taking her medication on a regular basis. “I checked in with my cardiologist once a year, but it wasn’t for extensive testing,” she explains. A heart attack in her sophomore year proved to Jamie how wrong she was. “That was devastating and a huge wake-up call,” she admits.

Back on regular medication, Jamie continued pursuing her degree in psychology. There was one dream, however, that medicine couldn’t ensure— that of bearing a child. Jamie’s heart was simply too weak to withstand a pregnancy.

For Jamie, this dictum was one of the most difficult complications to bear.

Jamie tried to push the doctor’s words out of her mind and made the most of a bad situation: If she couldn’t have children, at least she could work with them. She decided to become a child-life specialist to help kids cope with hospitalization. “I sure could have used one when I was a kid,” she says.

Jamie relocated to the Dallas area where she ultimately earned her master’s degree in counseling and play therapy.

While in Dallas, Jamie began to experience episodes of fast and erratic heartbeats that would leave her faint and nauseous. “I went to the cardiologist for what I thought was a routine test and I came out with a defibrillator. That was another emotional and physical setback,” she admits, “one that forced me to revisit my feelings about not having children.

It also made me face my own mortality.

My lifespan was shortening right before >> January-February 2012 29

my eyes. I wondered who would ever want to marry me.”

Speaking softly, her blue eyes glistening with tears, Jamie confides, “These events certainly helped bring me back to my roots, to my relationship with God. I realized He is bigger than any treatment or any situation or any hospital room.” Trusting in God to take charge of her life, Jamie confidently faced the future.

Within six months, she met her future husband, Gary, on a flight to Houston. “We talked the whole three hours to Houston,” she says, a smile lighting up her face. “When we arrived in Houston, Katie, my friend who takes credit for everything in my life, asked me if Gary and I had exchanged e-mail addresses. I told her no, that he lived in New Orleans and we were going our separate ways. Like a teenager, she pushed me right into him. I asked him for his e-mail and gave him mine.”

Two years of e-mails and visits followed. Right up front, Jamie told Gary about her heart condition, defibrillator and inability to have children. Nevertheless, love blossomed and the couple soon realized they needed to be in the same city. Jamie applied for a position as a child-life specialist with Ochsner Foundation Hospital. She was hired shortly thereafter and, within days, moved to New Orleans. She and Gary were married a year later. During their wedding reception, Jamie’s defibrillator went off but the ever-optimistic bride kept that news to herself until the next day. For the new Mrs. Gary Napolitano, life was still good. “After all,” she declares, “misery is just a matter of perspective.”

Jamie and Gary approached doctors about having children and were told emphatically that if Jamie got pregnant, 30

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

she and the child would probably die.

Gary comforted Jamie, saying he didn’t want a child if it meant losing her. The couple wanted to pursue adoption but felt that their chances were slim because of Jamie’s heart condition.

At this point, Jamie’s younger sister, Lesley, decided to intervene. “When they told Jamie she couldn’t have children, it broke my heart. I knew then that I wanted to do something to help her.” Lesley, who had a 2-year-old at the time, offered to carry Jamie and Gary’s baby as a surrogate.

“I struggled with that because there are many emotional issues that go into being a surrogate,” explains Jamie. “Would this be too hard for her?

I prayed about it and we agreed to try once.” Eight weeks later Lesley was pregnant with twins. On Dec. 13, 2006, daughter Reese and son Brady were born six weeks premature—both with healthy hearts.

Caring for twins can wear out any mother, but it sapped every bit of energy from Jamie. By the time Reese and Brady were 18 months old, she couldn’t pick them up without getting out of breath. A visit to Jamie’s doctor revealed that her heart output, which had been about 30 percent, was now only 20 percent. (Normal is 65 percent.)

“I was told I needed to get on the transplant list. As my heart function decreased, fluid built up and I started vomiting spontaneously.”

Jamie was hesitant to put her name on the transplant list. But since drugs were no longer effectively helping her heart contract, she was out of options.

She needed a transplant or she would die. Two days after the twins’ second birthday, Jamie’s condition worsened to the point where she had to be hospitalized.

Doctors allowed Jamie to spend

Christmas at home if she remained on IV medication. “I spent a lot of time reading to the kids, watching Mickey Mouse, that sort of thing. Gary began videotaping me with the kids just in case I didn’t make it.” Jamie pauses for a moment, looks away and then continues. “This was very emotional for me,” she says softly, “yet I was glad he was doing it.”

After Christmas, Jamie returned to the hospital to await a transplant. “By far, the most difficult thing to deal with was being away from the kids on and off for three months,” Jamie explains.

“Reese and Brady would come see me at the hospital and scream when it was time to leave. That was worse than all the procedures and anything else that happened.”

Fortunately, Jamie was number one on the transplant list. “At midnight on New Year’s Day, I watched the fireworks from my hospital window. Somehow, I knew I was going to get a heart that day. All day long I waited. Finally, about 5 p.m., I figured the transplant wasn’t going to be on my time, so I sent my family home. They had not been gone 15 minutes when a nurse came in—still holding the phone—and told me they had a heart for me.”

Gary recalls that when Jamie called to tell him the good news, “I immediately thought of the donor family and the fact that someone had to die for a heart to be available. It is overwhelming, but I was very grateful for their courage. I also remember feeling hope, fear, nervousness, anxiety and thankfulness all at the same time.

Once we got to the hospital and saw how calm Jamie looked, at least to us, faith took over again and we knew it would be okay.”

“When they rolled me into surgery, one tear fell. I allowed myself that,” says >>

Jamie. “As they were positioning me on the operating table, I recognized people that I had worked with here at Ochsner.

They never knew I was sick until they saw me in the OR that night. They were like, what are you doing here?”

The life-giving surgery took about seven hours. During that time, surgeons removed Jamie’s beating heart and attached her to a bypass machine to keep her alive. Gary remembers the nurse reporting to the family that Jamie’s heart had been taken out and surgeons were preparing to put the new one in. “I think my own heart skipped a few beats at that moment. There was no going back at that point!”

Jamie recalls waking up and being on a breathing machine after the surgery. Within a couple of hours, she used sign language to communicate that she was ready to breathe on her own. “We had taught the twins how to sign when they were younger, but Gary must have forgotten all that because he didn’t know what I was trying to say,” Jamie laughs. She was finally able to relay her wishes to nurses, and in a remarkably short time, Jamie was off the ventilator, sitting up in bed and watching football games on TV with her family. “I had no idea how badly I had felt until after the transplant,” explains Jamie. “That’s the first time I felt normal. Up until then, heart disease and being sick were my life.”

Later, Jamie discovered that her new heart came from a 19-year-old male. “I’ve written his family to thank them, sent them pictures and made them a book, but I haven’t heard back.

It’s probably very hard for them,” she adds sympathetically. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose your child.

I want to meet them so badly. I’m so incredibly grateful.”

Three years post-transplant, Jamie 32

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

photo: ABBY SANDS MILLER www.abbyphoto.com

is a stay-at-home mom teaching online classes at Southeastern Louisiana University. Because she is on immunosuppressants, she cannot work in a hospital setting again. She’s run the Crescent City Classic and regularly does hour-long cardio workouts. She also advocates for organ donation for Louisiana Organ Procurement Association and is a spokesperson for the American Heart Association.

Looking back, Jamie feels her heart disease was the greatest of gifts. “I’ve learned so much—how to be joyful, to appreciate things, to live being grateful, to take care of myself and other people.

If I can share this with others, then I am more than happy to do it.”

A message from Jamie: “Organ donation is a gift of love and life. It can save lives—not just 33-year-olds like I was, but a 5-year-old who needs a kidney, a 44-year-old who needs a lung transplant or a burn victim. I wish you would consider it.” For more information, contact the Louisiana Organ Procurement Association at 800-521GIVE or visit lopa.org.

As a Go Red spokesperson for the American Heart Association, Jamie asks that women pay attention to their bodies. “If you suspect a problem, don’t stop until it is diagnosed. Take charge of your health.” To learn more about women’s heart health, visit goredforwomen.org.

January-February 2012 33

IN Better Health

by Katie Montelepre

with Sharon Cooper AS A COMPETITIVE AGILITY DOG TRAINER, Sharon Cooper says, “Being broken is not an option.

When I can’t run with my dogs, that’s a problem.”

When she took a misstep in April 2010 and hurt her back—“my body made a mushing sound”—Sharon had to learn how to deal with being “broken.” To manage the pain, she took an anti-inflammatory and felt a little better, but it wasn’t long before the pain returned in full force.

But, “I’m kinda hardheaded,” Sharon says, adding that since she didn’t like doctors or needles, the pain worsened considerably before she sought help. Eventually, she went to several neurosurgeons, who prescribed epidurals and root nerve blocks, but nothing was helping.

Unable to drive, stand or get much sleep, Sharon spent most of her time pacing because she couldn’t sit comfortably, either. “If I did get in a chair, I couldn’t get out of it!” This made working for her company, 34 Inside Northside

Cooper’s Mobile Veterinary Service in Franklinton, very difficult. She bought a portable phone and walked around her office, sometimes lying on the floor when she could no longer stand.

After months of gradually worsening pain, Sharon went back to her doctor, who ordered a new MRI and sent her to Dr. Lucien Miranne of Southern Brain and Spine. Dr. Miranne recalls, “The first scan described a little bulge, but the second showed a large ruptured disc. When I first saw her, she was miserable. She had started to get weakness in the legs, in her calf muscle, and had an absent Achilles reflex and numbness in the inside of her left foot. Rarely do you like talking about surgery the first time you meet someone, but we did.

She [had] tried so many things already.”

Sharon’s surgery—a lumbar microdiskectomy— was planned for May 24, 2011, during the doctor’s very next surgery schedule. The results were immediate.

“The second I opened my eyes, I felt better. It was amazing,” Sharon remembers. “My husband said he could see that the pain was off of my face.”

No physical therapy was involved in the recovery process. Instead, Sharon spent the first few weeks lying down, walking only 300 feet per day, until she was able to sit up for about 20 minutes per day.

Eventually, she began walking as much as she felt her body would allow, a little more each day.

After four months, when she was able to walk a mile and a half comfortably, Sharon was released from Dr. Miranne’s care. “When I saw her on September 14 to release her, she was going to a dog show,” Dr. Miranne recalls.

Finally able to resume her hobby of agility dog training, Sharon ran her dogs in the finals at the ASCA National Specialty in Wisconsin later that month. “That was my goal,” she says.

This accomplishment, which added to the many championship titles her dogs have won, showed that Sharon was no longer “broken.”

photo: ABBY SANDS MILLER www.abbyphoto.com

Health Concern: Ruptured disc.

Treatment: Lumbar microdiskectomy.

It’s Carnival Time at the Presbytere!

Preserving Mardi Gras history

Above: The Presbytere.

Right: R.S. Day as Rex, 1892.

36

Inside Northside

Image courtesy of LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM

JUST BEFORE MIDNIGHT on February 19, 1921, a housewife in the New Orleans westbank neighborhood of Algiers called the police, reporting that a cannon ball had just hit her house. “A what?” answered the officer taking the call. The frightened women, Mrs. Stenhouse, assured the police that she had not been drinking and that a real cannon ball had crashed through a bedroom wall, knocking her mother-in-law out of bed, bruised and shaken.

It was an actual cannon ball, and it was fired from all the way across the Mississippi River, from the front gallery of one of New Orleans’ most notable landmarks—the Presbytere. A prankster, whose identity remains unknown, had loaded a Civil Warera cannon on display in front of the old building on Jackson Square with powder and a four-pound ball. The blast, which sent the ball sailing over Gen. Jackson’s head and over the river, was reported to

photo: JAY ROSENBLATT

by Stephen Faure

Cathedral), died. It remained a one-story building until 1813, when the second story and roof were completed. The third floor and signature mansard roof and dormer windows were added in 1847.

The present building, while called “the Presbytere,” was never used to house the clergy, but was leased out by the church first as storage and retail space. Around 1822, it was leased to the city and became the home of the city’s civil courts, where they stayed until 1910. At that time, the Presbytere was turned over to the Louisiana State Museum. Following extensive renovations, it began telling the stories of Louisiana and has continued to do so ever since.

The first floor, once the home of two courtrooms, the Orleans Parish sheriff’s office and the Supreme Court’s law library, now houses the exhibit Katrina and Beyond.

But, as Al Johnson famously sings, “it’s Carnival

Image courtesy of LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM

Time, and everybody’s having fun”—and it’s time to take a look at Mardi Gras: It’s Carnival Time in Louisiana, the comprehensive exhibit on all things Mardi Gras housed on the Presbytere’s second floor.

The old courtrooms are now “krewe” rooms.

Rooms where lawyers argued and judges judged and fortunes and liberties were won and lost as clerks furiously wrote down every word of it (for a time, one in French and one in English) now display costumes, masks, floats, doubloons, ball favors, invitations and beads—the trinkets, treasures and ephemera that represent the history of Mardi Gras, one of the many things earning New Orleans a place among the most interesting cities in the world.

Why do we have all these seemingly frivolous items, these souvenirs of passing parades and remnants of secretive and exclusive societies, housed in such a grand building that was built for a sacred purpose?

“The New Orleans Carnival is descended from ancient religious rites of the Greek and Latin World.

Ovid described the Greek shepherds of Arcadia who, five thousand years ago, celebrated a spring festival in hopes of better pastures and the remission of sins.” — Henri Schindler, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, 1997.

As Schindler points out, Mardi Gras is a very deeply rooted tradition. What’s celebrated in South Louisiana on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday >>

Above: Louis Armstrong ruled as King Zulu in 1949.

Left: High school marching bands from schools like St. Augustine are integral parts of the Mardi Gras parade experience in New Orleans.

Image courtesy of LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM

photo: STEPHEN FAURE

have knocked out 60 windows and knocked down a night watchman nearby.

This might be the quirkiest story coming out of a building with thousands of stories to tell. It stands on ground set aside in the city’s earliest plans to house the clergy of the cathedral standing next to it and is the fourth building on the site that was called the Presbytere, or priests’ house. Construction on the present building started under Spanish colonial rule, after the fire of 1794, but was halted after the first floor was built in 1798 when Don Andres Almonester y Roxas, the philanthropist whose fortune financed its construction (along with the Cabildo and St. Louis

Rex ball invitation from 1882.

January-February 2012 37

has its roots in ancient culture and is celebrated in some form or another in almost all parts of the world that are predominately Christian, particularly where Roman Catholicism prevails.

Carnival, from the Latin carne vale (farewell to flesh), is the season just before Lent, the religious period of penance and fasting during which the church in its earliest days forbade the eating of meat for the 40 days before Easter Sunday. The last day of the season became Mardi Gras, French for Fat Tuesday, because on that day the Boeuf Gras, or fattened beef steer, was led through medieval towns and slaughtered for a final “farewell to meat” feast.

What are the things that set Louisiana’s Mardi Gras traditions apart from those in the rest of the world?

The items that hold the answer to that question are on display in the Presbytere.

Prior to 1852, Carnival here was celebrated haphazardly, with a combination of public and private balls held throughout the city, and a tradition had arisen of street thugs throwing flour, or worse things, at passers-by on Mardi Gras day. Starting in 1852, the Mistick Krewe of Comus, the first organized krewe in New Orleans, held a public parade on Mardi Gras evening and a very private ball after the parade. It served as a model for future organizations.

The Twelfth Night Revelers and Rex were organized after the Civil War. Although at the time Rex was merely 10 years old, a British journalist visiting the city observed: “The first essential in the successful conduct of the Southern carnival is an entire and unswerving belief in the personality and supremacy of Rex… [R]egal edicts…are not only implicitly 38

Inside Northside

Images courtesy of LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM

believed in, but as implicitly obeyed.” —George A. Sala, America Revisited, Vol. II, 1882.

Sala wrote several volumes about his travels around the world. He observed Mardi Gras in New Orleans at a time when organized revelry was but 30 years old. Rex’s proclamations, declaring Mardi Gras a holiday and inviting all of his subjects to participate, were printed up and distributed throughout the country in hopes of stirring up interest for travelers to visit the city. Sala had seen one at the train depot in Atlanta.

Rex’s early proclamations, along with hundreds of other items of printed Carnival-related items—ball invitations, admit and dance cards, sheet music and parade bulletins—are in the museum’s vast collection, only a fraction of which can be displayed. Krewes seemingly tried to outdo each other in the golden age.

Examples of the elegance and splendor of those bygone days grace the Presbytere’s display cases, which are filled with the jewels, costumes and gowns worn by the kings and queens of various courts, as well as smaller items such as ducal badges and ball favors.

Wayne Phillips, the curator of Mardi Gras: It’s Carnival Time in Louisiana, says the Louisiana State Museum was founded in 1904 and began its Mardi Gras collection right away. “It’s significant that in the 1900s people realized its importance and began collecting items related to Mardi Gras,” Phillips says.

“Mardi Gras wasn’t that old then; several krewes were brand-new and the oldest were only 50 years old.”

He says the first items collected were ball invitations because they fit well with the museum’s system of archiving documents. Ball invitations are highly

collectible for another reason—many are individual Above: Ball costumes works of art, which Schindler refers to as “These on display in the beautiful messages from the gods…”

Presbytere.

In 1873, the Mistick Krewe of Comus, known Left: An engraving for satirical social commentary depicting Comus’ 1873 through its allegorical parade and procession with the tableaux ball themes, reached an theme of The Missing infamous peak with its representation Links to Darwin’s of carpetbaggers and occupying Origin of Species. troops through the theme The Missing Links to Darwin’s The Origin of Species.

The despised Gen. Butler, who led the Union occupation of New Orleans during the war, was depicted as half man, half hyena and President Ulysses S. Grant as a tobacco grub.

A booklet printed by the krewe with drawings of the 100 animals and their >> January-February 2012 39

scepter from an unknown krewe, probably Rex. Right: Preparations underway for a ball in the old French Opera house.

40

Inside Northside

Image courtesy of LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM

photo: STEPHEN FAURE

Above: Crown and

satirized counterparts is on display.

Parade bulletins, poster-sized depictions of the floats that were to appear in the parades, were handed out or published in newspapers. The earliest Phillips knows of was printed in 1874. “Their importance was not imagined at the time; they offer the only record of what the parades looked like,” he says. The museum has about 350 bulletins, and Phillips says, “What’s unique about the 1874 bulletin is that it’s not printed locally but by an illustrated weekly on the East Coast.” In the 1880s, local printers, notably Walle & Co., printed color lithograph bulletins, which often had advertisements for local business on the back.

The crown jewels of the old-line krewes like Comus and Rex are in display in a room reached through the last vestige of the Presbytere’s role as courthouse—a massive steel vault door that entered what was a fireproof room where court records were stored.

“Crowns and scepters represent a real important collection for us. The crown represents what it means to be a monarch more than anything else,” says Phillips. “A lot of the time, the crown and scepter would survive, but the rest of the costume would not.

They’re really hard to collect because, until the 1960s, the krewes gave the jewels to the king and queen, who would donate to us. Now they keep the jewels to re-use every year.”

His favorite story involves Elizabeth Nicholson, who was Rex’s queen in 1948. “The early crowns and scepters that were going to be worn by the king and queen of Carnival would be displayed in a jewelry store window on Canal Street before Mardi Gras,” he says. The public did not know who the royals would be, but Nicholson knew months in advance that she would be queen. “She would go stand in the crowd of people ogling her jewels, because she knew she was the one who would get to wear them. No one else knew that secret yet. And we now have that crown and scepter in our collection for everybody to see.”

It’s funny how things don’t change. Nicholson’s story echoes the observation Sala made more than 65 years before: “Crowds have been gathering, evening after evening, before the window of a jewelry store in Canal Street, in which Rex’s ‘Crown jewels’—his

diadem, his scepter, his orb, and his ring—have been displayed. A leading hardware man gravely advertises that he has been appointed to construct a fireproof safe for the custody of the Royal jewels.” —George A. Sala, America Revisited, Vol. II, 1882.

Phillips strives to acquire and maintain artifacts from all over Louisiana. He recently acquired a small collection of ball gowns from Morgan City krewes

Right: Gauntlets from Rex’s 1886 costume.

Below: Krewe of Athenians

Top image courtesy of LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM center photo: THOMAS B. GROWDEN

favor from 1917.

that had been displayed at a museum there.

Of great interest are the costumes and masks collected from the Acadian Mardi Gras tradition, the Courir de Mardi Gras. Towns in Acadiana, such as Mamou, Eunice and Church Point, host celebrations far removed from processions on city thoroughfares and masquerade balls.

“Rural communities don’t have a float-based parade tradition,” Phillips says.

“It’s based on visiting households on horseback, trucks and wagons pulled by tractors. Participants perform music, working for ingredients for the gumbo.” Masked revelers travel on horseback or truck from house to house in the Acadiana countryside, dressed as clowns, thieves or demons.

“One thing that is really important is the extent of the disguise, because they are performing acts of mischief.

Cajun Mardi Gras mask-makers have devised a variety of ways to make sure the wearer can see out of them but no one can see through to identify the wearer. As a result, you have a group of well-known mask-makers that people regularly go to for Acadian-style masks.”

Fifty or so masks are on display from the museum’s collection of over 100.

Many more items observing

Carnival from different cultural perspectives are found at the Presbytere.

The Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club’s traditions are celebrated, as are the Twelfth Night Revelers, modern “super krewes,” marching bands and costumes from gay carnival clubs. Modern costumes made post-Katrina out of the thenubiquitous blue-roof tarp material are displayed in the Presbytere’s Katrina exhibit.

Another item in the collection that’s become common at the parades is a ladder that’s been converted to have seating for children at the top (there’s no indication of whether its owners prefer the sidewalk side or the neutral ground side, though). We might think this is a new invention. But Robert Tallant observed in his 1947 book Mardi Gras that as he wandered from the French Quarter to view a parade on Canal Street, “Fathers held small children on their shoulders, or they held them high above adult heads in particular contrivances that appear in New Orleans only at Mardi Gras time— boxlike seats at the tops of long poles.”

So it is true that, at least with Carnival time in Louisiana, the more things change, the more they stay the same—but I’m guessing today’s ladders are safer.

EARLY IN HIS THREE TERMS as St. Tammany Parish president, Kevin Davis was tagged with the nickname “The Road Warrior.” While he’s not as wild and reckless as Mel Gibson’s movie character, the name reflects the determination and sheer doggedness Davis has shown in his work for the parish.

It was his relentless prodding in getting the state government on board with his planned highway improvements that earned him “The Road Warrior” moniker. It was that same determination to make St. Tammany what it can be that has created unprecedented opportunities and ensured the parish would pull through the greatest challenges it’s ever faced.

It was 10 days after his wife, Maria, had given birth to baby John Clay when Davis joined the staff at the emergency operations center to prepare for Katrina. After the storm passed, Davis faced, he says, “a disaster like none of us had ever experienced.”

Despite his family’s situation, Davis spearheaded immediate efforts to get everyone back home and rebuilding. It wasn’t an easy task, and his team faced unprecedented hurdles.

“I was in a building with a couple of hundred people and nobody had a house. These were the government workers, and nobody had a home to go to,” remembers Davis.

He set out to leap Katrina’s hurdles the way he’s always led the parish—by gathering his team, identifying the problem, coming up with solutions and working relentlessly until the problem is solved.

Kevin Davis photo courtesy of ST. TAMMANY PARISH GOVERNMENT.

by Stephen Faure

The first thing, he says, was “trying to stay calm, because, in my mind, everything else follows that,” Davis says. “We’re human beings, so it was devastating for us to stand in someone’s front yard with tears in our eyes and see their home is completely gone. You didn’t see the days we were really upset because we didn’t want that to be seen.”

A flood-damaged family home meant Maria and John Clay were living at the operations center, too.

Certainly not the best of circumstances for a newborn and his parents, but “I got a great deal of strength from the quiet moments spent with my wife and the

St. Tammany’s Road Warrior

few minutes with John Clay,” Davis poignantly recalls.

“We had the 10 a.m. meeting every day, and everyone knew that. At 10 a.m., you met me at the Louisiana Heart Hospital in Lacombe.” Davis met with elected officials, agency heads, law enforcement and hospital administrators daily. “I’d ask each agency, ‘What’s the problem today? What’s your one problem?

Don’t give me 50.’ It could be they needed another vehicle, or they needed a vehicle to go through water, so in the group we’d discover where we had more trucks and where we could move them to.”

Pressing problems were shelter and >>

Davis talks with Major General Bennett Landreneau of the National Guard after Katrina.

January-February 2012 43

Governor Bobby Jindal visits the Emergency Operation Center in

communications, areas where the federal government was involved and where Davis’ persistence paid off. “There were a lot of things coming from the bureaucracy that should have been common sense that didn’t happen. So we were making them happen on the ground here.”

“I remember one day we were on the telephone and we connected to FEMA. I said we need to get our residents here, but it’s a complete disaster, the homes are gone. We asked them that day, ‘Why don’t we bring down some camping trailers?’ They said, ‘No, no, no; we build big mobile home parks. That’s what we have always done in a disaster.’”

Davis knew that wasn’t going to work. People needed to be able to work

on their own property. “I remember hollering and arguing with them to just give me the trailers and I would get them to the houses. They said, ‘We don’t do that, we’ve never done that and we’re not going to do that.”

The next morning, Davis says, “I got a phone call and they said, ‘We’re going to bring trailers.’ That was very early; no one had ever heard of a FEMA trailer.”

The other big hurdle Davis’ team faced in the first days after Katrina was the lack of communications. While parish government could communicate on its radio system, there wasn’t a connection to the outside world.

“People were trying to figure out, where’s my aunt? Where’s my brother, where are my parents? So I commandeered a radio station,”

photo courtesy of ST. TAMMANY PARISH GOVERNMENT.

Covington Sept. 8, 2008, immediately after Hurricane Gustav hit.

Davis says, recalling a bit of creative problem solving that made the feds uncomfortable. “It was off the air but still powered. The FCC, from my understanding, had closed it. We went over and opened the door, and our staff turned the system on and started broadcasting. They would broadcast all kinds of general information, what was happening, what was going on.”

Word was passed at the 10 o’clock meetings that people should listen to that station for information. “The team here had a lot of fun with it; they were radio announcers, talking about the issues and what was going on.”

Davis’ leadership abilities really shone through in responding to Katrina and subsequent disasters. But from the day he took office, he was faced with a unique challenge: shepherding St. Tammany through a change in its governmental structure.

He was the first parish president elected under a new home rule charter.

St. Tammany had been governed, as many other parishes are governed today, by a police jury. St. Tammany instituted a home rule charter, creating the parish council and the office of parish president.

“The structure was completely different from what everyone was accustomed to,” says Davis, who had been a police juror. “It was always negotiating, compromising and trying to move forward. Many of the jurors got elected as council members. They were more in tune to running the system. We delicately got through that. I thought it was important that they play a role in some of the decision making so that it could be successful.”

Infrastructure Successes As a police juror, Davis was closely associated with the rails-to-trails project, the Tammany Trace, which >> January-February 2012 45

photo courtesy of ST. TAMMANY PARISH GOVERNMENT.

grew in size and popularity Davis tours the West Pearl during his presidential River after the Temple tenure. “People love it,” Inland paper mill chemical Davis says. “They feel like it’s spill in August 2011. theirs, which is something I always thought would happen. Each community developed its own plans for its town center around the Trace,” Davis notes.

Roads and drainage issues were also at the top of the agenda when Davis took office. A comprehensive parish-wide drainage survey has helped in planning for new development; it also paid off in emergency situations, as flooding under a variety of scenarios can be predicted and evacuations ordered in do it ahead of time. We know where advance of threatening conditions. the growth’s going; we know all the On the transportation front, Davis issues; let’s do it ahead of time.’ That says, “We really pushed hard, because philosophy has been picked up more there had been no work of significant than it was 12 years ago.” value done in the parish for 10 or 15 The early planning helped to years. The first four years, we were smooth the way for recovery after doing a lot of work with infrastructure Katrina and to ensure St. Tammany issues, without a lot of funding—and received rebuilding and stimulus funds arguing with the state over funding of promptly. “What we did in 2000 to roads that they own.”

2004 was starting to pay off because we Highways 190, 21, 22, 1085 and now had all this information and actual 1077 are among the state roads that plans. As soon as we could get funding, are critical to transportation within the we started all the infrastructure projects parish that saw major improvements across the parish.” during the past 12 years. “I got tagged the ‘Road Warrior’ because we were Economic Development constantly trying to maneuver through Companies like LLOG, Chevron the state system to get projects done,” and Global Star—and their employees— Davis says. “The way the state used to became welcome additions to the parish operate, and they don’t any longer, was post-Katrina, along with a number of to wait until you had a problem [with new retail outlets. Davis explains, “Early a state road], and then they would on, we realized there was very little look at fixing it. That really meant that retail shopping on the northshore. We once you had a problem, it would be hired an LSU economics professor to do another 10 to 20 years before it could the study, and if I remember correctly, be fixed. We kept saying, ‘We need to it found that 70 percent of our residents 46

Inside Northside

shopped outside the parish. That’s significant. So we embarked on some large developments that stirred a lot of discussion.”

Davis believes that with the infrastructure in and the retailers still coming on line, people can see what his administration’s line of thinking was 10 years ago. “Most parish residents then were shopping outside the parish, which doesn’t generate revenue, which doesn’t help us to do infrastructure, because you don’t have the revenue,” he says.

“Anytime you’re dealing with change, you get a lot of discussion,” Davis notes. “But I think in the long run, for the first time in our history, more than 56 percent of our residents work in St. Tammany Parish. Trying to move things along proved there was merit in those decisions, because now they can find work on the northshore and not have to commute.”

Energy and retail aren’t the only industries coming into the parish. “It’s technology, engineering, energy—all different fields—that have now relocated to St. Tammany Parish, and we’ve got more coming. That’s a big issue for the next administration, and she [incoming parish president Pat Brister] is going to be aggressively pushing that.”

And Now… What will he miss most after 12 years as parish president? Davis says, “I’ll miss everybody, the team here, the activity of moving forward, putting the projects together and building a team, trying to get everybody on the same vision. As I think about it, I’ll miss everything.” He adds that before he accepted his current position as the state’s Director of Homeland Security, people asked whether he was retiring. “I’d say, ‘No, no, no; I’m not retiring. I have a 6-year-old son and a wonderful wife, so I’ve got to keep working.’”

January-February 2012 47

Me exhibit that showcases a Balance Skateboard, Vertical Leap Test, Hang Time Test, Nutrition Café, Human Torso and Human Skelton. Guests can test, measure and record their results so they can set goals for future improvement and leave energized, motivated and inspired to live a healthier lifestyle.

My 7-year-old stepdaughter Kira came bounding up to me during our first visit to the center with words of high praise for the center—especially its bovine offerings. She lives in Austin, Texas, and makes sure the Hammond LCDC is on her itinerary anytime she gets to stay with us. “This museum is better than the one in Austin,” she stated matter-of-factly. “And, the cow even squirts water when you milk it!”

In other words, anyone over the age of 10 should be jealous.

Beyond the exhibits, the LCDC has positioned itself as a champion of children’s programming, both

Louisiana Children’s Discovery Center Above: Kayla Pittman, Southeastern student and Discovery Center employee, shows off the Center’s most-known attraction, The Hot Air Balloon. Right: In Aerobic Alley, kids can listen to different types of music found in Louisiana.

48

THERE IS NO SHORTAGE of ear-to-ear grins. Some have recently donated to the tooth fairy. Some still have KoolAid mustaches left over from lunch. And, some belong to all the former kids (moms, dads, grandparents, aunts, teachers, nannies, etc.) who are wishing they had had a Louisiana Children’s Discovery Center when they were growing up.

In downtown Hammond sits a hubbub of fun that features 19 exhibits and creative stations. They range from a hot-air balloon ride over the greater New Orleans region complete with gusts of wind that blow through your hair to a miniature Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts complete with a center stage, working lights and curtains, a backstage make-up room and seating for the packed audience.

You can surround yourself in a giant bubble or play a life-sized version of the Game of Operation, yet another reason for the grown-ups to reminisce.

The newest addition to the center is the Discover

Inside Northside

photos: CAITLYN MOSHER

by Erin Cowser

on-site and off. Celebration of Winnie the Pooh’s birthday entailed a visit from an apiarist who brought samples of fresh honey from his hives. A Name Our Robot Contest in conjunction with North Oaks Health System was hosted by the Hammond High School Torbotics Team and the LCDC BayouBuilders FIRST Lego League. It brought the daVinci surgery system to the center for guests to try their hands at robotic surgery. Or you might find members of the Southeastern Louisiana University Lions baseball team reading Casey at the Bat at the base of the center’s Old Cypress Tree book corner.

The creativity and fun will continue this spring with all sorts of new events and activities, including the center’s sponsorship of a regional Scripps National Spelling Bee, the nation’s largest and longest-running educational program. The purpose of the bee is to help students improve spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts and develop correct English usage that will help them all of their lives.

The LCDC 1st Annual Spelling Bee, set for 2 p.m. Feb. 25 in the Student Union Theater on Southeastern’s campus, is open to children from public, parochial and home schools. Schools with students in 4th-8th grades in a 17-parish region that stretches from West Feliciana to Washington parishes are invited to participate. Each school may send one champion to the LCDC Bee, with the winner advancing to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. (A separate bee for St. Tammany Parish only is sponsored annually by the Times-Picayune.)

Visit spellingbee.com for more information or to register a school.

Another fun new initiative for the center this spring is the Lamar Advertising Chicken Little Contest during the 7th annual Smokin’ Blues ’n BBQ Challenge in downtown Hammond March 23-24. A Kansas City Barbeque>> January-February 2012 49

Ruby Nethercutt peeks out of the curtain of the Columbia Theatre, located in Aerobic Alley.

photo: CAITLYN MOSHER

Association-sanctioned event, the fundraising contest is part of the Tour of National BBQ Champions. For grownups, the event involves more than 50 traveling professional BBQ teams and local teams that want to show their stuff against the best BBQ teams in the nation. Judges from across the country will determine who receives $12,000 in total cash and prizes for their pork ribs, Boston butt, beef brisket and chicken BBQ masterpieces.

For the younger crowd, the Chicken Little Contest pits children ages 6 to 16 in a contest to see which budding chef can BBQ the best chicken in Hammond.

Rules state that an adult must accompany the children, but the children will have to do all of the preparation, seasoning and cooking on their own. Parents may help in the sectioning of the chicken only. Judges will award prizes from 1st to 10th place and each participant receives a certificate.

As a new beneficiary of the challenge’s fundraising, the LCDC will encourage young BBQ chefs to compete, help secure additional Chicken Little sponsors and staff the contest.

After a Seuss-tastical debut last March, the LCDC is once again coordinating an all-day Seussabration 50

Inside Northside

Fri., March 2, to celebrate Dr. Seuss’ birthday and the National Read Across America program. With surprise visits from the Cat in the Hat himself, samplings of Green Eggs and Ham, a Create-A-Who Contest and Ham-It-Up Photos, accompanied by around-theclock book readings, guests at the center will have a Seuss-talicious experience.

The center will also welcome repeat performances of its Spectrum Day, which is dedicated to autistic children and their families. With an overarching goal of accessibility for all children, this is one example of specific days set aside at the center to welcome children who are challenged physically and/or mentally. Students from Southeastern’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders worked with the center to prepare descriptive “social stories” with photographs and video clips so parents could introduce their children to the center before actually arriving in person. The idea is for the children to be as prepared as possible for what they will experience, thereby reducing any fears or anxieties, so that the visit to the center can be enjoyable.

Parents can’t seem to say enough good things about the center, its staff and its “playologists,” the overwhelming majority of whom are Southeastern students who, through an agreement with the center, receive credit for teacher-training fieldexperience hours at the center. And the numbers agree. Over 51,000 visitors, 450 birthday parties, 200 field trips and about a dozen after-hours special event rentals have kept the LCDC hopping since opening its doors in October 2010.

The LCDC is a fun learning environment. It certainly has all the bells and whistles—and plenty of sirens, bubbles, music, squeals and giggles, too!

For more information, call 340-9150 or visit lcdcofhammond.org.

January-February 2012 51

Roy Robinson Portrait of the Young

by Webb Williams

Opposite: Roy (right) with three army pals in the day room at Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey, in 1942, looking at the latest copy of Yank magazine, in which one of his cartoons had appeared.

52

I’D NEVER MET ANYONE who had his picture taken with President Warren G. Harding. But then, Roy Robinson’s not your ordinary fellow. He was waiting in his driveway when I arrived for our interview, his Lee Trevino golf club in hand. He uses a 5-iron as a cane to get around his home and studio in Abita Springs. It also comes in handy when he walks the dog in the woods. “Good snake killer.” (He doesn’t play golf.)

Roy’s artwork has graced the pages of Inside Northside for almost a decade. His watercolors, cartoons and caricatures have been a unique contribution to the magazine.

A product of the Midwest, Roy was born in Ohio in 1921. A lanky gent with a warm smile and mischievous eyes, he’s got an all-American Hal Holbrook quality about him, and his midwestern drawl makes you feel comfortable in his presence.

During the Great Depression, he lived and worked on his aunt and uncle’s farm in Indiana.

Inside Northside

His job as a boy was to take water on horseback to workers in the field, carrying two gigantic clay jugs hanging from each side of the saddle horn.

Once, his playful uncle snuck up behind him in a cloud of dust, gunned the motor and honked the horn. “It spooked my poor horse, which ran like the wind as I held on for dear life. He ran full tilt for two miles till we finally reached the barn, both exhausted. I felt lucky I wasn’t thrown and killed. The clay jugs were still intact, I was happy to realize, but I always kept an eye peeled for my uncle from that day on.”

Roy’s Aunt Lulu raised him “mostly like Aunt Polly did Tom Sawyer, except Lulu didn’t have a heart of gold and was the main reason I decided to leave home.” He got the wanderlust, so he hitchhiked out West, grabbing odd jobs and life experiences along the way.

In Los Angeles, Roy joined the Army Air Corps (forerunner to the U.S. Air Force, for you young

photo: HEATHER BURBRINK www.kristinandheather.com

Caricaturist at 90.

whippersnappers out there). Though mostly self-taught as an artist, he had the gumption to send cartoons to Yank Magazine, the official service weekly. Yank was distributed to G.I.s all over the world during World War II. “I was thrilled to have some 30 cartoons published, which started me on a career in art.”

All of Roy’s World War II cartoons in Yank were lost through the years. His wife suggested he write a blurb in a magazine called Reminisce asking readers for their old copies.

“I got about 50 replies! People sent me bundles of them. I was touched. The cartoons were kinda crude, and I like to think I’ve improved since then.”

In 1949, at the suggestion of friends, Roy moved to New Orleans to work as a graphic artist for the Louisiana Health Department. However, Gov. Earl K. Long scrapped the program in his first year in office.

Undaunted, Roy did a stint at painting Mardi Gras floats for Blaine Kern the year Kern started designing and building parades. “I answered an ad and met Blaine, who handed me a pad and pencil and said ‘Draw me a shoe.’ I did, and he hired me on the spot.” That led to designing the artwork for carnival paraphernalia like cups, doubloons, programs and ads.

After teaching graphic arts at the Newcomb Art School for two years, Roy became art director for a number of television programs. He then tried out Philadelphia and Chicago, but in 1968, he came back and put down roots “way down yonder” for good.

“I was a staff artist at Mouton Art Associates, and we serviced ad agencies and clients directly with advertising art.”

Roy did artwork for the city under the Landrieu administration (that’s Moon—Mitch’s daddy, kids). He did the “Pride Builds New Orleans” logo back then and tried to resuscitate it for Mitch’s campaign as “Pride ReBuilds New Orleans.”

One of the principals at Mouton Art Associates was Frank >> January-February 2012 53

Sciortino, a wildly creative Irish-Italian artist who had been my mentor at an ad agency where I worked as a copywriter and broadcast producer. Roy and I excitedly swapped stories of Frank’s energetic creativity, vigorous temper and fondness for martinis at lunch. We both shared respect for his imagination.

Mouton was a hot, creative shop in those days, and Roy was on his way.

“When I started at Mouton, I had to do a little bit of lettering, a bit of layout, photo sizing, cartooning, whatever. But for the 25 years I was there, I did caricaturing on the side.

I worked conventions, trade shows, charity events and parties. I continued that work after the art agency closed and my wife and I moved from the French Quarter to the northshore.

We’ve lived in Abita Springs for some 30 years now.”

In addition to caricaturing, Roy continues to paint watercolors. His favorite artist is Winslow Homer. “He was a great American watercolorist—and the most diverse. He started out during the Civil War doing illustrations for Harper’s.”

Roy’s watercolors are in the collections of local notables such as Angela Hill, Diane Winston, Ron Swoboda and John Preble, as well as at Inside Northside. (His watercolor of a 54

Inside Northside

Mardi Gras king’s float appeared on the cover of the January-February 2007 issue.)

illustrations: ROY ROBINSON

The Art of Caricature The word “caricature” comes from the Italian caricare: to load; exaggeration by means of oftenludicrous distortion of parts or characteristics.

Leonardo da Vinci was one of the earliest caricaturists. “He drew what he called ‘distortions’ of people with very bizarre prominent features,” Roy reflects. “Dick Van Dyke did caricatures at WDSUTV before he left for Hollywood. And popular actor George Clooney is a caricaturist. I would advise him not to quit his day job, though. There are a few wealthy caricaturists in the world, but most of us simply enjoy the work.”

Since a caricature is an exaggerated portrait, I asked Roy if he ever got into trouble for magnifying a physical trait that the subject was sensitive about.

“Once I got a phone call that shook me up a bit. The voice said, ‘Mr. Robinson, this is Carlos Marcello.’ But before I could pick my jaw off the floor, he added that he had the same name as his uncle, but that he was in the catering business. Turns out he had a large function at Le Petite Theatre and wanted to hire me to do caricatures of his guests. I gladly obliged,” he laughed. “Had I done a caricature of the Carlos Marcello, you can bet it would’ve been flattering.”

Roy deals with people’s egos when he caricatures them, so he’s often on thin ice when he’s trying to amuse and not insult them. He says women are far and away more willing to be subjects of caricature than men. When he works conventions or parties, he typically sketches 80 percent more women. “I think the ladies seem to have a more honest appreciation of what they really look like, though I must say they sometimes lift their chins a bit too high (for obvious reasons).”

The request most often made by his subjects?

“Don’t make my nose too big.”

Celebrities he’s caricaturized include actor Caesar Romero, comedian/presidential candidate Pat Paulsen, Laugh In comedienne Jo Anne Worley, columnist Art Buchwald, TV personality Dr. Joyce Brothers, opera star Marguerite Piazza, clarinetist Pete

Fountain, “and so many other stars of yesterday that few folks remember today. I drew just about every star that played at the Beverly Dinner Playhouse in those days.”

At 90, a New Venture I asked Roy what his secret was for being in such good shape and still working at age 90. He showed me a cartoon of himself with lines drawn to parts of his body with explanations like cataracts, hearing, rosacea, sinusitis, etc. The cartoon is entitled Over at the clinic they call me the Medical Marvel!

“My wife’s probably the reason I’ve lived as long as I have.” Roy divides his life in half, relating that the first 45 years were real screw-ups, especially the last 25 years of that

period. “Then, one morning I woke up on a park bench in Chicago and realized my portfolio was gone, and so was my future. That turned my head around.” The past 45 years have been sober ones. His wife has helped him every step of the way. “Martha, she’s my rock.”

Today, Roy still does his famous caricatures, but he is focusing on his newest venture: home and business portraiture. His business plan includes not only home and business owners, but also real estate professionals wishing to give their clients a unique gift, a watercolor illustration of their home. His pricing is ridiculously low, but he wants to establish his new enterprise quickly. “Heck, Webb, I’m 90— and burnin’ daylight,” he chuckles.

January-February 2012 55

St. Tammany’s New Leader

photo: THOMAS B. GROWDEN

by Katie Montelepre

56

Inside Northside

A RESIDENT OF ST. TAMMANY for 33 years, Patricia “Pat” Brister brings a remarkable leadership background to her new position as parish president.

She has served the country, the state and the parish in a variety of ways, from ambassador to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party to chairman of the St. Tammany Parish Council and executive director of the Northshore Business Council.

Prior to her recent inauguration, Pat’s transition team orchestrated a smooth changeover from Kevin Davis’ leadership. The team was directed by Howard Daigle, managing partner of the Daigle Fisse & Kessenich law firm. He says, “I think we’ve been blessed with very good leadership for the past 12 years with President Davis and the members of the council that have served with him.”

Howard believes that with this solid foundation, residents won’t see many dramatic changes under Pat’s guidance, but there will be a new focus on economic development. He explains, “We will see a far more robust economic development effort supported by a realignment of the administrative organizational structure to support that mission more clearly and better align the administration’s efforts to provide the services that residents are expecting and need from their government today.”

Shortly after her election, Pat spoke at a St. Tammany West Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

pro-active economic development plan that will bring more jobs to our area. In addition, we will always have infrastructure and drainage issues with which to contend and will have to find efficiencies in those areas also.

IN: Are there specific barriers to economic development that you will focus on in the short term? Can you elaborate on the proactive economic development plan, including partnerships with the chambers, Northshore Business Council and Economic Development Foundation?

PB: It will be necessary to look at all issues affecting our economic development, including planning and zoning, taxing and impact fees. We will pull together the different organizations in St. Tammany to come to the table with their wealth of knowledge, ideas and resources. One of my strengths is the pulling together of ideas from many areas and coming up with an overall program of work to best use those ideas. In my conversations with leaders of the organizations mentioned, I have learned that they are willing and excited to work with my administration to accomplish our economic development goals.

IN: You’ve mentioned the importance of film production jobs for St. Tammany’s economy.

An exclusive interview with Pat Brister Following that event, we asked her to tell us more about what we could expect to see under her leadership as parish president.

IN: What do you see as the most important issues for St. Tammany Parish in 2012?

PB: Just as in other parts of the country, the economic downturn has hit St. Tammany. While we have not been as negatively impacted as most of the country, it has caused our revenue to shrink. One of the most important things we will face in 2012 is finding a way to provide the services our citizens want and need with less money. We will look very closely at how our tax dollars are spent while we develop a more

How will you help the growth of the technology sector?

PB: There has been a lot of work done in this area already, and we will expand on what has been started. In this regard, regionalization will be even more important than ever. I have a great working relationship with the leadership of our neighboring parishes. I will work with GNO, Inc. and the Louisiana Economic Development department to make sure we are at the table when decisions are made to go after the companies in the technology and film industries.

The move by Globalstar to St. Tammany has given us a very good entrée into the Silicon Valley companies that are looking to move to >> January-February 2012 57

a more economical area of the country. We must also make sure we have the educated and trained personnel that these companies will need.

IN: How do you plan to communicate and work with local government leaders, leaders of the business sector and other community leaders in St. Tammany?

PB: I have already started an outreach to other government leaders in St. Tammany. Those with whom I have spoken have agreed to meet regularly to discuss issues that are important to all of us.

The municipalities are eager for us to join forces in attracting new jobs and businesses. Before being elected, I served as executive director of the Northshore Business Council for four years. This organization is made up of CEOs from 50 of the top companies in our area. I have already built a relationship with them and will continue to foster that relationship while reaching out to other companies to be a part of our vision of job growth in St. Tammany. I have been involved with numerous organizations over the years and built relationships with community leaders through that involvement.

But, as with everything else, continued effort will be put forth to make sure these relationships grow.

IN: How will your experience with the U.S. delegation on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women play into your role as parish president?

PB: The experience I gained during the four years on the U.N. Commission will certainly be put to use when 58

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>>

working with different groups to come to a compromise on issues that separate us. I understand how to negotiate for the most important parts of an agreement while realizing every stakeholder has a strong opinion on what is important to them. I know how difficult it is to get everything you want in negotiations and I have learned you often have to take a step at a time to reach your goal.

While there will never be issues as divisive as the ones I faced at the U.N., the techniques are the same when trying to reach a conclusion that benefits the residents of St. Tammany Parish.

IN: How will your experience as chairman and vice-chairman of the St. Tammany Parish Council help you in this position?

PB: I was very fortunate to have been elected by my fellow council members to serve as chairman of the council for two years and vice chairman for two years. The experience I bring from those years helps me understand the working relationship between the council (the legislative) and the parish president (the administrative) sides of parish government. The charter spells out responsibilities of each of these arms of government and gives a good roadmap as to how St. Tammany should be run. That will be the basis of my administration— the Parish Charter and what responsibilities are given to each.

IN: Please elaborate on your plans for working with the legislative delegation in Baton Rouge.

PB: Over the past several years, I have sought to develop a good working 60

Inside Northside

relationship with our delegation.

We have a dedicated group of legislators who have come together to form a very powerful bloc. I have already begun conversations with many of them to continue that relationship. I also will work to have a location where members of our delegation and parish leaders can meet whenever necessary to discuss specific legislation in a timely fashion. It is vitally important that the parish administration and our delegation work together to ensure that we are on the same page when it comes to helping St. Tammany achieve our legislative goals. That can be done more effectively if I spend as much time as possible in Baton Rouge during the legislative sessions. Other parishes have been very successful by using this method of communication.

IN: With the many demands of official duties, how do you juggle family responsibilities as well?

PB: I have been so fortunate to have the full support of my family— particularly my husband. We are at a time in our lives that affords me the freedom to pursue this job fully. Our children are grown and married with their own families, and my husband is totally retired.

He was wonderful during the campaign period, making sure everything on the home front ran smoothly. He has worked most of his life to give our family the freedom to make the most of our opportunities, and he continues to do that for me today. I will never be able to thank him enough for his love and support. I will always strive to make him proud of my actions as parish president.

January-February 2012 61

photo: RANDY BERGERON

“Those who kiss beneath its boughs One day will share marriage vows.”

Southeastern’s FriendshipCampus Oak courtship central.

by Erin Cowser

IF YOU’RE NOT SERIOUS about your current “steady,” you may want to think twice before stopping for a smooch while passing by Friendship Oak in the heart of Southeastern Louisiana University’s campus.

Legend has it that doing so may result in eventual matrimony.

The iconic Friendship Oak has held court in Friendship Circle for over a century. According to history professor emeritus and Southeastern lore connoisseur C. Howard Nichols, the tree earned its name when it served as campus courtship central.

“The women’s dormitory across the street (Senior Hall at the time and now Campbell Hall) may have contributed to the name since the tree’s spreading branches provided a somewhat secluded ‘courting place’ for male suitors who called upon the female co-eds,” he says.

The Kenelly family can attest to this. According to Ken Kenelly (’75), his parents began their courtship beneath the oak’s languid limbs. Pat (’47) and Bert (’47) Kenelly attended what was then

Southeastern Louisiana College in the years following World War II. Pat was a Hall of Fame inductee for football, baseball and distinguished service as both a coach and an athletics director; Southeastern’s baseball diamond is named in his honor—Pat Kenelly Field at Alumni Stadium. An inductee in his own right for distinguished service as a football player, coach and administrator, Ken says there were countless memories from the baseball dugout and Strawberry Stadium, but Friendship Oak held a special place in his parents’ hearts.

“I remember my dad saying that Friendship Oak was the special place on campus because they didn’t have cars, so that is where >>

Above: Students pass through Friendship Circle in the heart of Southeastern Louisiana University’s campus. Left: Pat Kennelly, ‘47.

January-February 2012 63

they dated,” says Ken. “He used to say, ‘If that oak ever starts talking, I’m going to have to chop it down.’”

So while the name may only refer to friendship, it’s understood with a wink and a smile to mean romantic friendships, not the BFF kind.

State Senator A.G. Crowe (’73) is quick to point out that not only were he and Linda (’73) sweethearts in their college days, they’re still sweethearts today.

“We stood under Friendship Oak, and I let her know she passed all the tests,” he says, jokingly. “I proposed and let her know that if she would have me, I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.”

It was also beneath the canopy of Friendship Oak’s branches that Brad Bendily (’96) proposed.

According to the former Erin Buratt (’96), he couldn’t have picked a more perfect place. “We both lived on campus, so lunches and quiet walks under Friendship Oak were a regular occurrence, in addition to the

numerous student events we participated in near Friendship Circle,” she says.

Friendship Oak was also a favorite nighttime stop after performances in Pottle Hall and Student Union activities for the couple. “The moonlight shining through the oak’s branches was a beautiful sight,” she says. “It always set the stage for a romantic kiss good-bye.”

One fall night in 2001, following a dinner to celebrate her job, Brad made a detour to campus to retrieve something he “forgot” in his office. “He parked in front of Friendship Oak, which didn’t seem unusual, given that his office was in nearby McClimans Hall,” says Erin. “But when we got out of the car, instead of walking toward McClimans, he led me under Friendship Oak, knelt down on one knee, told me how much he loved me and asked me to marry him.” >> January-February 2012 65

Future Lion Gavan Bendily.

She said yes—and nine years ago, they were married.

Erin currently serves as deputy superintendent of the Office of Developmental Support for the Louisiana Department of Education and Brad is systems administrator for Administrative Computing Services at Southeastern. Once upon a time, however, they were both student workers on campus who met through their involvement with the Student Government Association. Apparently, during the mid1990s there were quite a few “computer issues” in

the Office of Career Services where Erin worked that required “fixing” by a certain student worker in the Office of Administrative Computing Services.

“Brad’s employment at Southeastern keeps us even more connected to the campus, still participating in various activities, enjoying the return of football and hanging out with our Southeastern family,” Erin says.

Their two-year-old son, Gavan, has already been introduced to the Southeastern scene—as evidenced by one of his first photo sessions that featured a Lions football helmet, a stuffed Lion and a Southeastern shirt.

Erin says, “He’s made several trips to campus, including to our beloved Friendship Oak, getting to know the campus of possibly his own future college home.”

In the case of Ellie Schroder (’83), her future husband could have been called for a blatant offsides penalty when they first met on Southeastern’s intramural flag football field—John (’84) was the coach of Ellie’s opposing team.

“I was editor of the Le Souvenir yearbook, and my office was on the top floor of East Stadium,” says the former Ellie Daigle. “I used to watch him walk across

campus from my window.”

The couple dated on and off throughout their college years. A wrong mailing address threatened to thwart their long-distance courtship, but it was overcome, resulting in 26 years of marriage. “John left for basic training after graduation. I was not happy that he signed up for the military and I didn’t know about it. When I started getting calls from him at basic training, I refused them. I didn’t know that he had been sending letters,” she says. “And then one day, either Scott Perriloux (’84) or Jay Barsenick (’84), who lived in the apartment next to me, brought me a stack of letters and told me that I needed to give Schroder my correct apartment number.”

“After reading the letters, she started accepting my calls,” says John, with a grin.

There was mention of a parking lot in what is now the Lions’ baseball stadium right field where students would go for “quiet time,” but the Schroders also found some time to actually go to the library and study in between courting and canoodling, as many college sweethearts tend to do. They credit Southeastern for providing them

with excellent educations and have established an athletics scholarship in their names. Ellie is a technology resource teacher at Bayou Lacombe Middle School and has her bachelor’splus-30 and supervision certification, all from Southeastern. John received his bachelor’s in criminal justice from Southeastern, serves as State Representative for District 77 and is a small-business owner. “We love Southeastern for many reasons,” he says, which is fitting, since Southeastern happens to be where they met and fell in love. >>

John and Ellie Schroder circa 1983.

January-February 2012 67

Friendship Oak in the 1930s.

Socializing in the circle continues a tradition that dates back to the 1930s, when Friendship Oak’s much younger branches sheltered a popular student hangout. At one time, wooden benches sat at the base of the landmark tree’s trunk, and a small frame structure housed a refreshments stand that dispensed coffee, soft drinks and hamburgers that cost a nickel each.

Dubbed the “Pop House” by students, it was razed once the War Memorial Student Union was constructed in the early 1950s, according to Nichols.

By the 1980s, a circular bench that wrapped around the massive tree’s trunk had been installed. In 2004, a wooden deck was constructed to protect its root system from further compaction and damage.

Since the return of football in 2002, the Lion Walk has become part of the Southeastern game day tradition. As the team makes its way to Strawberry Stadium two hours prior to kickoff, players and coaches are greeted by loyal Lion tailgaters who flock to Friendship Circle on game days. Students have also begun hosting Live @ The Oak on evenings before home football games.

Plenty of music and food set the mood 68

Inside Northside

to kick off tailgating for the next day.

Registered with the Louisiana Live Oak Society, Friendship Oak reigns with arboreal authority over Friendship Circle and beckons passers-by to socialize in its shade.

Whether you believe in the legend of a kiss beneath its branches is up to you. However, the next time you stroll through Friendship Circle with your sweetheart, be sure to glance at the Spanish moss that graces the oak’s branches. When the breeze catches it just right, it can easily be mistaken for a bridal veil made of heirloom lace.

Perhaps it’s trying to foretell many kisses yet to come.

Alumni, students and friends of Southeastern Louisiana University are invited to take part in “Project Friendship” through the purchase of personalized bricks in Friendship Circle, the historical heart of Southeastern’s campus. Proceeds from the purchase of the $100 bricks support the Southeastern Foundation’s Annual Fund, a key revenue source for the university’s academic programs.

Visit southeastern.edu/projectfriendship to order.

January-February 2012 69

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Book Report

by Stephen Faure A WALK THROUGH A CEMETERY might not be the most fitting place to open a memoir, but this is a New Orleans memoir, and the cemetery was once a horse racing track. And the book is titled The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak.

Author Randy Fertel introduces his mother, Ruth (as in Ruth’s Chris Steak House and the “Empress of Steak” in the title), by recounting the day she showed him the site where she planned to build her tomb at Metairie Cemetery.

Overlooking a lagoon filled with ducks, Ruth, who we learn later in the story enjoyed the outdoors, wondered whether she should be buried with her 12-guage Beretta. A fixture at the Fair Grounds (we also learn she was the first woman to earn a trainer’s license in Louisiana), she recalled the cemetery’s past and wondered whether she should have a betting window built into the tomb.

When Randy finishes his introduction by observing “Nearly all the key players in the global empire of Ruth’s Chris Steak House ended up suing her, to get what they felt they deserved. I must confess that I was among them,” the reader gets a hint that Randy’s memoir is going to be the tale of a difficult, if not exciting and somewhat privileged, upbringing.

Although Randy’s father, Rodney Fertel, aka “The Gorilla Man,” might not be as familiar a figure to New Orleanians who went to high school in the 70s and 80s as was Ruth, he probably was the more colorful character.

While Ruth built her empire from the ground-up, The Gorilla Man’s story is more one of a man who coasted on a legacy left by his grandparents, successful Rampart Street pawnbrokers

The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak

by Randy Fertel

whose penchant for familial feuding left a dark legacy hanging over future family members.

“Coasting” might not be the right word. While he never held a job, Rodney Fertel lived an adventurous life, owning racehorses, gambling on racehorses and investing in real estate.

He did a lot of traveling, too, with Randy accompanying his dad at times; they once met artist Salvador Dali in Spain.

Rodney became “The Gorilla Man” when campaigning for mayor of New Orleans in 1968 with the slogan, “Don’t settle for a monkey. Elect Fertel and get a gorilla.” He promised that, if elected, he would personally finance and undertake an expedition to the Belgian Congo and bring back two gorillas for the gorillaless Audubon Zoo. Despite campaigning through the city wearing a pith helmet and accompanied by a gorilla-suited assistant, he got only 310 votes. Nonetheless, he located two baby gorillas in Singapore, purchased them and donated them to the zoo.

While filled with adventures with his zany dad and a lot of dish on politicos and celebrities who patronized his Ruth’s restaurant, Randy’s memoir is also an emotional story of his struggle to find his place within his family and in the world. That he and Jerry didn’t get along well at all, that his mother and father split up when he was very young and kept contentious divorce proceedings going on for years, proved for a difficult childhood and adjustment as an adult.

Randy settled into an academic life (he has a Harvard Ph.D. in English), and his research and writing abilities shine through.

While relating his mother’s background growing up in lower Plaquemines Parish, he does it against the backdrop of the area’s history, the stories of the cultures—French, Croatians and Creoles—that settled there.

Likewise, in relating his father’s ancestry, he talks about New Orleans’ history and how the seedy “back of town” that started at Rampart Street was not only a place that bred desperate vice—where a pawnbroker’s services were in great demand—but was also where a new culture, jazz, brought by the likes of Buddy Bolden and Louis Armstrong, was born.

The Gorilla Man and the Empress of Steak is a fascinating story. For New Orleans area natives, it offers a peek behind the scenes of one of the city’s iconic restaurants, where a generation of power-brokers gorged on prime beef and stiff drinks. For all readers, it offers an intriguing tale played out by a cast of characters against Fertel’s well-researched and well-told historical backdrop, one that will help them understand why New Orleans is often called “America’s most interesting city.”

January-February 2012 71

The Northshore Community Foundation

by Katie Montelepre

Above: A rendering of University East from the Hammond Comprehensive

Coatney and Carla Mouton in the Coatney Center for Philanthropy.

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Inside Northside

photo: THOMAS B. GROWDEN

Plan. Right: Susan Bonnett, Doyle

SINCE ITS BEGINNING in January 2007, the Northshore Community Foundation has been working with the local community to build a beautiful future by overseeing and participating in philanthropic works and regional planning. It has funded $2.7 million of grants to numerous organizations and projects across the northshore in self-delineated arenas and for specific needs designated by their donors.

Susan Bonnett, president and CEO of the foundation, outlined three initial goals—to establish the NCF as a center for philanthropy in the region; to plan for smart, sustainable communities; and to >> Top image courtesy of DOVER, KOHL & PARTNERS

Celebrating five years of building a beautiful future.

build and solidify a credible community foundation from the ground up.

Through hard work and generous donors, the foundation has succeeded in meeting these goals. Susan credits the donors with the foundation’s success. “We focus on their passions first,” she explains. “The irony of our foundation is that many of our activities and accomplishments are donor driven—we help them have the impact they want to have.”

The foundation works hard to communicate how the foundation can help individuals and corporations accomplish their philanthropic goals.

“When people think ‘donors,’ they think the mega-rich,” Susan says.

But that’s not necessarily true. Any size donation can be used through the foundation to fulfill a donor’s passion, whether for gardening initiatives (see sidebar), disaster relief services or other projects those are important to the donor and the community.

Ann Hebert of Covington provides a touching example of an individual who wanted to make an impact quickly.

Her son, 6th-grader Jeremy Hebert, died of heart failure while at Pine View Middle School last September. “The awareness of heart disease and the importance of having a defibrillator immediately available to both children and adults became a passion that spoke to my heart immediately upon Jeremy’s death,” Ann says.

Realizing that defibrillators were only available in public high schools throughout St. Tammany, Ann wanted to obtain defibrillators for all schools. “After researching where and how to place funds, the vision of the NCF was a perfect match with our mission,” Ann says.

The result of her initial meeting with the foundation was immediate— “[the fund] was established by the time 74

Inside Northside

she left 45 minutes later,” Susan recalls.

Family and friends could make a taxdeductible donation to the NCF for the Jeremy Hebert Defibrillator Fund. With those gifts, the foundation has begun purchasing defibrillators, and the school board has started delivering them.

Another advantage of working with the foundation to carry out your philanthropic goals is that they handle administration hassles, such as writing thank-you notes for donations received and managing tax and reporting requirements for the donors. Individuals and corporations can write one check to the foundation to create a fund from which they can manage their philanthropic giving. Jack and Maura Donahue, who have both a company fund and a personal fund at the foundation, are grateful for the foundation’s efforts.

“We think the world of the foundation. It’s an incredible asset,” Maura says. “The foundation does a great job in vetting nonprofits and letting you know they are viable. It’s terrific—they match the resources with the needs.”

From its beginning, the foundation has worked to strengthen local nonprofit organizations. “What we found almost immediately was that our nonprofit sector needed an immense amount of support and training,” Susan says. Often the executive director was doing all the work, from delivering the service and raising the money to writing the checks and even taking out the trash. Working together they have been able to increase the capacity of many nonprofit agencies, making the donations more effective.

The generous gift from Doyle Coatney funded the Coatney Center for Philanthropy, a physical office at the foundation’s Covington location. This conference room houses the Association >> January-February 2012 75

image courtesy of DUANY PLATER-ZYBERK & COMPANY

A rendering of an aerial view from the Old Mandeville Town Center Resiliency Plan.

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of Fundraising Professionals’ resource library and is available to nonprofit staff from across the northshore.

Northshore Families Helping Families, as well as New Heights Therapeutic Riding, has used the space for events such as board meetings and workshops.

The center also hosts workshops and seminars on relevant topics presented by local experts. They offer support in areas as wide ranging as resources management to sourcing grant opportunities and writing the applications. “We’ve gotten very helpful

Inside Northside

advice for running nonprofits,” says Deacon Tom Caffery, president and CEO of the Food Bank of Covington.

Sue Cheveallier, director of New Heights, also recognizes the value of these free events. “I attend as many of them as I can,” she says. “It’s information that we might otherwise have to pay quite a bit for.

It’s also a great networking opportunity.”

The initial goal of effective community planning was made possible by a significant grant from the LRA Support Foundation. The NCF’s planning projects have ranged from a complete land-use plan for Hammond to a town center for Old Mandeville.

“In the post-Katrina world of growth, growth and more growth, it was necessary for someone to step back and take a smart look at the situation,” Susan says. “We have, in the last five years, managed eight planning processes all over the four parishes in our jurisdiction.”

The Hammond plan by Dover, Kohl & Partners, financed by the NCF with matching funds from the City of Hammond, responded to the challenges of unregulated growth, worsening traffic and limited >>

Leaving (and Living) a Legacy – Dr. Jinx Vidrine “When you’re facing death, you want your life to

gardens were planted this past fall, and there are plans

have meaning.”

for more.

That’s what Dr. Jinx Vidrine thought as she faced her second bout with breast cancer. She created the

vegetable seeds and seedlings, a watering system

Jinx Vidrine Legacy Foundation Fund three years ago at

and mulch for four-by-four-foot square garden areas,

the Northshore Community Foundation. “I pondered a

as well as garden curriculum resources. Jinx hopes

long time about how to leave money—the paperwork

the program will promote healthy eating and instill

was daunting,” Jinx says. But, “putting it under the

environmental stewardship as the students learn the

foundation has been a total pleasure.”

After beating the cancer once again, she thought, “Why don’t I have fun when I’m alive?” (By “fun,” Jinx meant helping others.)

Through her fund, Jinx has sponsored field trips for Head Start students, given

basics of planting, caring for and harvesting the vegetables.

Grants from the Legacy Gardens Fund are available for community gardens as well. The fund is, literally, seed money. Jinx hopes that local organizations, businesses and individuals will consider adopting a school either online or by

camp scholarships to children for YMCA programs and granted scholarships during

sending a check to the NCF for the Legacy Gardens Fund; all donations qualify for

her mission trip to Haiti—just to name a few. “When I see something that needs

a tax deduction.

money, I can just call [the foundation] and they send checks!” she says.

Working with students at Head Start, Jinx discovered that many didn’t know

photo: ERIC SUHRE

Each school garden receives organic soil,

Stocks and cash are not the only things that can be donated through the foundation. Jinx has also donated 11 lots to Habitat for Humanity. “I want

anything about where their food comes from. She contacted the St. Tammany

everyone to know that they can also easily set up a personal foundation with

Parish School Board, stating that she wanted to pay for a garden in each of the

the NCF,” she says. “Or 10 people can put up as little as $1,000 each and work

elementary schools. “I thought there were eight or nine schools, but then I found

together to fulfill their passions and the needs of the community. And, it’s fun!”

out there are 27!” Jinx laughs.

Luckily, this daunting number did not stop her plans. From her main fund, Jinx transferred $10,000 to create the Legacy Gardens Fund at the foundation. Ten

To donate to the Legacy Gardens Fund or to sponsor a garden, call 893-8757 or visit NorthshoreFoundation.org.

January-February 2012 77

A rendering of Downtown Hammond from the Hammond

image courtesy of DOVER, KOHL & PARTNERS

Comprehensive Plan.

housing choices for seniors and young workers. The city is in the early stages of implementing the long-term plan.

Hammond Mayor Mayson Foster says, “The foundation was excellent to work with. They prodded us and were with us every step of the way.”

Mandeville leaders approached the NCF with the idea of re-imagining and reinvigorating Old Mandeville. With an LRA grant secured by the foundation, Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, a world-renowned architectural and planning firm, was brought in. They conducted an open planning session, or charrette, which allowed political leaders, volunteers, activists, preservationists, investors and residents to collaborate on what they wanted for their community.

Through the construction of a town center focused in the heart of Old Mandeville at the crossing of the Tammany Trace, Mandeville hopes to create a sense of place, says Louisette Kidd, director of the Department of Planning & Development for the city.

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Inside Northside

Mandeville Mayor Donald Villere says, “The town center will be an expansion of the Trailhead and provide a center of activity and a meeting place for business, civic and social organizations to enhance the lifestyle of our citizens. The resulting economic growth will provide benefit to the city for years to come.”

A $150,000 grant created a revival plan for the West 30s neighborhood in Covington. This plan, currently in the implementation stage, calls for the rebuilding of basketball courts, home repairs, neighborhood cleanups and safe, quality housing options.

“Every neighborhood in our region has the potential to thrive,” Susan says.

“Following this plan, the West 30s can achieve it.”

Looking back on their first five years, the NCF board members decided to create a three-year plan because of the rapid changes in the economic and philanthropic environment. They hope to elevate the conversation about philanthropy. “If the people of our region

knew what their neighbors and friends were quietly doing for those in need, they would be astounded,” Susan says.

“Our foundation is focused on telling those stories to get more northshore neighbors involved in using their resources to build a better place.”

As part of the ongoing effort to help nonprofits and create that regional conversation, the foundation will continue to host executive roundtables, where local nonprofit leaders and staff meet at a breakfast once every three months to discuss issues that affect the leadership of nonprofit organizations.

To directly aid nonprofits in need, the foundation will work in a consulting capacity to help organizations that have a tremendous capacity for success.

This past fall, the foundation began implementing this idea by working directly with the Food Bank of Covington. “The Food Bank has everything it needs to succeed—an extensive donor base, a credible mission, a deep bench of volunteers and an extensive physical plant,” she says. “It had all the elements; it just needed a little organizational help.”

Susan worked with the members of the board of directors to refine the role and mission of the organization in the community and to organize themselves in the most effective manner. “We’ve experienced a tremendous growth, and it’s brought us a whole new set of issues to manage,” says Tom. “I feel like she’s a member of the staff,” he adds, laughing. “I’d rather other organizations not hear about the NCF—we’d like to keep them to ourselves—they’ve been that valuable to us.”

To learn more about the Northshore Community Foundation, call 893-8757 or visit NorthshoreFoundation.org.

January-February 2012 79

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1. Fit for the king and queen! Large glass votive that can also be used as a candy dish, $15. Party Cup Express, New Orleans, (504) 835-5465, partycupexpress.com. Call for

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custom orders. 2. Royal serving. Plate, $30.99; spreader, $7. The Purple Armadillo…Again!, Slidell, 643-2004. 3. Love

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letters. Valentine’s Day cards, $3 each. Le Beau Papier, LLC, 373-3984. 4. Celebrate Valentine’s and carnival with a crown jewel! 16” x 20” mixed media of acrylic, golf leaf and sheet rock mud by Sisi Lamothe, $255. Welcome Home and garden, Covington, 893-3933. 5. Capturing carnival. 4” x 6” carnival frame, $22.99. Mandeville Party Company, 6745

1605. 6. Unwine! Winelight tube lamp, $18. Outdoor Living Center, Covington, 893-8008. 7. Mardi Gras for your mantel.

Bacchus, hand-painted folk art by Lorraine Gendron, $95.

Rug Chic, Mandeville, 674-1070. 8. Sew anywhere! Omni-

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Glide Trolley in silver, $109.99. Precision Sewing, Covington, 249-6156. 9. Venice…the mask of Italy! Each piece handcrafted by artisans using skills unchanged for hundreds of years, $146. The Grapevine, Covington, 893-2766.

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1. Face to face! From the Faces series by Joseph Derr, $135. The Louisiana Artists Gallery, Mandeville, 6248

7903. 2. Suitable for a royal toast. Mardi Gras stems with colored enamel, Swarovski crystals and interchangeable tops by Edgar Berebi, $300 each. Arabella Fine Gifts and Home Décor, Mandeville, 727-9787. 3. Gifts for your sweetheart.

Handcrafted copper coasters and frame; set of 4 coasters, $39.50; 4” x 6” frame, $64.50. the french mix, covington, 8093952. 4. Stop the wining! Handcarved burl wine stopper by Mitch Evans, $35. Studio MV, Covington, 867-5601. 5. Perfect for the one you love! Whimsical Hues N Brews tea service for one, $24.95. The English Tea Room, Covington, 898-3988. 6. Enhance your art collection with Paris in the 60’s, acrylic on linen by Marc Clauzade, St. Germain des Pres, $42,750. Galerie d’Art Francais, New Orleans, (504) 581-6920. 7. What’s black and white outside and precious inside? Camel bone inlaid jewelry box with multi-sized drawers; imported from India, $299. Discoveries Furniture and Finds, Hammond, 345-

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2577. 8. Add flair to your next party with these SFERRA European linen cocktail napkins, set of four, $37. Hestia Luxury in Linens, Covington, 893-0490. 9. Poof!

Remote-controlled candle, $19. deCoeur Gifts & Home Accessories, Covington, 8093244. 10. Take a carriage ride around Jackson Square. 8” x 8” original painting by 10

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Kimberly Berkeley, $400. Covington Art and Frame, 893-6166.

January-February 2012 83

IN Fashion

with Beverly McQuaid

by Maria G. Davis

Kate Landry dress, $250;

both from Dillard’s.

Bracelet, $8,248, Reine Diamonds. Earrings, $2,995, Champagne Jewelers.

MD: As an educator, I know you always want to convey professionalism and set an example.

How is your style influenced by what you do?

BMc: I would describe my style as classic but comfortable. The classic look of a starched white shirt with something as simple as a pair of jeans is always appropriate to me. Of course, I always walk around with a fish hook in my mouth.

MD: A fish hook?

BMc: That sounds so funny doesn’t it? I was a local model for some time. You are taught to hold your head up as if a fish hook were pulling you. It just sort of stuck with me, and I do that every day as a practice. It keeps my head up and my shoulders back!

MD: If you say that, then you must have had a slouchy phase.

BMc: I did at one point. I think we all do. When I was in high school, I dressed sort of punk,

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Inside Northside

Terani dress, $440, Southern

with short hair, piercings and really baggy

Bridal. Chinese Laundry shoes,

clothes. What can I say? It was the ’80s.

$89, Fleurt. Earrings with black

I didn’t really pay attention to what I wore

and white diamonds, $7,526,

until after my kids were born because I went

Reine Diamonds.

through another slouchy phase having babies

IN Fashion Coordinator, BRENDA BRECK; hair and makeup by STEPHANIE CERISE of Kent Jacob Salon; photography by ABBY SANDS MILLER www.abbyphoto.com. Photographed at the Lakehouse.

I MET BEVERLY MCQUAID a few years ago as we sat next to each other in the hair salon, but I never had the opportunity to get into a conversation with her. When she was chosen for this article, I was able to ask her some detailed questions and put a life with the face I had seen so many times.

Beverly is the owner of Planet Kids Academy, a preschool for children ages 1 to 5. As we talked, her passion for children was evident, as was her philosophical approach to beauty, life and parenting.

Gianni Binni shoes, $99;

Riller and Font dress, $332; crystal bead necklace, $138; long gold beads, $302; gold chain bracelet, $655; all from Izabella’s Villa. Blue oval topaz ring, $435, Champagne Jewelers.

Chinese Laundry shoes, $89, Fleurt.

back to back. I think I was trying not to

times a week, and I try to run 3 to 4 miles at

accent my body, but hide it.

least twice a week. I do love to exercise—it is sort of my time to myself.

MD: At what point did you just “get it” about dressing better?

MD: Earlier, we talked about taking time for

BMc: I have to say my mother-in-law deserves a lot of the credit. She showed me how to put

yourself and how that influences your life.

BMc: I am firm believer in finding balance. I am

things together, and she is an inspiration.

always trying to balance my family, my

Also, I saw friends and the way they dressed.

business and myself. I truly believe that comes

I just started paying more attention.

out of taking care of yourself first. It is almost counterintuitive to think that, but it is so true. I

MD: Has being 6-feet tall ever hindered your style or made it hard to find clothes? I would imagine

feel I cannot be better at all the things I do if I have not fueled myself and taken care of me.

you have never had to hem a pair of pants!

BMc: You’re right. And if something does fall a little short, then it looks like a cropped pant, which is fine with me. Actually, I had a harder time finding a man tall enough for me! Luckily, he is 6-foot-4, so I can still wear high heels.

BCBG gold top, $58, Fleurt.

MD: Beverly, no one can say you don’t look amazing now. I know you work out very hard.

BMc: I do, and I credit my gym for helping to reshape my body. I do circuit training three

Rose gold earrings, $1,998; rose gold necklace, $4,128; drop with black and white diamonds, $3,905; all from Reine Diamonds.

Blouse, $194, and shorts, $198, from Izabella’s Villa. Crystal bead necklace, $138; long gold beads, $302; all from Izabella’s Villa. Pearls, $1,150, with Swarovski enhancer, $175, Champagne Jewelers.

Jeweled handbag, $129, Three Divas and a

Maria Davis is available to style your wardrobe. Contact her at mdstyle@me.com.

Sugar Daddy. BCBG shoes, $89, Shoefflé.

January-February 2012 85

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Inside Northside

1

GREAT GRAYS

2

1. Black pearl and bead necklace on sterling silver with beaded tassel by Honora, $690.

3

Boudreaux’s Fine Jewelers, Mandeville, 626-1666. 2. Double-breasted taffeta trench coat with ruffle collar and cuff, $142. Columbia Street Mercantile, Covington, 809-1789. 3. Tulane hooded sweatshirt, $37. Campus

4

Connection, New Orleans, (504) 866-6193. 4. Heather-gray cowl-neck 6

sweater by Buffalo, $89. Paisley, Mandeville, 727-7880. 5. Brushed micro fleece top with delicate folkloric

embroidery and tassel trim; matching leggings in warm gray, $38. Accents & Things, Slidell, 649-4273. 6. Tissot PR 100 titanium watch with date, $395. Lowe’s Jewelers, Mandeville, 845-4653. 7. 7-1/2” Pandora bracelet with Murano Black Star and Exotic glass beads, silver Daydream bead and Encore clip beads, $565; starter Pandora bracelet, $65. Champagne Jewelers, Slidell, 643-2599. 8. Bertolucci woman’s watch with VVS Clarity 162 diamonds 0.70ct, black satin strap and white mother-of-pearl runray “Guilloche” dial, $8,900. Reine

5

Diamonds & Fine Jewelry, Slidell, 201-7415.

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January-February 2012 87

1. Gray studded handbag by deaux lux, $195; studded wallet/clutch, $54. Fleurt, Covington, 809-8844. 2. Peacock pearl necklace with fleur de lis pendant by Peridot PerlĂŠ, $145.

Creations De Main, Mandeville, 231-7388. 3. Snake print

2 1

dress by Kimberly Taylor, $305. The Mix, Mandeville, 7277649. 4. Gray scoop-neck athletic top by Lululemon, $52.

Pure Barre, Mandeville, 674-7577. 5. 12mm black Tahitian pearl necklace with 14k gold clasp, $5,045. De Boscq Jewelry, Mandeville, 674-0007. 6. One-shoulder iridescent taffeta and lace gown with ruched bodice designed by Kathy Ireland, available in pewter or champagne, $558. Olivier Couture, Mandeville, 674-6994. 7. Signature TERANI evening dress with textured floral design and single-shoulder strap, $920. Southern Bridal, Mandeville, 727-2993. 8. Ray-Ban gray tortoise sunglasses, $139. St. Charles Vision, Mandeville, 626-8103.

GREAT GRAYS 5 3 6

4

8

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Inside Northside

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Inside Northside

2 1

3

GREAT GRAYS

1. Three-ring necklace in 14k gold with 1.50cttw combination of white

4

and champagne diamonds, $2,495. DeLuca’s Expressions in Gold, Covington, 892-2317. 2. Freshwater pearl bracelets with sterling and crystal accents, starting at $59.95. Moseley’s Jewelers, Mandeville, 6265098. 3. Gray ceramic watch by Anne Klein, $75. Shoefflé, Covington, 898-6465; Baton Rouge, (225) 761-1105. 4. Washed stretch silk charmeuse dress featuring plunging v-neck, empire waist,

5

three-quarter-length bell sleeves and flocked design with burnout detailing, $260. Izabella’s Villa, Slidell, 6495060. 5. Columbia ladies Benton Springs fleece 6

jacket in charcoal heather with custom embroidery, $57.98. Embroidme, Slidell, 649-5055; Mandeville, 624-9718. 6. Gray yoga poncho by alo.sport, $82.

OSpa at Franco’s, Mandeville, 792-0270. 7. Tunic with detachable fur collar by Finley, $224. The Villa, Mandeville, 626-9797. 8. Gray faux-fur leg warmers/boot covers, $19.99. Private Beach, Mandeville, 237-6040. 9. Bobby Schandra Italian leather handbag with suede fringe and gold accents, $449. Three Divas and a Sugardaddy, Slidell, 288-5550.

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January-February 2012 91

Martin Wine Cellar

Hope and Cedric Martin.

92

“PEOPLE SAY HOW LUCKY WE ARE to work in wine and food, and we are,” says Kevin Raborn, manager of Martin Wine Cellar’s Mandeville location.

“It’s definitely a lot of fun.”

Open since 2005, the Mandeville store is the third location, and the first outside the southshore, of this long-established business. Martin Wine Cellar started as a neighborhood wine shop in Uptown New Orleans 60 years earlier, when David Martin opened a storefront in half of a shotgun house at Baronne Street and General Taylor in 1946.

Cedric Martin now helms the business started by his father, whom generations of New Orleanians may remember from TV commercials as “the steelyeyed wine merchant.” Cedric’s daughter, Hope, who represents the family’s third generation in the enterprise, is in charge of marketing and promotion.

By 1953, business had grown so much that Martin bought the other half of the house, demolished it and built a large store on the site. This started a trend that would continue for Martin’s: outgrowing itself and expanding its physical operations. Locations now include the main store,

Inside Northside

photo: STEPHEN FAURE

INGood Company

which opened in Metairie in 1989; a store on Magazine Street; the Mandeville shop; and one in Baton Rouge.

The landmark Baronne Street store was put out of commission by Katrina.

Its construction prohibited simply raising the structure to the new flood elevations, and it was demolished.

The foundation has been poured for the new store on Baronne that Martin’s hopes will be up and running for the 2012 holiday season.

The Mandeville, Baton Rouge and Magazine Street stores came about as a way to both establish the business in new markets and to retain employees

by Stephen Faure after the Uptown store was closed. “I had so many qualified people working for me that I couldn’t promote them in one location,” Cedric says.

Cedric recalls that his dad’s biggest challenge in getting the business off the ground was simply introducing the city to fine wine. “People back in the 1940s drank a lot of spirits. His goal was to educate them on wine,” he says. Educating customers—and the sales staff—plays a big part in Martin’s success today.

While in college, Cedric had spent summers working in some of the great wine houses of France and in some of the best restaurants in New Orleans. After graduating from LSU, he attended the Viticulture and Enology program at Fresno State University, where he was classmates with some of the country’s top winemakers. He brought his experiences home to help his father expand the business and establish its food operations.

The company began its deli Uptown in 1977, serving customers who could now enjoy lunch while they shopped and purchased otherwise unavailable gourmet cheese and other food items. It proved very popular, and the demand at the Metairie deli—now bistro—prompted a total renovation of the store.

Dinner is now served Monday through Friday. Of course, customers can buy any of the beverages available in the store to have with their meal. “It’s the best wine list in the city,” Cedric says, with a grin.

Martin’s long-established relationships with its suppliers all over the world are a great benefit to its customers. “We get great allocations each year and buy futures,” says Cedric.

It’s not uncommon for Martin’s to buy stakes in wine futures, locking in prices while grapes are still on the vine in years when growing conditions indicate an exceptional vintage is in the works.

David Martin never stopped educating his customers and Martin’s continues the tradition. Product tastings and wine classes are held throughout the year. Cedric says samples of many of the wines and spirits are available; customers at the Metairie store, for example, can try virtually any of the spirits in stock before buying, including a large selection of single-malt Scotch whiskies.

All of the locations carry a custom selection of wines called “Cedric’s SixPacks,” a box of six different bottles of wine for the price of five—white or red, each with tasting notes, a history of the wine maker and food pairing suggestions.

Rayborn says the Mandeville store features complimentary tastings every Friday. “We always sample some type of spirit and some type of wine.” A recent tasting of 24 Cabernets drew 90 people.

“It was our biggest event all year. Also very popular is our beer tasting. We have it the same day every year, the Friday before Father’s Day. It’s 80 beers, plus food, for $20 a person. That’s a deal!”

Martin Wine Cellar is located at 2895 Hwy. 190 in The Village Shopping Center in Mandeville. Call 951-8081 for more information.

January-February 2012 93

A N D

M A R R I A G E

Cook-Ferris

On a beautiful fall evening, Crystal Rhea Cook wed Joseph Davis Ferris at Beau Chêne Country Club.

L O V E

As guests arrived for the outdoor ceremony, they were greeted with glasses of white sangria and serenaded with New Orleans music by Northshore Jazz. Denise Lindsey, a family friend, officiated the ceremony.

I N

The bride wore an ivory strapless gown featuring a mermaid silhouette encrusted with freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystals. Her dress was accented by glittering Jimmy Choo slingback pumps from Saks Fifth Avenue and sparkling jewelry from Dillard’s.

The bouquet was a unique collection of green and white cymbidium orchids with assorted Australian foliage. The bridesmaids wore floor-length, oneshouldered gowns in deep teal and carried bouquets that matched the bride’s. Two of the bride’s best guy friends were her “bridesmen” and wore vests and ties of matching teal.

The Beau Chêne ballroom was decorated with ivory drapes accented with teal ribbons and peacock feathers. Guests danced the night away as Escalade Band provided non-stop music. Vases of sequined masks added to the décor and the merriment.

The four-tiered wedding cake featured chocolate ganache frosting topped with dark chocolate shavings.

A double-layered cheesecake topped with chocolatephotos: STEVE RANDON PHOTOGRAPHY

dipped strawberries was the groom’s favorite.

The newlyweds made their get-away in the fatherof-the-bride’s decorated golf cart before flying to Palm Island in the Grenadines for their honeymoon. The couple resides in Covington, where Crystal is a physical therapist and co-owner of Rehab Dynamics and Joey is an insurance agent employed by Hancock Bank.

January-February 2012 95

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

The wedding of Jill Irene Fayard and Corey Evan Buck was celebrated at St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in New Orleans. The bride’s Cinderellastyle gown from Olivier Couture had a sweetheart neckline outlined with beading. The mother of the

The reception featuring the Mixed Nuts began with the couple’s first dance and a surprise—the couple performed dance moves that no one had seen them do before. After the dance-filled celebration, Jill and Corey honeymooned in St. Lucia.

Bordelon-Pereira Ashley Bordelon and Burton

A N D

flower girls’ dresses and the ring bearer’s pillow.

L O V E

photo: IMAGES BY ROBERT T

groom made the bride’s cathedral-length veil, the

M A R R I A G E

Fayard-Buck

I N

photo: DENNIS BARROIS, ELEGANT IMAGES L.L.C PHOTOGRAPHY

Pereira exchanged vows at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. The bride’s strapless silk taffeta gown from Southern Bridal was accented by customized crystal embellishments.

Her bouquet of orchids, calla lilies and roses from Villere’s Florist held a locket in remembrance of her grandparents. Family and friends danced the night away with No Idea Band at the Sheraton New Orleans, ending the night with a second-line dance led by the bride and groom. The newlyweds honeymooned at the Paradisus Palma Real Resort in the Dominican Republic.

Mares-Dupont

The wedding of Kristin Mares and Brian Dupont was officiated by the Rev. Ronald L. Calkins at Holy Name of Jesus Church in New Orleans. The bride’s Adele Wechsler two-piece vegetable-dyed silk gown from Olivier Couture featured a custom sweetheart-neckline mini-dress over a fulllength dropped-yoke skirt. The bridesmaids wore short, double-tiered floral silk dresses photo: CREATIVE IMAGES STUDIO

by BCBG from Dillard’s. The bride and groom celebrated with family and friends to the sounds of the Top Cats at the Federal Ballroom in New Orleans. After the festivities, the couple honeymooned in Hawaii and currently reside in Spanish Fort, Ala.

ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR New Year’s resolutions is, of course, to work out and get fit. We enthusiastically sign up for classes and join health clubs, but on January 2, we drag our feet to the gym—if we go at all—and soon get tired of doing (or not doing) the same old thing. Tiffany Naumann, owner of The Bar Method in Covington, says, “People are always looking for something new to try to keep things fun and interesting instead of the same routine workout.”

If this scenario sounds familiar to you, we hope the

following fitness trends will pique your interest and give you motivation to move. But remember—if you want to work out and get fit, you have to get up and go!

Fitness Trends

TRAIN TOGETHER

Group personal training is becoming more popular not only

because it’s more economical for the clients, but also because it provides peer support, says Mark Bascle, fitness director

of Franco’s Athletic Club in Mandeville. “It builds relationships

and encourages people to keep working out by providing group

by Katie Montelepre

accountability,” he says. Franco’s offers a variety of group classes, including senior fitness programs and dance workouts, as well as their popular Lose Dat weight-loss program.

MIX IT UP

A specific type of workout that is becoming popular is high-intensity interval training. People are going back to basics, doing more pushups and pullups and other short-duration exercises, says

UP THE POWER

Erica Alexander-Leeling, fitness director of Stone

If you’re looking for an in-house

Creek Club & Spa in Covington. One example of

cardiovascular workout that’s easier than running and that burns more calories than a workout on an exercise bike, the

HIIT is Tabata intervals—eight sets of the same exercise for 20 seconds at 100 percent, then a 10-second rest. “It’s a great

elliptical—the fastest-growing category

workout; it burns calories and

in exercise equipment—is the answer.

helps you lose weight,”

“Younger people are getting exposure [to ellipticals] in health clubs, and that’s what they want,” says Jennifer Duebler of Fitness Expo in Mandeville. Precor, the inventor of the elliptical, now offers a more affordable, cost-efficient machine without sacrificing the quality. For those who have trouble standing, seated ellipticals are also available.

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Inside Northside

Erica adds.

DON’T RESIST RESISTANCE For those looking to gain strength through resistance training, the Pilates Plus/SPX Fitness experience offers anaerobic resistance training without going catabolic. “It’s a great full-body workout—the newest thing in resistance training,” says Lee Credeur, co-owner of Pilates Plus in Covington. The combination of Pilates, strength training and cardio elements helps strengthen, tighten and tone the body. “It’s a hard workout for anybody, no matter what shape you’re in,” Lee adds.

SHAKE IT OFF Popular West Coast dance exercise methods using a ballet bar have recently debuted on the northshore. These workouts combine interval training, dance conditioning and isometrics to increase strength and flexibility.

Without impacting the joints, the ballet bar exercise works each muscle of the body to exhaustion and then stretches it out, toning the body instead of building a lot of bulk, and creating a long, lean look. “I think the reason it’s a trendy workout is because it works,” says Jennifer Thomas, owner of Pure Barre in Mandeville. “I was a cheerleader with the Saints, and I’ve never seen results so quickly!”

FULL SERVICE—24/7 If time management is your problem, visit Gym 24/7, located behind Associated Physicians Group in Madisonville. It’s open any time of day or night, so there’s no excuse! The 3,000-square-foot fitness center offers Zumba classes, cardio equipment, weight machines and equipment that is unique to the healthcare industry. During business hours, members can ask a doctor any health or nutrition questions. “It’s a warmer, intimate setting because it’s smaller,” says Dr. Nicky Nicaud. “It’s a workout facility that allows people to get healthy and not be intimidated.”

January-February 2012 99

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Inside Northside

IN the Spotlight Fostering Angels Holiday Classic Tennis Tournament

Fostering Angels’ first annual Holiday Classic Tennis Tournament was held December 1-4 at Franco’s Athletic Club. The 160 mixed-doubles players, who came from as far away as Jackson, Miss., enjoyed great weather, wonderful food, a fabulous silent auction and other festivities.

Funds raised at the tournament benefited Fostering Angels, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing foster children opportunities to enjoy sports and other extracurricular activities to help them assimilate with their peers, giving them a sense of accomplishment.

Thank you to our sponsors for making the event a success— our corporate sponsors Inside Northside, Snow Financial Group, Netchex, Franco’s Athletic Club, NOLA Lending Group and I’Land Pedi Spa, as well as our event, food, silent auction and goody-bag sponsors.

November-December 2011 101

M E D I C A L Dr. Pramod Menon and Sheriff Jack Strain.

P R O F I L E

KNEW everything was fine!”

It was—until they did the echocardiogram.

“This was only the second time in my career that I met a patient and within 20 minutes of that first encounter I had to tell them that they needed open-heart surgery,” says Dr. Pramod Menon, cardiologist and partner with Cardiovascular Associates. “Sheriff looked great when he came into my office.

His diagnosis was the furthest thing from my mind. It’s never easy to tell someone they need a life-changing procedure, especially on the first visit.”

Dr. Menon’s next words hit Strain like a ton of bricks.

“There are no medications to correct this. Your only option is

What is YOUR body saying?

Cardiovascular Associates

Listen.

What do you hear? What’s your body telling you today?

open-heart surgery.”

“I’ve spent 32 years reading people’s faces. I was looking

“You wouldn’t be so stiff if you’d stretch more.” “A few more

for something to tell me he didn’t know what he was talking

hours of sleep and you wouldn’t need that third cup of coffee.”

about. He never blinked,” says Strain.

Listen.

It’s the classic story. The one you’ve heard over and over

Unbeknownst to him, Strain was born with a congenital heart defect. For years, his bicuspid aortic valve had not been

and read about time and time again. He had been to all of the

opening properly, and the calcification and thickness that had

company health fairs and had all of the routine tests done. He

developed over time was now not allowing it to open at all.

had been exercising for 20 years and ran three miles a day, three times a week. The epitome of health at age 48.

“When I think back on it, I had a year of signs and symptoms. I could tell that I was getting winded after a short

Listen.

distance and my runs were getting harder and harder to

“This getting old stuff is no fun. Running is getting harder

finish. Never did I think I’d have a heart-related issue. I’ve been

and harder. I’m getting winded after a mile and a half. I’ve been running for 20 years, and I just can’t do what I used to.”

Listen.

Within the space of seven days, Sheriff Jack Strain’s life changed forever.

“I walked into our house after work and saw him sitting in his chair with his fist in his chest,” says Lisa, Strain’s wife.

“I noticed that I would have to take a deep breath to talk, and my heart would just stop beating for a second and then start up again. I thought, ‘Man, I must be getting old,’” Strain adds.

Listen.

exercising for so long; I knew it was just getting old.”

A year later, Sheriff Jack Strain is healthy and back to running three days a week.

The message he wants you to hear?

Listen.

Dr. Menon concurs. “Be aware of what your body is telling you. Frequently overlooked signs of a heart issue are shortness of breath and fatigue.”

Listen. Your body talks to you every day. Listen to what it’s saying. It can be the smallest of messages that might save your life.

“It was only because of her constant nagging that I went to the doctor. I wasn’t going. I knew everything was fine. She made the appointment and made me go. I was on my way out the door for my morning run when she called and told me we had to be at Dr. Menon’s at 10:30. I never went for that run.

Probably a good thing I didn’t.”

11 a.m. Blood pressure: normal. EKG: normal. Strain says, “I was SO frustrated with her for making me do all of this. I 102

Inside Northside

Offices are located in Covington, Hammond, Franklinton, Bogalusa and Lacombe. 985-871-0735. heartwatch.org.

INside Peek Elizabeth B runo and Ja y Fielder enjoy Insid e Northsid e’s Cover A Party hosted rtist

by Three D ivas and a Sugardadd y, Reine Dia monds and The Who D at Shop.

Todd Corwin, Le onette Loe and Sylvia Reine at the party celeb rating cover artist Todd White.

nnan and Mrs. Dre ayor Slidell M rennan.

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Darci Lambert, Robin Kohl, Marta Bragg and Stephanie Hendry.

Send your submissions to peek@insidenorthside.com.

January-February 2012 103

INside Peek

Penny Lemoi ne, Anna Pa pp, Tammy Bacon and Kevin Quigl ey at Outdo Living Cente or r’s Big Green Egg demo. d her Giselle Eastlack an g) and din an (st sons Tyler ter Mash. ns Mo joy en ke Bla

Julie and Jenn ifer Drolet with Mason Patterson.

Wally Rosenblum and Michael Kern at the HW Rosenblum Fall Trunk Show.

sored a dent Council spon an High School Stu Kranz, tie Ka : nk Ba Archbishop Hann Covington Food the for ve cevar. dri d Ho foo ivia competition Voelker and Ol cy Smart, Lauren Rebecca Sigler, Lu

nk ael Sistru ere, Mich lla’s e b ra A June Leg Senac at e ic tr a P and se and pen Hou Holiday O k show. n u tr anta Russian S

Coach Brady, JP Me ibaum, Ross Burkenstock Jr. an d Coach Austin Sp eni at the UL Lafayette vs. LSU lacrosse ga me.

Mary Powell, Amanda Hover and Dawn Sharpe Brackett enjoy Ladies Night at Champagne Jewelers.

Team “Bittersweet” at the NOLA Lending Group Boys Hope Girls Hope tennis tournament at Beau Chêne Country Club: Donna Powers, Mike Powers, Paula Lowe, Brian Lowe, Kaki Wells and Kenny Aswad.

Abita Springs Ele mentary third-gra de student Nicholas Mendez with Danny O’Fla herty, a singer, songwrite r and storyteller.

Send your submissions to peek@insidenorthside.com.

January-February 2012 105

INside Peek Boscq ctoria Cap de Aaron and Vi List ish Jewelry’s W at De Boscq t. en ev n ig es D and

bo board iana Gum is u o L Price st te Craig k Southea ngratula cookboo o c g rs in e n b in -w mem rd a , w m a n Sta on his ez, Sharo (center) on Gom s. m a rd R a : w n d g E desi and Eric rt a w te Betty S

Todd, Robe rt and Patric k Fitzmorris enjoy a succ essful duck-h unting trip.

Patti M. Ellish, STPH President and CEO, and Joh n P. “Pizzie” Romano , STPH Board of Commissioners, lea d the second line on the new skybridge.

Parish St. Tammany oyees Fred pl em l ita Hosp da Angelo an Magee, Am es enjoy m Ja n ia Br and event at ob the Flash M ening. op ge rid yb sk the

ta Kelly Blackwell, San at the s llin Co ie bb and De g Party at Champagne Shoppin e. qu uti Bo t Gif ’s Suzanne

, Katie Hobbie Morrison Marjorie d an t igh wr ain W mmond Ha the at Morrison Show at ay lid Ho ild Gu t Ar llery.

The Oak Street Ga

Patti Hart, Lesleigh Hal l, Sarah Ferr and Alicia La o rriviere.

North Oaks’ Na me Our Robo t Contest earn ed a Pelican Aw ard as a project that garnered “big results with little reso urces.”

Christine Laga rde, Kay Lagarde and Alison Kuntz serve at the St. Andrews Village fundra iser.

Send your submissions to peek@insidenorthside.com.

January-February 2012 107

INside Peek Brandi and Chef Joey Najolia serv e the guests at the Pasentin e-Hall weddi ng.

iams and Christian Serpas, Kathy Will c show usti aco an at rey George Ney st Town

by Christian Serpas and Gho at K. Gee’s in Mandeville.

heast Louisiana Red Cross Sout Pictured at the Janet Favrot’s Circle event at cie Chapter Tiffany Lori Murphy, Ka , ins ilk e: Kay W t Favrot ne Ja r, ge northshore hom llin Bo eca, Charlotte Kelly, Roger LaGr d Raines. on dm Re and Heidi

Send your submissions to peek@insidenorthside.com.

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Inside Northside

Kay Wilkin s, American Red Cross Southeast Louisiana Chapter CEO (cente r), with Dee Binder and Jennifer R ice.

on, designer Nancy Anders arta Bragg, M r, lle Ke Dee e Scriber, er Mary Cath in and Ann ry nd La ee Ashl the Dee at ll McCarro hosted ow sh nk tru r Kelle

by The Villa.

nteleone yard at Mo and Gary Fa meeting. yn s el ad ad D M ker, thly All Pro n o m Shane Boo ’s h ig Junior H

Elaine Gleason , Sisi Coiron La mette, Rhonda Allem an and Karen Redd at Rug Chic’s Ho liday Inspiratio n event.

Jim Quaken bu Livacarri an sh, owner Michelle d Bert Ver digets at Embroidm e’s ribbon cutting in Slidel

l.

Little Pearl Elem entary studen ts enjoy a vegeta ble garden planted by th e school’s Nutrition Advis ory Council.

January-February 2012 109

IN the Spotlight St. Tammany’s Ozone Camellia Festival

Vibrant red, delicate pink and billowy white blooms created a stunning backdrop at the St. Tammany’s Ozone Camellia Festival. More than 1000 camellia blooms from across the South were judged by Certified American Camellia Judges who presented 66 awards in a variety of categories.

During the show, which was dedicated to Webb Hart for his longtime commitment to the organization, Courtney Simpson was crowned Camellia Queen. At her side were Consort Sean Peters, Honor Maid Lela “Gracie” Kelker and Maid Kelsey Fickle.

Escorting the ladies were Dukes Cody Brown and Kevin Tyler Foltz. Makenzie Best was the crown bearer and Evan Leslie Harvel was the junior court member.

That evening, members attended an elegant ball to celebrate the organization’s success and honor the debutante court.

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Inside Northside

M E D I C A L

Before

P R O F I L E

After

Do you have a “gummy” smile?

While watching the news, reading a magazine or looking at photos, we can see that there is an inherent beauty in all smiles; they show our true happiness and enjoyment. Unfortunately, many people are not pleased with the appearance of their smile. One reason may be due to what is called a “gummy” smile. We find patients are often embarrassed and self-conscious about their appearance because their smile reveals too much of the gum tissue. They avoid smiling or even cover their mouths.

In the perfect smile, your upper lip should sit just above the top of your teeth. A “gummy” smile exposes a noticeable disproportionate gum-to-tooth ratio. Although your teeth may appear short, they

Dr. Marija LaSalle Dr. Marija G. LaSalle, a periodontist on the

may actually be the proper length, just covered with

North Shore, has been in practice for 20 years.

excess bone and too much gum tissue. A gum lift,

“Our patients can’t believe how it changes their

also called crown lengthening, has been used by

whole face after their “gummy” smile is eliminated.

dentists for years to improve dental health and is

They enjoy a symmetrical smile and have the

now very popular as a cosmetic dental procedure.

confidence to show it off.”

If your smile is “gummy” due to over-developed gums, laser crown lengthening can be used to quickly and painlessly rebalance your smile.

Crown lengthening is a periodontal procedure performed under local anesthesia. It exposes more of the visible part of the tooth making the teeth appear longer and makes the gum line even.

Patients will experience mild discomfort for a day

To schedule a consultation with her at

or two after the procedure. Unlike many cosmetic

Northlake Periodontics, L.L.C., please call (985)

dentistry procedures, crown lengthening only needs

727-1133. She is located at 1580 West Causeway

to be done once requiring no touch-ups years later.

Approach, Suite 5, in Mandeville.

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GoodNews

THERE WAS GOOD NEWS for St. Tammany in the recent newsletter from the St. Tammany Economic Development Foundation, which included data through the 2nd Quarter of 2011.

Although the beginning of summer was rough for the national economy, the parish economy was expanding, albeit modestly. For the 12 months ending with the close of the 2nd Quarter of 2011, five important elements measured in the composite index were up. They are: commercial building permits, up 4.6%; employment, up 0.2%; number of electric customers, up 1.1%; single-family construction permits, up 0.7%; and retail sales, up 2.6%.

Family Housing 2Q11 parish single-family building permits were 5.6% higher than in 2Q10, a net increase of eight units. May and June single-family permits were 39 units higher than for same months last year. Sales of existing homes in the parish in 2Q11 equaled 2Q10, with 748 properties sold. Year-to-date housing sales in 2011 were up 6.1% over last year, but still low when compared to 2006 levels. Average apartment rent remained strong, with 2011 year-to-date average rent 4.4% higher than in 2010.

Business Performance In a continuing entrepreneurial spirit, five of the first six months of 2011 saw an increase in business startups compared with the same months last year. The year-to-date number of new businesses was 11.3% higher over 2010. Retail sales for the quarter were 6% higher than in 2Q10 and rose 6.3% in year-to-date comparison. Retail sales were actually higher than last year in each of the first six months of 2011, and purchases indicate a much higher consumer confidence than shown nationally for the second quarter. Our unemployment rate of 6.4% remained considerably lower than the state (7.9%) and the nation (8.9%). In fact, the number of initial unemployment insurance claims was 7.8% lower in the second quarter of 2011 when compared to 2Q10.

As the STEDF, the local chambers of commerce and parish government work to expand the economy of St. Tammany, it is good to see efforts reflected in these numbers. All signs point to a good new year!

Sources: St. Tammany Parish Economic Trends, Vol. 9, Issue 2; and St. Tammany Parish Economic Growth Index; both published by the St. Tammany Economic Development Foundation, November 2011.

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IN Great Taste

Fun Food for Football

Champagne Beverage Drunken Chicken 1 3 lb chicken 1 12 oz can Budweiser beer 1 sprig rosemary Cajun seasoning

Preheat charcoal grill over high heat. When

WOW Café and Wingery

coals are hot and glowing, push them to the

Kansas City Orange-BBQ Sandwiches

sides of grill, leaving an open space in the middle. Wash and drain chicken, then coat inside

1 boneless pork shoulder (3 lbs) or boneless, skinless chicken thighs

and out with Cajun seasoning.

1 bottle WOW Kansas City Sauce

Insert sprig of rosemary into beer can,

1 10 oz can tomatoes, diced or chopped

and place beer can into chicken’s body cavity

Juice from 1 medium orange

starting at rear of chicken. Carefully place

12 sandwich rolls, split, toasted

chicken on center of grill, facing one of the banks of coals, making sure not to spill beer. Cover grill

Place meat in slow cooker and top with WOW Kansas City Sauce,

and cook until chicken is done, approximately 45

tomatoes and orange juice. Cover with lid. Cook on low 8-10 hours or

minutes to 1 hour, turning chicken as necessary.

on high 4-6 hours. Remove meat from slow cooker and shred on cutting

Chicken is done when the juice runs clear. Serve

board between two forks. Return meat to slow cooker for 5 minutes. Stir

chicken with favorite BBQ sides.

until meat is evenly coated with BBQ sauce mixture. Add more sauce to

desired taste. Toast rolls under broiler. Fill rolls evenly with BBQ for serving.

Champagne Beverage,

champagnebeverage.com.

VooDoo BBQ & Grill, 2999 Hwy. 190, Mandeville. 629-2021. voodoobbq.com.

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Inside Northside

Wow Café and Wingery, wowcafe.com.

VooDoo BBQ & Grill

Jambalaya

1 2 lb box of Uncle Ben’s white rice

Whether it’s five or 100

coming to watch the BIG

2 cans French onion soup

GAME, owner Roger Mitchell

2 cans beef broth

suggests one of VooDoo’s

2 cans tomato sauce (half cans)

one-stop party packs. Choose

1 bundle green onions

three delicious meats—pork,

1lb smoked sausage

brisket, sausage or roasted

1lb shrimp (uncooked)

or jerk chicken. Add a few

1 stick butter

sides like corn pudding, baked

Salt and pepper to taste

beans, cole slaw, potato salad, macaroni and cheese

Put all ingredients except butter into a large pan

or gris-gris greens. Utensils,

and add salt, pepper and your favorite seasoning

plates, napkins and ice can

to taste. Mix. Cut butter into pats and place on

also be included. Roger adds

top of mixture. Cover with aluminum foil and bake

his own touch with his famous

at 350 degrees for 1 hour, then stir and bake an

jambalaya.

additional 30 minutes or until rice is cooked.

INside Dining MCC: Major credit cards accepted ME: Menu Express delivery RR: Reservations recommended ABITA SPRINGS Abita Barbecue, 69399 Hwy. 59, 8920205. Ribs, brisket, chicken, pulled pork and boudin. MCC. Abita Brew Pub, 72011 Holly St., 8925837. On the Trace. Good food, great beer. Lunch, dinner. MCC. Abita Springs Café, 22132 Level St., 867-9950. Southern cooking for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tue-Sun. MCC. Breakaway Cafe, 71667 Leveson St., 809-8998. Tue-Sat 10am-5pm.

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.

Bonefish Grill, 200 River Highlands Blvd., 809-0662. Specializing in market-fresh fish cooked to perfection over a wood-burning grill. bonefishgrill.com. MCC. 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, dinner and Sunday brunch. Online take-out orders at copelandsofneworleans.com.

MCC, ME, RR. Dakota Restaurant, 629 N. Hwy. 190, 892-3712. Contemporary Louisiana cuisine using local and seasonal ingredients.

MCC, RR. Del Porto Restaurant, 501 E. Boston St., 875-1006. Northern Italian cuisine.

MCC, RR. DiCristina’s Restaurant, 810 N. Columbia St., Suite C, 875-0160.

Conveniently located next to the new Covington Courthouse. Italian and seafood. MCC. Don’s Seafood Hut, 126 Lake Drive, 327-7111. Lunch and dinner. MCC. Downtown Drugs 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.

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, 70347 Hwy. 21, 893-1380. JerksIslandGrill.com.

Lola, 517 N. New Hampshire St., 8924992.

Louie & The Redhead Lady Too, 324 E. Boston St., 809-8050. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. louieandtheredheadlady.com.

MCC. 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

January-February 2012 115

ACTIVITIES Horseback Riding Swimming Ropes Course Tennis Canoeing Golf Basketball Gymnastics Dance Archery Arts & Crafts Outdoor Living Skills Campfire Fun Rope Swing Volleyball Soccer Riflery Aerobics Chorus & Drama Voice & Music 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

i owned and operated. MCC. Nonna Randazzo’s Italian Bakery and Caffè, 2033 N. Hwy. 190, Ste. 5, 893-1488. Italian bakery items, luncheon salads, soups and sandwiches. MCC. North Island Chinese, 842 N. Collins Blvd., 867-8289.

Northshore Empress, 31 Louis Prima Dr., 871-6975.

Osaka 21 Japanese Restaurant, 70340 Hwy. 21, 809-2640.

Osaka West Japanese Restaurant, 804 N. Hwy. 190, 875-0409.

Pat’s Seafood Market and Cajun Deli, 1248 Collins Blvd., 892-7287. Jambalaya, gumbo, stuffed artichokes. MCC, checks, ME. Pelican Market Café, 70457 Hwy. 21, 893-6666. MCC. 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. Sage Café, 501 N. Hwy. 190, 893-3580.

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.

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., 327-0520. 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. Cocoa Bean Bakery and Cafe, 910 E. Main St., 345-2002. Specialty cakes,

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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 Pizza, 2105 N. Morrison Blvd., 345-9726. Pizza, pastas. Lunch, dinner.

MCC, checks.

Tope là, 104 N. Cate St., 542-7600.

Contemporary delights. MCC.

Yellow Bird Café, 222 E. Charles St., 345-1112. A great place to start your day.

Breakfast, lunch. MCC, checks.

WOW Cafe & Wingery, 1600 N. Hwy. 190, 898-4969. Buffalo wings, wraps, salads. MCC.

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Kirin Sushi, 223 S. Cate St., 5428888. First Japanese sushi restaurant in Hammond! Dragon roll, Kirin roll, sake.

MCC.

Sweet Daddy’s, 420 S. Tyler St., 8982166. Pulled pork, brisket and ribs. MCC, ME.

Vasquez Seafood & Po-Boys, 515 E. Boston St., 893-9336. Cuban sandwiches and more. MCC, checks, ME.

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Jacmel Inn, 903 E. Morris St., 5420043. Casual fine dining. Lunch, dinner.

MCC, checks.

VooDoo BBQ & Grill, 2108 W. Thomas St., 345-1131. “Taste our Magic.” MCC.

Thai Thai, 1536 N. Hwy. 190, 809-8905.

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Hon Yum Chinese Restaurant, 1905 W. Thomas St., 230-0888. Chicken, shrimp, tofu specialties. Lunch, dinner.

MCC, checks.

Sorelli’s Brick Oven, 321 N. Columbia St., 327-5541.

Thai Taste, 1005 Collins Blvd., 809-7886.

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Don’s Seafood & Steak House, 1915 S. Morrison Blvd., 345-8550. MCC.

Trey Yuen Cuisine of China, 2100 N. Morrison Blvd., 345-6789. Innovative quality Chinese food served in Imperial surroundings. MCC, checks.

Thai Spice, 1531 N. Hwy. 190, 8096483.

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pastries. Serving breakfast and light lunch. Specials. thecocoabeanbakery. com. MCC.

Sicily’s Pizza, 301 N. Hwy. 190, 8930005. Pizza, lasagna, salad bar, dessert pizzas. MCC, ME.

Thai Chili, 1102 N. Hwy. 190, 809-0180.

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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, Hwy. 190, 882-9443. 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.

Keith Young’s Steakhouse, 165 Hwy.

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MCC, checks.

Isabella’s Pizzeria, 2660 Florida St. (in the Florida Street Market), 674-5700.

Salads, gourmet pizza, sandwiches, paninis, calzones and pasta.

MANDEVILLE Andale! Margaritas & Grill, 643 Lotus Dr., 626-1534. Breakfast, lunch and dinner; sizzling fajitas, chili relleno el comal. andalemargaritasgrill.com. MCC.

Italian Pie, 4350 Hwy. 22, 626-5252.

Pizza, salads, pasta, sandwiches. Dine in or carry out. MCC, checks.

Izumi, 2660 Florida St., 624-8664. Sushi, Japanese specialties. MCC. Juniper, 301 Lafitte St., 624-5330.

Progressive Creole cuisine. Lunch, dinner, brunch. MCC, checks.

Bear’s Grill & Spirits, 1809 N. Causeway Blvd., 674-9090. Bear’s po-boys and more. MCC.

K. Gee’s, 2534 Florida St., 6260530. Featuring Louisiana seafood. kgeesrestaurant.com. MCC.

Benedict’s Plantation, 1144 Lovers Ln., 626-4557. Traditional New Orleans cuisine.

Dinner, Sunday brunch. MCC.

Kickstand Café and Bike Rental, 690 Lafitte St., 626-9300.

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. Coffee Rani, 3517 Hwy. 190, 674-0560.

Soup and salad specialists.

Coscino’s Pizza, 1817 N. Causeway Blvd., 727-4984. New York handtossed pizza and Italian foods cooked on stone using the finest ingredients.

MCC. Country Kitchen, 2109 Florida St., 6265375.

Fat Spoon Café, 68480 Hwy. 59., 8092929. Breakfast, lunch Sun.-Fri. MCC. Fazzio’s Seafood & Steakhouse, 1841 N. Causeway Blvd., 6249704. Fresh fish daily, aged beef, traditional Italian. Lunch, dinner.

MCC, ME, RR. Franco’s Grill,100 Bon Temps Roule, 792-0200. Fresh organic foods for breakfast, lunch and takeout. MCC. 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. Gio’s Villa Vancheri, 2890 E. Causeway App., 624-2597. Sicilian specialties by 5-star chef Gio Vancheri. Lunch, dinner Mon-Sat. MCC. RR.

Inside Northside

Hong Kong Restaurant, 2890 E. Causeway App., 626-8222. MCC.

Water St. Bistro, 804 Water St., 845-3855. Casual ambiance on the Tchefuncte. Lunch, dinner Wed-Sun. MCC.

Barley Oak, The, 2101 Lakeshore Dr. 727-7420. Serving 130 styles of beer, call and premium liquors and lunch and dinner. thebarleyoak.com. MCC.

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Grillot’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar, 2100 Florida St., 624-8849. World-famous BBQ oysters, steaks and lobsters. Delivery available. MCC.

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. Mande’s, 340 N. Causeway App., 6269047. Serving breakfast and lunch, daily specials.

Mandina’s, 4240 Hwy. 22 in Azalea Square Shopping Center, 674-9883.

Seafood, Creole and Italian. Lunch, dinner Mon-Sat. Maw Maw’s, 1461 N. Causeway Blvd., Ste. 11, 727-7727. Soups, salads, stuffed potatoes, sandwiches, po-boys.

Maxein’s Coffee House, 115 Girod St., 626-9318.

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 Gerard St., 626-5619.

In Old Mandeville. Gnocchi, escargot,

i filet mignon, linguini fruta di mare. Dinner.

MCC.

atmosphere, unique food, gourmet coffees, teas. MCC, checks.

Pal’s Ice Cream and Yogurt Shop, 2201 Eleventh St., 626-0293.

“Only 8” all-natural no-fat yogurt, banana splits, smoothies. Soups, sandwiches. MCC.

Taste of Bavaria Restaurant & Bakery, 14476 Hwy. 22, 386-3634. Charming Bavarian bungalow, European-style breakfast, German-style lunch. MCC, checks.

Petunia’s Place, 2020 Hwy. 59, 6743436.

SLIDELL A Touch of Italy Café, 134 Pennsylvania Ave., 645-0084. Seafood, veal, steaks, daily specials. Lunch, dinner. MCC, checks.

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.

Smoothie King, 1830 W. Causeway App., 626-9159. Smoothies. MCC, checks.

Subway, 1665 Hwy. 190, 674-0733.

Sandwiches, salads. Low-fat available.

MCC. 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. TJ’s Burgers, 2820 E. Causeway App., 674-6650. Burgers, chicken, fries and more. Lunch, dinner. 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 Salon and Café, 544 Gerard St., 624-5683. Freshly baked scones, homemade soups and a full café menu with over 40 gourmet 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. Zydeco Café, 68480 Hwy. 59, 871-8748.

Po-boys, pasta, burgers and more.

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

Assunta’s, 2631 Hwy. 190 W., 6499768. Italian food, extensive wine selection.

Dinner. MCC, checks.

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Call to Reserve Your Valentine Tea Time!

Private Parties and Showers Breakfast, Lunch and High Tea Amazing Selection of Loose-Leaf Teas

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., 8471000.

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.

Monday-Saturday 9am-6pm 734 Rutland St, Covington (985) 898-3988 www.englishtearoom.com

La. Pines, 1061 Robert St., 641-6196.

Meet under the water tower for Ahhhfullwaffles, Sugar Watcher specials. Breakfast, lunch. MCC, checks.

Mandina’s, 2111 Gause Blvd., 690-6679.

Seafood, Creole and Italian. Lunch, dinner Mon-Sat. 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.

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, 1827 Front St. 6393335. 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.

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Directory of Advertisers ADVERTISER...............................CONTACT INFO PAGE 10/12 Properties........................985-626-8200 60 AbbyPhoto, LLC..........................985-951-8868 118 Accents & Things........................985-649-4273 80 Al’s Plumbing Co........................985-845-9390 58 American Factory Direct..............985-871-0300 104 Angelo’s Lawn-Scape of Louisiana .....................................angeloslawnscape.com 109 Arabella Fine Gifts......................985-727-9787 94 Artisan Kitchen and Bath............504-891-8884 115 Artistry of Light..........................225-389-9413 59 Asset One..................................985-727-2834 54 Associated Physicians Group......985-845-1825 49 Authentic Air LLC.......................504-421-2647 120 B Imports & Domestic Collision...985-626-7572 120 Bamboo Gardens.............bambogardensla.com 6 Bar Method Covington, The........985-871-1131 100 Beau Chêne Country Club..........985-845-3571 93 Bella Cucina...............................985-626-7886 80 Bevolo Gas & Electric Lights.......504-522-9485 19 Billiot Art..................................chuckbilliot.com 96 Blue Williams LLP.......................985-626-0058 47 Boudreaux’s Fine Jewelers..........985-626-1666 73 Café Lynn...................................985-624-9007 118 Caitlyn Mosher Photography.......985-507-1185 120 Campus Connection...................504-866-8552 70 Cardiovascular Associates...........985-871-0735 102 Carreta’s Grill............985-871-6674, 847-0020 30 Cedarwood School.....................985-845-7111 77 Champagne Beverage Co. .................................champagnebeverage.com 106 Champagne Jewelers.................985-643-2599 32 Children’s Museum of St. Tammany........ jlgc.net 100 Christwood Retirement Community .............................................christwoodrc.com 15 Columbia Street Mercantile........985-809-1789 89 Compounding Corner.................985-792-5041 44 Covington Art & Frame...............985-893-6166 38 Creations de Main......................985-231-7388 75 De Boscq Jewelry.......................985-674-0007 5 deCoeur..........................................decoeur.net 86 DeLuca’s Expressions in Gold......985-892-2317 96 Designs in Windows...................985-209-1689 120 Discoveries Furniture and Finds...985-345-2577 47 Eduardo Jenkins Landscape Architect and Planner .................................................225-343-0571 50 Egan Wellness............................985-892-3031 31 Embroidme........985-649-5055, 985-624-9718 90 English Tea Room, The................985-898-3988 119 Etan Enterprises.........................985-966-7042 69 Fairway Medical Surgical Hospital ......................................... fairwaymedical.com 32 Fat Spoon Café...........................985-809-2929 117 Fielding Gallery..........................985-377-2212 75 Fitness Expo...............................985-624-9990 12 Fleurt.........................................985-809-8844 83 Florist of Covington....................985-892-7701 93

ADVERTISER...............................CONTACT INFO PAGE Fly by Knight...............................flybyknight.biz 50 Francie Rich................................francierich.com 74 Franco’s Athletic Club.................985-792-0200 BC French Mix, The..........................985-809-3152 79 Galerie d’Art Francais.................504-581-6920 22 Georgian Furnishing Berger Home...504-733-4141 67 GNO Property Management.......504-525-2985 113 Grapevine............ grapevinegiftsandgallery.com 80 Greg’s Pools and Spas................985-643-0484 100 Hadar Hermani Waldman MD.....985-892-1111 66 Kristin and Heather Photography ...................................... kristinandheather.com 94 Henry Hood Gallery....................985-789-1832 45 Hestia Luxury in Linens...............985-893-0490 120 Historic New Orleans Collection.. 504-598-7170 24 Honda of Covington...................985-892-0001 IFC Huntington Learning Center.......985-727-0000 8 Inspirational Gift Books......... askhimbooks.com 68 Integrity Builders Inc...................985-626-3479 78 Isle Casino Hotel Biloxi............ theislebiloxi.com 24 Istre Hearing Care......................985-845-3509 75 Izabella’s Villa............................985-649-5060 3 Jacmel Inn..................................985-542-0043 94 K. Gee’s Restaurant & Oyster Bar.....985-626-0530 117 LA Pavers...................................504-731-8755 100 Lake After Hours.........................985-375-9979 61 Lakehouse, The...........................985-626-3006 21 Lakeview Regional Medical Center .................................................985-867-3800 20, IBC L’avantage Salon........................985-249-7575 120 Le Beau Papier.......................lebeaupapier.com 45 Louisiana Artists Gallery, The.......985-624-7903 76 Louisiana Heart Center...............985-649-2700 16 Louisiana Medical Center & Heart Hospital ................................louisianahearhospital.com 42 Louisiana Polo Farms, Inc............985-796-9130 64 Louisiana Veterinary Referral Center .................................................985-626-4862 21 Lowe’s Jewelers.........................985-845-4653 60 Mandeville Party Co....................985-674-1605 99 Martin Wine Cellar................... martinwine.com 105 Mix, The.....................................985-727-7649 86 MoreSmiles-Dr. Jim Moreau .......985-809-7645 108 Moseley’s Fine Jewelers..............985-626-5098 10 Newman Comprehensive, OB/GYN .................................................985-249-1224 30 Noah’s Restoration, LLC..............504-466-4073 113 NOLA Lending Group, LLC..........985-951-8479 11 North American Insurance Agency....985-871-5480 45 NORTH Institute, The..................985-871-4114 13 North Oaks Health System........... northoaks.org 25, 68 North Shore Square Mall............985-646-0664 4 Northlake Periodontics...............985-727-1133 111 Nuvolari’s...................................985-626-5619 94 Oak Street Gallery, The...............985-345-0251 6 Olivier Couture, A Bridal Boutique....985-674-6994 97

ADVERTISER...............................CONTACT INFO PAGE Outdoor Living Center................985-893-8008 54 Paisley.......................................985-727-7880 90 Pan American Power...................985-893-1271 29 Paretti Jaguar.....866-751-0237, 504-456-7558 38 Party Cup Express.............. partycupexpress.com 27 Pelican, The - Al Guichet.............985-893-3310 113 Pilates Plus Covington................985-892-4958 Insert Pine Grove Lighting & Electrical Supply .................................................985-893-4003 115 Pineapple Gallery.......................985-626-0028 79 Pinnacle Mortgage Group, LLC........985-727-0755 112 Play and Learn Northshore Academy .................................................985-674-7744 83 Precision Sewing Machines.........985-249-6156 86 Private Beach.............................985-237-6040 90 Pure Barre..................................985-674-7577 96 Purple Armadillo Again........ purplearmadillo.net 89 Rab, Dr. Tahseen.........................985-340-7868 29 Rehab Dynamics ........................985-871-7878 51 Reine Diamonds & Fine Jewelry..985-201-7415 41 Resource Bank.................. bankonresource.com 69 Riverland Landscape Design & Services .................................................985-727-0596 61 Riverview Camp for Girls............800-882-0722 116 Rockefeller’s...............................985-370-0930 62 Ruffino Custom Closets..............985-809-7623 17 Rug Chic....................................985-674-1070 51 Safe Harbor................ safeharbornorthshore.org 78 Saia’s.........................................985-626-9724 120 St. Charles Vision Outlet.............985-626-8103 53 St. Joseph Abbey............. saintjosephabbey.com 58 St. Tammany Parish Hospital.......985-898-4000 35 Sala Thai....................................985-249-6990 119 Shannon Summersgill CPA..........985-951-9138 25 Shoefflé........................................ shoeffle.com 86 Simply Divorce...........................985-327-3024 70 Southern Brain & Spine..............504-454-0141 33 Southern Bridal..........................985-727-2993 96, 99 Speedway Printing......................985-626-0032 80 State Farm Insurance, CJ Ladner......985-892-5030 76 Stone Creek Club and Spa..........985-801-7100 7 Stone Source..............................985-892-0695 77 Studio MV..................................985-867-5601 46 Susan Tullos Morgan.....susantullosmorgan.com 83 Suzanne’s Gift Boutique.............985-871-1581 74 Tangi Industrial & Trailer Sales.....985-345-1760 70 Three Divas and a Sugardaddy....985-288-5550 17 Venous & Arterial Surgery Clinic......985-893-5958 27 Viking Cooking School...............225-906-5882 49 Villa, The....................................985-626-9797 90 Village Executive Office Suites, The .................................................985-727-6700 70 VooDoo BBQ & Grill...................985-629-2021 120 Welcome Home and garden.......985-893-3933 83 Zea Rotisserie & Grill........... ZeaRestaurant.com 23

January-February 2012 121

Stephanie Cerise Lights…Camera…Action!

Stephanie Cerise left Louisiana for the bright lights of Los Angeles to train with hair and makeup professionals. “Producers would call for help with hair and makeup on the set,” says Stephanie. “I was fortunate to work with people like Minnie Driver, Swoozie Kurtz and Steven Webber.” After five years in LA, she followed her heart—and the movie crews—back home to Louisiana, working on local movie sets until her daughter was born.

A year ago, Stephanie’s family moved to Mandeville, where she joined Kent Jacob Salon as a stylist.

When asked if she had tips for a great carnival ball or Valentine dinner look, Stephanie had plenty to share. On hair, she stressed that natural colors are in, and one color in a box doesn’t create the dimensional look offered by the blending of three or four shades in the salon.

“I use lots of neutrals on the eyes for everyday, punching up color on the outside corner of the eye for evening, perhaps a touch of glitter for a formal occasion,” Stephanie says. “For lips and cheeks, go soft and subtle, using neutrals. False lashes are definitely in; individual lashes are soft and natural, but a strip gives you a big evening look.”

Stephanie is the hair and makeup stylist for Inside Northside’s IN Fashion series.

She says, “I love working on IN Fashion. It feels like the old days of lights, camera, action.”

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Inside Northside

by Poki Hampton

photo: THOMAS B. GROWDEN

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