New Orleans Magazine May 2013

NEW ORLEANS MAGAZINE MAY 2013

MAY 2013

MOMS’ FAVORITE RECIPES CHEFS AND MOTHERS BIZ – RETAIL IS HOT TABLE TALK

PAELLA RECIPE OF MARIA ISABEL PRIETO, MOTHER OF LPO MUSIC DIRECTOR, CARLOS MIGUEL PRIETO

WYES PRESENTS “EAT TO THE BEAT: KERMIT RUFFINS’ NEW ORLEANS”

myneworleans.com

$4.95

May 2013 VOLUME 47 NUMBER 8 EDITOR Errol Laborde MANAGING EDITOR Morgan Packard ART DIRECTOR Eric Gernhauser ASSOCIATE EDITORS Haley Adams and

Sarah Ravits CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Liz Scott Monaghan FOOD EDITOR Dale Curry DINING EDITOR Jay Forman WINE AND SPIRITS EDITOR Tim McNally RESTAURANT REPORTER Robert Peyton HOME AND GARDEN EDITOR Bonnie Warren INTERNS Elizabeth Heideman and Caroline Malouse

SALES MANAGER Shannon Smith SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Jonée Daigle Ferrand ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Erica Northcott Adams,

Maegan O’Brien SALES ASSISTANT Erin Maher Azar WEB/PRODUCTION MANAGER Staci Woodward McCarty PRODUCTION DESIGNERS Jenny Dascenzo Hronek, Sarah

George and Casey Hano WEB EDITOR Haley Adams CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Todd Matherne PRESIDENT Alan Campell EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Errol Laborde EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT Kristi Ferrante DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Christian Coombs SUBSCRIPTIONS Erin Duhe

WYES DIAL 12 STAFF (504) 486-5511 EXECUTIVE EDITOR Beth Arroyo Utterback MANAGING EDITOR Aislinn Hinyup ASSOCIATE EDITOR Robin Cooper ART DIRECTOR Jenny Dascenzo Hronek

NEW ORLEANS MAGAZINE Printed in USA A Publication of Renaissance Publishing 110 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Suite 123 Metairie, LA 70005 (504) 828-1380 Subscription Hotline:

(504) 828-1380 ext. 251 or fax: (504) 828-1385

Online at www.MyNewOrleans.com

New Orleans Magazine (ISSN 0897 8174) is published monthly by Renaissance Publishing, LLC., 110 Veterans Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005; (504) 8281380. Subscription rates: one year $19.95; Mexico, South America and Canada $48; Europe, Asia and Australia $75. An associate subscription to New Orleans Magazine is available by a contribution of $40 or more to WYES-TV/Channel 12, $10.00 of which is used to offset the cost of publication. Also available electronically, on CD-ROM and on-line. Periodicals postage paid at Metairie, LA, and additional entry offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to New Orleans Magazine, 110 Veterans Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005. Copyright 2012 New Orleans Magazine. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the consent of the publisher. The trademark New Orleans and New Orleans Magazine are registered.

New Orleans Magazine is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photos and artwork even if accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. The opinions expressed in New Orleans Magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the magazine managers or owners.

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CONTENTS 5.13 VOL.47 NO.8

WHAT I LEARNED FROM MOM PAGE

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FOOD FOR TAUGHT PAGE

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FEATURES 80 FOOD FOR TAUGHT Locals share their favorites from Mom’s kitchen. by Dale Curry

90 THE WINNER: LEAH CHASE The venerable restaurateur will receive the New Orleans Wine & Food Experience’s 2013 Ella Brennan Lifetime Achievement Award. by Jay Forman

92 WHAT I LEARNED FROM MOM Notable New Orleans chefs share what their mothers taught them in the kitchen and beyond. by Mirella Cameran

IN EVERY ISSUE ON THE COVER Moms’ Favorite Recipes EUGENIA UHL PHOTOGRAPH

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10 12 14 135 136

INSIDE SPEAKING OUT Editorial, plus a Mike Luckovich cartoon JULIA STREET Questions and answers about our city TRY THIS “Finding the Need for Speed” STREETCAR “A Night at the Prison”

SPEAKING OUT PAGE

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MUSIC PAGE

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CONTENTS

EDUCATION PAGE

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THE BEAT 20 22 26 28 32 34

MARQUEE Entertainment calendar PERSONA Writer, photographer and designer Elsa Hahne NEWSBEAT “An Intimate Gallery for a Unique Collection” BIZ Retail is “hot as a pistol” in New Orleans.

NEWSBEAT “Louisiana tunes in Library of Congress” HEALTHBEAT The latest news in health from New Orleans and beyond 36 EDUCATION Bard College’s early college program provides a new way to learn.

40 NEWSBEAT “Streetcars Heading Downriver”

JOIE D’EVE PAGE

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CHRONICLES

LOCAL COLOR 42 46 47 50 52 54 56 58

THE SCOOP “Special Nights With the Zephyrs” MUSIC “Ancestors in the Infield” at Jazz Fest READ & SPIN A look at the latest CDs and books CAST OF CHARACTERS “Raymond Calvert’s Iconography” MODINE’S NEW ORLEANS “Stiletto Stories” JOIE D’EVE “Dreams and Dresses” CHRONICLES “Neighborhood Parties” HOME The Piacuns’ home in Metairie is inspired by southern France.

THE MENU 64 66 68 70

TABLE TALK Three restaurants offer new ideas RESTAURANT INSIDER “From the Circle to the Lake” LAST CALL The Big Tini DINING GUIDE

DIAL 12 D1 “Eat To The Beat: Kermit Ruffins’ New Orleans” premieres Thurs., May 2 at 7 p.m. on WYES. The program follows bandleader and trumpet player Kermit Ruffins as he prepares for his weekly gig with the Barbecue Swingers at Vaughan’s Lounge in New Orleans’ Bywater neighborhood. Ruffins shares the role that food and music – served together – play in creating and maintaining New Orleans’ sense of place.

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On the web Head to the new and improved MyNewOrleans. com for fresh content added daily, including New Orleans events, blog posts and interviews. Want up-to-the-minute updates? Follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/NewOrleansMagazine and on Twitter at @NewOrleansMag. If you want to share your thoughts from this issue, use the hashtag #NOMMay to let us know what you think. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Have a question about the new website?

Email all comments to Web Editor Haley Adams at haley@myneworleans.com.

EXCLUSIVELY ONLINE: Award-Winning Daily Blogs MONDAYS:

The Editor’s Room: Editor-in-Chief Errol Laborde, three-time winner of the Alex Waller Award for print journalism, offers his take on the Big Easy, the state of Louisiana and the changing times. Named “Best Local Blog” by the Press Club of New Orleans.

TUESDAYS:

Morgan Packard, managing editor for New Orleans Magazine, and Annie Drummond, whom MyNewOrleans.com stole from Ohio, tagteam weekly columns on the different ways to enjoy life in our city.

WEDNESDAYS:

After Hours: Nightlife savant and New Orleans Press Club award-winner Ian McNulty gives us the scoop on what to do when the sun goes down. You know, when he can get out of bed to write about it. Also...

Nola Newbie: MyNewOrleans.com’s new web editor, Haley Adams, chronicles her adventures as a New Orleans resident.

THURSDAYS:

Haute Plates: Our very own gastronome, Robert Peyton, offers the real dish on local dining. Also … Happy Hour: The yang to Mr. Peyton’s yin, Tim McNally, acclaimed wine judge and food writer, expounds on wine, cocktails and other draughts.

FRIDAYS:

Joie d’Eve: Editor Eve Kidd Crawford, who has won awards from the Press Club of New Orleans and the Society of Professional Journalists, writes about what it means to be a family in New Orleans.

Visit MyNewOrleans.com to see photographs and articles, even before they hit the newsstands. Enjoy our archived articles, leave us a comment or sign up for our newsletter.

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IN SID E

In Search of Mother Rue

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HIS BEING THE MONTH OF MOTHER’S DAY,

I was wondering about the word “mother” as used in popular culture.

Of all the uses, the restaurant by that name may be the most popular. Mother’s on Poydras Street has been serving up poor boys and local comfort food since 1936. On the West Bank, Momma Mosca made the oyster dishes at Mosca’s Restaurant.

There is even a bona fide contemporary saint who walked our streets: Mother Kathleen Drexel, who founded Xavier University, was canonized in 2000.

Most baffling of the word’s local uses is the term “Mother Rue.” Once used colloquially as an exclamation to suggest surprise or outrage, (Mother Rue!) there have been Carnival marching groups with versions of that name, including the current Mama Roux that parades with Krewe Du Vieux. Two variations of that name have evolved; “Rue” as in the name of a family, or “Roux” as in the seasoning base that you start off with when making gumbos. It wouldn’t take much for the ear to transport one from the other, and in fact, when it comes to Cajun/Creole cooking, roux is the mother of all ingredients. Of course, let it be acknowledged that anyone whose actual last name is Rue was given birth by a “mother Rue.” How the term became so popular in New Orleans is subject to anthropological debate. George Gurtner, who writes the “Cast of Characters” column for this magazine says the term traces back to a former third baseman for the old minor league New Orleans Pelicans named Mel Rue. According to Gurtner, there was a fat lady who sat in the stands who used to deride Rue. Every time he performed below her expectations she would yell, “you Mother, Rue!” The term became legendary and spread around town. Just as people of another decade were exclaiming, “Where’s the beef!”

New Orleanians were yelling, “Mother Rue!” Gurtner’s story likely has some truth, but there may have been an earlier influence. There is an ancient herb named “rue.”

Technically known as ruta graveolens, it was used in many ways including, by early Christians, for sprinkling holy water from its branches. Spiritually it was associated with grief, especially for mothers, and in that sense was referred to as “mother rue.” In New Orleans, with its mixture of Catholic and Voodoo cultures, “mother rue” would have easily been part of the early language.

From there the term morphed to a baseball yell, a local exclamation, a name for Carnival organizations and, along the way, it shifted in spelling to be equated with food. There were also two songs; “Mother Roux” a bouncy piano number by the late Paul Gayten and “Mama Roux” by Dr. John.

Through all of life’s changes the lady Rue lives on. This month, let’s lift a Bloody Mary to her. At the very least she’s the mother of many legends.

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S P E A K IN G O U T

Rivera and O’Reilly: Outfoxing the Facts

W

HILE WE CHERISH THE RIGHT OF ALL AMERICANS

to experience freedom of the press and freedom of speech, we nevertheless wince when nitwits such as Geraldo Rivera are given a national forum to pass judgment on New Orleans. Rivera caused a stir last month when, on Fox Network’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” he described New Orleans – outside of the French Quarter – as being a “vast wasteland.” Commentator Bill O’Reilly joined in the bashing, which was prompted by videotape of irregularities at Orleans Parish Prison, by pronouncing how corrupt the city is. Rivera also reached into his bag of clichés by labeling New Orleans “The Big Sleazy.”

New Orleans has been bashed before, and we’ve learned to take it.

(Fortunately there are many more times when it’s glorified.)

Both Rivera and O’Reilly, of course, are unfair in their assessments of the city, by positing huge generalizations that could use a heavy dose of analysis.

In the world of talk television though, that’s not how it works – generalities are scatter-shot with rapid fire.

We concede that it would be hard to make a defense of the association with corruption at a time when a former mayor is under indictment and the former chief executive of a neighboring parish is now in jail. Yet, there are same points that should be made. At the state level, since the last term of Edwin Edwards, there have been three governors: Mike Foster, Kathleen Blanco and Bobby Jindal. While there might have been an occasional bureaucratic misdeed, there hasn’t been a major scandal associated with any of those administrations. Eighteen years have passed.

In New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu will be ending his first term scandal-free. People may or may not like the Landrieus, but they’ve governed honestly.

Fox is targeted to a conservative audience, and we suspect that there’s an anti-city bias among its commentators. They might appreciate cities for their culture and history, but distrust them for their politics and people. Cities are generally havens for minorities, and they tend to form an electoral base that’s more in line with Democrats. Because cities take on such a burden of providing for the poor, they’re more likely to be corrupted by those who would exploit them. In modern times we had former congressman William Jefferson, who built a political base off of taking advantage of the less fortunate; in earlier days it was the old political machines that did the same with ethnic voters. In both cases though, the politicians also provided for and protected those whose votes they needed. Politics often dealt with problems that government avoided. If cites are a wasteland it’s partially because so much of their resources go to dealing with unsolvable social issues.

Rivera is a native of Brooklyn, a borough that was once controlled

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by political machines, and that in more recent years was a hotbed for violent mafia activity. Like New Orleans, Brooklyn is a port through which the world has sought entry. Like New Orleans, Brooklyn has been burdened to provide for the poor, but still in many ways manages to be great, partially because of those it has nurtured.

Geraldo Rivera has made a career out of sensationalizing the news. At this stage in his career it’s too late for him to change. Good journalism, by contrast, seeks the truth, no matter where it lands on the political spectrum – and the truth is that New Orleans is coming back strong.

AN ORIGINAL ©MIKE LUCKOVICH CARTOON FOR NEW ORLEANS MAGAZINE

JULIA STREET

WITH POYDRAS THE PARROT

THE PURSUIT TO ANSWER ETERNAL QUESTIONS The United Ancient Order of Druids (U.A.O.D.), an international fraternal and benevolent organization, traces its corporate roots to late 18th-century England.

The Druids’ home was located at 843 Camp St.

Dear Julia, My husband is a man in his early 70s, and as a boy he remembers his grandfather being a member of Druids (not the Mardi Gras krewe). He said it was some sort of social organization with family picnics, etc., being held. We would like to know if you know any background on the organization and where exactly their “temple” was. He seems to remember it being between Lee Circle and Canal Street on one of the streets in the business district.

Barbara Giraud M E TA IRIE

The United Ancient Order of Druids (U.A.O.D.), an international fraternal and benevolent organization, traces its corporate roots to late 18th-century England. The 14

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group’s presence in Louisiana dates back to 1855. Like many similar groups in the days before the creation of national health and life insurance companies, the U.A.O.D. provided not only a social outlet for its members but also assured that members and their families would receive medical or burial aid if the member suddenly became ill or died.

The Druids’ home your husband recalls from his childhood was located at 843 Camp St. In 1910, the Grand Grove of Druids purchased the three-story building, a former boarding house, for $16,500.

At the time, it was estimated the organization had about 4,000 local members. The Druids used the building until the late ’50s. In ’63, Ozanam Inn purchased the structure.

Dear Julia Street, I have a yellowed States Item newspaper clipping of a column called “Ask A. Labas,” which answers readers’ questions about Mardi Gras. What years did this column run? Did it always answer questions about New Orleans, or did it also dispense advice to the lovelorn?

Was this the columnist’s real name? Was A. Labas ever your direct competitor and, if so, has Poydras ever confessed to pecking the columnist with his considerable beak?

Mrs. Richard Cook ABITA SPRIN GS

First, about the name. It came from a once common French Creole greeting, “Eh La Bas” which translates roughly into “Hey over there.”

The phrase was once

Win a Court of Two Sisters Jazz Brunch or Lunch at the Rib Room Here is a chance to eat, drink and listen to music, and have your curiosity satiated all at once. Send Julia a question. If we use it, you’ll be eligible for a monthly drawing for one of two Jazz Brunch gift certificates for two at The Court of Two Sisters in the Vieux Carré. To take part, send your question to: Julia Street, c/o New Orleans Magazine, 110 Veterans Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005 or email: Errol@ MyNewOrleans.com. This month’s winners are: Mrs. Richard Cook, Abita Springs; and Barbara Giraud, Metairie.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION

commonly used in New Orleans when the culture was more French. Now it’s rarely used. Certainly the newspaper changing the name to “The People Helper” is a sign of the encroaching Americanization. Poydras is one of the last to still use the phrase and uses it especially when he wants to pick up girls. It never works. Perhaps the next time he should introduce himself as the Parrot Helper.

“Ask A. Labas” was a longrunning consumer affairs column which first ran in the New Orleans Item around 1945. Warren Joseph Rogers Jr., was the first of several newspaper employees to use the byline A. Labas when writing for the New Orleans Item and its corporate successors. In an ’84 newspaper interview, actor M. K. Lewis of La Mise en Scene theater group revealed that his wife, Rosemary Ruiz, had also been one of the people who had

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written the A. Labas column.

People wrote to A. Labasfor aid in solving all sorts of consumer issues.

Whether the writer was seeking an odd-sized watch battery or needed to know how to dispose of broken cement, A. Labas provided information the writer could use to resolve their problem or answer their question.

In September 1980, The Times-Picayune/The StatesItem renamed the column.

Then known as “Ask A. Labas, The People Helper,” the consumer affairs feature became simply “The People Helper,” and was written by reporter Amber Stahl. Although the column’s mission continued, the A. Labas byline was retired at that time.

Dear Julia, One of my favorite hotels (of many) in New Orleans is the Wyndham Hotel on Convention Center Boulevard. They used to make it a point to keep 12 dozen

roses in their beautiful lobby. I was always overwhelmed.

Friends say fresh roses are a New Orleans tradition; others say this is strictly a Wyndham Hotel specialty. I have also heard the hotel was originally an old sugar or rice warehouse. Is this possible? It certainly is a showpiece hotel in a showpiece city.

Philip Supina HARROGATE , TENN.

Roses are certainly a nice stylish touch but I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re either a New Orleans tradition or a Wyndham Hotel specialty. The Wyndham Hotel Group manages 17 different hotel brands, appealing to a wide range of budgets and personal tastes running the gamut from budget properties to high-end resorts.

The Wyndham Riverfront Hotel’s construction in the mid-1990s involved the demolition of three older structures but one old build-

ing was retained as the center of the new hotel. In the late 19th century, the William Henderson Sugar refinery dominated the rear portion of the block while a molasses refinery once stood at the corner of what’s now Convention Center Boulevard and Girod Street.

Question for Julia, My last name is Gentile pronounced “Gentilly.” Since living in New Orleans, I feel famous because everyone wants to spell my last name like the famous area called Gentilly. I would like to know what makes the Gentilly area so popular and thus me? Will make for great conversation starter.

Donna M. Gentile S L IDE L L

While some parts of Gentilly are lower than others, Gentilly lies along an old river ridge and contains some of the city’s highest land. During colonial times, French brothers Mathurin and Pierre

Dreux, the Sieurs de Gentilly, farmed the high ridge land, naming it in honor of their home in France. The French Gentilly is a commune in the Department of the Seine, near Anjou. There is architectural variation in the area, which is different from the classic New Orleans look including California-style bungalows.

The area used to be famous for lawn ornaments in front of houses, especially glass balls, though that’s seldom seen anymore. Since Hurricane Katrina the area’s commercial life has been slow to recover, but it’s coming back.

Dear Julia, A great uncle of mine, William Russell, was a successful ice merchant in the last quarter or so of the l9th century. There are photos of him in the family with horses pulling vans of ice for delivery to ice boxes. According to family folklore, his ice factory was located at 85 Carondelet

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St. The company name was presumably simply “Russell Ice Factory.” Can you find any evidence to this effect, and can you tell me when delivery of big chunks of ice ceased, at least to private home?

Janice Donaldson Grijns G R EEN W ICH , C T., ALSO N EW ORLEANS

When your great uncle, William Russell, passed away in 1918, a Times-Picayune reporter identified him as one of the city’s oldest and best-known ice dealers. The ice business, however, was Russell’s second career.

As a young man, William Russell had worked for the Commercial Bulletin newspaper before moving on to the Daily Picayune, where he was employed for 32 years.

Toward the end of his time with the paper, William also worked his brother’s Home Ice Company, a venture that soon proved so successful

that, in the late 1880s, William quit his newspaper job and went into the ice business full-time. A New Orleans City Directory listing from 1889 shows Russell Brothers Ice operating at 85 Carondelet St. Brothers Joseph, William and Charles Russell are listed as employees of the firm and, at the time, lived together in a house located at 405 1/2 Locust St. About 1901, the Russell brothers expanded their business, establishing the Riverside Ice Company at 1050-1052 Tchoupitoulas St. The Riverside Ice Company operated until about ’20, when the Tchoupitoulas Street property was sold.

It is hard to say exactly when home delivery of block ice ceased. It seems most likely the practice just slowly faded away as modern refrigerators became increasingly more popular and affordable to the average homeowner.

Julia on TV

Look for the Julia Street question on “Steppin’ Out,” every Friday at 6:30 p.m. on WYES/Channel 12.

The show features reviews, news and features about the New Orleans entertainment scene. Viewers who can answer Julia’s weekly question can call in for prizes. Tell ’em you read about the show in New Orleans Magazine.

THEBEAT MARQUEE

PERSONA

BIZ

EDUCATION

HEALTH

CRIME FIGHTING

NEWS

EDUCATION:

Deep Thinkers PAGE 36

Bard College, a small liberal arts college, teaches courses with titles such as “What Does It Mean to Think?” at the International School of Louisiana’s Central Business District campus.

ELIZABETH PERRIN PHOTOGRAPH

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RAVITS

Greek Fest Turns 40

PARTY ON THE BAYOU

The MotherShip Foundation hosts the eighth annual Mid-City Bayou Boogaloo Festival, May 17-19, along the banks of Bayou St. John. The musical lineup features more than 30 bands, including Rebirth Brass Band, Bonerama, Debauche and Nathan & the Zydeco ChaChas. Attendees can also partake in delicious food, spirits and libations, visit the Health and Wellness area and shop for arts and crafts. Other highlights include a Bicycle Pub Crawl on May 18; a bike second-line on May 19, an 11-mile route that begins and concludes at the bayou; and the Rubber Duck Derby, hosted by Second Harvest Food Bank, which encourages attendees to “adopt” one or more

MAY 1, 8, 15, 22, 29.

YLC Wednesday at the Square; Lafayette Square. Information, WednesdayAtTheSquare. com

Fair Grounds. Information, NOJazzFest.com THROUGH MAY 19.

of 10,000 rubber ducks and then see if their “lucky duck” swims to victory after being dumped into the water. Information, TheBayouBoogaloo.com.

Nature: Art from the School of Fountainebleau; New Orleans Museum of Art.

“Reinventing

THROUGH MAY 5. New

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AudubonInstitute.org

THROUGH JUNE 16. “Brilliant Disguise: Masks and other Transformations;” Contemporary Arts Center.

Information, cacno.org

MAY 3. Debauche; The

Audubon Zoo. Information,

Wicked, May 5-June 3

For bon vivants – and we know there are a lot of you – the New Orleans Wine & Food Experience returns this year, showcasing local food and chefs, and more than 1,000 national and international wines.

Beginning on May 22, there will be wine pairings, tastings, a Royal Street stroll, seminars and more. One of the highlights this year is the “Gateaux Show” – a lighthearted competition with cake and champagne. Many of the events take place at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and at local well-received restaurants. As always, the four-day fête benefits a variety of local charities.

Information, nowfe.com.

Information, noma.org.

MAY 3. Whitney Zoo-To-Do;

Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival; New Orleans

Living It Up

Circle Bar. Information, DebaucheMusic.com MAY 5-JUNE 3. Wicked;

Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts. Information,

Ben Taylor, May 7

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This Memorial Day weekend, May 24-26, the New Orleans Greek Festival celebrates four decades of bringing its lively culture to New Orleanians.

The standout at the festival is the food – goat burgers, gyros and baklava, among other delicacies – but don’t overlook the marketplace, the music or the “Athenian playground,” which has a climbing wall and canoe rentals. The festival overlooks Bayou St. John at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral. Information, GreekFestNola.com.

the installation and the ways it creates a significant, tangible link between history and the future from a current point of view.

What medium is used?

SPOTLIGHT

ELIZA MORSE PHOTOGRAPH,MIDDLE

MARTINE CHAISSON HOSTS JACK NIVEN opening expressed a common enchantment through the discovery of various layers within the work. I’m very satisfied with the flow of

This exhibition, “Memory Logos,” explores notions of invented memory

and iconic imagery between the mid-19th century and now. The drawings feature animal characters engaged in conflict resolution with titles parsed from Civil Warera poems and songs.

The paintings, singular popderivations on backgrounds of vintage linoleum, are a sort of outcome of this inquiry. It’s a large show made up of many subtly magical images.

Many visitors that I spoke with at the exhibition

MahaliaJacksonTheater.com

OgdenMuseum.org

kintera.org

MAY 7. Ben Taylor; The

MAY 17- JUNE 3. Crimes Against Nature; The AllWays Lounge. Information, TheAllWaysLounge.com

MAY 25. Asian Heritage

Parish at House of Blues.

Information, HouseOfBlues. com MAY 10. Sippin’ in

MAY 19. PurpleStride 5K Run/

MAY 15-19, 22-26,

Seersucker; The Shops at Canal Place. Information,

Walk; New Orleans City Park.

Information, PurpleStride.

30-JUNE 2, JUNE 6-9.

Visual artist Jack Niven has been an artist who creates pictures by collecting and accumulating materials: personal photography, magazine and Internet gleanings; snippets of conversation and news items; plus flora, fauna and other cultural detritus of his surrounding environment. This month his new exhibit, “Memory Logos” will be on display at Martine Chaisson Gallery at 727 Camp St., through May 24. Information, MartineChaissonGallery.com.

What’s this show about?

Festival; Audubon Zoo. Information, AudubonInstitute.org

alive with the painted imagery I’ve layered over top. I’m pleased to have finally found the body of work that it fits, as I collected it all nearly 20 years ago.

Where else can people see your work? One

I am a painter who likes to draw. I use traditional oil painting techniques on a variety of found, manufactured and nontraditional materials, combining classic and pop sensibilities in my themes.

For the paintings in this show I utilized a collection of actual vintage 1920s-’40s linoleum floor covering.

It’s the kind of thing that was commonly sold as rugs; most of it’s floral patterns with intricate borders. The flooring has been cut to size and laminated onto thin aluminum substrates that float off the wall a couple of inches. It’s beautiful material on its own, weighted with a visible history of wear that really comes

piece that surprises people is on Camp Street near Julia (Street). Next door to the gallery is an ancient garage whose owners let me install a six-foot round mule portrait at the top of their façade.

Probably my most public piece on view is in the collection of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. It’s a very large mural, called “Universal Mule” which was originally installed on the side of a motel on Highway 61 as part of my “American Beauty, South” project. It seems to be a popular piece, and they’ve branded it on their Ogden Museum T-shirts and post cards.

Another venue where I’ll be visible in the near future is at Staple Goods, an artist-run collective in the St. Roch neighborhood.

to Normal; Contemporary Arts Center. Information, SouthernRep.com

Festival; UNO Lakefront Arena. Information, BigEasyComedyFestival.com

MAY 25. Big Easy

MAY 30. One Eyed Jacks and

SimplePlay present Black Moth Super Rainbow with The Hood Internet; One Eyed Jacks. Information, OneEyedJacks.net

Comedy

Southern Rep presents Next

Asian Heritage Festival, May 25

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“Creativity rarely limits itself to one area in life, and given time and means, creative people have a tendency to branch out.” – ELSA HAHNE

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from the Preface of The Gravy: In the Kitchen with New Orleans Musicians (High ISO Music) is meant to describe the book’s inspiration – New Orleans musicians – when you learn more about who said it, you come to realize that it also describes a multi-talented writer, photographer and designer.

A native of Sweden and a resident of New Orleans since 2002, Elsa Hahne has created two books – it would be too simplistic to call them cookbooks – that are cultural celebrations and important archives of one of New Orleans most cherished traditions: food. Or should I say, New Orleanians’ relationship to food and cooking. It is a rocky territory, as we all know someone who has the best gumbo, etc, but Hahne approaches it respectfully, with a careful eye to detail.

Her first book, You Are Where You Eat: Stories and Recipes from the Neighborhoods of New Orleans (University Press of Mississippi) took three years of interviews (2004-’07), writing and funding – with major setbacks from Hurricane Katrina – that when the final book came out in ’08, it was a triumph in determination. For this book, Hahne went to New Orleans home cooks and cajoled them to open up about their lives, as well as their kitchens and secret recipes. It was also an exploration of the many cultures that make up modern-day New Orleans: not only do you have the traditional Black, Creole, Italian, Irish, German, Isleño and Cajun dishes, but those by more recent arrivals from Vietnam, China, Ghana, Mexico and Honduras. This book recognizes that there really isn’t one set “New Orleans” menu or cuisine.

Hahne’s latest book, The Gravy, evolved out of a monthly column of the same name in OffBeat magazine, a New Orleans music publication. The thought was that there was a strong connection between musicians and food: many cooked for themselves while on the road, and quite a few of them had jobs in the restaurant industry. The musicians are based in New Orleans, and Hahne got 44 of them to participate in the book: Irma Thomas, 10th Ward Buck, Susan Cowsill, John Boutté, Sean Yseult and Mystikal are just a sampling. Though not the book’s original intention, Hahne has illustrated again that there isn’t just one New Orleans genre – in this case emphasizing the city’s diversity through its music, and via that, its food.

(Hahne will be appearing at a booksigning at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art at Ogden After Hours (music series), Thurs. May 30, 6-8 p.m. She appears regularly interviewing musicians at the 22

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Elsa Hahne

BY SUE STRACHAN

At a Glance GIVEN NAME: Elsa Anna

Magdalena Hahne AGE: 37 PROFESSION: Writer, photographer, designer and Art Director at OffBeat magazine. FAMILY: My two daughters; Agnes, 7, and Lucia, 5; my partner, Golden G. Richard III, and his son, Golden G. Richard IV. The rest of my family lives in Sweden. BORN/ RAISED: Sweden, both in the Stockholm area and close to the Arctic Circle.

EDUCATION: Science major in high school

(Sweden); Journalism in college (Sweden and France); Joint Masters of Arts in Journalism and French Studies (New York University, 2002). FAVORITE BOOK: When It Rains, It Rains by Bill Martin Jr., and Emanuele Luzzati (1970). It is an illustrated children’s book. FAVORITE MOVIE: My favorite movie of all time, which also had the most profound effect on me, is Sally Potter’s Orlando from 1992, but the movies I’ve watched the most times are probably Willow, Kramer vs.

Kramer, and Terminator 2 (mainly because that’s what was available on VHS at the time). FAVORITE TV SHOW: *“The Walking Dead” (although the last season was bad).

FAVORITE FOOD: Red gravy, pasta, Parmesan and pinot noir. FAVORITE RESTAURANT: Café Abyssinia on Magazine Street. FAVORITE MUSIC: Blues. Everything!

FAVORITE MUSICIAN: Black Keys FAVORITE VACATION SPOT: New Orleans HOBBY: Sew, sew, sew. (And I bake a lot.)

MARYLOU UTTERMOHLEN PHOTOGRAPH

French Market in the French Quarter, the third Friday of the month at 1 p.m.)

The OffBeat column has featured a lot of musicians. Did all of them get into the book? All

of the musicians in the book were profiled in OffBeat; however, not all of the musicians are in the book. Not all of them wanted to be in it.

Of the featured musicians, who was the hardest one to convince to do it? I tried for quite

a long time to get Mystikal, and I finally did. It was a big score; I’m his biggest fan – even before I knew he was from here.

Why these books? Why focus on food? This is my art. This

is my passion. And to not do it would break my heart. The resource – the art that’s out there that needs to be recorded and captured – this is my way of doing it. You can do it a bunch of different ways, but this is what I’m bringing to it.

For me to come at it as seeing it as advantageous to do from a financial point of view isn’t valid. As an artist, you’re going to end up using up all of your resources anyway. At least now there are two books on my bookshelves that I’m proud to show my kids.

In your first book, why did you choose the home cook vs. the chef? People here have

such high standards about food – much more so here than elsewhere. You can do a chef book anywhere in the world. But doing a cookbook like You Are Where You Eat would be hard anywhere else, though there may be some places.

New Orleans is just a rich place. I never lived anywhere where so many regular people know how to cook so many specific dishes. If they don’t know, they know whom to ask. They don’t have to go to their computer; they know from family, friends.

What’s your personal Holy Trinity (a question Hahne asked her subjects in You Are Where You Eat and The Gravy)? That’s

incredibly hard! Olive oil, 24

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garlic – no, honestly? Flour, butter and milk.

I’m sure some people are like, “How hard can a book about food be?” However, besides funding, what’s the biggest challenge of putting together these types of books? It takes

a split personality. On one hand, you have to let things be a bit loose, creative and open, as well as be a good listener. On the other, you have to be super anal and a control freak when it comes to the actual recipes.

I figured this out with my first cookbook, and reconfirmed it with The Gravy, I wanted the story to be the person talking: their phrasing and cadence, you can hear them. But, you can’t do that with recipes. You have to be extremely exacting.

How about recipe testing? Is it time consuming? Not necessar-

ily. The challenge was getting closer to what they actually did, which sometimes meant ignoring what they said they did. People aren’t trying to confuse or trick you up in any way – but what they think they do, and what they actually do, are often two very different things.

During the process of cooking, cooks don’t necessarily go through every step, or do it in a critical way. People have a very skewed idea of measurements. Even professionals do!

Most cooks never write down what they do, so it’s important for us to communicate: I had to watch them cook as opposed to rely on them to tell me what they did. Making suggestions like, “You sure you don’t do this?”

Then they say, “Oh, of course I do that!”

True Confession: When I see actual huskies in New Orleans, I have to stop myself from shouting “höger” and “vänster” – Swedish for “right” and “left” – from the back of my (imagined) sled. (My oldest daughter Agnes goes to Edward Hynes Charter School, and the husky dog is strangely enough their mascot.)

N EWSBEAT

An Intimate Gallery for a Unique Collection The French Quarter offers many ways to explore the history and culture of Louisiana, including guided tours and fine meals. Recently however, a new exhibit space has been quietly showcasing that story through a one-of-a-kind art collection.

The Laura Simon Nelson Galleries for Louisiana Art is part of the Historic New Orleans Collection, the long-serving museum, research center and publisher. Small and easy to miss amid the bustle of the upper French Quarter, it’s an intimate, contemplative space to experience a wide diversity of visual art spanning many generations and styles.

“You can slice history many different ways and the art history of Louisiana offers a lot of material to help us understand the people and the culture here, from the landscapes and architecture to the portraits of individuals,” says John Lawrence, the collection’s director of museum programs. “It’s all part of our cultural mix, but while we’re known for music and food and architectural qualities, sometimes the many important works of visual art created here get overlooked.”

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lery’s namesake, however. Laura Simon Nelson has collected Louisiana art for most of her adult life and has been systematically transferring these works to the collection since 1995. At some 350 pieces altogether, it’s the largest single donation of visual art ever received by the collection. The new gallery, housed in the collection’s recently restored Perilliat House property, displays a rotating exhibition of examples from this immense gift, as well as other works.

Visitors may recognize sites and scenes they just strolled past – artists in Jackson Square, an antique shop window and views of Bourbon Street when the French Opera House still stood. Works from artists such as Jacques Guillaume Lucien Amans, Josephine Marien Crawford, Ellsworth Woodward and William Woodward are all part of the collection.

“It was designed as a dedicated showcase of Louisiana’s art within our mission as a history institution,” Lawrence says of the gallery. “When you come in off the sidewalk, it’s like transitioning into this world of art, the art of Louisiana. Over the years we hope people will be inspired and be surprised by what they discover here.”

The Laura Simon Nelson Galleries are located at 400 Chartres St. Admission is free. For hours and more information, visit hnoc.org.

– IAN MCNULTY

T HE BE A T

BIZ

Shopping Frenzy Retail is ‘hot as a pistol’ in New Orleans

BY KATHY FINN

A

retailers when Costco Wholesale Corp., whose annual sales top $60 billion worldwide, opens at consumer confidence, and you can expect to hear something the site of the former Carrollton Shopping Center about retail sales. Brisk shopping activity reflects optimism in the this fall. population at large, analysts say.

“There’s an awful lot going on, and still more Well, if shopping provides insights about consumers, then store openings retailers are looking to come into New Orleans,” surely say something about retailer attitudes, and judging by recent openings in the local area, retailers are bullish on New Orleans.

Recent years have brought a slew of additions to the local retail landscape, from openings by wellResearchers at the University of New Orleans say retail sales are showknown national stores entering the market for the ing strength throughout the local area. Their latest Metropolitan Report first time, to the development of new centers that shows these highlights of the retail sector and other business segments. are enabling expansions in high-demand areas.

B Estimated sales of taxable items increased by 3 percent in 2011, to “I haven’t seen the New Orleans economy this nearly $11.9 billion, as compared with the previous year. vibrant since the late (19)70s and early ’80s when B Taxable sales increased by 7 percent in the first half of 2012, as compared with the the oil business was booming here,” says veteran previous year’s first half. retail analyst Don Schwarcz, a partner in SRSA B Employment growth in the metropolitan area has been strongest in these sectors: Commercial Real Estate Inc. • Educational services A leading retail specialist in the region for sev• Management of enterprises eral decades, Schwarcz has been impressed by the • Food services and drinking establishments activity he has seen around town during the last 18 • Information businesses months. Among the “big deal” announcements he • Leisure and hospitality points to are plans by Swedish fashion retailer H&M • Accommodations to open its first Louisiana store soon in the former B The construction industry in the local area has been driven primarily by non-residenHard Rock Cafe space in the French Quarter. tial contracts since 2007.

The H&M news came shortly before big national B The area is expected to have a small increase in local employment of about 3,300 jobs shoe retailer DSW Inc. announced the opening of in the third quarter of 2013 and the number will rise again in 2014 by nearly 2,400. a new store in the Elmwood Shopping Center.

B Segments that are expected to be the strongest include leisure and hospitality, health On top of those openings, local shoppers soon will have access to one of the country’s biggest care and social assistance, and educational services.

SK AN ECONOMIST WHAT’S THE BEST GAUGE OF

Local Economic Indicators

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CHERYL GERBER PHOTOGRAPH

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Schwarcz says.

He says part of what’s driving the activity is simply a “rising tide” of economic activity. “We have low unemployment, a lot of construction and the city is actually growing,” he says, contrasting the picture with that in many other U.S. cities.

But Schwarcz says retailers also are responding to the success of their peers, or of their own existing local stores. “They see that stores that opened here three or four years ago are really doing well, so they think, ‘Let’s go ahead with a couple more,’” he says.

The action includes movement by retailers that were already in the market as well as newcomers. Whole Foods Market, with existing stores in New Orleans and Metairie, will open a new store at a former Schwegmann’s grocery site at North Broad and Bienville streets, for example.

Vacant retail spaces in other areas also present opportunity. The closing of a Borders Bookstore on Veterans Memorial Boulevard created a big opening along one of the region’s busiest retail corridors, and a creative renovation turned the nondescript building into a fresh destination for shoppers and diners. Locally based Massey’s Professional Outfitters relocated to the ground level of the revamped building, while the second floor houses one of the first local restaurants by Atlanta-based pizza purveyor Mellow Mushroom.

Other names that have popped up along the high-demand corridor include Panera Bread, Bonefish Grill, Coyote Blues Fresh Mexican Grill and one of the largest Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants in that company’s 900-location chain.

While turnover helps keeping the local retail offerings fresh, new shopping structures are making a splash, too. At Bienville Street and Carrollton Avenue, for instance, Mid-City Market is

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under development by Stirling Properties LLC. The long-awaited center will house a Winn-Dixie grocery store as well as a Pei Wei Asian Diner. Other expected tenants include Office Depot and Neighborhood Pet Market by Jefferson Feed, along with Felipe’s Taqueria, Pinkberry Frozen Yogurt and Five Guys Burgers and Fries, which will join dozens of other restaurants along the Carrollton Avenue corridor.

Stirling Properties also recently converted the former American Legion Building on Magazine Street into a Walgreens Drug Store, and turned a former Borders bookstore on St. Charles Avenue into a home for specialty grocer The Fresh Market.

In still other retailing news, Stirling Properties in January won City Council approval to proceed with Magnolia Marketplace, a twolevel mall on South Claiborne Avenue, where most of the stores will face an elevated 480-space parking deck. T.J. Maxx and PetSmart are among the tenants expected to occupy the center, on a site that once was part of the C.J. Peete public housing complex.

Of the many retail stores and projects under way around the city, Schwarcz says one that he finds particularly interesting is right along the river. A proposal to turn Riverwalk Marketplace into an outlet mall holds a lot of promise, he says.

“In a city that gets millions of tourists a year, to have something that every tourist could walk to, particularly if it’s mostly higherend outlets, that’s the best use I could think of for that property,” he says.

In yet another part of town popular with shoppers, Schwarcz reports that demand appears as vigorous as ever. While hundreds of shops line the quirky five miles or so of Magazine Street, any store that becomes vacant is quickly replaced by a new tenant.

Magazine Street is “hot as a pistol” among retailers, Schwarcz says, and he predicts it will remain so for some time to come.

N EWSBEAT

Louisiana Tunes in Library of Congress Peek into the collection of an avid Louisiana music lover and you may find the country hit and official state song “You Are My Sunshine” sharing space with the Mardi Gras Indian anthem album Wild Tchoupitoulas. Now these two classic, if very different, examples of the Louisiana musical tradition are keeping company in the country’s most significant collection – the Library of Congress.

Both entries were chosen recently for inclusion in the Library’s National Recording Registry for long-term preservation, thanks to their cultural, artistic and historic importance.

“Congress created the National Recording Registry to celebrate the richness and variety of our audio heritage and to underscore our responsibility for long-term preservation, to assure that legacy can be appreciated and studied for generations,” said Librarian of Congress James Billington in announcing the selections.

Each year, under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the Library selects recordings that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” and at least 10 years old.

The two entries from Louisiana were among 25 new inductees this year, which brings the total number of registry recordings to 375.

The 1940 recording, “You Are My Sunshine,”

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one of the inductees with political significance. Davis was already a well-known musician when he ran for governor of Louisiana in ’44 and chose the tune as his campaign song. It became one of the most popular country songs of all time and Louisiana’s state song in ’77.

A year earlier, in 1976, Wild Tchoupitoulas was cut by the band the Wild Tchoupitoulas, led

by George Landry, an uncle of the New Orleans musicians who would later form the famous Neville Brothers band. He recruited his nephews to play on the recording. The Library comments in its notes on selections that by bringing in their R&B and funk styles, the Wild Tchoupitoulas “celebrated this century-old tradition and broke new musical ground at the same time.”

These recordings will be housed in the Library’s Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation in Culpeper, Va. Nominations for this year’s registry selections came both from leaders in the music and recording industries and from public submissions made online. The Library is accepting nominations for the next round of inductees at loc.gov/nrpb.

– IAN MCNULTY

HEALTHBEAT

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Recently, Ochsner Medical Center’s fetal surgery team of 18 physicians and nurses, operated on a 23-weekold fetus that was still in utero and was diagnosed with Myelomeningocele (MMC), one of the most serious forms of spina bifida that affects approximately one in every 1,000 babies born in the United States every year. It occurs when the spinal cord is exposed through an opening in the spine, leaving nerves exposed and vulnerable to injury

from amniotic fluid. It can lead to a buildup of spinal fluid in the brain, which can cause neurological disabilities, problems with movement of the lower limbs, sensation impairment and bladder and bowel issues for the rest of the child’s life. This is a procedure that fewer than 10 hospitals in the U.S. are able to perform. Clifton Moore, M.D., a maternal fetal medicine specialist at Ochsner, said, “When the fetus is just 12 to 14 weeks, we can detect the MMC malformation. As the pregnancy continues, we can see the nerve damage occurring. That’s why fetal surgery is one of the most exciting developments in the treatment of spina bifida, with unparalleled results for the baby.”

PurpleStride New Orleans takes place on May 19 at New Orleans City Park. This family-friendly event is a 5-kilometer (3.1 miles) timed run or walk with children’s activities, snacks, live music and other entertainment. Proceeds from it benefit Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, a

nationwide network of people dedicated to working together to advance research, support patients and create hope for those affected by pancreatic cancer, which is the fourth leading cause of cancer death that also has the lowest survival rate of any major cancer. To register or donate to the cause, visit PurpleStride.org.

Mother’s Day is May 12, and mothers of young children this month are invited to East Jefferson General Hospital for “Wiggle and Giggle Jazzercize” classes, taking place on May 9, 11, 16, 18, 23, 25 and 30. During these classes,

toddlers are encouraged to play with balls, toss beanbags and do other exercises that help with coordination and body awareness in an interactive social environment for optimum health. Classes are $10 each and must be paid in advance. For more information and for other classes, check ejgh.org.

– SARAH RAVITS

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T HE BE A T

EDUCATION

Deep Thinkers Bard College’s early college program provides a new way to learn.

BY DAWN RUTH

K

AYLA ALEXIS, 17, IS ONE OF THOSE NEW ORLEANS

high school seniors who felt hampered by a common teaching style that gives pat answers to complex questions. She knew she wanted more from school, but until she was accepted to Bard College’s early college program, she wasn’t sure what she was missing.

“This is wrong. You are interpreting it wrong,” she says teachers would tell her.

Not so at Bard College, she says. At Bard, the primary frustration comes from figuring out, after weeks of discussing a pressing social question, that there

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aren’t any clear answers to complicated issues.

“Every class is based on a question that’s not answered,” she says.

And she likes it that way.

Schools around the nation are trying to figure out ways to teach the critical thinking skills that high school graduates need to do well in college.

Too often high school teachers are not prepared well enough themselves or overwhelmed by large classes and other expectations to prepare lesson plans that challenge deeper thinkers like Alexis.

Bard College, a small liberal arts college with campuses in New York, California, Germany and Russia, has been offering early college credit to some New Orleans juniors and seniors for five years. Former Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas encouraged Bard to bring its high school program to New Orleans, and private funding did the rest. Since its inception, officials say 500 students have gone through the program, and 98 percent have been accepted to four-year colleges. On average, they received $18,000 in yearly scholarships.

Bard Early College courses are taught in three classrooms on the International School of Louisiana’s Central Business District campus. Part-time, experienced instructors teach seminar-style classes in the afternoons to about 90 RSD students each year. They teach classes with titles such as these: “New Orleans: What Does It Mean?”; “What Does It Mean to Be Educated?”; and “What Does It Mean to Think?” Other courses have explored the sociology of justice, Latin American art history and the 14th Amendment – the amendment to the U.S. Constitution that gave emancipated slaves the same rights as other American citizens.

The classes require intensive reading, thinking and writing, the most important skills students need to succeed in college. The readings come from some of the most important thinkers from cultures around the globe. In the course “What ELIZABETH PERRIN PHOTOGRAPH

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Does It Mean to Be Educated?,” for example, the course reader includes Book IV of Plato’s Republic; three books from Confucius’ The Analects; three chapters from Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto; and two chapters from W.E.B. DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk.

This academic year, 12 students from the International School and 70 from RSD schools from all over Orleans Parish were chosen to attend the program. Bard College graduate Nina Feldman, Assistant Director for Outreach, recruits interested students by giving presentations at participating high schools. Then the students are interviewed, and those who are selected from the interviews are assigned readings to discuss in mock seminars. A Bard representative takes notes from the discussions, and then a final selection is made.

“We are not as concerned with test scores or GPA as we are with a spirit of inquiry,” Feldman says.

In fact, says Program Director Stephen Tremaine, the average GPA of accepted students is a 2.6 – a “C.” Tremaine and his staff select students “who get fired up about ambiguities, the students who want to know more.”

As it turns out, there are hundreds of students in RSD schools who are aching for a challenge, far more than the program can possibly take. Tremaine says that 800 students were interviewed last year for 90 spots. “It’s depressing to turn so many away,” he says.

Even though the program is demanding, the students who are accepted tend to stick around. One student, for instance, flunked two classes for plagiarizing a single sentence from an outside source. Instead of dropping out in anger or frustration, he stuck with the program and “has done a complete 180,” Tremaine says.

Students say they like the give and take of classroom discus-

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sions. “What I really enjoy is listening to other people’s opinions,” says Destiny McWilliams, a senior at New Orleans Charter Science and Mathematics High School, a charter located Uptown. “The best way to get ideas is listening to other’s ideas. It all makes one big idea.”

One of McWilliams’ favorite classes was one that explored the sociology of criminal justice. It raised the question of who should punish wrongdoers, God, mankind or individuals? In this course, McWilliams says she offered the idea that society needs crime.

“There would be a lot of people without jobs,” she says.

Not many agreed with her, but Alexis said she did. “Everything here is so controversial,” she says. “You learn so much more about the world around you.”

Alexis says that one of the epiphanies she has had came in the course about criminal punishment. When she arrived, she says she was sure that her opinions would never change on certain topics, and one of them was her hatred of the New Orleans Police Department. Then, after a discussion about crime and the NOPD, her opinion changed.

The discussion led her to question her assumptions. “Is the problem the NOPD or is it us?” she found herself asking.

After Alexis graduates from high school, she hopes to attend Bard College in New York. She is waiting to hear if she has been accepted to a program that offers a scholarship that covers tuition and fees of about $45,000. In the meantime, she’s pleased that she has been accepted to three universities in Louisiana. Loyola University has offered her a $44,000 scholarship, she says, which is just short of free tuition.

There are many high school students who could handle more challenging instruction, if given the chance, Tremaine says.

“There is a lot of talent in this city.”

CHERYL GERBER PHOTOGRAPH

N EWSBEAT

Streetcars Heading Downriver New Orleanians may still be getting used to the idea of a new streetcar line along Loyola Avenue. But the wheels are already turning on the next expansion of the streetcar system, the North Rampart/ St. Claude Avenue streetcar line, which will carry passengers from the CBD along the edge of the French Quarter and the Tremé, and parts of the Faubourg Marigny and 7th Ward.

Officials with the Regional Transit Authority (RTA) have been making the rounds of community meetings as plans for the new service progress. At a recent meeting of the Newcity Neighborhood Partnership, for instance, RTA planning director Stefan Marks explains that the route was part of a long-term effort to restore more streetcar lines in a city once famous for them.

“This has been on the RTA’s table for years,” says Marks. “It’s about trying to build out the network, and the board is considering how to go beyond that now.”

The latest plan will extend for about 1.4 miles from Canal Street to Elysian Fields Avenue with six station stops for a total cost of about $75 million.

Plans for this streetcar service were once more ambitious. The RTA had earlier proposed a line running farther down St. Claude Avenue to Press Street, where freight train lines controlled by Norfolk Southern Railway impose a logistical barrier. But by 40

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2011 the RTA scaled back, citing a lack of funding, to the current terminus at Elysian Fields Avenue.

Even with this short extension, however, complexities abound – from strategies to reduce streetcar noise near the soon-to-reopen Saenger Theatre to the management of underground utilities during construction. Engineering plans are still in development. Also, at this writing a critical issue of track placement – whether in lanes of traffic, in the neutral ground or in dedicated street level lanes – were still generating lots of discussion at community meetings. Still, RTA officials project that construction will begin in January, with completion slated for late 2015.

The RTA is expected to soon release a master plan, a citywide blueprint for restoring bus service still severely curtailed since Hurricane Katrina as well as future streetcar expansions. Marks says public input is an important part of keeping these plans relevant for residents.

“The RTA board will be looking at how the overall network should work,” he says. “We’re going to continue to get people’s feedback on what we should do, and what type of services we should have.”

– IAN MCNULTY

LOCALCOLOR THE SCOOP

MUSIC

READ+SPIN

CHARACTERS

JOIE D’EVE

MODINE GUNCH

CHRONICLES

HOME

The Zephyrs season, which runs through Sept.

2, includes some new promotions with lots of tried-and-true favorites.

THE SCOOP:

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L OCAL C O L O R

THE SCOOP

Fireworks Fridays has been the most popular attraction at Zephyr Field.

Special Nights With the Zephyrs Making an evening of it at the ballpark

BY JUDI RUSSELL

W

HEN GYPSY ROSE LEE SAID, “YOU GOTTA HAVE A

gimmick,” chances are she didn’t have minor league baseball in mind. But she could have, because the way to draw the crowds at minor league action is to spice up the games with plenty of promotions. Brandon Puls, director of promotions for the New Orleans Zephyrs, is well-aware of that fact, so he and his colleagues spend a good part of every off-season planning out activities for before, during and after the games.

“We’re selling a show,” Puls says. He visits with his counterparts at other teams to see what’s new and popular, trading suggestions for what works and what doesn’t.

The current season, which began April 12 with a welcome mat giveaway and runs through Sept. 2, includes lots of tried-and-true favorites plus some new promotions that should really appeal, says Tim Grubbs, Post-game who broadcasts the 144 home and concerts have away games for the Zephyrs. become a fan “You need to have something favorite. for everybody,” Grubbs says.

The Zephyrs staff has to use its imagination to pull in a crowd in a town that also offers the New Orleans Saints, the Hornets and parades and parties for everything from Mardi Gras to St. Joseph’s Day. Their ideas must be working, because the team draws some 38,000 fans each season.

Fireworks remain the No. 1 attraction, Grubbs says, and they’re on the schedule every Friday. Sometimes the fireworks coordinate with the game’s other

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offerings; for example, on June 21, Star Wars Night features half-price admission for those wearing Star Wars costumes or shirts, the opportunity to take pictures with the movies’ characters and a Star Wars-themed fireworks display. Elvis gets his due on Aug. 16 with a “Salute to the King” that includes music, trivia, prizes and a king-sized Elvis-themed fireworks show.

Other times, an after-game concert reinforces the theme. On June 8, the team salutes the Fab Four with Beatles trivia and prizes and a performance

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Kids Days for youngsters offer discounted admission and includes Space Walk inflatables.

on May 26, youngsters who participated in the Zephyrs Reading Club receive free admission. Science Day features Prof. Steve and his Amazing World of Science, with science demonstrations after the game.

CHARITIES, HOLIDAYS GET SALUTES

Kids brought their canine friends to Bark at the Park on April 14. Dogs and their owners took in the game from the levee, where there ere pet-themed vendors and activities. Owners even walked their dogs around the field before the game started.

The event benefited the SPCA. The Pink in the Park event in May benefits the Mary Kay Foundation’s cancer research. People wearing pink get discounted admissions, and after the game spectators can bid on pink jerseys worn by Zephyr players during the game. Catholic Charities Night, which includes $1 hot dogs and discounted admission for those with Catholic Charities

by Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Tribute Band. Some games comcoupons, benefits the charity’s educational and Hispanic bine the music with the sparklers for major effect. The 4th of July Apostolate programs. game against the RedHawks includes a patriotic fireworks display And just because they can, the Zephyrs declare May 30 St. plus a post-game concert.

Patty’s Day in May, complete with green beer and half-price Giving away “something for nothing” is probably the world’s admission for those wearing the green. oldest marketing technique, and Zephyrs games are great opporMoms get their turn in the spotlight on Mother’s Day, when tunities for freebies. In addition to the welcome mats at the first Villere’s Florist presents the first 500 mothers through the gate with game, this season the team gives away hats, T-shirts, baseball a flower. Those in the military and people in the medical profession cards, mini-flags, flowers, backpacks, team photographs and a get discounts on Military Day and Salute to Scrubs, respectively. slice of cake on Boudreaux the mascot’s birthday. Sometimes Refreshments play a role in many of the Zephyrs’ promotions, giveaways bear the logo of the team’s corporate sponsors. Other which is no surprise in a city that loves to eat and drink. Triple times, the gift has a Zephyrs logo. Grubbs calls this a form of Play Taco Tuesday is a real bargain: $10 gets you an upper deck “guerilla marketing.” ticket, a soda and a taco. On Thirsty Thursdays, sponsored by “We can’t control the wins or losses, but we can control the Budweiser, sodas and draft beers cost $1 and canned beers are promotions,” he says. $2. Drink specials are available at many locations in the park on Pub Crawl nights.

KEEPING KIDDOS HAPPY The fun has to also take place during the game, not just before Minor League ball truly is a family-friendly event, and many and after, Grubbs says. That is why they have such events as Zephyrs promotions are geared toward children. On Kids Days, Baseball Bingo, the Dizzy Bat race and the Build-a-Burger Contest, admission for youngsters aged 2 to 12 is discounted, there are which features two couples dressed as the heel and top of Space Walk inflatables for jumping fun and wanna-be baseball hamburger buns. On Web Wednesday, social media stars get the chance to play catch and run the bases on the field joins the lineup, with those following the after the game.

Zephyrs on Twitter or Facebook receiving Youngsters also like appearances by popular characters special offers for the game. such as SpongeBob, Yo Gabba Gabba, Peppa Pig and Wow In what might be the team’s most elaboWow Wubzy, each of whom will be visiting Zephyr Field rate promotion this year, the Zephyrs’ will this season. The trick here is to book the acts before they be holding a “Country Wedding” right at the become too famous – and too expensive – Puls says. Saints ballpark. A Zephyrs staff member is taking an mascot Gumbo will make an appearance on April 14, and online class to be an ordained minister, and Saints wide receiver Joe Morgan visits in May. will tie the lucky couple’s knot right before A new promo this year is an appearance by the the game. The reception will be held post-game Half-Pint Brawlers, a “midget wrestling company” in one of the suites, and there will even be a “first with a popular TV series. Grubbs says the act foldance” at the post-game concert. lows up on the success of last year’s visits by The wedding is a follow-up to one of the team’s most mini-Britney Spears and mini-Madonna. Making successful promotions, Puls says: the wedding of mascot a return appearance on Aug. 3 is wrestler Boudreaux and his sweetheart, Clotile, years ago.

Jerry “The King” Lawler, who’s popular with And for that other action taking place on the ball both kids and adults, Puls says. On Medieval field, Zephyr General Manager Mike Schline is preTimes Night, members of the Louisiana dicting a successful year. The team has a lot Renaissance Festival will give demonstraZephyr General Manager of great players, he says, and there will be tions, and on Princess Day, Prince Charming w i l l Mike Schline is predicting lots of good hitting and pitching mixed make an appearance. a successful year. in with those promotions.

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45

L OCAL C O L O R

MUSIC

Ancestors in the Infield

BY JASON BERRY

C

in wooden figures on the Fair Grounds infield at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival presented by Shell, don’t constitute a cemetery – though the milieu has abiding tones of death-in-life. The painted images that are taken down, stored and repositioned each year depict carriers of culture, personalities who gave the city its distinctive color, souls alive in the popular memory.

“We call them the ancestors,” says festival spokesman Matthew Goldman.

Danny Barker, the balladeer, guitarist and author is there with a replica of his wife and vocalist, Blue Lu. A mainstay in their golden years at the Palm Court, Danny and Lu were a grand pair. In 1994 he had a vintage brass band send off; Miss Lu followed a few years later. Danny was a storyteller to his bones. Once I told him that he had done it all – recorded with everyone from Armstrong to Wynton, toured in the 1930s with Cab Calloway’s big band and wrote books, plus the long-running act with Blue Lu. I had only one question – he cocked an eyebrow – what’s the secret of sustaining a marriage 63 years? He shrugged, gave a few excuses and then

said: “You have to give her the money.”

Jules Cahn looms nearby, the shaggy gray hair and hint of a smile on the avocational cameraman who followed the funerals and second lines until his own. “The funerals in the (19)60s were like urban ballets,” he told me one blazing July afternoon at Congo Square, watching a group of Lakota Indians welcome Mardi Gras Indians in a ceremony called White Buffalo Day. Several years later when, at 78, Cahn was laid out in a mortuary on N. Rampart Street – since subsumed by the festival offices – his family and various synagogue members sat in the parlor as Milton Batiste led Dejan’s Olympia Brass Band in signing “This Train Is Bound For Glory,” a song of slaves seeking freedom. “Jules is riding that train,” purred Milton, the silver trumpet dangling at his side.

Milton is gone; so, too, Harold “Duke” Dejan, the alto clarinetist who stamped his last name on the band for its remarkable last lap, nearly

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LUSTERS OF THE DEARLY DEPARTED, MEMORIALIZED

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CD One of the best things about living in a city with a world-famous music scene is the amount of creative people with creative ideas. Case in point: Brassft Punk by Madd Wikkid, aka New Orleans native Earl Scioneaux III. For the album, Wikkid covers four popular Daft Punk songs in the brass band style, giving the previously electronic tunes a New Orleans stamp. We recommend familiarizing yourself with the Daft Punk originals before you listen, but even if you’re not a Daft Punk fan, you might enjoy the New Orleans brass-fueled covers.

CD If you need a soundtrack to your crawfish boil, try From Bamako to Carencro, the latest from BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet.

As the 25th studio album from the Grammy Award-winning Cajun group, From Bamako to Carencro consists of upbeat tracks intermingled with bluesy tunes. Make sure you listen to the Cajun French cover of James Brown’s “I’ll Go Crazy.”

HISTORY Architecture buffs will enjoy Une Belle Maison: The Lombard Plantation House in New Orleans’s Bywater by S. Frederick Starr, but the book covers more than just the structure and history of this historic house. The book’s author – who was once the vice president and provost of Tulane University – tells the stories of the families who lived in the home, as well as how the home and neighborhood changed over the years. The book is a testament to the benefits of preserving historic buildings in New Orleans.

HISTORY Archivist Linda Barnickel chronicles the 1863 Civil War battle in Milliken’s Bend, La., in her new book Milliken’s Bend: A Civil War Battle in History and Memory.

The battle isn’t one of the most famous battles in Civil War history, but it still deserves attention because of the amount of former slaves that fought for the Union. Barnickel does a good job providing context for the mood of Louisianians and what slavery was like in the state. She also explains why the battle, though small, was important to the war and why it should be remembered.

Please send submissions for consideration, attention: Haley Adams, 110 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Suite 123, Metairie, LA 70005. myneworleans.com

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40 years, after several incarnations stretching back roughly a century. Dejan stands permanently at Jazz Fest, as he did in leading Olympia to the White House, foreign festivals, innumerable second lines and the airport to greet Pope John Paul in 1987.

“Everything is lovely” was Dejan’s motto.

For the last decade Wright McFarland has been the artist responsible for the Ancestors in recent years; however, created the figure of ethereal clarinetist George Lewis.

Tom Dent, the towering poet who ran the Jazz & Heritage Foundation for a time, hovers among the ancestral figures. We had a friendship that grooved to long spontaneous dialogue on the telephone, and exchanges about writers and musicians that veered into chortling gossip about people we would never want to hurt, yet whose moods and disasters demanded some discussion. Dent issued a rocking chuckle at the story of James Booker harassing an airline reservations clerk so tyrannically over the irrelevance of a hot credit card that the poor woman put him on the plane in order just to be rid of him.

I think it was 1980 when a monsoon rain turned the festival infield into deep muck. Sloshing through that ooze, wrecking a pair of tennis shoes, I was toting a heavy box with gallon cans of raw oysters for some reason when there stood Dent with the

Cheshire cat smile, next to a slight, bug-eyed man who looked hauntingly familiar: “Put down the box,” said Dent, “and meet James Baldwin.”

Buster Holmes, the French Quarter chef whose eatery fed everybody at a time when you could get a plate of red beans for barely a buck, is in the Jazz Fest assemblage. So is Professor Longhair, who ate at Buster’s with his gold-toothed smile and forged a keyboard signature with the Caribbean left hand that marching bands have long since adapted for Carnival parades.

Allison Minor, who died much too young, managed Fess in his later years and planted him on the cosmic map. She helped put the festival there, big time. The Allison Minor Heritage stage is where the oral history interviews happen, as if she never left.

Al Hirt, the bearded, totemic trumpeter known as Jumbo, scored a huge a hit on the Allen Tousssaint composition of “Java,” rode in the Bacchus parade and had his own club on Bourbon Street for many years – his likeness rubs elbows with the others, created by another artist, Stuart Auld.

Sherman Washington, who organized the Gospel Tent and sang in the Zion Harmonizers with a shouting baritone that gives me chills every time I hear it, has joined the festival memory grounds.

These and others like them rewrote a Crescent City imagination, teasing out cosmic essences from a slow motion late 1960s urban backwater, where music happened and “A lot of people think, when you mention riverboats, that you had to food sprouted as if in separate zones; all check your pistols when you came on, and that the boats were full of the cultural interweaving since then in women good-timing, but I didn’t find it like this. I do know that everyone the four decades of Jazz Fest would have had a good time, but it wasn’t as wild as some writers say, and I can’t happened in some fashion, but with not remember ever seeing gambling on board. This was Prohibition, so there nearly the same magic. As the ancestral were soda fountains ...” memory ground grows, so the city rolls – HENRY “RED” ALLEN, QUOTED IN RIDE RED RIDE BY JOHN CHILTON and the festival with it.

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L OCAL C O L O R

C A S T O F CH ARAC TERS

Raymond Calvert’s Iconography Lessons from a Belgian monk

BY GEORGE GURTNER

“The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting … ” – VINCENT VAN GOGH

S

URE, ARTISTICALLY DETAILING THE INTRICACIES OF

crown molars and those unpronounceable what-cha-ma-call-its that kept all those Apollo Project vehicles up there in outer space on their way to the moon paid the bills… But did it really quell the savage beast that calls out from the soul of every artist?

It does when you remember that the beasts and not the bills, come first.

Just ask Raymond Calvert.

Calvert, a native of the 9th Ward, who now lives in a super upscale subdivision on the “wrong side” of the infamous 17th Street Canal (the one that broke after Hurricane Katrina and laid waste to much of Lakeview), has, for much of the last 18 years, been the artist to go to when it came to the ancient art of iconography – that is, the painting of icons.

Calvert, 75, who at one time drew for technical manuals doing “parts breakdown” on the Apollo Project at Michoud, also detailed medical books for the Louisiana State University School of Dentistry for 29 years before retiring. And through it all, he never strayed far from the brush and easel.

“Growing up on Alvar Street, I always had ambitions to do art, but never had the expertise,” Calvert says. “I have a sister who became a nun and a brother who studied to become a brother. I just followed in their footsteps. During the 1950s I went to St. Joseph Seminary on the Northshore as a student. I had hoped to become

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a diocesan priest in New Orleans. That’s at the time Dom Gregory de Witt, the Belgian monk whose work can be found throughout St. Ben’s (St. Joseph Abbey). He was decorating the church there and the refectory. And I loved what I saw. I admired him and his work. I was truly impressed by that. That’s when I moved forward into my painting career.”

In late 1989, after attending Tulane University, Calvert moved to Notre Dame Seminary on South Carrollton Avenue where he earned a master’s degree in theology.

But while Raymond Calvert was never ordained to the priesthood, all that studying in “holy places” and his brushes with Dom Gregory de Witt and iconography left an indelible mark on his creative side. Calvert gives one of those slight smiles that say that all of that led to his epiphany moment and his love affair with the creation of icons.

“I started painting what I thought were icons,” Calvert says. He shrugs his shoulders: “I kept at it and hoping that I was improving.”

“I went on a trip to Europe,” Calvert continues.

FRANK METHE PHOTOGRAPH

“I started buying books on iconography, icon painting, the great icons of Rome and Germany. Finally, I got an opportunity to do an icon, a cross for Trinity Episcopal Church here in New Orleans.

It was for a service they were having.” He adds, “The following year, I did that again for the Church of the Annunciation. Up to that point, I didn’t have much experience. It was strictly a volunteer job. They need a focal point for their service. I was getting more and more involved in icons and that’s when I ordered a book out of a publishing house in California.

“When I got the publishing house owner on the telephone he asked me if I belonged to this association of iconographers. I said, ‘no,’ so he sent information to me. In the information was an application to attend a workshop by Philip Zimmerman who had created hundreds of icons for churches and private collections throughout the world. Zimmerman was painting in Pennsylvania.

He called me and we talked, I signed up for a class with him and that changed my life.”

If Calvert’s introduction to Zimmerman “changed his life,” a later opportunity to study with Paul Ninas who was called the “Dean of New Orleans artists” put that change into high gear.

“I was thrilled to be able to study with somebody of Paul Ninas’ stature and reputation,” Calvert says. “It was only for a very short time, but it was meteoric. It was like it was ordained to happen.

Paul passed away shortly thereafter. After that, I stayed busy – I just kept painting. I worked for commercial trade journal publications. About that time, I went to work for Boeing – the Apollo project at Michoud. I kept painting all along, getting my work into shows and galleries. I did watercolors … whatever I could. Finally I got to do two icons for the Christian Life Center at the Abbey (St. Joseph). Those brought me two commissions for two icons at St. Francis Xavier Church on Metairie Road.

“Just recently, I was commissioned for two more at St. Francis Xavier. Once it started and I finally realized what my calling was, it seemed like they just kept coming. To date I’ve done just under 100 icons. The largest commission was for 14 Stations of the Cross for St. Monica Church in Edmond, Okla.” He continues, “Right now, my work is strictly with icons. I don’t want to do anything else. I couldn’t even think of doing anything else. Right now, time is the biggest factor. There are things outside my work that I must tend to. I do find time, however, to teach a class in icon painting every May at the Abbey.”

Calvert leads a visitor through his pin-neat home, and stops to point out how Hurricane Katrina water crept up the walls waist-high, demolishing everything in its wake. He and the visitor are followed by Calvert’s tiny white yapping snowball of a pet dog into his studio. It, too, is neat: no canvases stacked high; no brushes left to stiffen on the drawing board. He shows a video of overlays that point out how an icon is built, and he gives a brief history of how icons date back to Egyptian times and flourished in the Christian catacombs of Rome and how the genre made a brilliant comeback during the late 1800s. Calvert speaks slowly and distinctly, but his voice peaks more than ebbs when he’s speaking of his beloved icons.

Back in his den, with the tiny dog at his feet, Calvert explains the difference between a Monet or a Rembrandt and an icon. He talks of the spiritual aspects of his art … all spiritual. “All icons are prayers,” he says. “That’s what it’s all about.”

Who knows how many molars were saved because of one of Calvert’s illustrations at the LSU School of Dentistry. And Calvert’s pictures may have had as much to do with getting Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon as anything Werner von Braun could come up with.

But Calvert is certain of only one thing: the object of his icons is to carry the viewer beyond the moon – far, far beyond. myneworleans.com

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L OCAL C O L O R

M O D I N E’S N EW O RLEAN S

Stiletto Stories

BY MODINE GUNCH

A

T CELIBACY ACADEMY, WE WERE REQUIRED TO WEAR

saddle oxfords. Not just any saddle oxfords, but special extraclunky saddle oxfords, specifically designed by the nuns to repel the opposite sex. We couldn’t wait to flounce around in sky-high heels as soon as we got released – I mean, graduated.

It didn’t matter that the high heels in style required your toes to line up to form an arrowhead. And it didn’t matter when the style changed and required your toes to be one length and fit into a square. It didn’t matter, because in high heels, you was hot stuff.

We hadn’t learned yet that if the toes ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.

So now I got crooked toes. I don’t wear heels no more except for special occasions. Like maybe at a wedding. If I happen to be the bride.

I decided that I can be sexy without no help from high heels. I see them glamorous transformers mincing around the French Quarter in their stilettos, and there’s no way I can match that; but my gentleman friend Lust says I got plenty enough wiggle in my walk in my bedazzled sneakers. Plus my feet don’t hurt.

Thank God. These days high heels are on steroids. They look like designer torture racks for the feet. The soles are maybe 4 inches high and the back part is even higher. Trying to walk in them must feel like going downhill on roller skates that don’t roll.

But what goes around comes around. Now my own daughter Gladiola is in high school, and it’s her turn to think high heels are gorgeous. I tell her the only high-heeled shoe I think is gorgeous is one that has been coated inside and out with glitter and Mardi Gras beads and given away at the Muses parade, to never again be worn by a human foot. Maybe that’s what the Muses ladies have in mind.

Gladiola don’t listen. She buys her first stilettos with her own money, squishes her feet into them and proceeds to lurch around the house.

“They are sooo comfortable,” she lies. “They empower me.”

She read that “empower” stuff in a shoe ad on the Internet. I know because I came across it myself when I was Googling “high heels and health” so I could hit her with the facts. Come to find out, she had Googled it first. That is the problem with kids today.

So I tell her about herniated discs and foreshortened calf muscles and hammer toes. She tells me about elongated legs and posture which accentuates the bust and buttocks and may possibly strengthen the pelvic floor. She ain’t clear on what the pelvic floor is. (I read Cosmo, so I know that if your pelvic floor is strong enough, you won’t need Kegel exercises now or Depends later. But this ain’t the time to enlighten her.) I jut say high heels ain’t no good for floors because they leave marks.

I remind her my own feet look like pretzels with toes because of high heels, and I refuse to wear sandals in public until somebody invents a sandal that also includes fake feet. At the beach I keep my feet under water or under sand at all times and that don’t lend itself to long romantic walks.

I should have saved my breath. She got money she makes babysitting, and pretty soon she has bought her own Imelda Marcos shoe collection, which features heels from 2 inches high to ridiculous.

And when she wants to wear flats, which ain’t often, she borrows mine, since we are both a size 8.

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I am starting to worry about this shoe obsession, so when she tells me that she’s being awarded the Brobson Lutz Science Trophy at the school honors convocation, I get real excited – it shows she’s been thinking about something besides shoes.

She has to get to the ceremony ahead of time, so she and her friends totter off early, strapped onto their platform pumps. I am running late, rushing around looking for my dressy red flats. Finally I drag them out from under the couch, and –- since it’s rainy – shove them in a grocery bag and run to the car in my Dollar Store flip-flops, which happen to be great for driving. I will put on my nice shoes when I get there.

Except when I get there, what I got in this grocery bag are two of Gladiola’s shoes; one red 2-inch heel and one red stiletto.

There is no way I’m going to show my feet in these flip-flops.

I think fast. I remember how, in a restaurant, when one leg of the table is short, it sometimes helps to tape a sugar packet to the bottom of it. I got duct tape; I always keep it in my car in case something falls off.

I don’t have no sugar packet, but I rummage through my purse and come up with an empty prescription bottle. I jam it onto the short heel and duct-tape it in place. Then I wrap more duct tape around the stiletto heel. Now I got two heels the same height, accented with duct tape, which could pass for gray trim. I hobble into the auditorium; sit down; watch my daughter get her trophy; applaud like crazy; cry a little; take her picture for Facebook; and hobble out again, stopping a bunch of times to be congratulated for having such a smart daughter. My feet hurt, but nobody says a word to me about wearing a stiletto and a pill bottle.

I guess I was empowered.

LORI OSIECKI ILLUSTRATION

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BLOGS FROM THE NEW NEW ORLEANS

J OIE D’ E V E

Dreams and Dresses

BY EVE KIDD CRAWFORD

W

HEN

THE

SONOGRAPHER

FIRST

TOLD

me I was having a second daughter, I had a brief moment of … not disappointment, exactly, because I was so happy about everything else the baby had – a four-chambered heart! a brain! the requisite amount of fingers and toes! – so I couldn’t be disappointed. But I think I had sort of wanted a boy, just so I could have one of each: my beautiful headstrong daughter and my idealized obedient, doting son. The brief sting at not having a son lasted about as long as it took me (which is to say about 5 seconds) to have the realization that two daughters meant matching dresses.

But Ruby is insanely picky about clothes, and she has to wear a school uniform five days out of the week, and Georgia already had so many clothes both from Ruby’s hand-me-downs and generous friends and family that it was impossible for me to justify buying two brand-new matching dresses for the girls, just because. I would’ve done it for Thanksgiving, maybe, or certainly for Christmas, but Ruby spent those holidays in St. Louis with her dad’s family, so there didn’t seem to be any point. Finally, though, it was Easter, and I was ready.

I have a particular Southern weakness for monogrammed clothing, so I went immediately to Etsy and had Ruby help me pick out two super-cute summery blue-and-brown sundresses, which I ordered with their names stitched across the front. They arrived a week later, and I loved them. Ruby hated them. The embroidery was rough against her skin, she said, and the straps were too “scrunchy,” and she wasn’t going to wear it for love or money – both of which I offered.

“You will wear it on Easter,” I said ominously.

“I will not,” she said and flounced off.

I tried to forget about it. It is hard to really gauge accurately how Ruby will react to anything on a particular day, so there were about even odds that she would wear it without a fight versus having an elaborate tantrum, and I didn’t want to waste time worrying. I would deal with it the day of, come what may.

A few days before Easter, a package arrived at my house addressed to Ruby from my former in-laws, Ruby’s St. Louis grandparents, her beloved Nana and Pops. Because Ruby was at her dad’s that weekend, I set the package aside for her, figuring it was full of Easter goodies.

When I picked her up on Easter morning, she was in chocolate-and-jelly-beanfueled good spirits, and she said she was going to wear the dress as an Easter present to me – and also my mom had promised to take her to a movie if she complied. As the hours till our scheduled brunch with my husband’s family ticked closer, though, and the sugar crash set in, Ruby got increasingly recalcitrant.

“I hate that dress,” she said. “It. Is. Scratchy. I don’t care that it matches Georgia’s. Let her wear it, and I will wear something else! You can’t make me!”

I sighed. There are many parts of parenting that are so much more rewarding than I ever thought they’d be – a sleepy whispered “I love you,” a tight tearful hug on the first day of school, even watching reruns of “Full House” together – but there are just as many fantasies I had of motherhood that turned out to be absolute bunk. It seemed that my pastel Easter daydream of daughters in matching dresses was going that way, and I was just about to give up on the notion rather than drag an angry, tear-stained child to brunch

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when I remembered the present from her grandparents.

“Hey, Ru,” I said, thinking distraction might help. “Let’s stop thinking about the dress for just a sec and see what Nana and Pops sent you. I bet it’s candy!

Maybe we can eat some candy before you put on your pretty Easter dress I bought you, huh?”

She made a face – I never fool her, not for a second – but the lure of an unopened present was too strong, and she agreed.

When we tore open the package, it did contain candy – but it also contained not one but two gorgeous handmade monogrammed matching Easter dresses. My former mother-in-law is a talented seamstress, and she had made one dress for Ruby, her adored granddaughter, just as she has made her many dresses before. But she had made a second smaller dress for Georgia, the child I had with my second husband after her son and I divorced.

It was such a sweet gesture that I couldn’t help tearing up. Both dresses fit the girls perfectly, and she had done the monograms in such a way that they didn’t irritate Ruby’s sensitive skin. She even made bloomers for Georgia.

Within seconds, Ruby had shimmied into the new dress and declared it more than acceptable to her tastes, and I quickly wiped my eyes and got Georgia dressed in the matching one.

The afternoon got even sweeter when my current in-laws, the wonderful Bob and Libby Peyton, treated Ruby exactly the same as Georgia and Elliot, their grandchildren, presenting her at brunch with an Easter basket full of her favorite candies and oohing and ahhing over how lovely she looked.

The definition of family has always been fluid for me, but the fact that my family includes both of my daughters’ paternal grandmothers and that both of those grandmothers can open their hearts to both of my kids makes me extremely grateful – and, I know, extremely lucky.

It was a perfect Easter, full of love and generosity and chocolate and sunshine – and, best of all, matching dresses. I hope yours was wonderful, as well.

Excerpted from Eve Kidd Crawford’s blog, Joie d’Eve, which appears each Friday on MyNewOrleans.com. For comments: info@neworleansmagazine.com.

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L OCAL C O L O R

C H R O N I C LES

Deacon John performs at the Pine Street annual neighborhood party.

Neighborhood Parties Taking it to the street

BY CAROLYN KOLB

R

UTH STONE DESCRIBES HER NEIGHBORHOOD NEAR

City Park saying, “it’s like a little country town.” Eighteen years ago, when she lived in Lakeview, she, “didn’t even know my next door neighbors.” Then she moved to Allard Boulevard: “Now I know them all, their kids’ names, even the dogs’ names!” Allard Boulevard even has a neighborhood book club. (“It’s just ladies from the street – we meet at somebody’s house and the hostess does the refreshments. Talking about the book is secondary!”) Most importantly, this street has a big neighborhood party.

Back in 1976, Val Dansereau and other Allard Boulevard residents decided to celebrate the bicentennial with a party. “The first year, we got the permit, the city strung up lights for us and built a bandstand.” In later years, with tighter municipal budgets, the neighbors took over and strung their own lights, and the band played at street level. (Past bands have included Rockin’ Dopsie, Gal Holiday and the Creole String Beans.”)

The Allard Boulevard party is held in May. “We get together, everybody cleans the street in front of their house,” Dansereau explains. “Everybody invites whomever they want, does their own food and sets up a bar.”

This party has crossed generations. “We had a 100th birthday party for

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one neighbor,” he recalls. “When our kids were young they participated, and now our grandchildren come.”

The Allard Boulevard party is now held every other year. One side effect: “When you invite people for a couple of years, and then, when you don’t have a party, they think they did something wrong,” Dansereau laughs.

On Pine Street, the annual neighborhood party takes place on the Saturday night before Mardi Gras.

“Deacon John always performs,” says Marvin Russell, who participates as a party sponsor with his wife, Susie. “There’s a committee who provides the beer truck and the music. Anything else, you have to provide yourself.” Invited guests can bring something themselves, or just enjoy a beer and the dancing. The committee gets the right city permits, blocks off the street and there’s always a police presence, Russell explains.

DINO PERRUCCI PHOTOGRAPH

A party for the Upper Audubon area (Broadway, Audubon and Walnut streets) was held on the Sunday before Halloween, but since Hurricane Katrina it’s no longer an annual event.

Yvette Semmes says a space walk for the children was a popular attraction. ”For a couple of years, one of the neighbors who was a doctor would get his buddies and they would play music for us,” she remembers. “We never had lights – the party was at 5 o’clock. We would get a permit and block off the street, or sometimes we had it at a shelter in Audubon Park.”

John Lafargue notes that the area party gathered neighbors and highlighted the need for local support for security patrols. “We’ve gone to a security district now.” While Semmes recalls passing out 350 party invitations, Lafargue points out that email is the most popular neighborhood communication tool these days.

Octavia Street (Uptown, off Prytania Street) may hold the record for the longest running party. Gary Baker remembers hearing of an Octavia Street dance held in the 1940s and ’50s, but she notes, “we started ours in the ’60s.” Attendees lived on Octavia Street and nearby Joseph Street.

“It was all families, mostly adults, with an adult king and queen.

We used a plunger for the official scepter – it was decorated with crepe paper. We had dime store crowns. Somebody had two mantels, and they were used every year. They were ragged.”

“It was always the Saturday before Mardi Gras. We called it the Octavia Street Branch of the Joseph Street Foot-Stomping Cabbage-Eating Society,” Baker adds. “Papa French’s Band played, and they sat on our porch. The adult dance was from about 2 to 5 o’clock, and before that there was a children’s parade in a different block of Octavia.”

Nowadays, the decades-old Octavia Street Mardi Gras party is held two Saturdays before Carnival, says Bill Ellison, who participates with his wife Felicia Rabito. “We call it the Krewe of Khaos – it’s a kids parade. They have a king and queen, fourth graders or so, and the kids toast and they give a little speech. There are other kids on tricycles, and little kids riding in wagons, and they all roll down the street and throw beads to their parents.”

Octavia Street parties year-round. “Halloween is pretty big around here, too. Everybody participates. We have a lot of trick-or-treaters, and we sometimes show a movie on a blanket,” Ellison adds.

The big Octavia Street affair these days is the Ping-Pong Party held in May. Ellison and his friend and neighbor, Zack Lemann, run the event. “Everybody loves to play pingpong,” Ellison declares.

Tables are set up and the pingpong tournament will have trophies for the masters, the seniors and the kids divisions. There are lights and stadium seating. “We have Raising Cane’s chicken for the kids and red beans and rice,” Ellison explains.” We probably average about 85 people – everybody in the neighborhood is invited.”

Maybe one day your neighborhood will throw a party. Why not have it at your house?

Local Hostess With The Mostest Dr. Meda Colvin admits it: “I’m a party giver from way back.”

Theme parties are her specialty: Neighbors gather for Saints games, “Treme” viewings and the Oscars, and she matches the food to the theme. “Once I made a Louisiana gumbo with things in my freezer: deer sausage, frog legs, alligator tail, duck.” Being a physician gives her a pro-party attitude: “I know we live longer and we have a better quality of life if we socialize.” Colvin’s parties are all-inclusive: “Bring anything and anyone – I’ve gotten to know more people!” Her chosen party activity is talking: “The art of conversation is a beautiful art. Social media people can get isolated.” myneworleans.com

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L OCAL C O L O R

HOME

A Touch of Provence

Gina and Joseph Piacun’s Metairie home is inspired by southern France.

BY BONNIE WARREN

W

PHOTOGRAPHED BY CHERYL GERBER

“We love the certain elements about our home that make us feel like we are in Europe,” explains Gina Gennusa Piacun, as she relaxes in the large country kitchen of her home in an older section of Metairie. “We have always admired the farmhouses of Provence, a region of southeastern France, and we attempted to achieve the same look in our new home.”

The large house on a corner lot looks like it was transported from the countryside of France. “We have a French front door, and we even modeled the shutters after the style

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Facing page: The large limestonefaced fireplace in the spacious living room is reminiscent of those found in European country homes; the room is furnished for comfort and entertaining, with dual couches and a pair of tables interior designer Regina Lynch designed and had handcrafted; Neil Peyroux made the drapes.

This page, top: Gina and Joseph “Joe” Piacun, with their children Palmer, 3; Grant, 8; and Parker, 10; and Coco, the family’s golden retriever. Bottom: Architect Dodie Smith, AIA, (C. Spencer Smith AIA, LLC) designed the home to pay homage to the simple farmhouses in Provence, a region of southeastern France; Tommy Gennusa (TAG Homes, Inc.), Gina’s brother, served as the contractor.

you find in France, with horizontal planks when they are open and vertical planks when closed, even the blue color we painted the shutters is also common in Provence.”

Step inside the vestibule and you will see a niche holding a statue of the Virgin Mother, then glance up the stairway to view a unique alter-like ledge with a life-size statue of St. Pierre and a smaller one of St. Joseph holding baby Jesus, while nearby are three large candles. The pair of 12-foot tall paintings on the stairway wall came from a church in Paris. myneworleans.com

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Why the religious art and statues?

“We are a humble couple who feels that faith and family are the most important parts of our lives,” Gina answers. “The sacred art and statues in our home have significant meaning to us.”

The magic of a comfortable European country home continues as you step into the spacious living room. A large limestone-faced fireplace, another often found feature in France, is the focal point of interest. Of special importance to the couple is the pottery that has a special place of honor throughout the home that was done by Gina’s mother, Janace Gennusa, who recently passed away.

Handsome French doors and a wall of windows that open onto an intimate courtyard on one side and a porch overlooking the side garden on the other side flood the dining room with light. “We enjoy dining with the doors open to the courtyard so we can hear the peaceful sound of the fountain,” she says. Eleven-foot high ceilings and reclaimed pine floors further add to the European feeling of the home.

“We like the open floor plan of our home and the various porches and yards” explains Joe, an attorney with Gennusa, Piacun & Ruli, where he formerly worked with Gina, also an attorney, who has taken time off to stay home with their three children: daughter, Parker, 10; and sons Grant, 8, and Palmer, 3.

The entire back of the house accommodates a kitchen that pays homage to great European country kitchens with Carrera marble countertops, antique reclaimed terracotta tiles from France on the floor, and large reclaimed wood ceiling beams. “My favorite room in the house is our kitchen,” Joe says.

“I love to cook and I enjoy being able to cook while our family and friends sit at the island and share what I cook, or just relax and sip wine sitting on the nearby sofa. My family is from Croatia, so I really like the rustic Mediterranean feeling of the kitchen. We purposely designed it to be large to serve as a gathering place.”

The couple gives high marks to their architect, interior designer and contractor, Dodie Smith, AIA (C. Spencer Smith, AIA, LLC). Smith explains, “Gina and Joe began the 60

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design process by showing me a book they loved. It wasn’t a book of gorgeous home pictures, but a book about the value of a simple way of life. Their home was further influenced by the importance of their close family ties.”

Regina Lynch (Ecru Antiques and Interiors on Magazine Street) served as the interior designer and helped the couple translate their wishes for a Provence farmhouse. “Regina was instrumental in helping me achieve the look that I wanted,” Gina says, “and she always kept in mind that we are a family with three young children.”

Tommy Gennusa (TAG Homes, Inc.), Gina’s brother, was the contractor for the project. “He is a fantastic builder and we were extremely pleased with the careful attention he paid to every detail,” Joe says without hesitation. “Working with my brother gave us the assurance that he would always be doing the right thing,” Gina adds. “He is a terrific home builder.”

“We are humbly grateful for our comfortable home that is kid friendly and ideal for sharing with our family and friends,” Gina says and Joe agrees and adds, “The house fulfills our every need, and it’s a pleasure to have such a nice kitchen.”

Facing page, top: Three-year-old Palmer walks through the elegant dining room that is illuminated by an antique chandelier from France. Facing page, middle: Neutral colors were selected for the master bedroom for a soothing effect.

Facing page, bottom: A special altar-like ledge was created on the landing of the stairway to accommodate a large statue of St. Pierre, while the smaller one is of St. Joseph holding baby Jesus; two large paintings on the wall are from a church in Paris and were found by Regina Lynch (Ecru Antiques and Interiors) the Piacun’s interior designer for the home.

This page: The large kitchen serves as a gathering place for both family and friends; the antique terracotta floors are from France; Carrera marble is used for both the countertops and backsplash. myneworleans.com

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THEMENU TABLE TALK

RESTAURANT INSIDER

FOOD

LAST CALL

DINING LISTINGS TABLE TALK:

Breath of Fresh Air PAGE 64

Chef and owner Ian Schnoebelen and his wife Laurie Casebonne (both of Iris) recently opened Mariza on the ground floor of the Rice Mill Lofts

JEFFERY JOHNSTON PHOTOGRAPH

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T HE M EN U

TABLE TALK

Breath of Fresh Air Two restaurants offer new ideas

BY JAY FORMAN

A

N EMPHASIS ON SMALLER PLATES

and the continuing craft cocktail renaissance are two calling cards for a pair of new places around town, with serendipMariza’s Yellowfin Tuna Carpaccio ity having played a role in the establishment of them both. Chef and owner Ian Schnoebelen and his wife Laurie Casebonne (both of Iris) recently opened Mariza Mariza is located on the ground in the ground floor of the Rice Mill Lofts, and the idea floor of the Rice Mill Lofts. was set into motion on the eve of their first trip to Italy.

“Sean Cummings approached us just before Laurie and I left town,” Schnoebelen recalls. “He was a fan of Iris and was looking for someone to come into his new development there.”

The impromptu pitch gave the couple a lot to think about on the flight over, and it was on the trip that they decided they were on board with this new venture.

They took in the sights and tastes of Italy with a fresh pair of eyes, attuned to concepts they could roll into their new place. Their first stop in Venice provided a lot of inspiration. Schnoebelen was struck by the abundance of dishes featuring raw seafood and oysters on the half-shell, items that a lot of people don’t typically associate with Italian cuisine. They later carved out a niche in their menu for a raw bar, featuring inspirations like yellowfin tuna carpaccio with arugula, olives and fresh Parmesan cheese.

The core of the menu is Italian-derived, but not fennel and arugula salad in lemon vinaigrette. stringently so. “I’m not trying to be Italian, I’m just doing my own thing but “That is the style here,” Schnoebelen says. “Real incorporating a lot of those flavors,” Schnoebelen explains. While traveling, he rustic and real simple. Just trying to showcase the took note of the heavily regional focus unique to each of the cities they visited. natural flavors.”

“Venice, Rome, Florence, Parma – everywhere we went just had the local prodThe menu offers a range of lighter dishes, uct. So I’m trying to do that here, too.” To that end, all the meat on the menu is local. The pork and duck come from Covey Rise and Chappapeela Farms, along with a lot of the produce.

First on Freret Two Run Farms provides lamb and beef. His locker of Cure on Freret Street offers an array of thoughthouse-cured charcuterie offers prosciuttos, coppa and fully composed small plates to complement their several different kinds of salami. Keep an eye peeled craft cocktails, including Bacon and Bleu Cheese for his Piola, an air-cured lamb leg seasoned with herbs, Crostini with honey and onion jam, a Serrano Ham which he occasionally runs as a special. plate featuring blueberry and gin jam, as well as a The menu is spilt between small plates, pastas and “Re-Imagined” Waldorf Salad. The granddaddy of pizza, as well as a short list of entrées. Popular dishes the local craft cocktail movement was also the first include a Squid Ink Linguini with Shrimp and Crab to stake a claim to the now-rejuvenated stretch of (“It’s New Orleans, everyone loves crab and shrimp, dining and entertainment. right?”) and whole roasted Gulf fish served with a

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JEFFERY JOHNSTON PHOTOGRAPHS, TOP AND MIDDLE

such as a raw market vegetable Fresh Choices Mariza salad tossed in an extra virgin Rice Mill Lofts olive oil and garnished with 2900 Chartres St. Pecorino cheese and sea salt.

598-5700 Ingredients change with availabilMarizaNewOrleans.com ity, but recently it included beets, Dinner Tuesdays through Romanesco, radishes and brocSaturdays; closed Sundays coli shaved paper-thin. Wines by and Mondays the glass and apéritifs such as the Spritz, featuring Terriero Prosecco, La Fin du Monde Campari and club soda, add 2917 Magazine St. some zing to the inherently light 218-4088 menu. Straddling the dividing line LaFinRestaurant.com between the Marigny and Bywater Brunch daily; dinner neighborhoods, the contemporary Tuesdays through Saturdays space features floor-to-ceiling winCure dows and preserves much of the 4905 Freret St. raw industrial-chic feel of the origi302-2357 nal space. Prices are modest for CureNola.com fine dining.

Kitchen open 5 p.m.-midnight Serendipity also played a role Sundays through Thursdays in the quick establishment of La and until 2 a.m. Fridays and Fin du Monde on Magazine Street.

Saturdays Slotted into the space formerly occupied by Café Rani, the restaurant was pulled together in a matter of months. “We took over on Halloween of 2012 and opened in December,” recalls Chef Jonathan Lestingi. The name itself was a play on the purported Mayan apocalypse. “That was the whole idea – the world is supposed to end and we’re opening a restaurant and not really too worried about it.”

Still in its formative stages, the restaurant puts forth an array of craft cocktails assembled by Tonique alum Michelle McMahon and Geoffrey Wilson. Spread over two menus and split between brunch and dinner selections, these include everything from a traditional Ramos Gin Fizz to Death in the Afternoon, which is absinthe over a sugar cube with a lemon twist. Freshly squeezed juices serve as the base for many of the mixed concoctions.

Diners will see a fair sampling of bistro-style fare here, accompanied by a wide array of house-made pickled vegetables.

Carrots marinated with ginger and rice vinegar pick up a distinctive flavor from the black cardamom in the pickling spice, and Lestingi’s fondness for regional foodstuffs results in pickled okra and mirliton as well. Lestingi, who worked previously at Root and Stella!, relies on French technique but isn’t particularly beholden to any one style. “I’m not a purist, by any means.

None of the places I worked every really focused on one type of cuisine,” Lestingi says.

Off the brunch menu, served seven days a week, the Challah French Toast is popular, made with sweet bread from Maple Street Patisserie and served with a New Orleans Rum and pecan-infused Steen’s Cane Syrup. The dinner menu offers Pork Belly Lettuce Wraps, a David Chang-inspired dish that features its namesake piggy goodness glazed in homemade sweet soy sauce and cane syrup vinegar. Diners wrap the final product in a cool lettuce leaf and garnish it to taste with his homemade kimchee.

Coffee fans will enjoy the French Press coffee service, with beans provided by local small-batch roaster French Truck Coffee.

La Fin Du Monde is open seven days a week for brunch and dinner service Tuesday through Saturday, and a few legacy dishes like a Smoked Chicken Club remain on the menu to assuage area residents bereft of Café Rani. Happy hour from 3 to 6 p.m. is offered as well. myneworleans.com

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T HE M E N U

R E S T A U R A N T IN SID ER

From the Circle to the Lake

BY ROBERT PEYTON

Tivoli & Lee has replaced Tamarind by Dominique in the Hotel Modern (2 Lee Circle). Chef Mike Nirenberg, who most recently had been running a pop-up

called “Why Not?” in the same space, is in charge of the kitchen. Nirenberg worked with chef Aaron Burgau at Patois and Oak Wine Bar and also cooked for a time at the Delachase. At Tivoli & Lee, Nirenberg is cooking modern Southern cuisine, with an emphasis sourcing ingredients from local farms.

That isn’t any more unusual than house-made charcuterie these days, but both trends are welcome if the food is good.

Tivoli & Lee is responsible for the food at Bellocq, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that there’s a “snacks” portion of the menu. These include fried Brussels sprouts with pepper jelly, deviled eggs garnished with chicken cracklins and andouille potato tots with Manchego and a green onion crema. The remainder of the menu is divided into soups and salads, small plates, mains, sides and desserts. Items of interest on the first part of the menu include a Caesar salad made with kale, ricotta dumplings with cremini mushrooms, cornmeal-fried oysters with roasted beets, prosciutto, green garlic dressing and a polenTivoli & Lee ta cake with andouille gravy and roasted baby shiitake mushrooms.

There is a duck confit made from locally raised poultry on the mains side of the menu that comes with braised greens, the aforementioned andouille tots and a pomegranate glaze. Pork belly turns up here, too, with Brussels sprouts, pickled greens and a pork jus. The lamb burger is topped with a fried duck egg and mint aioli and comes with fries.

You can get a hot fudge brownie sundae for dessert, as well as a New Orleans Egg Cream – surely influenced by Bellocq – that combines whiskey, orgeat, chocolate and soda.

Tivoli & Lee is open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Call 962-0909 to learn more or to make a reservation.

There was a time when Lakeshore Drive was a great place to take the family for a meal overlooking Lake Pontchartrain. While the area has yet to regain the life it once had, it’s a promising sign that a few restaurants are re-opening on the water. One of these is The Blue Crab Restaurant & Oyster Bar (7900 Lakeshore Drive), which should have opened by the time you read this column. Like most of the restaurants that have called the lakefront home, the Blue Crab is raised and it has outdoor seating. As befits the name, seafood – local seafood – is the specialty here.

The restaurant doesn’t have a phone number yet, but you can check TheBlueCrabNola. com to learn more. By the time you read this, a phone number should be listed. Currently the restaurant’s website lists its hours of operation as Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 3 a.m. I am skeptical that any restaurant that doesn’t have an address in the French Quarter is going to stay open until 3 a.m. on a weeknight, or that the Blue Crab won’t be open on the weekend, but again, check the website to get a definitive answer.

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Café Reconcile

Café Reconcile (131 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.) underwent an extensive renovation that took a bit longer than expected, but resulted in an impressive expansion to the restaurant’s kitchen, dining room and banquet space.

The café is only a part of the service that Reconcile New Orleans, Inc. provides to at-risk youth in New Orleans, but it’s probably the most high-profile. The foundation’s goal is to provide training to kids who might otherwise slip through the cracks. Lots of people talk about how “education” is the key to solving the problems of inner-city youth violence – Reconcile is actually effecting change.

The restaurant is known for serving New Orleans-style food at prices far below what the quality would otherwise dictate. Daily plate specials include the obligatory red beans on Monday, but diners rave about the white beans and shrimp that’s served on Thursdays. The restaurant’s motto is “feed your soul,” and there are few better places in the city to do that while also satisfying your appetite.

Café Reconcile is, as of this writing, open for lunch only, Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Call 568-1157 to find out about what they’re serving today.

Chef Chris Lynch Atchafalaya’s chef came to my attenChris Lynch tion when Meson 923 opened a while back.

He was in charge of an ambitious kitchen at the now-closed Warehouse District spot, and I thought it was odd when he turned up at a 24-hour diner in the French Quarter after leaving Meson. I am sorry I never made it over there to see what a guy with his talent was doing in that milieu, but my current plan is to visit Atchafalaya (901 Louisiana Ave.), where Lynch was recently named executive chef, to see where he’ll take the venerable New Orleans-Creole-Southern eatery.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Email rdpeyton@gmail.com SARA ESSEX BRADLEY PHOTOGRAPHS

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THE MENU

LAST CALL

The Big Tini as created by Ste. Marie Brasserie’s Murf Reeves

Cajun-American Meets Creole

BY TIM MCNALLY

T

HIBODAUX IS A BUSTLING TOWN COMPRISED MOSTLY

of farmers, trappers, fishermen, petrochemical workers and college professors. Its roots are squarely Cajun. Rice and sugarcane are agriculture mainstays, and because this is Louisiana, sooner or later someone had to have the idea of distilling those crops.

Donner-Peltier Distilling in Thibodaux is newly built, licensed, running and well on its way to creating premium brands of vodka and rum. Their top-level vodka is Oryza, distilled 17 times from a genus of rice by the same name.

About an hour away, there’s the Faubourg Sainte Marie in New Orleans, also known as The American Sector, or simply the Central Business District. It is where tall buildings for commerce and wide thoroughfares for traffic converge.

Ste. Marie Brasserie is a fine-dining, fine-drinking establishment on Poydras Street. It was named one of the Best New Restaurants of 2011 by this magazine.

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THE BIG TINI 2 1 2 2

ounces Oryza Vodka ounce Dolin Blanc Vermouth dashes Regan’s Bitters drops simple syrup

Add all ingredients together into a rocks glass. Stir 40 to 60 times with fresh ice.

Strain into a martini glass and finish with two drops of Ilegal Mezcal.

As created by Murf Reeves, managing partner at Ste. Marie Brasserie, 930 Poydras St.

SARA ESSEX BRADLEY PHOTOGRAPH

THE MENU

$= Average entrée price of $5-$10; $$=$1115; $$$=$16-20; $$$$=$21-25; $$$$$=$25 and up.

5 Fifty 5 Restaurant Marriott Hotel, 555 Canal St., 553-5555, French Quarter, 555Canal. com. B, L, D daily. This restaurant offers innovative American fare such as lobster macaroni and cheese, seasonal Gulf fish with crab and mâche salad with boudin. Many of the dishes receive an additional touch from their woodburning oven. $$$$ 7 on Fulton 701 Fulton St., 525-7555, CBD/ Warehouse District, 7onFulton.com. B, L, D daily. Upscale and contemporary dining destination. $$$$ 13 Restaurant and Bar 517 Frenchmen St., 942-1345, Faubourg Marigny, 13Monaghan. com. B, L, D daily, open until 4 a.m. Late-night deli catering to hungry club-hoppers. Bar and excellent jukebox make this a good place to refuel. $ Abita Brew Pub 72011 Holly St., (985) 892-5837, Abita Springs, AbitaBrewPub.com.

L, D Tue-Sun. Famous for its Purple Haze and Turbodog brews, Abita serves up better-thanexpected pub food in their namesake eatery.

“Tasteful” tours available for visitors. $$

Acme Oyster House 724 Iberville St., 5225973, French Quarter; 3000 Veterans Blvd., 309-4056, Metairie; 1202 N. Highway 190, (985) 246-6155, Covington; AcmeOyster.com.

L, D daily. Known as one of the best places to eat oysters. $$ Aloha Sushi 1051 Annunciation St., 5660021, Warehouse District, SunRayGrill.com. L, D Tue-Sat. A large list of rolls, hot rice bowls, Asian-inspired soups, salads, cocktails and more. Visit for Sake Hour: half-priced sake and three rolls for the price of two. $$

A Mano 870 Tchoupitoulas St., 508-9280, Warehouse District, AManoNola.com. L Fri, D Mon-Sat. A Mano is chef Adolfo Garcia’s take on authentic regional Italian cuisine. Executive chef Joshua Smith handles day-to-day duties at this Warehouse District spot. “A mano” means “by hand” in Italian; fitting for a restaurant where much of the pasta and charcuterie are made in-house. $$

Ancora 4508 Freret St., 324-1636, Uptown, AncoraPizza.com. L Fri-Sat, D Mon-Sat. Authentic Neapolitan-style pizza fired in an oven imported from Naples keeps pizza connoisseurs coming back to this Freret Street hot-spot. The housemade charcuterie makes it a double-winner. $$

Andrea’s Restaurant 3100 19th St., 834-

DINING GUIDE 8583, Metairie, AndreasRestaurant.com. L Mon-Fri, D daily, Br Sun. Indulge in osso buco and homemade pastas in a setting that’s both elegant and intimate; off-premise catering.

New Orleans Magazine Honor Roll honoree 2009. $$$

Basil Leaf Restaurant 1438 S. Carrollton Ave., 862-9001, Uptown, BasilLeafThai.com.

L Mon-Sat, D daily. Thai food and sushi bar with a contemporary spin is served in this date-friendly establishment; private rooms available. $$

Riverbend, Boucherie-Nola.com. L, D Tue-Sat. Serving contemporary Southern food with an international angle, Chef Nathaniel Zimet offers excellent ingredients, presented simply.

New Orleans Magazine’s Best New Restaurant 2009. $$

Antoine’s 713 St. Louis St., 581-4422,

Bayona 430 Dauphine St., 525-4455, French

Brennan’s 417 Royal St., 525-9711, French

French Quarter, Antoines.com. L Mon-Sat, D Mon-Sat, Br Sun. This pinnacle of haute cuisine and birthplace of Oysters Rockefeller is New Orleans’ oldest restaurant. (Every item is á la carte, with an $11 minimum.) Private dining rooms are available. $$$$$

Quarter, Bayona.com. L Wed-Sat, D Mon-Sat. Chef Susan Spicer’s nationally acclaimed cuisine is served in this 200-year-old cottage.

Ask for a seat on the romantic patio, weatherpermitting. $$$$$

Quarter, BrennansNewOrleans.com. Br, L, D daily. The institution that turned breakfast into a celebration and introduced bananas Foster to the world is one of the city’s most storied destinations. Enjoy a brandy milk punch in the courtyard while you’re there. $$$$$

Arnaud’s 813 Bienville St., 523-5433, French Quarter, Arnauds.com. D daily, Br Sun. Waiters in tuxedos prepare Café Brulot tableside at this storied Creole grande dame in the French Quarter; live jazz during Sun. brunch. $$$$$

Audubon Clubhouse 6500 Magazine St., 212-5282, Uptown. B, L Tue-Sat, Br Sun. Nested among the oaks in Audubon Park, the beautifully situated clubhouse is open to the public and features a kid-friendly menu with New Orleans tweaks and a casually upscale sandwich and salad menu for adults. $$

August Moon 3635 Prytania St., 899-5129,

The Beach House 2401 N. Woodlawn St., 456-7470, Metairie. L Wed-Fri, D daily.

Gumbo, steaks, lobsters, burgers and seafood are accompanied by live music each and every night. $$$ Besh Steak Harrah’s Casino, 8 Canal St., 533-6111, CBD/Warehouse District, HarrahsNewOrleans.com. D daily. Acclaimed chef John Besh reinterprets the classic steakhouse with his signature contemporary Louisiana flair. New Orleans Magazine’s Chef of the Year 2007. $$$$$

Bistro Daisy 5831 Magazine St., 899-6987,

899-5122, Uptown, MoonNola.com. L, D MonFri, D Sat. Lots of vegetarian offerings and reasonable prices make this dependable Chinese/ Vietnamese place a popular choice for students and locals. Take-out and delivery available. $

Uptown, BistroDaisy.com. D, Tue-Sat. Chef Anton Schulte and his wife Diane’s bistro, named in honor of their daughter, serves creative and contemporary bistro fare in a romantic setting along Magazine Street. The signature Daisy Salad is a favorite. $$$$

Austin’s 5101 W. Esplanade Ave., 888-5533,

Blue Plate Café 1330 Prytania St., 309-

Metairie, AustinsNo.com. D Mon-Sat. Mr. Ed’s newest upscale bistro serves contemporary Creole fare, including seafood and steaks. $$$

9500, Uptown. B, L Mon-Fri, B all-day Sat. Breakfasts and lunches are the hallmarks of this neighborhood spot. The Ignatius sandwich comes equipped with 10 inches of paradise. $

The Avenue Pub 1732 St. Charles Ave., 586-9243, Uptown, TheAvenuePub.com. L, D daily (kitchen open 24 hours a day). With more than 47 rotating draft beers, this pub also offers food including a cheese plate from St. James, a crab cake sandwich and the “Pub Burger.” $ Bacchanal Fine Wines and Spirits 600 Poland Ave., 948-9111, Bywater, BacchanalWine.com. L, D daily. The pop-up that started it all, this ongoing backyard music and food fest in the heart of Bywater carries the funky flame. Best of all, the front of house is a wine shop. $$

Barcelona Tapas 720 Dublin St., 8619696, Riverbend, LetsEat.at/BarcelonaTapas.

D Tue-Sun. Barcelona Tapas is chef-owner Xavier Laurentino’s homage to the small-plates restaurants he knew from his hometown of Barcelona. The tapas are authentic, and the space, renovated largely by Laurentino himself, is charming. $

The Bombay Club Prince Conti Hotel, 830 Conti St., 586-0972, French Quarter, TheBombayClub.com. D daily. Popular martini bar appointed with plush British décor features live music during the week and late dinner and drinks on weekends. Nouveau Creole menu includes items such as Bombay drum. $$$$

Bon Ton Cafe 401 Magazine St., 524-3386, CBD/Warehouse District, TheBonTonCafe.com.

L, D Mon-Fri. A local favorite for the old-school business lunch crowd, it specializes in local seafood and Cajun dishes. $$$$

Brigtsen’s 723 Dante St., 861-7610, Uptown, Brigtsens.com. D Tue-Sat. Chef Frank Brigtsen’s nationally-famous Creole cuisine makes this cozy Riverbend cottage a true foodie destination. $$$$$ Broken Egg Cafe 200 Girod St., (985) 231-7125, Mandeville. B, Br, L daily. Breakfastcentric café in turn-of-the-century home offers a sprawling assortment of delicious items both healthy and decadent. $$

Brooklyn Pizzeria 4301 Veterans Blvd., 833-1288, Metairie, EatBrooklyn.net. L, D daily (Drive thru/take out). Pie shop on Vets specializes in New York-style thin crust. The pizza is the reason to come, but sandwiches and salads are offered as well. $ Byblos 1501 Metairie Road, 834-9773, Metairie; 3218 Magazine St., 894-1233, Uptown; 3301 Veterans Memorial Blvd., 8307333 Metairie; 29 McAlister Drive, Tulane University; ByblosRestaurants.com. L, D daily.

Upscale Middle Eastern cuisine featuring traditional seafood, lamb and vegetarian options. $$

Café Adelaide Loews New Orleans Hotel, 300 Poydras St., 595-3305, CBD/Warehouse District, CafeAdelaide.com. B, D daily, L MonFri. This offering from the Commander’s Palace family of restaurants has become a powerlunch favorite for businessmen and politicos.

Also features the Swizzle Stick Bar. $$$$ Café Burnside Houmas House Plantation, 40136 Highway 942, (225) 473-9380, Darrow, HoumasHouse.com. L daily, Br Sun. Historic plantation’s casual dining option features dishes such as seafood pasta, fried catfish, crawfish and shrimp, gumbo and red beans and rice. $$

Bouche 840 Tchoupitoulas St., 267-7485, Warehouse District, BoucheNola.com. L, D Wed-Sat. Bouche is a mix of lounge, cigar bar and restaurant with an open kitchen serving largely Southern food in portions Bouche calls “Partailles” – something larger than an appetizer but smaller than an entrée. $$$

Café Degas 3127 Esplanade Ave., 945-5635, Mid-City, CafeDegas.com. L Wed-Sat, D WedSun, Br Sun. Light French bistro food including salads and quiche make this indoor/outdoor boîte a Faubourg St. John favorite. $$$

Boucherie 8115 Jeannette St., 862-5514,

Café du Monde 800 Decatur St., 525-0454,

SOUTH WALTON VISITSOUTHWALTON.COM

Even if you haven’t visited one of South Walton’s 16 beautiful beach neighborhoods dotted along the sugar white sand and turquoise water, you still might know that this area has become a culinary hub of the Southeastern United States. That is because you may have seen chef Emeril Lagasse’s “Emeril’s Florida,” which has featured the diverse cuisines available in South Walton from barbecue to sushi and everything in between. You may also have seen chef Emeril cooking Stinky’s Stew with Mema’s Pressed Crab Po Boy at Stinky’s Fish Camp in Dune Allen with chef Jim Richard. Better than hearing about it or watching it on TV, though, is trying it out for yourself. – M I R E L L A C A M E R A N 70

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French Quarter; One Poydras Suite 27, 5870841, New Orleans; 3301 Veterans Blvd., Suite 104, 834-8694, Metairie; 1401 West Esplanade, Suite 100, 468-3588, Kenner; 4700 Veterans Blvd., 888-9770, Metairie; 1814 N. Causeway Approach, Suite 1, (985) 951-7474, Mandeville; CafeDuMonde.com. This New Orleans institution has been serving fresh café au lait, rich hot chocolate and positively addictive beignets since 1862 in the French Market 24/7. $

Café Equator 2920 Severn Ave., 8884772, Metairie, CafeEquator.com. L, D daily. Very good Thai food across the street from Lakeside Mall. Offers a quiet and oftoverlooked dining option in a crowded part of town. $$

Café Freret 7329 Freret St., 861-7890, Uptown, CafeFreret.com. B, L, D Fri-Wed. Convenient location near Tulane and Loyola universities makes this a place for students (and dogs) to indulge in decadent breakfasts, casual lunches and tasty dinners – and their “A la Collar” menu. $$

Café Giovanni 117 Decatur St., 529-2154, Downtown, CafeGiovanni.com. D daily. Live opera singers three nights a week round out the atmosphere at this contemporary Italian dining destination. The menu offers a selection of Italian specialties tweaked with a Creole influence and their Belli Baci happy hour adds to the atmosphere. $$$$

Café Luna 802 Nashville Ave., 269-2444, Uptown. B, L daily. Charismatic coffee shop in a converted house offers a range of panini, caffeinated favorites and free WiFi. The front porch is a prime spot for people-watching along adjacent Magazine Street. $ Café Maspero 601 Decatur St., 523-6250,

French Quarter. L, D daily. Tourists line up for their generous portions of seafood and large deli sandwiches. $

Café Minh 4139 Canal St., 482-6266, MidCity, CafeMinh.com. L Mon-Fri., D Mon-Sat. Chef Minh Bui brings his fusion-y touch with Vietnamese cuisine to this corner location.

French accents and a contemporary flair make this one of the more notable cross-cultural venues in town. $$

Café Negril 606 Frenchmen St., 944-4744, Marigny. D daily. This music club draws locals in with their lineup of live Reggae and blues.

Tacos and BBQ in back are a plus for latenight revelers. $

Café Nino 1510 S. Carrollton Ave., 8659200, Carrollton. L, D daily. Non-descript exterior belies old-school Italian hideaway serving up red-sauce classics like lasagna, along with some of the more under-the-radar New York-style thin crust pizza in town. $$

Café Opera 541 Bourbon St., 648-2331, Inside Four Points by Sheraton, French Quarter. B, L daily, D Thu-Sat. Chef Philippe Andreani serves Creole and Continental classics on the site of the old French Opera House. Choices include crabmeat beignets with corn maque choux as well as fried green tomatoes with shrimp remoulade. Validated parking is offered for dine-in. $$$

Cake Café 2440 Chartres St., 943-0010, Marigny, NolaCakes.com. B, L daily. The name may read cakes but this café offers a whole lot more, including fresh baked goods and a full breakfast menu along with sandwiches.

A popular place to while away a slow New Orleans morning with a coffee and a slice. $

Camellia Grill 626 S. Carrollton Ave., 3092679, Uptown; 540 Chartres St., 533-6250,

Downtown. B, L, D daily, until 1 a.m. Sun-Thu and 3 a.m. Fri-Sat. The venerable diner has reopened following an extensive renovation and change in ownership (in 2006). Patrons can rest assured that its essential character has remained intact and many of the original waiters have returned. The new downtown location has a liquor license and credit cards are now accepted. $

Capdeville 520 Capdeville St., 371-5161, French Quarter, CapdevilleNola.com. L, D Mon-Sat. Capdeville is an upscale bar-bistro with a short but interesting menu of food that’s a mix of comfort and ambition. Burgers are on offer, but so are fried red beans and rice – a take on calas or Italian arancini. $$ Carmo 527 Julia St., 875-4132, Warehouse District, CafeCarmo.com. L Mon-Sat., D TueSat. Caribbean-inspired fare offers a creative array of vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free fare in a sleek location on Julia Street. One of the few places in the city where healthy dining is celebrated rather than accommodated. $$

Carmelo Ristorante 1901 Highway 190, (985) 624-4844, Mandeville, RistoranteCarmelo.com. L, D Wed-Fri, SunMon. Italian trattoria serves old-world classics. Private rooms available. $$ Casamento’s 4330 Magazine St., 895-9761, Uptown, CasamentosRestaurant.com. L TueSat, D Thu-Sat. The family-owned restaurant has shucked oysters and fried seafood since 1919; closed during summer and for all major holidays. $$

CC’s Community Coffee House Multiple locations in New Orleans, Metairie and Northshore, CCsCoffee.com. Coffeehouse specializing in coffee, espresso drinks and pastries. $

Chateau du Lac 2037 Metairie Road, 831-3773, Old Metairie, ChateauduLacBistro. com. L Mon-Fri, D Mon-Sat. This casual French bistro offers up classic dishes such as escargot, coq au vin and blanquette de veau.

A Provençal-inspired atmosphere and French wine round out the appeal. $$$$

Checkered Parrot 132 Royal St., 592-1270, French Quarter, CheckeredParrot.com. B, L, D daily. The Checkered Parrot is an upscale sports bar with a large menu, featuring nachos, fajitas, wings in seven flavors, wraps and burgers and an outdoor patio. $$ Chiba 8312 Oak St., 826-9119, Carrollton, chiba-nola.com. L Thu-Sat, D Mon-Sat. Contemporary restaurant on Oak Street features an extensive list of special rolls, steamed buns and fusion-y fare to go along with typical Japanese options. Late night hours are a plus. $$$ Chophouse New Orleans 322 Magazine St., 522-7902, CBD, ChophouseNola.com. D daily. In addition to USDA prime grade aged steaks prepared under a broiler that reaches 1,700 degrees, Chophouse offers lobster, redfish and classic steakhouse sides. $$$

Clancy’s 6100 Annunciation St., 895-1111, Uptown, ClancysNewOrleans.com. L Thu-Fri, D Mon-Sat. Their Creole-inspired menu has been a favorite of locals for years. $$$

Cochon 930 Tchoupitoulas St., 588-2123, CBD/Warehouse District, CochonRestaurant. com. L, D, Mon-Sat. Chefs Donald Link and Stephen Stryjewski showcase Cajun and Southern cuisine at this Warehouse District hot spot. Boudin and other pork dishes reign supreme here, along with Louisiana seafood and real moonshine from the bar. New Orleans Magazine named Link Chef of

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the Year 2009. Reservations strongly recommended. $$

including fried green tomatoes and roasted duck. $

vation. $$$$

Commander’s Palace 1403 Washington

The Creole Grille 5241 Veterans Blvd.,

Ave., 899-8221, Uptown, CommandersPalace. com. L Mon-Fri, D daily, Br Sat-Sun. The Grande Dame in the Garden District is going strong under the auspices of chef Tory McPhail. The turtle soup might be the best in the city, and its weekend Jazz Brunch is a great deal. $$$$

889-7992, Metairie, TheCreoleGrille.com. L, D Mon-Sat. This quaint, upscale restaurant offers a variety of classic New Orleans cuisine, fresh fish and homemade soups and salads with early bird and daily chef specials. $$

Bourbon St., 522-0111, French Quarter, BourbonHouse.com. B, L, D daily. Classic Creole dishes such as redfish on the halfshell and baked oysters are served with classic Brennan’s style at this French Quarter outpost.

Its extensive bourbon menu will please aficionados. $$$$

Cooter Brown’s 509 S. Carrollton Ave., 866-9104, Uptown, CooterBrowns.com. L, D daily. Riverbend-area sports bar serves up the city’s largest selection of beers along with great bar food. The cheese fries are a rite of passage, and the Radiator’s Special poor boy makes for a great late-night meal. $

Copeland’s 701 Veterans Blvd., 831-3437, Metairie; 1001 S. Clearview Parkway, 6207800, Jefferson; 1319 West Esplanade Ave., 617-9146, Kenner; 1700 Lapalco Blvd., 364-1575, Harvey; 680 N. Highway 190, (985) 809-9659, Covington; 1337 Gause Blvd., (985) 643-0001, Slidell; CopelandsofNewOrleans.com. L, D daily, Br Sun. Al Copeland’s namesake chain includes favorites such as Shrimp Ducky. Popular for lunch. $$

Copeland’s Cheesecake Bistro 4517 Veterans Blvd., 454-7620, Metairie; 2001 St. Charles Ave., 593-9955, Garden District; CopelandsCheesecakeBistro.com. L, D daily.

Dessert fans flock to this sweet-centric Copeland establishment which also offers extensive lunch and dinner menus. $$$

Coquette 2800 Magazine St., 265-0421, Uptown, Coquette-Nola.com. Br Sun, L TueSat, D daily. A bistro located at the corner of Washington and Magazine streets. The food is French in inspiration and technique, with added imagination from chef Michael Stoltzfus (New Orleans Magazine’s Best New Chef 2009). $$$ Corky’s Bar-B-Q Restaurant 4243 Veterans Blvd., 887-5000, Metairie, CorkysBarBQ.com. L, D daily. Memphis-based barbecue chain offers good hickory-smoked ribs, pork and beef in a family setting with catering service available. $ Court of Two Sisters 613 Royal St., 5227261, French Quarter, CourtOfTwoSisters. com. Br, D daily. The historic environs make for a memorable outdoor dining experience.

The famous daily Jazz Brunch buffet and classic Creole dishes sweeten the deal. $$$$$

Crabby Jack’s 428 Jefferson Highway, 8332722, Jefferson. L Mon-Sat. Lunch outpost of Jacques-Imo’s chef and owner Jack Leonardi.

Famous for its fried seafood and poor boys

Crépes a la Carte 1039 Broadway St., 866-236, Uptown, CrepeCaterer.com. B, L, D daily. Open late. An extensive menu of tasty crêpes, both savory and sweet, make this a great spot for a quick bite for college students and locals. $

Crescent City Brewhouse 527 Decatur St., 522-0571, French Quarter, CrescentCityBrehouse.com. L, D daily.

Contemporary brewpub features an eclectic menu complimenting its freshly-brewed wares. Live jazz and good location make it a fun place to meet up. $$$

Crescent City Steakhouse 1001 N. Broad St., 821-3271, Mid-City, CrescentCitySteaks. com. L Tue-Fri & Sun, D daily. One of the classic New Orleans steakhouses, it’s a throwback in every sense of the term. Steaks, sides and drinks are what you get at Crescent City. New Orleans Magazine’s Steakhouse of the Year 2009 and Honor Roll honoree 2007. $$$$

Criollo 214 Royal St., Hotel Monteleone, 681-4444, French Quarter, HotelMonteleone. com/Criollo. B, L, D daily. Next to the famous Carousel Bar in the historic Monteleone Hotel, Criollo represents an amalgam of the various cultures reflected in Louisiana cooking and cuisine, often with a slight contemporary twist. $$$

The Crystal Room Le Pavillon Hotel, 833 Poydras St., 581-3111, CBD/Warehouse District, LePavillon.com. B, D daily; L, MonFri. Franco-American cuisine with Louisiana influences is served in the environs of the Le Pavillon Hotel. The Southern-style breakfast features its decadent Bananas Foster Waffle “Le Pavillon.” $$$ Dakota 629 N. Highway 190, (985) 8923712, Covington, RestaurantCuvee.com/ Dakota. D Mon-Sat. A sophisticated dining experience with generous portions. $$$$$

The Delachaise 3442 St. Charles Ave., 8950858, Uptown, TheDelachaise.com. L Fri-Sat, D daily. Elegant bar food fit for the wine connoisseur; kitchen open late. $$

Dick and Jenny’s 4501 Tchoupitoulas St., 894-9880, Uptown, DickAndJennys.com. L Tue-Fri, D Mon-Sat. A funky cottage serving Louisiana comfort food with flashes of inno-

Dickie Brennan’s Bourbon House 144

Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse 716 Iberville St., 522-2467, French Quarter, DickieBrennansSteakhouse.com. L Fri, D daily. Nationally recognized steakhouse serves USDA Prime steaks and local seafood in a New Orleans setting with the usual Brennan’s family flair. $$$$$

Domenica The Roosevelt Hotel, 123 Baronne St., 648-6020, CBD, DomenicaRestaurant. com. L, D daily. Executive Chef Alon Shaya serves authentic, regional Italian cuisine in John Besh’s sophisticated new restaurant. The menu of thin, lightly topped pizzas, artisanal salumi and cheese, and a carefully chosen selection of antipasti, pasta and entrées, feature locally raised products, some from Besh’s Northshore farm. $$$$ Domilise’s 5240 Annunciation St., 8999126, Uptown. L, D Mon-Wed, Fri-Sat. Local institution and rite-of-passage for those wanting an initiation to the real New Orleans.

Wonderful poor boys and a unique atmosphere make this a one-of-a-kind place. $

Dong Phuong 14207 Chef Menteur Highway, 254-0296, N.O. East. L Wed-Mon. Vietnamese bakery and restaurant in the community of Versailles makes great banh mi sandwiches and interesting baked goods both savory and sweet. Unbeatable prices. $

Drago’s 3232 N. Arnoult Road, 888-9254, Metairie; Hilton Riverside Hotel, 2 Poydras St., 584-3911, CBD/Warehouse District; DragosRestaurant.com. L, D daily. This famous seafooder specializes in charbroiled oysters, a dish they invented. Raucous but good-natured atmosphere makes this a fun place to visit. Great deals on fresh lobster as well. $$$$

Dry Dock Cafe & Bar 133 Delaronde St., 361-8240, Algiers, TheDryDockCafe.com. Br Sun, L, D daily. Fancier daily specials have been added to the menu of this casual neighborhood seafood joint in historic Algiers Point near the ferry landing. Burgers, sandwiches and fried seafood are the staples. $$

El Gato Negro 81 French Market Place, 525-9752, French Quarter, B Sat-Sun, L. D daily; 300 Harrison Ave., 488-0107, Lakeview, L, D Tue-Sun; 3001 Ormond Blvd.

(985) 307-0460, Destrehan, L, D Tue-Sun.

GOTT GOURMET CAFÉ

3100 MAGAZINE ST., 373-6579, GOTTGOURMETCAFE.COM

It’s a real treat to find somewhere that takes your favorite everyday food – Caesar salad, a muffuletta or a pulled pork sandwich – and makes it better than you’ve ever tasted. That is one way of describing the cooking by David Gotter at Gott Gourmet Café on Magazine Street. Inspired, fresh, homemade delicious cooking like this is usually the preserve of the pricey restaurant, but Gott serves it up in everyday dishes at affordable prices. Now, via NOLA Delivery, you can even have it delivered to your door in eco-friendly containers. Open until 9 p.m. during the week and for breakfast on Sundays, it’s hard to know when Gott wouldn’t be a great option. – M I R E L L A C A M E R A N

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ElGatoNegroNola.com. Popular spot near the Frenchmen Street clubs serves up authentic Central Mexican cuisine along with handmuddled mojitos and margaritas made with freshly squeezed juice. A weekend breakfast menu is an additional plus. $$

Elizabeth’s 601 Gallier St., 944-9272, Bywater, Elizabeths-Restaurant.com. B, L Mon-Fri, D Mon-Sat, Br Sun. This eclectic local restaurant draws rave reviews for its Praline Bacon and distinctive Southerninspired brunch specials. $$$

Emeril’s 800 Tchoupitoulas St., 528-9393, CBD/Warehouse District, Emerils.com. L Mon-Fri, D daily. The flagship of superstar chef Emeril Lagasse’s culinary empire, this landmark attracts pilgrims from all over the world. $$$$$

Fat Hen Grocery 7457 St. Charles Ave., 266-2921, Riverbend, FatHenGrill.com. B, L, D daily. Breakfast gets re-imagined and dressed up at this diner headed by Chef Shane Pritchett, formerly of Emeril’s Delmonico.

The house special is the Womlette, an omelet baked on a waffle. $$ Feelings Cafe 2600 Chartres St., 9452222, Faubourg Marigny, FeelingsCafe.com.

D Wed-Sun, Br Sun. Romantic ambiance and skillfully created dishes, such as veal d’aunoy, make dining here on the patio a memorable experience. A piano bar on Fridays adds to the atmosphere. $$$$ Fellini’s Café 900 N. Carrollton Ave., 4882155, Mid-City, FellinisNewOrleans.com. L, D daily. With décor inspired by its namesake Italian filmmaker, this casual indoor/outdoor spot serves large portions of reasonablypriced Mediterranean specialties such as pizza, pastas and hummus. $ Fiesta Latina 1924 Airline Drive, 469-5792, Kenner, FiestaLatinaRestaurant.com. B, L, D Tue-Sun. A big-screen TV normally shows a soccer match or MTV Latino at this home for authentic Central American food. Tacos include a charred carne asada. $$

Five Happiness 3605 S. Carrollton Ave., 482-3935, Mid-City, FiveHappiness.com. L, D daily. This longtime Chinese favorite offers up an extensive menu including its beloved mu shu pork and house baked duck. It is a popular choice for families as well. $$ Flaming Torch 737 Octavia St., 895-0900, Uptown, FlamingTorchNola.com. L, D daily, Br Sun. French classics including a tasty onion soup make this a nice place for a slightly upscale lunch while shopping along Magazine Street. $$ Frank’s 933 Decatur St., 525-1602, French Quarter, FranksRestaurantNewOrleans.com.

L, D daily. Locally inspired Italian sandwiches such as muffulettas and Genoa salami poor boys are served here in the heart of the French Quarter. $$$

Galatoire’s 209 Bourbon St., 525-2021, French Quarter, Galatoires.com. L, D Tue-Sun. Friday lunches are a New Orleans tradition at this world-famous French-Creole grand dame.

Tradition counts for everything here, and the crabmeat Sardou is delicious. Note: Jackets required for dinner and all day Sun. $$$$$

The Galley Seafood Restaurant 2535 Metairie Road, 832-0955, Metairie. L, D TueSat. A great local place for seafood, both fried and boiled. Famous for its softshell crab poor boy, a Jazz Fest favorite. $$

Gautreau’s 1728 Soniat St., 899-7397, Uptown, GautreausRestaurant.com. D, Mon-Sat. Upscale destination serves refined interpretations of classics along with contemporary creations in a clubby setting nested deep within a residential neighborhood. New Orleans Magazine named Sue Zemanick Chef of the Year 2008. $$$$$

Gott Gourmet Café 3100 Magazine St., 522-7902, Uptown, GottGourmetCafe.com. B Sat-Sun, L, D Tue-Sun. Upscale-casual restaurant serves a variety of specialty sandwiches, salads and wraps, like the Chicago-style hot dog and the St. Paddy’s Day Massacre – Chef Gotter’s take on the Rueben. $$

Gracious Bakery + Café 1000 S. Jeff Davis Parkway, Suite 100, 301-3709, MidCity, GraciousBakery.com. B, L Mon-Sat. Boutique bakery in the ground floor of the new Woodward Building offers small-batch coffee, baked goods, individual desserts and sandwiches on breads made in-house.

Catering options are available as well. $

The Green Goddess 307 Exchange Alley, 301-3347, French Quarter, GreenGoddessNola.com. L, D Wed-Sun. Located in a tiny space, the Green Goddess is one of the most imaginative restaurants in New Orleans. The menu is constantly changing, and chefs Chris DeBarr (New Orleans Magazine’s Best New Chef 2006) and Paul Artigues always have ample vegetarian options. Combine all of that with a fantastic selection of drinks, wine and beer, and it’s the total (albeit small) package. $$

The Grill Room Windsor Court Hotel, 300 Gravier St., 522-1994, CBD/Warehouse District, GrillRoomNewOrleans.com. B, L, D daily, Br Sun. Jazz Brunch on Sunday with live music. Featuring modern American cuisine with a distinctive New Orleans flair, the adjacent Polo Club Lounge offers live music nightly. $$$$$

GW Fins 808 Bienville St., 581-FINS (3467), French Quarter, GWFins.com. D daily. To ensure the best possible flavors at GW Fins, owners Gary Wollerman and chef Tenney Flynn provide dishes at their seasonal peak by flying in products from around the globe.

That commitment to freshness and quest for unique variety are two of the reasons why the menu is printed daily. $$$$$ Herbsaint 701 St. Charles Ave., 524-4114, CBD/Warehouse District, Herbsaint.com. L Mon-Fri, D Mon-Sat. Enjoy a sophisticated cocktail before sampling Chef Donald Link’s (New Orleans Magazine’s Chef of the Year 2009) menu that melds contemporary bistro fare with classic Louisiana cuisine. The banana brown butter tart is a favorite dessert. $$$$$ Horinoya 920 Poydras St., 561-8914, CBD/

Warehouse District. L Mon-Fri, D daily.

Excellent Japanese dining in an understated and oft-overlooked location. The chu-toro is delicious and the selection of authentic Japanese appetizers is the best in the city. $$$

Hoshun Restaurant 1601 St. Charles Ave., 302-9716, Garden District, HoshunRestaurant. com. L, D daily. Hoshun offers a wide variety of Asian cuisines, primarily dishes culled from China, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia. Their five-pepper calamari is a tasty way to begin the meal, and their creative sushi rolls are good as well. $$

House of Blues 225 Decatur St., 529-BLUE (2583), French Quarter, HouseOfBlues.com. L, D daily. World-famous Gospel Brunch every Sunday. Surprisingly good menu makes this a compliment to the music in the main room.

Patio seating is available as well. $$

Il Posto Café 4607 Dryades St., 8952620, Uptown, ilPostoCafe-Nola.com. B, L, D Tue-Sat, B, L Sun. Italian café specializes in pressed panini, like their Milano, featuring sopressata, Fontina, tomatoes and balsamic on ciabatta. Soups, imported coffee and H&H bagels make this a comfortable neighborhood spot to relax with the morning paper. $

Impastato’s 3400 16th St., 455-1545, Metairie, Impastatos.com. D Tue-Sun. Bustling Italian restaurant on the edge of Fat City serves homemade pasta in a convivial atmosphere. Chef/Owner Joe Impastato greets guests warmly and treats them like family.

The prix fixe options are a good way to taste a lot for not much money. $$$$ Irene’s Cuisine 539 St. Philip St., 5298811, French Quarter. D Mon-Sat. Long waits at the lively piano bar are part of the appeal of

this Creole-Italian favorite beloved by locals.

Try the oysters Irene and crabmeat gratin appetizers. $$$$

Iris 321 N. Peters St., 299-3944, French Quarter, IrisNewOrleans.com. L Fri, D Mon, Wed-Sat. This inviting bistro offers sophisticated fare in a charming setting. The veal cheek ravioli is a winner. New Orleans Magazine’s Best New Restaurant 2006. $$$$ Jack Dempsey’s 738 Poland Ave., 9439914, Bywater, JackDempseysLLC.com. L Tue-Sat, D Wed-Sat. Local favorite nestled deep in the heart of the Bywater is known for its stuffed flounder and baked macaroni served in generous portions. $$$

Jacques-Imo’s Cafe 8324 Oak St., 8610886, Uptown, JacquesImosCafe.com. D Mon-Sat. Reinvented New Orleans cuisine served in a party atmosphere are the cornerstones of this Oak Street institution. The deep-fried roast beef poor boy is delicious.

The lively bar scene offsets the long wait on weekends. $$$$ Jamila’s Café 7808 Maple St., 866-4366, Uptown. D Tue-Sun. Intimate and exotic bistro serving Mediterranean and Tunisian cuisine.

The Grilled Merguez is a Jazz Fest favorite and vegetarian options are offered. $$ Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Café 1104 Decatur St., 592-2565, French Quarter, MargaritavilleNewOrleans.com. L, D daily.

Parrotheads and other music lovers flock to Jimmy’s outpost along the more local-friendly stretch of Decatur. Strong bar menu and stronger drinks keep them coming back. $$

Joey K’s 3001 Magazine St., 891-0997, Uptown, JoeyKsRestaurant.com. L, D MonSat. A true neighborhood New Orleans restau-

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T HE M E N U rant with daily lunch plates keeps it real; red beans and rice are classic. $

The Joint 701 Mazant St., 949-3232, Bywater, AlwaysSmokin.com. L, D Mon-Sat. Some of the city’s best barbecue can be had at this locally owned and operated favorite in Bywater. $

Juan’s Flying Burrito 2018 Magazine St., 569-0000, Uptown; 4724 S. Carrollton Ave., 486-9950, Mid-City. L, D daily. Hard-core tacos and massive burritos are served in an edgy atmosphere. $ Jung’s Golden Dragon 3009 Magazine St., Uptown, JungsGoldenDragon2.com. L, D daily. This Chinese destination is a real find.

Along with the usual you’ll find spicy cold noodle dishes, dumplings and a Beijing-style breakfast on the weekends. This is one of the few local Chinese places that breaks the Americanized mold. $ Kosher Cajun New York Deli and Grocery 3520 N. Hullen St., 888-2010, Metairie, KosherCajun.com. L Mon-Fri & Sun, D Mon-Thu. Great kosher meals and complete kosher grocery in the rear make this Metairie eatery a unique destination. The matzo ball soup is a winner and catering is available for parties of any size. $

D I N I N G GU I D E nation. Lots of seasoning and bountiful offerings, along with reserved seating, make this a destination for locals and tourists alike. $$$$

Uptown darling. The menu is heavily Frenchinspired with an emphasis on technique. $$$

valet parking. $$$

La Provence 25020 Highway 190, (985)

Kyoto 4920 Prytania St., 891-3644, Uptown,

626-7662, Lacombe, LaProvenceRestaurant. com. D Wed-Sun, Br Sun. John Besh (New Orleans Magazine’s Chef of the Year 2007) upholds time-honored Provençal cuisine and rewards his guests with a true farm-life experience, from house-made preserves, charcuterie, herbs, kitchen gardens and eggs cultivated on the property, an elegant French colonial stucco house. $$$$$

St., 596-4773, CBD/Warehouse District.

Afternoon Tea, Thu-Fri, seating at 2 p.m., Sat-Sun, seating at 11 a.m. & 2 p.m. Formal afternoon tea with harpist or string quartet served in a sophisticated atmosphere. A local mother-daughter tradition. $$

KyotoNola.com. L, D Mon-Sat. A neighborhood sushi restaurant where the regulars order off-the-menu rolls. $$

La Boca 857 Fulton St., 525-8205, Warehouse District, LaBocaSteaks.com. D Mon-Sat. This Argentine steakhouse specializes in cuts of meat along with pastas and wines. Specials include the provoleta appetizer and the Vacio flank steak. New Orleans Magazine’s Chef of the Year 2006. $$$ Lakeview Harbor 911 Harrison Ave., 4864887, Lakeview, Lakeview-Harbor.com. L, D daily. Burgers are the name of the game here at this restaurant which shares a pedigree with Snug Harbor and Port of Call. Rounded out with a loaded baked potato, their halfpound patties are sure to please. Daily specials, pizza and steaks are offered as well. $

La Macarena Pupuseria & Latin Cafe

K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen 416

8120 Hampson St., 862-5252, Uptown. L, D Mon-Fri, Br, L, D Sat & Sun. This cash-only and BYOB restaurant has recently overhauled their menu, now including a large selection of vegan and vegetarian items, as well as a tapas menu. $$

Chartres St., 524-7394, French Quarter, ChefPaul.com/KPaul. L Thu-Sat, D Mon-Sat. Paul Prudhomme’s landmark restaurant helped introduce Cajun food to a grateful

La Petite Grocery 4238 Magazine St., 891-3377, Uptown, LaPetiteGrocery.com. L Tue-Sat, D daily. Elegant dining in a convivial atmosphere quickly made this place an

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La Thai Uptown 4938 Prytania St., 8998886, Uptown, LaThaiUptown.com. L, D TueSun. Uptown outpost of the Chauvin family’s ingredient-driven Thai-Cajun fusion cuisine.

The summer rolls are good as is the tom kar gai soup. Lunch specials are a good deal and vegetarian dishes are offered as well. $$ Latil’s Landing Houmas House Plantation, 40136 Highway 942, (225) 473-9380, Darrow, HoumasHouse.com. L Sun, D Wed-Sun. Nouvelle Louisiane, plantation-style cooking served in an opulent setting features dishes like rack of lamb and plume de veau. $$$$$ Le Meritage 1001 Toulouse St., 522-8800, French Quarter, LeMeritageRestaurant.com.

D Tue-Sat. This restaurant blends fine wines with Southern-flavored cuisine for a memorable fine-dining experience in a casual environment. Chef Michael Farrell’s well-rounded menu features suggested wine and food pairings, along with full or half servings both by the glass and by the plate. Complimentary

Le Salon Windsor Court Hotel, 300 Gravier

Liborio’s Cuban Restaurant 321 Magazine St., 581-9680, CBD/Warehouse District, LiborioCuban.com. L Mon-Sat, D Tue-Sat. Authentic Cuban favorites such as Ropa Vieja and pressed Cuban sandwiches along with great specials make this a popular lunch choice. $$$

Lil’ Dizzy’s 1500 Esplanade Ave., 569-8997, Mid-City. B, L daily. Spot local and national politicos dining at this favored Creole soul restaurant known for homey classics like fried chicken and Trout Baquet. $

Lilette 3637 Magazine St., 895-1636, Uptown, LiletteRestaurant.com. L, D Tue-Sat. Chef John Harris’ innovative menu draws discerning diners to this highly regarded bistro on Magazine Street. Desserts are wonderful as well. $$$$$ Lola’s 3312 Esplanade Ave., 488-6946, Mid-City. D daily. Garlicky Spanish dishes and great paella make this artsy Faubourg St. John boîte a hipster destination. $$$

Lüke 333 St. Charles Ave., 378-2840, CBD, LukeNewOrleans.com. Br Sat-Sun, B, L, D daily. John Besh (New Orleans Magazine’s

ROUSES

MULTIPLE LOCATIONS, ROUSES.COM

As a local, family-run Louisiana business, which buys locally as much as possible, it’s easy to see why Rouses has become one of the premier sponsors of the New Orleans Wine & Food Experience. It is also easy to see why raising money to fight hunger and promote culinary education in the community is important to it. This year between May 22 and 25, more than $1 million will be raised while visitors enjoy the most concentrated taste of this city’s wine and cuisine. They can also enjoy “The Royal Street Stroll,” art, antiques, architecture and wine – can you resist? – M I R E L L A C A M E R A N

Chef of the Year 2007) and executive chef Matt Regan characterize the cuisine “Alsace meets New Orleans in an authentic brasserie setting.” Germanic specialties and French bistro classics, house-made patés and abundant plateaux of cold, fresh seafood. New Orleans Magazine’s Best New Restaurant 2007. $$$

Mahony’s 3454 Magazine St., 899-3374, Uptown, MahonysPoBoys.com. L, D Mon-Sat. Along with the usual poor boys, this sandwich shop serves up a Grilled Shrimp and Fried Green Tomato version dressed with remoulade sauce. Sandwich offerings are augmented by a full bar. $

Mandina’s 3800 Canal St., 482-9179, MidCity, MandinasRestaurant.com. L, D daily.

Quintessential New Orleans neighborhood institution reopened following an extensive renovation. Though the ambiance is more upscale, the same food and seafood dishes make dining here a New Orleans experience. $$

Maple Street Café 7623 Maple St., 314-

9003, Uptown. L, D daily. Casual dinner spot serving Mediterranean-inspired pastas and entrées, along with heartier fare such as duck and filet mignon. $$

The Marigny Brasserie 640 Frenchmen St., 945-4472, Faubourg Marigny, MarignyBrasserie.com. L, D daily. Chic neighborhood bistro with traditional dishes like the Wedge of Lettuce salad and innovative cocktails like the Cucumber Cosmo. $$$ Martin Wine Cellar 714 Elmeer Ave., 8967300, Metairie, MartinWine.com. Br Sun, L daily, D Mon-Fri. Wine by the glass or bottle to go with daily lunch specials, towering burgers, hearty soups, salads and giant, deli-style sandwiches. $ Mat & Naddie’s 937 Leonidas St., 8619600, Uptown, MatAndNaddies.com. D MonTue, Thu-Sat. Cozy converted house along River Road serves up creative and eclectic regionally-inspired fare. Crab cakes with cucumber slaw makes for a good appetizer and when the weather is right the romantic

patio is the place to sit. $$$$

Middendorf’s Interstate 55, Exit 15, 30160 Highway 51 South, (985) 386-6666, Akers, MiddendorfsRestaurant.com. L, D Wed-Sun. Historic seafood destination along the shores of Lake Maurepas is world-famous for its thin-fried catfish filets. Open since 1934, it transitioned to its next generation of owners when Horst Pfeifer purchased it in 2007.

More than a restaurant, this is a Sunday Drive tradition. $$

MiLa 817 Common St., 412-2580, French Quarter, MiLaNewOrleans.com. L Mon-Fri, D Mon-Sat. Latest offering from husband-andwife chefs Slade Rushing and Allison VinesRushing focuses on the fusion of the cuisines of Miss. and La. Signature dishes include Oysters Rockefeller “Deconstructed” and New Orleans-style barbecue lobster. New Orleans Magazine’s Best New Restaurant 2008. $$$$ Mona’s Café 504 Frenchmen St., 949-4115, Marigny; 4126 Magazine St., 894-9800, Uptown; 1120 S. Carrollton Ave., 861-8174,

Uptown; 3901 Banks St., 482-7743, Mid-City.

L, D daily. Middle Eastern specialties such as baba ganuj, tender-tangy beef or chicken shawarma, falafel and gyros, stuffed into pillowy pita bread or on platters. The lentil soup with crunchy pita chips and desserts, such as sticky sweet baklava, round out the menu. $

Mondo 900 Harrison Ave., 224-2633, Lakeview, MondoNewOrleans.com. Br Sun, L Mon-Fri, D Mon-Sat. Susan Spicer’s take on world cuisine isn’t far from her home in Lakeview. Make sure to call ahead because the place has a deserved reputation for good food and good times. $$$

Morton’s, The Steakhouse The Shops at Canal Place, 365 Canal St., 566-0221, French Quarter, Mortons.com/NewOrleans. D daily.

Quintessential Chicago steakhouse serves up top-quality slabs of meat along with jumbo seafood. Clubhouse atmosphere makes this chophouse a favorite of Saints players and businessmen alike. $$$$$ Mosca’s 4137 Highway 90 West, 436-

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9942, Avondale. D Tue-Sat. Italian institution near the Huey Long Bridge dishes out massive portions of great food family-style. Good bets are the shrimp Mosca and chicken à la grande. Note: Cash Only. $$$

L, D Mon-Sat. Originally built in 1797 as a respite for Napoleon, this family-owned European-style café serves local favorites: gumbo, jambalaya, muffulettas and for sipping, a Sazerac or lemony Pimm’s Cup. $$

Mother’s 401 Poydras St., 523-9656, CBD/

Nine Roses 1100 Stephen St., 366-7665, Gretna, NineRosesResturant.com. L, D SunTue, Thu-Sat. The extensive Vietnamese menu specializes in hot pots, noodles and dishes big enough for everyone to share. Great for families. $$

Warehouse District, MothersRestaurant.net.

B, L, D daily. Locals and tourists alike endure long queues and a confounding ordering system to enjoy iconic dishes such as the Ferdi poor boy and Jerry’s jambalaya. Come for a late lunch to avoid the rush. $$

Mr. Ed’s Seafood and Italian Restaurant 1001 Live Oak St., 838-0022, Bucktown; 910 W. Esplanade Ave., #A, 4633030, Kenner. L, D Mon-Sat. Neighborhood restaurant specializes in seafood and Italian offerings such as stuffed eggplant and bell pepper. Fried seafood and sandwiches make it a good stop for lunch. $$

Muriel’s Jackson Square 801 Chartres St., 568-1885, French Quarter, Muriels.com.

L, D daily, Br Sun. Enjoy pecan-crusted drum and other New Orleans classics while dining in the courtyard bar or any other room in this labyrinthine, rumored-to-be-haunted establishment. $$$$

Naked Pizza 6307 S. Miro St., 865-0244, Uptown (takeout & delivery only), NakedPizza. biz. L, D daily. Pizza place with a focus on fresh ingredients and a healthy crust. The Mediterranean pie is a good choice. $

Napoleon House 500 Chartres St., 5249752, French Quarter, NapoleonHouse.com.

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NOLA 534 St. Louis St., 522-6652, French Quarter, Emerils.com. L Thu-Sun, D daily.

Emeril’s more affordable eatery, featuring cedar-plank-roasted redfish; private dining. $$$$$ Nuvolari’s 246 Girod St., (985) 6265619, Mandeville, Nuvolaris.com. D daily.

Dark woods and soft lighting highlight this Northshore Creole Continental-Italian fusion restaurant famous for crabmeat ravioli, veal dishes, seafood specialties and delectable desserts. $$$$

One Restaurant and Lounge 8132 Hampson St., 301-9061, Uptown, OrleansGrapevine.com. L Tue-Fri, D Mon-Sat. Black seating and herbaceous sage-colored walls form a dining room where every seat is a view into the open kitchen and the chefs creating contemporary comfort food on a seasonally changing menu. The bar is also known for cranking out clever cocktails. New Orleans Magazine’s Best New Restaurant 2005. $$$$

Orleans Grapevine Wine Bar and

Bistro 720 Orleans Ave., 523-1930, French Quarter, OrleansGrapevine.com. D daily.

Wine is the muse at this beautifully renovated French Quarter bistro, which offers vino by the flight, glass and bottle. A classic menu with an emphasis on New Orleans cuisine adds to the appeal $$$

PatoisNola.com. Br Sun, L Fri, D Wed-Sat. The food is French in technique, with influences from across the Mediterranean as well as the American South, all filtered through the talent of Chef Aaron Burgau (New Orleans Magazine’s Best New Chef 2009).

Reservations recommended. $$$

Palace Café 605 Canal St., 523-1661, CBD/ Warehouse District, PalaceCafe.com. L MonSat, D daily, Br Sun. Dickie Brennan-owned brasserie with French-style sidewalk seating and house-created specialties of Chef Darrin Nesbit at lunch, dinner and Jazz Brunch.

Favorites here include crabmeat cheesecake, turtle soup, the Werlein salad with fried Louisiana oysters and pork ”debris” studded Palace Potato Pie. $$$$$

Paul’s Café 100 Pine St., (985) 386-9581, Ponchatoula, PaulsCafe.net. B, L daily. Best known for its strawberry daiquiris, Paul’s also cooks up egg breakfasts and lunches including all manner of sandwiches and poor boys. $

Parkway Bakery and Tavern 538 Hagan Ave., 482-3047, Mid-City, ParkwayBakeryAndTavernNola.com. L, D daily, closed Tue. Featured on national TV and having served poor boys to presidents, Parkway stakes a claim to some of the best sandwiches in town. Their French fry version with gravy and cheese is a classic at a great price. $

Pascal’s Manale 1838 Napoleon Ave., 895-4877, Uptown. L Mon-Fri, D Mon-Sat. Vintage New Orleans neighborhood restaurant since 1913 and the place to go for the housecreation of barbecued shrimp. Its oyster bar serves icy cold, freshly shucked Louisiana oysters and the Italian specialties and steaks are also solid. $$$$

Patois 6078 Laurel St., 895-9441, Uptown,

The Pelican Club 312 Exchange Place, 523-1504, French Quarter, PelicanClub.com.

D daily. Tucked into a French Quarter alley, Pelican Club serves an eclectic mix of hip food, from the seafood “martini” to clay pot barbecued shrimp and a trio of duck. Three dining rooms available. $$$$$

PJ’s Coffee Multiple locations throughout Greater New Orleans, PJsCoffee.com. The city’s first iced-coffee spot that pioneered the coffee house experience in New Orleans and introduced us all to velvet ices, drinkable granitas and locally made Ronald Reginald vanilla. A wide assortment of pastries and bagels are offered as well as juices and fresh ground or whole bean coffees. $ Port of Call 838 Esplanade Ave., 523-0120, French Quarter, PortOfCallNola.com. L, D daily. It is all about the big, meaty burgers and giant baked potatoes in this popular bar/ restaurant – unless you’re cocktailing only,

then it’s all about the Monsoons. $$

Praline Connection 542 Frenchmen St., 943-3934, Faubourg Marigny, PralineConnection.com. L, D daily. Downhome dishes of smothered pork chops, greens, beans and cornbread are on the menu at this homey Creole soul restaurant. $$

Ralph Brennan’s Red Fish Grill 115 Bourbon St., 598-1200, French Quarter, RedFishGrill.com. L, D Mon-Thu & Sun. Chef Austin Kirzner cooks up a broad menu peppered with Big Easy favorites such as BBQ oysters, blackened redfish and double chocolate bread pudding. $$$$$

Ralph’s On The Park 900 City Park Ave., 488-1000, Mid-City, RalphsOnThePark.com.

Br Sun, L Wed-Fri, D daily. A modern interior, a view of City Park’s moss-draped oaks and contemporary Creole dishes such as City Park salad, turtle soup and BBQ Gulf shrimp. The bar gets special notice for cocktails. $$$$

The Red Maple 1036 Lafayette St., 3670935, Gretna, TheRedMaple.com. L Tue-Fri, D Tue-Sat. This West Bank institution since 1963 is known for its seafood, steaks, wine list and some of the best bread pudding around. $$$$

Reginelli’s Pizzeria 741 State St., 8991414, Uptown; 3244 Magazine St., 895-7272, Uptown; 5608 Citrus Blvd., 818-0111, Harahan; 817 W. Esplanade Ave., 7126868, Kenner; 874 Harrison Ave, 488-0133, Lakeview; Reginellis.com. L, D daily. Pizzas, pastas, salads, fat calzones and lofty focaccia sandwiches are on tap at locations all over town. $$

Arnaud’s Remoulade 309 Bourbon St., 523-0377, French Quarter, Remoulade.com. L,

D daily. Granite-topped tables and an antique mahogany bar are home to the eclectic menu of Famous Shrimp Arnaud, red beans and rice and poor boys as well as specialty burgers, grilled all-beef hot dogs and thin-crust pizza. $$

René Bistrot 700 Tchoupitoulas St., 613-2350, CBD/Warehouse District, LaCoteBrasserie.com. Br Sun, L Mon-Fri, D daily. Fresh local seafood, international ingredients and a contemporary atmosphere fill the room at this hotel restaurant near the Convention Center. $$$

Restaurant August 301 Tchoupitoulas St., 299-9777, CBD/Warehouse District, RestaurantAugust.com. L Mon-Fri, D daily.

James Beard Award-winning chef (New Orleans Magazine’s Chef of the Year 2007) John Besh’s menu is based on classical techniques of Louisiana cuisine and produce with a splash of European flavor set in a historic carriage warehouse. $$$$$

R’evolution 777 Bienville St., 553-2277, French Quarter, RevolutionNola.com. L, D Mon-Fri, Br, D Sun, open late Fri-Sat. R’evolution is the partnership between chefs John Folse and Rick Tramonto. Located in the Royal Sonesta Hotel, it’s an opulent place that combines the local flavors of chef Folse with the more cosmopolitan influence of chef Tramonto. Chef de cuisine Chris Lusk and executive sous chef Erik Veney are in charge of day-to-day operations, which include house-made charcuterie, pastries, pastas and more. $$$$$

Ristorante Da Piero 401 Williams Blvd., 469-8585, Kenner, RistoranteDaPiero.com. L, D Tue-Sat. Homemade pastas and an emphasis on Northern Italian cuisine make this cozy spot in Kenner’s Rivertown a romantic

destination. $

Rib Room Omni Royal Orleans Hotel, 621 St. Louis St., 529-7046, French Quarter, OmniHotels.com. Br Sat-Sun, L, D daily. Old World elegance, high ceilings and views of Royal Street, house classic cocktails and Anthony Spizale’s broad menu of prime rib, stunning seafood and on weekends, a Champagne Brunch. $$$

Riccobono’s Panola Street Café 7801 Panola St., 314-1810, Garden District. B, L daily. This breakfast spot at the corner of Burdette and Panola streets has been waking up bleary college students for years. The omelets are good, as are the Belgian waffles.

Offers daily specials as well. $

Rio Mar 800 S. Peters St., 525-3474, CBD/Warehouse District, RioMarSeafood. com. L Mon-Fri, D Mon-Sat. Seafood-centric Warehouse District destination focuses on Latin American and Spanish cuisines. Try the bacalaitos and the escabeche. The tapas lunch is a great way to try a little of everything. Save room for the Tres Leches, a favorite dessert.

New Orleans Magazine’s Chef of the Year 2006. $$$$

Ristorante Filippo 1917 Ridgelake Drive, 835-4008, Metairie. L, D Tue-Sat. CreoleItalian destination serves up southern Italian specialties bathed in red sauces and cheese alongside New Orleans classics like pan-fried Gulf fish and plump shellfish. $$$ River 127 Westin New Orleans Canal Place, 100 Rue Iberville, 566-5082, French Quarter. B, L, D daily. Continental cuisine with Louisiana flare in a dining room that overlooks the Mississippi River and French Quarter. $$$$

Rivershack Tavern 3449 River Road, 834-

4938, Jefferson, TheRivershackTavern.com. L, D daily. Home of the Tacky Ashtray, this popular bar alongside the Mississippi levee offers surprisingly wide-ranging menu featuring seafood, poor boys and deli-style sandwiches along with live music. Open late. $

Rock-N-Sake 823 Fulton St., 581-7253, CBD/Warehouse District, RockNSake.com. L Fri, D Tue-Sun. Enjoy fresh sushi along with contemporary takes on Japanese favorites in this club-like setting in the Warehouse District. Open until midnight on Fri. and Sat., this makes for a unique late-night destination. $$$ Root 200 Julia St., 252-9480, CBD, RootNola. com. L Mon-Fri, D daily. Chef Philip Lopez opened Root in November 2011 and has garnered a loyal following for his modernist, eclectic cuisine. Try the Korean fried chicken wings and the Cohiba-smoked scallops crusted with chorizo. $$$$ Royal Blend Coffee and Tea House 621 Royal St., 523-2716, French Quarter; 204 Metairie Road, 835-7779, Metairie; RoyalBlendCoffee.com. B, L daily. Known for their frozen Café Glace and a wide selection of coffees and teas, as well as pastries, daily specials and hearty breakfasts. $

Ruth’s Chris Steak House 3633 Veterans Blvd., 888-3600, Metairie. L Fri, D daily, Br Sat-Sun; 525 Fulton St. in Harrah’s Hotel, 587-7099, L, D daily, Br Sat-Sun; RuthsChris. com. Filet Mignon, creamed spinach and potatoes au gratin are the most popular dishes at this area steak institution, but there are also great seafood choices and top-notch desserts. $$$$$

Sake Café 2830 Magazine St., 894-0033, Uptown, SakeCafeUptown.com. L, D daily.

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Creative and traditional Japanese food in an ultramodern décor. Sushi and sashimi boats, wild rolls filled with the usual and not-sousual suspects and a nice bar with a number of sakes from which to choose. $$$

Sammy’s Po-Boys and Catering 901 Veterans Blvd., 835-0916, Metairie, SammysPoBoys.com. L Mon-Sat, D daily.

Bucktown transplant offers a seafood-centric menu rounded out with wraps, kid meals and catering options all at a reasonable price. $

Satsuma Café 3218 Dauphine St., 3045962, Bywater; 7901 Maple St., 309-5557, Uptown; SatsumaCafe.com. B, L daily (until 7 p.m.). Two locations offer healthy, inspired breakfast and lunch fare, along with freshly squeezed juices. $

Semolina 4436 Veterans Blvd., Suite 37, Metairie, 454-7930, Semolina.com. L, D daily.

This casual, contemporary pasta restaurant takes a bold approach to cooking Italian food, emphasizing flavors, texture and color; many of the dishes feature a signature Louisiana twist, such as the Muffuletta Pasta and Pasta Jambalaya. Popular entrées include Grilled Chicken Alfredo, Chicken Marsala and Veal Parmesan. $$

Serendipity 3700 Orleans Ave. 407-0818, Mid-City, SerendipityNola.com. D daily. Chef Chris DeBarr brings his eclectic and far-ranging style of cuisine and classically inspired cocktails to an outpost in American Can. A late-night option as well. $$

Slice 1513 St. Charles Ave., 525-7437, Uptown; 5538 Magazine St., 897-4800; SlicePizzeria.com. L, D Mon-Sat. Order up slices or whole pizza pies done in several

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styles (thin- and thick-crust) as well as pastas, seafood, paninis and salads. $

Boswell was New Orleans Magazine’s 2005 Chef of the Year. $$$$$

Slim Goodies Diner 3322 Magazine St., 891-EGGS (3447). B, L daily. This diner offers up an exhaustive menu heavily influenced by local cuisine. Try the Creole Slammer, a breakfast platter rounded out with Crawfish Étouffée. The laid-back vibe is best enjoyed on the patio out back. $

Sun Ray Grill 619 Pink St., 837-0055, Old Metairie; 1051 Annunciation St., 566-0021, CBD/Warehouse District; 2600 Belle Chasse Highway, 391-0053, Gretna; SunRayGrill. com. L, D daily. This local chain offers a globally influenced menu with burgers, steaks, sesame crusted tuna, sandwiches and salads. $$

SoBou 310 Chartres St., 552-4095, French Quarter, SoBouNola.com. B, L, D daily. There is something for everyone at this “Modern Creole Saloon,” the latest offering from the Commander’s Restaurant Family. Decidedly unstuffy with an emphasis on craft cocktails and wines by the glass, diners will find everything from $1 pork cracklins to an extravagant foie gras burger on the accomplished yet eclectic menus. $$ Snug Harbor 626 Frenchman St., 949-0696,

Surrey’s Café and Juice Bar 1418 Magazine St., 524-3828, Coliseum Square; 4807 Magazine St., 895-5757, Uptown; SurreysCafeAndJuiceBar.com. B, L daily.

Laid-back café focuses on breakfast and brunch dishes to accompany freshly squeezed juice offerings. Health-food lovers will like it here, along with fans of favorites such as peanut butter and banana pancakes. Note: Cash only. $$

Faubourg Marigny, SnugJazz.com. D daily.

The city’s premier jazz club serves cocktails and a dining menu loaded with steaks, seafood and meaty burgers served with loaded baked potatoes. $$$$

Tan Dinh 1705 Lafayette St., 361-8008,

Stein’s Market and Deli 2207 Magazine

Uptown; 4024 Canal, 302-1133, Mid-City; 1212 S. Clearview Parkway, 733-3803, Elmwood TheosPizza.com. L, D daily. The thin, cracker-crisp crust pizzas are complemented by the broad assortment of toppings which include a lot of local ingredients. Cheap prices make this an economical and delicious choice. $$

St., 527-0771, Uptown, SteinsDeli.net. B, L, D Tue-Sun. New York meets New Orleans. The Reuben and Rachel sandwiches are the real deal and the half-sours and pickled tomatoes complete the deli experience. $

Stella! 1032 Chartres St., 587-0091, French Quarter, RestaurantStella.com. D daily. Global cuisine with a Louisiana blush by native son chef Scott Boswell. Dishes are always inventive and flavorful from appetizer to dessert.

The wine list is bold and the service “stellar.”

Gretna. B, L, D Wed-Mon. Roasted quail and the beef pho rule at this Vietnamese outpost. $$

Theo’s Pizza 4218 Magazine St., 894-8554,

Three Muses 536 Frenchmen St., 252-4801, Marigny, TheThreeMuses.com. D Sun-Mon, Wed, Fri-Sat. Three Muses is a bar-restaurant serving the eclectic cuisine of chef Daniel

Esses. The menu changes, but expect Esses’ take on Italian, Spanish, North African and Korean cooking. Local bands provide music on a regular basis. $

Tommy’s Cuisine 746 Tchoupitoulas St., 581-1103, CBD/Warehouse District, TommysNewOrleans.com. D daily. Classic Creole-Italian cuisine is the name of the game at this upscale eatery. Appetizers include the namesake Oysters Tommy, baked in the shell with Romano cheese, pancetta and roasted red pepper. $$$$$ Tony Angello’s 6262 Fleur de Lis Drive, 488-0888. Lakeview. D Tue-Sat. Creole-Italian favorite serves up fare in the completely restored Lakeview location. Ask Tony to “Feed Me” if you want a real multi-course dining experience. $$$$ Tout de Suite Cafe 347 Verret St., 3622264, Algiers. B, L, D daily. Neighborhood coffeehouse/café in historic Algiers Point offers a light menu of soups, salads and sandwiches for a quick meal or carryout. $$

Tracey’s Irish Restaurant & Bar 2604 Magazine St., 897-5413, TraeysNola.com, Uptown. L, D daily. A neighborhood bar with one of the best messy roast beef poor boys in town. The gumbo, cheeseburger poor boy and other sandwiches are also winners. Grab a local Abita beer to wash it all down. Also a great location to watch “the game.” $ Trey Yuen 600 N. Causeway Blvd., (985) 626-4476, Mandeville, TreyYuen.com. L Tue-Fri & Sun, D Tue-Sun. Chinese cuisine meets with local seafood in dishes like their Szechuan Spicy Alligator and Tong Cho Crawfish; private rooms available. $$

Tujague’s 823 Decatur St., 525-8676, French Quarter, TujaguesRestaurant.com. D daily. For more than 150 years this landmark restaurant has been offering Creole cuisine.

Favorites include a nightly six-course table d’hôté menu featuring a unique Beef Brisket with Creole Sauce. New Orleans Magazine’s Honor Roll honoree 2008. $$$$$ Upperline 1413 Upperline St., 891-9822, Uptown, Upperline.com. D Wed-Sun. Consummate hostess JoAnn Clevenger and talented chef Dave Bridges make for a winning combination at this nationally heralded Uptown favorite. The oft-copied Fried Green Tomatoes with Shrimp Remoulade originated here. $$$$

Vega Tapas Café 2051 Metairie Road, 8362007, Metairie. D Mon-Sat. Innovative establishment offers fresh seafood, grilled meats and vegetarian dishes in a chic environment.

Daily chef specials showcase unique ingredients and make this place a popular destination for dates as well as groups of friends. $$

Venezia 134 N. Carrollton Ave., 488-7991, Mid-City, VeneziaNewOrleans.com. L Wed-Fri & Sun, D Wed-Sun. Casual neighborhood Italian destination known for its thin-crust pizzas. Good lunch specials make this a popular choice as well. $$

Vincent’s Italian Cuisine 4411 Chastant St., 885-2984, Metairie, L Tue-Fri, D Mon-Sat; 7839 St. Charles Ave., 866-9313, Uptown. L Tue-Fri, D Tue-Sun; VicentsItalianCuisine.com.

Snug Italian boîte packs them in yet manages to remain intimate at the same time. The cannelloni is a house specialty. $$$ Wolfe’s in the Warehouse 859

Convention Center Blvd., 613-2882, CBD/ Warehouse District. B, L, D daily. Chef Tom Wolfe brings his refined cuisine to the booming Fulton Street corridor. His Smoked Kobe Short Ribs are a good choice. $$$

Ye Olde College Inn 3000 S. Carrollton Ave., 866-3683, Uptown, CollegeInn1933. com. D Tue-Sat. The institution moved next door into brand-new digs but serves up the same classic fare, albeit with a few new upscale dishes peppering the menu. $$$ Yuki Izakaya 525 Frenchmen St., 9431122, Marigny. D daily. Authentic Japanese Izakaya serves small plates to late-night crowds at this unique destination. Try the Hokke Fish or the Agedashi Tofu. An excellent sake menu rounds out the appeal, as does the sexy, club-like ambiance. $ Zea’s Rotisserie and Bar 1525 St. Charles Ave., Lower Garden District, 5208100; 1655 Hickory Ave, Harahan, 738-0799; 4450 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, 780-9090; 1325 West Esplanade, Kenner, 468-7733; 1121 Manhattan Blvd., Harvey, 361-8293; 110 Lake Drive, Covington, (985) 327-0520, ZeaRestaurants.com. L, D daily.

This popular restaurant serves a variety of grilled items as well as appetizers, salads, side dishes, seafood, pasta and other entrées, drawing from a wide range of worldly influences. Zea’s also offers catering services. $$$

Zoë Restaurant W New Orleans Hotel, 333 Poydras St., 2nd Floor, 207-5018, ZoeNewOrleans.com. B, L daily. Completely redone in both décor and cuisine, each section features a separate menu by executive chef Chris Brown. $$$

SPECIALTY FOODS Antoine’s Annex 513 Royal St., 525-8045, French Quarter, Antoines.com/AntoinesAnnex. Open daily. Around the corner from the oldest continuously operated restaurant in the country, Antoine’s Annex serves French pastries, including individual baked Alaskas, ice cream and gelato, as well as panini, salads and coffee. They also deliver.

Bee Sweet Cupcakes 5706 Magazine St., 891-8333, Uptown, BeeSweetCupcakes.net.

Open Mon-Sat. Tiny shop sells its namesake treats with a New Orleans twist. Try the Bananas Foster or the Pralines and Cream flavors. Daily specials are offered, as well as catering orders for weddings and parties.

Bittersweet Confections 725 Magazine St., 523-2626, Warehouse District, BittersweetConfections.com. Open Mon-Sat. Freshly baked cookies, cupcakes and specialty cakes. Serving handmade chocolate truffles, fudge, caramels, gelato, ice coffee, chocolatedipped strawberries and freshly squeezed lemonade. Children’s birthday parties, chocolate tasting parties, custom chocolates and truffle party bar. Call for details.

Blue Dot Donuts 4301 Canal St., 2184866, Mid-City, BlueDotDonuts.com. B, L daily. Heard the one about the cops that opened a donut shop? This is no joke. The Bacon Maple Long John gets all the press, but returning customers are happy with the classics as well as twists like peanut butter and jelly.

truffles and Italian candy flowers make this boutique a great place for gifts.

Calcasieu 930 Tchoupitoulas St., 5882188, Warehouse District, CalcasieuRooms. com. Located in the second floor of a renovated warehouse, above Cochon and Cochon Butcher, is a place to host gatherings both large and small. Catering menus feature modern Louisiana cooking and the Cajun cuisine for which chef Donald Link is justifiably famous.

Magic Seasonings Mail Order (800) 457-2857. Offers chef Paul Prudhomme’s famous cookbooks, smoked meats, videos, seasonings and more. Online shopping available at shop. ChefPaul.com/Seasonings.

St. James Cheese Company 5004 Prytania St., 899-4737, Uptown, StJamesCheese.com. Open daily. Specialty shop offers a selection of fine cheeses, wines, beers and related accouterments. Look for wine and cheese specials every Friday.

Sucré 3025 Magazine St., 520-8311; 3301 Veterans Blvd., 834-2277; ShopSucre.com.

Desserts daily & nightly. Open late weekends. Chocolates, pastry and gelato draw rave reviews at this new dessert destination.

Beautiful packaging makes this a great place to shop for gifts. Catering available.

Blue Frog Chocolates 5707 Magazine St., 269-5707, Uptown, BlueFrogChocolate.com.

Open daily. French and Belgian chocolate

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Locals share their favorites from Mom’s kitchen T H E R E H A S N E V E R been

another biscuit quite like my mother’s. And I’ve never liked another version of chicken and dumplings, the dish I always requested on my birthday, as well as hers. Is that because she set the standard in my brain long ago? Or were hers really the best?

I don’t know and probably never well. But one thing I do know is that I’m not alone.

I picked a few local celebrities to talk about their mothers’ cooking, and they all say the same thing. “My mom’s was the best.”

Stuffed bell peppers, lemon pie,

shepherd’s pie, red beans and rice, tortilla soup, corn and shrimp soup – it didn’t matter what it was; it was the best.

The magical part is that many of us still pull out those old recipes, if they exist on paper, on holidays for a taste of that feel-good eating that not only tickles our taste buds but also stirs up wonderful memories of childhood and the great Sunday or holiday meals that were part of mom’s spread.

I can’t say that my mom’s chicken and dumplings could one-up Emeril’s chicken Clemenceau – but they run a close second.

By Dale Curry Photographed by Eugenia Uhl B

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Sue ZEMANICK

MARIE ZEMANICK’S LEMON PIE Crust: 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 Tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon kosher salt 8 ounces unsalted butter, chilled very cold and diced very small 1/2 cup cold water with 1 ice cube in it Lemon curd: 2 cups sugar 8 ounces butter 5 eggs 4 Tablespoons lemon zest 1 1/2 cup lemon juice Blueberry sauce: 2 pints blueberries 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup water 1/2 vanilla bean, scraped

Executive Chef, Gautreau’s Restaurant

Crust: In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour, sugar and salt. With either your hands or a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until the mixture looks like peas. Slowly drizzle in the cold

WHILE GAUTREAU’S

menu is more likely to list poached lobster or duck confit, you might occasionally see a pierogi doctored up to meet the restaurant’s upscale standards.

The simple Eastern European cheese-filled dumpling is comfort food to executive chef Sue Zemanick, and she can’t help but share it with her customers, if dressed up a bit with wild mushrooms.

“I still love Slovak food, especially at holidays,” says the 32-yearold Pennsylvania native 82

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and star among New Orleans chefs. She was the 2008 Food & Wine “Top 10 Best New Chef,” among numerous awards (including New Orleans Magazine’s Chef of the Year 2008).

She started cooking when she was 8 to 10 years old with her mother and grandmother, both from the Czech Republic and Slovakia (formerly Czechoslovakia). “I would make table arrangements like for a photo shoot,” she says of her childhood

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experiences. Her mother Marie Zemanick cooked cabbage rolls with pork and rice; braised pork with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes; and, her very favorite, a rich lemon pie. Her grandmother made a nut or poppy seed roll with sweet dough that was cut into pinwheels.

“All of my childhood revolved around food,” she says. But many of the dishes are peasant food and not appropriate for the upscale offerings at Gautreau’s.

No problem. She

serves them to her kitchen staff.

“We have the best staff meals in town,” she says of the halusky, cabbage and egg noodles, spatzle and drop noodles, served regularly in the kitchen.

Zemanick’s mother still lives in Pennsylvania but loves to visit New Orleans.

Now retired, she was president of a hospital and a nursing school teacher. Her influences on Zemanick were “hard work and making time for family.”

“I know that she’s

water to bring the dough together. Do not over mix.

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out the dough to 1/4-inch thickness and place dough in a 9-inch pie pan. Prick the dough with a fork and line with parchment and pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool.

Lemon curd: Over a double boiler melt the sugar and butter. While that’s melting, mix together the remaining ingredients. Add that mixture to the butter and sugar. Continue to cook over the double boiler until thick, whisking occasionally, for about 15 minutes. Strain through a mesh strainer.

Blueberry sauce: Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and simmer for 5 to 8 minutes until the sugar is dissolved.

When pie crust is cool, pour the lemon curd into pie crust. Serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream and blueberry sauce.

Serves 8.

very proud of me,” Zemanick says, although at first she wanted her daughter to go in a different direction. “But (my mother) understood my passion and my art,” she says of her love for cooking. When Marie Zemanick dines at Gautreau’s, her favorites are the dressed-up pierogi, fish dishes and anything with jumbo crabmeat or scallops.

Like her daughter, she loves seafood.

Says the chef, “I moved here for the crab, crawfish, shrimp and oysters.”

Carlos Miguel PRIETO Music Director, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra

T H E R E W E R E T W O important traditions in Carlos Miguel Prieto’s childhood: music and family dining. His family had a string quartet dating back four generations, and everyday lunch was a sit-down, three-course affair.

Today, life maintains the same influences for the conductor of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, partly due to the efforts of Maria Isabel Prieto, his mother, who lives in Mexico City where Prieto grew up and who now visits New Orleans regularly.

“My mother is from Spain, and she brought to Mexico a lot of traditional Spanish cooking,” he says.

“Eating together has always been an important ritual in our family and also with our kids.”

The big family lunches, usually observed between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m., consisted of a soup, rice or fish dish for starters, followed by a meat course and then dessert.

“My mother cooked, and we had a fabulous cook in our house from

Oaxaca,” he says. “My favorites were a Mexican and Spanish rice dish with cheese, peppers and cream and tortilla soup.”

His mother’s cooking bible was 1080 Recipes by Simone Ortega, called “Spain’s best-selling cookbook” for more than 30 years.

Prieto’s mother wasn’t a musician, but insisted that her children study music. His father played cello and his paternal grandmother, a violinist and pianist who hailed from France, “made us practice.” The family string quartet consisted of two violins, a cello and viola.

Besides leading the LPO, Prieto is the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico and has served as guest conductor of orchestras throughout the United States, Europe, Russia, Israel and Latin America.

Despite his love of family dining, one thing he never learned is how to cook. “I have no idea of how to even start cooking,” he says.

MARIA ISABEL PRIETO’S PAELLA 11

ounces shrimp with heads and shells 2 1/4 pounds mussels or 1 pound 2 ounces littleneck, steamer or cherrystone clams 3/4 cup olive oil 1 small onion, finely chopped 1 clove garlic, finely chopped 3 Tablespoons tomato sauce or 1 large ripe tomato, chopped 2 small squid, cleaned and cut into 1/4inch thick rings 2 1/2 cups long-grain rice 3 sprigs fresh parsley Pinch saffron threads 2 chicken bouillon cubes Scant 1 cup drained canned peas 1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into strips Salt Lemon wedges

Peel shrimp and reserve shells and heads.

Simmer heads and shells in a pot of water for 10 minutes. Strain stock into a bowl and discard heads and shells.

If using mussels, scrub the shells under cold running water and remove the beards. If using clams, scrub under cold running water. Discard any shellfish with broken shells or any that don’t shut when tapped. Put the shellfish in a pan or skillet, add 1/4-cup of water, cover and cook over high heat for 3 to 6 minutes or until the shells have opened. Lift out the shellfish with a slotted spoon, discarding any that remain closed.

Reserve cooking liquid.

Remove nearly all shellfish from their shells but leave a few in the shell for garnish. Strain reserved cooking liquid into the shrimp stock. Add enough water to make 7 1/2 cups, if neces-

sary. Pour into a pan and heat gently but don’t boil.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour just enough of the oil into a paella pan or large, heavy skillet with a metal handle to cover the base and heat. Add onion and garlic and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 7 minutes, until lightly browned. Add tomato sauce or fresh tomato and cook, stirring constantly, for a few minutes. Reserve a few shrimp for garnish and add the remainder to the pan with the squid rings and rice.

Cook, stirring constantly, until the squid becomes opaque. Add shelled mussels or clams. Season with a pinch of salt and pour in the hot stock. Gently shake the pan to make sure the liquid is evenly distributed.

Pound the parsley with the saffron in a mortar, or process in a mini food processor. Mix in 2 Tablespoons water, and add mixture to the paella pan. Crumble in the bouillon cubes. Gently shake the pan or stir with a wooden spoon. Add the peas to the paella and cook for a few minutes more.

Garnish the paella with the strips of red bell pepper, the reserved shrimp and the reserved shellfish in the shell. Transfer the pan to the oven and bake for about 25 minutes.

Spread out a dampened dishtowel on a work surface. Remove the paella pan from the oven, place it on the dishtowel and let stand for 5 minutes. Serve the paella with lemon wedges hung over the side of the pan.

Serves 6 to 8.

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James CARVILLE

LUCILLE NORMAND CARVILLE’S CORN AND SHRIMP SOUP 4-5

pounds medium headless shrimp Cajun seasoning of choice 1/2 bunch green onions, chopped 1/2 cup oil 1/2 cup flour 2 medium onions, chopped 1/2 bell pepper, chopped 2 ribs celery, chopped 3 cloves garlic, chopped 1 8-ounce can Rotel tomatoes, not drained 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce 1 14 1/2-ounce can tomatoes, not drained 1 12-ounce can shoe peg corn, not drained 1 8 1/2-ounce can cream corn 1 12-ounce can niblets corn 10 cups seafood broth made from shrimp peelings or water 3 medium potatoes,

Political Commentator

“ I G R E W U P on the river between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the oldest of eight children,” says James Carville. “What I remember is when we came home from school, we went to the stove. There was always something on the stove. It might be red beans.”

Or it might be some-

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thing else. Whatever it was, it was likely to have been cooked in one pot by Lucille Normand Carville. “My favorite was the crawfish bisque,” says the political commentator.

And, another was a corn and shrimp dish.

Much of his childhood diet came from the waters around his Iberville Parish home.

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“On weekends we’d do things like get a sack of oysters and have oysters six or seven different ways,” Carville recalls. “What I remember, hands down, was my favorite thing: river shrimp.

They were small and delicious.”

A few decades ago, shrimp from the Mississippi River were

considered by residents to be the best of all shrimp. Fresh water shrimp were high in flavor. “We caught them in a wooden box,” Carville says.

Carville’s mother, now deceased, was nicknamed Miz Nippy, and was such a good cook that she wrote a popular cookbook in the 1980s titled Delicious Heritage, which sold 35,000 copies, he says. And she had plenty of experience cooking for her large family.

“We had breakfast, dinner and supper, and the big meal in the summer was at noon,” Carville recalls. Often, supper was leftovers

peeled and cubed (optional)

Peel shrimp and toss with seasoning and green onions. Set aside.

In a heavy Dutch oven combine oil with flour.

Cook slowly over low heat, stirring often until golden brown.

Sauté onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic in roux until vegetables are tender.

Add Rotel tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomatoes. Mix thoroughly and cook over medium heat for 20 to 30 minutes.

Stir in corn and broth.

Continue to cook another 30 minutes. Irish potatoes may be added if desired.

Add the marinated shrimp mixture. Cook 20 minutes.

Serves 10-12.

from dinner, a typical schedule in rural areas.

“My mother was a well-known person in Baton Rouge,” says Carville, who wrote a children’s book, Lu and the Swamp Ghost, based on an episode in his mother’s childhood.

In 2008 Carville moved back to Louisiana with his wife, Mary Matalin, also a political strategist, and they live with their daughters in Uptown New Orleans.

The crawfish bisque so loved by Carville takes up two pages in his mother’s cookbook.

The only corn and shrimp dish printed in the book is for the following soup.

Thomas MORSTEAD Punter, New Orleans Saints

S A I N T S P U N T E R Thomas Morstead’s favorite dish of his mother’s is shepherd’s pie. And, that isn’t surprising because Isobel Morstead is a native of England. Although his family has lived in Texas for a number of years, they’re as likely to dine on bangers and mash, another British dish of sausage and potatoes, as they are on Texas barbecue.

“My mother always worked a lot and always came home and cooked these big meals every night,” says Morstead, who is 6-foot-4-inches tall and weighs 235 pounds. Understandably so, since there were three men at the table including his brother and father.

From Pearland, Texas, a small country town southeast of Houston, Morstead joined the

Saints four years ago after playing football for Southern Methodist University, where he studied mechanical engineering and was an honors student. In July the 27-year-old will wed Lauren Moore, who’s from Houston. He says he loves New Orleans and just bought a house.

“The food here is my biggest hobby. I love it.”

Despite his frequent restaurant dining, he also loves to cook.

“I cook four nights a week at home, all sorts of stuff rich in protein – steaks, chicken, pork, fish.”

His parents have never missed a game in his last two years at SMU or since he has been with the Saints. They drive to New Orleans, fly to away games and last year watched him in the Pro Bowl.

ISOBEL MORSTEAD’S SHEPERD’S PIE 1 pound ground beef 1 small onion, chopped Worcestershire sauce to taste Ketchup to taste Salt and pepper to taste Potatoes, about 2 or 3 large Butter to taste Milk to preferred consistency

In a large skillet, brown ground beef.

Add onion and cook until transparent.

Add Worcestershire, ketchup, salt and pepper, and cook for 15 minutes. Place in a medium casserole or baking dish.

Peel and cut potatoes into chunks. Boil until fork-tender. Mash with butter, milk, salt and pepper. Place on top of ground beef mixture.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Serves 4 (or 1 football player).

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Kevin

KELLY

Owner/Operator, Houmas House Plantation and Gardens

T H E R E A R E T W O dishes Kevin Kelly’s mother, Alice, won’t eat unless she cooks them: red beans and rice, and spaghetti and meatballs. They happen to be Kelly’s favorite dishes from childhood.

“No matter what red beans we have, it could be from the best restaurant in the world, she won’t eat it.”

And that includes Café Burnside, one of three – soon to be four – restaurants at the Houmas House Plantation and Gardens that Kelly owns.

At 88, Alice Kelly lives on the beautiful plantation grounds where her son built her a cottage, with a kitchen and garden in which to reside, and she frequently cooks for herself and son despite easy access to the gourmet and casual restaurants that surround her.

“She was always cooking,” says Kelly. “I remember her all the time cooking.”

Growing up in New Orleans East, Kelly went to a school that had no cafeteria, but that didn’t stop him from having hot lunches. While the other children munched sandwiches and other cold food, Kelly enjoyed red beans and rice and spaghetti and

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meatballs, hot from a thermos.

“We were never allowed to eat them on the first day,” he says of his mother’s red beans. “They had to chill out in the refrigerator and marinate overnight.”

Kelly purchased the antebellum estate and former sugar plantation in 2003. He has since renovated the 1828 Greek Revival house, fully developed acres of gardens complete with bridges and fountains and opened Latil’s Landing, a dinner-only gourmet restaurant; Café Burnside, a bustling lunch venue; and the Turtle Bar Coffee Shop, housed in a former pigeonnier. Opening in May will be a new carriage house tea room, serving appetizers and small plates from morning to night.

Despite his love for food, Kelly never cooked a day in his life. “I never will,” he says. “I’m lazy and I don’t want to chop. And, I don’t do dishes.” His team of chefs does this for him and has even tried to match Alice Kelly’s red beans recipe.

“Quite honestly, I can’t tell the difference between the two,” he says. “I think they taste the same.”

ALICE KELLY’S RED BEANS AND RICE 1

pound dried kidney beans 1 1/2 quarts water 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1 cup diced onion 1/4 cup minced garlic 1 link smoked pork sausage, cut in 1/4-inch circles 1 large smoked ham hock 1 bay leaf Louisiana hot sauce to taste Salt and pepper to taste 4 cups cooked white rice

Rinse red beans. In a large container soak beans in the water for at least 1 hour. This can be done overnight in a refrigerator.

In a large saucepan heat oil over mediumhigh heat, sauté onion, garlic and sausage for 5 minutes, or until the vegetables are clear and wilted. Add beans (with the water), ham hock and bay leaf. Bring to a simmer and cook until beans are tender, about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Take out ham hock, cut meat away from bone and add to the pot of beans. Season to taste with Louisiana hot sauce and salt and pepper.

Serve in soup bowls over hot rice.

Serves 4.

Dwight

HENRY

EDNA HENRY’S STUFFED BELL PEPPERS 12 bell peppers 2 1/2 pounds chuck roast, ground twice by butcher 3 pounds small Louisiana shrimp 1 pound lump crabmeat 1 large onion, chopped 2 bell peppers, chopped 1 bunch green onions, chopped 6 cloves garlic, minced Vegetable oil 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley 1 teaspoon Creole seasoning 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning 6 sprigs fresh thyme Salt and pepper to taste Low-sodium chicken broth Reising’s stuffing mix Progresso seasoned bread crumbs

Actor; Owner/Operator, Buttermilk Drop Bakery and Cafe

they’re slightly cooked but not soft.

In a skillet, brown ground meat and discard fat.

Peel and devein shrimp, and check crabmeat for any shells.

In a heavy pot, sauté onion, chopped peppers, green onions and garlic in a little vegetable oil.

Add shrimp and cook until they turn pink, and add ground beef and all other ingredients except bread crumbs with just enough chicken broth to moisten.

Add stuffing mix to bind mixture, balancing broth and stuffing for a good consistency. Add crabmeat and toss gently so as not to break it up.

Stuff into bell pepper halves and sprinkle with Progresso bread crumbs.

Line peppers closely together on a large baking pan, and bake in a 350-degree oven for about 30 minutes or until brown and bubbly on top.

Serves a crowd.

Slice bell peppers in half and parboil in a pot of boiling water until

“YOU WOULDN’T

believe the people who come through here,” says Dwight Henry of his Buttermilk Drop Bakery and Café in the 7th Ward. “A couple from New York came yesterday, came to New Orleans just to see me.”

That is because Henry, a local baker, became the overnight star of the award-winning movie Beasts of the Southern Wild. Now he’s opening another bakery in New York, acting in a new film and writing a cookbook.

All because, he says, “I was raised in a way to believe in yourself.”

Edna Henry had

a lot to do with that.

Her influence on her 47-year-old son helped him pursue his dream of opening his own bakery and forever marked his love of good food.

“I was raised around good home cooking,” he says. “My mom cooked six days a week, and my grandma cooked six hot meals a week.” His family lifestyle, he says, was “old school” with his father, now deceased, working as a physician and his mother giving full-time to the household. His sister, Veronica Henry, today is a First City Court judge.

In the summer after

10th grade, he worked cleaning up in Sunrise Bakery in the Lower 9th Ward. “I would see the older guys baking bread and I said, ‘I wanna get over there one day.’” By the summer of 11th grade, he had a job baking and “fell in love with it.” From there, he worked for Binder’s Bakery, Whole Foods, Dorignac’s and a catering company.

“Everywhere I went, I picked up something different. When McKenzie’s closed, I said, ‘This is the perfect time to go into business.’”

Although his career sights have expanded,

he still gets to his bakery at 6 a.m. every morning and plans an expansion. Breakfast includes everything from bacon and eggs to pork chops, liver and catfish, and lunch follows with poor boys and plate lunches. Snowballs are sold on the opposite side of the building.

Customers often stand in line for buttermilk drops, and the bakery was sold out by 10 a.m. on a recent visit.

There is no doubt in Henry’s mind of which of his mother’s dishes are his favorite, and he shakes his head just thinking about it.

“Stuffed bell peppers.

Every time she cooked it, it was my favorite dish – stuffed bell peppers with macaroni and cheese.”

Three months ago, Henry joined Michelle Obama at the White House, speaking to 50 children about believing in themselves. He told them about his life and the difficulties he faced starting a business. He is soon to open, with partners, Mr. Henry’s Bakery and Café in Harlem, N.Y., and has just returned from Germany where he worked on a Marvin Gay film titled Sexual Healing.

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BUY

TIX NOW

NOWFE.COM

In an effort to fight hunger and support culinary education, the 2013 beneficiaries will share 100% of the proceeds.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana will receive 40% and the following will share the remaining 60%: the Louisiana Restaurant Association Education Foundation’s ProStart Program, Delgado Culinary Arts School, New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts’ Culinary Program, the John Folse Culinary Institute and the Edible Schoolyard New Orleans.

Enjoy 1000 Wines, 100 Restaurants over 4 Days! The four-day bacchanalia, taking place MAY 22–25th features dozens of chefs and winemakers, many of whom are nationally known, and aims to place a spotlight on the region’s many indigenous ingredients.

WEDNESDAY WINE DINNERS: Winemakers & Chefs perfectly pair menus and wines.

Visit nowfe.com for a list of restaurants, menus & prices.

THURSDAY VINOLA TASTING: True wine connoisseurs can taste the best of the “vine,” including rare and highly valued wines, and samplings from premiere restaurants.

Omni Royal Orleans Hotel Ballroom

ROYAL STREET STROLL PRESENTED BY ROUSES: Sip, Savor and Stroll! Enjoy a true New Orleans block party with fine wines, food tastings, art, antiques and live jazz.

FRIDAY & SATURDAY BIG GATEAUX SHOW: Pastries, Champagne & Burlesque! Hosted by our local pastry pro Tariq Hanna of Sucré and Keegan Gerhard, one of the nation’s top pastry chefs. Take part in this year’s battle for a $5,000 prize! Royal Sonesta, Grand Ballroom.

GRAND TASTINGS: A truly “Grand” experience for both foodies and wine connoisseurs, tastings from more than 75 of New Orleans’ finest chefs and a selection of 1000 wines from around the world. Friday Flowtribe will take the stage. Saturday, the Louisiana Seafood Promotion & Marketing Board crowns the King of Seafood and The Nigel Hall Band provides the close-out entertainment! New Orleans Convention Center-Hall J

FUNKIN’ IT UP: The John Besh Foundation & NOWFE team up to bring you an all-star cast of chefs, wineries and live music performances by Kermit Ruffins, the Young Fellas Brass Band and Mia Borders. This year’s celebration honors the Lifetime Achievement in Hospitality of one of New Orleans’ great community leaders, Mrs. Leah Chase.

THANK YOU TO OUR 2013 SPONSORS!

and the attention in her restaurant swivels in the direction of her presence, much in the way that plants turn toward the light of the sun. Over the course of a recent interview, a steady stream of well-wishers, old friends, regional autograph seekers and international tourists managed to pull themselves away from their gumbo and fried chicken and find their way to a table by the bar where she sat. She received them all graciously, and each person left feeling a little bit better than they had before they stopped by.

That is Leah Chase, a chef and restaurateur whose

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landmark establishment, Dooky Chase’s Restaurant, is one of a small handful of definitive New Orleans institutions, having transcended mere restaurant status to become something far greater. She possesses a personality that’s both warm and instantly engaging. Speak with her for a few minutes and you’ll feel like you’ve known her a long time. But that’s just part of it. At 90 years old she remains sharp as a tack, with a quick wit and an even quicker laugh. Her business sense, coupled with her famously tireless work ethic, is rolled up in a package that never fails to charm. For all these reasons, the New Orleans Wine & Food Experience has chosen her to be this year’s Ella

GREG MILES PHOTOGRAPH

Brennan Lifetime Achievement Award winner.

It is a particularly complementary fit. Leah Chase is a remarkable woman who rose to success within the confines of a system that offered almost nothing in the way of real opportunity for the first half of her life. Chase grew up in rural Madisonville. Her parents scrimped and saved to send her across the lake to Catholic school in New Orleans. They were determined to provide opportunities for their children they didn’t have, and saw education as the means to get there. Her father put an emphasis on practical skills, tools that she could use in the real world. “When I was 5 years old I knew my multiplication tables front to back,” Chase

recalls. “You got to learn that stuff. People will beat you out of your money if you don’t know how to count.”

When Chase turned 18, she moved to New Orleans.

She was steered in the direction of a sewing factory to do piecework, setting the pockets on seersucker suits, because that was just what Creole women did back then.

“But I just couldn’t see myself shooting out pockets all day,” she laughs. A door opened for her in 1941. When the United States entered World War II, women were hired to fill the labor gap. She got a job at the Colonial Restaurant on Chartres Street for $1 a day, plus tips, and loved it right from the start. “I had never even stepped foot in a restaurant before and I just felt like I was in heaven. I loved waiting tables, serving people good food and making them happy,” she says. But it wasn’t just personal satisfaction.

Leah was too industrious and independently minded for it to end there. “When you love something you do, it makes you wish you had your own,” she says.

Soon after, she got the chance. In 1946 she married Edgar “Dooky” Chase II, a trumpet player whose family owned a small sandwich shop on Orleans Avenue. Her in-laws were popular people, and they were doing well, but they didn’t have the exposure to fine dining that Leah Chase brought into the equation. Over time she transformed Dooky Chase’s Restaurant into something special. In an era of segregation, here was a place that truly offered black patrons a fine-dining destination with accomplished food served in a welcoming atmosphere.

A place for men to take dates and entertainers passing through town to both relax and see and be seen. Dining at Dooky Chase’s was an occasion, and it just made people feel better about themselves – much like Mrs. Chase. Later, its environs played a role in the civil rights movement, its upstairs room serving as a gathering place for activists both black and white.

Over the years the menu and the dining rooms expanded. It slowly filled up with an impressive collection of black art, interspersed with photographs of famous people who have come through its doors – including two past presidents. But on an easel in an anteroom near the hostess stand is a picture of a different sort. It is a framed drawing by Disney animators, signed

by John Lasseter (among others) praising Ms. Chase as the inspiration for the lead character Tiana in the 2009 animated film The Princess and The Frog – the first Disney film to feature a black princess. While this is less weighty than feeding presidents and playing a role in the civil rights movement, it gets to the heart of Leah Chase: her presence touches the lives of others who in turn broadcast this inspiration to a wider world with inspiring results. In this case, she provided the spark for a Disney princess that provides a positive role model and makes girls around the country feel good about themselves.

And at the end of the day, what could be finer than that?

The New Orleans Wine & Food Experience and The John Besh Foundation are partnering to create a star-powered event on Sat., May 25: “Funkin’ It Up” will feature the presentation of the Ella Brennan Lifetime Achievement in Hospitality Award to Leah Chase as well as nationally recognized celebrity chefs, live music performances and a live auction. Visit nowfe.com for more details and to purchase tickets.

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Michael Stoltzfus is chef and owner of Coquette in Uptown New Orleans and has been named as a “Rising Star” in the culinary scene. Ruth Stoltzfus is his mother.

A FEW WEEKS BEFORE

Michael Stoltzfus was about to go to college, his mother opened a bakery and café and it changed his whole life.

Despite growing up on a dairy farm in East Maryland, Michael had shown little interest in cooking.

His mother Ruth explains: “I’ve always enjoyed cooking and sometimes he’d make chocolate chip cookies with me when he was young, but he had never shown any real interest in cooking, so I had no idea he would turn out to be a great chef.

“However, when I opened the bakery, I needed help and he was waiting to go to college. Something special happened. For the first time, I saw him take charge and become this other person. I could also see he was enjoying himself.”

She continues, “It was just the three of us running the place, myself, Michael and his sister who was front of house, and I think that’s where he found his direction.

It was a happy moment of luck and coincidence.

Michael adds, “Like all students, I had done a variety of jobs and was expecting to go and earn a degree. However, in the bakery I realized how creative I could be and it kicked off a whole new passion in my life.

“I started to enjoy cooking and learning to create new dishes. I still remember the first time I made risotto and when I braised some ribs. It was exciting to be able to create such flavor. Then my girlfriend, Liilian Hubbard – who’s my partner and fiancée today – bought me an Alain Ducasse cookbook, and I was

Michael Stoltzfus and Ruth Stoltzfus intrigued to see if I could recreate such dishes myself.”

After the bakery, Michael worked at several wellknown places in New York before deciding to come to New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina in 2007. His stint at August was a precursor to opening his own restaurant, Coquette in December 2008.

Similarities. “I’m currently studying to become a pastry chef so you could say we share a passion for learning,” Ruth says. “We are both perfectionists and will drive ourselves to exhaustion to get something right. Perhaps we’re both a little introverted and are happy to be by ourselves and we all give each other the space we need.”

Differences. “Michael is definitely more adventurous than I am in his cooking,” Ruth says, “and I’m probably a little bit calmer than he can be at work, but that’s understandable.”

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Susan Spicer is chef and owner of Bayona and Mondo restaurants, and is a James Beard Award-winner and part of the James Beard Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. Alice Wedekind is her mother.

WHEN YOU HEAR THE

award-winning and celebrated chef, Susan Spicer, describe herself as a late-starter, you need her to explain what she means: “We are a very close family and we laugh a lot together. We have all found our way but it took a little while. We have our mother to thank for finding our passions because she always encouraged us to be happy.”

Spicer is one of seven children, her mother, Alice Wedekind, now 92, has five girls and two boys.

Commenting, Wedekind says: “I never really worried about my children being successful, I knew that they had good natures and that they would all find their place.”

It is no surprise Spicer found her place in food.

Her mother’s childhood included living in various spots around the world including Copenhagen, Colombia, Venezuela, Indonesia, Denmark and Holland.

Wedekind also loves to cook and learned many styles of cooking on her travels. Spicer is grateful now of all these influences: “My mother is a wonderful cook and introduced us to different cuisines from around the world. One of our favorites is her Satay sauce and her pork tenderloin with soy sauce.

“She’d also always bake Danish Kliner cookies and Kringle cake, and she still influences what I’m cooking in the kitchen today.”

Wedekind loves to go to her daughter’s restaurants.

She particularly likes eating in the courtyard at Bayona, enjoying some of her favorite dishes: garlic soup, sweet-

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Susan Spicer and Alice Wedekind breads, steak tartare and fried oysters.

Despite Spicer’s fame and success, the whole family seems to share a down-toearth nature and strong familial bonds.

“For my mother’s 90th,” Spicer says, “we just had a potluck dinner of our favorite things, and no one’s bothered that I cook for a living.”

Similarities. “Food and service. For many years, mother delivered Meals on Wheels and there’s no doubt we share a passion for food, hard work and our communities,” Spicer says.

“We both love to travel. I do it more for work, but we share a curiosity about the world.”

Differences. “Now, my mother plays bridge and swims but growing up she always had dinner parties and lots of friends over,” Spicer says. “She made our clothes and is a true matriarch of our family. At the moment, I don’t have as much time for socializing, and I don’t have as many hobbies, but I’d like to!”

Alex Harrell is the chef at Sylvain restaurant in the French Quarter and has been featured by CNN and Time.com. His mother is Ruth Harrell.

ALEX HARRELL’S FATHER

was a busy cardiologist in southeastern Alabama. With a demanding schedule, his time at home was limited, and he wanted to spend it in the kitchen making breads and pasta and cooking. Alex and his sister, Elizabeth, knew early on that if they wanted time with Dad, one of

the best ways was to help out as sous-chefs.

On the weekends and during holidays, the siblings would go to their grandparents’ farm 30 miles away where they raised cattle and grew their own vegetables. Here he saw his grandmother make traditional Southern fare: biscuits, braised meat, vegetables and pickles.

Despite this early exposure to growing and preparing food, Alex never considered it as a career, as he explains, “I thought I’d be a doctor and when that didn’t work out, I went off and got a science and

biology degree. Even though I always enjoyed cooking for my friends, I never considered myself a chef and I never thought I could make a career out of that.”

Alex credits his mother for changing all that: “One summer after college, my mom was helping a friend out with a new beach restaurant they had opened. I took a job frying fish having no idea what extreme conditions I was walking into. We were frying fish in 100-degree heat in a small space, on our feet all day.”

Alex also credits his parents

for enabling him to move on from there: “I owe everything to my mother and father who always encouraged me to pursue what interested me. Even though I did fine at school, I was always frustrated by academics; but in that kitchen in Alabama, I found the belief that cooking could be an option for me.”

Nancy Harrell is characteristically modest about her role: “Alex is such a good person, they say if you enjoy what you do, you don’t work a day in your life. That’s what I wanted for my children.”

Alex and Nancy Harrell Similarities. “We are both quite calm, even tempered people who try to talk to people in a way that they respond to,” Nancy says.

“I don’t fit the hot-headed chef role at all,” Alex says.

“I don’t think that helps in an already pressurized situation. Like my mom, who was a nurse, I like to take on the responsibility and hard work of making something successful.”

Differences. “I like to have lots of friends and dinner parties,” Nancy says. “Alex is more reserved and perhaps less sociable than I am. Also, I would never want to work in a restaurant!” myneworleans.com

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Three-time James Beard finalist Aaron Burgau is the chef and owner of Patois and Truburger, both located in Uptown New Orleans. Dolores Owens is his mother.

WITH FILIPINO, FRENCH

and Italian grandparents, Aaron Burgau developed a varied palate from an early age. In fact, he grew up to the smell and sizzle of fried eggplants and “Grandma’s beans,” which his own children still enjoy today.

So it didn’t surprise any of his Jesuit classmates or family when he went to culinary school and then into the kitchens of culinary greats such as Gerard Maras and Susan Spicer.

Burgau credits his mother with more than his cooking skills: “My mom made great food, staples like beef and vegetable soup, beans and fresh fish and her mother was always cooking something delicious, too.

“I started working in a restaurant at 14, washing dishes, washing the floors and to this day as the owner, I still do those jobs when I need to.”

He continues, “My mother is a very spiritual person with strong values and she definitely brought up my sister and I to be grounded people.

“She doesn’t have an enemy in the world and I don’t think I do. She brought us up to treat people well and be a good friend. It’s probably not a coincidence that my partner is a high school friend and that a ton of guys who work in the restaurant are from Jesuit, where I went to school.”

Owens’ side of the story is: “Aaron is a really good person, and I’m so proud of him.

He’s so modest, he doesn’t even tell me he’s won an award or that he was on TV, so I’ll miss it!”

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Aaron Burgau and Dolores Owens Similarities. “We’re both creative,” Burgau says, “I’m a chef, and she’s always worked with hair and makeup, and my sister is a fashion designer – it’s in our DNA.”

Differences. “My mom is a pack rat and I’m not!”

Burgau says. “She doesn’t drink at all and is more of a homebody than I am.”

“I’m a chatterbox and he’s not,” Owens says. “In fact, sometimes he doesn’t appear to be even listening but he’s actually taking it all

in. I definitely spend more time in prayer than my son, but he does have a very busy life; in fact I spend a lot of time praying for him and thanking God for his talents.

I also love sweets and I used to hide my cookies from my children – turns out they didn’t even like them!”

Leah Chase, often referred to as “The Queen of Creole Cuisine,” is chef and owner of Dooky Chase’s Restaurant in New Orleans. She is the recipient of multiple awards honors and degrees and is in the James Beard Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. Her daughter, Stella Reese works front of house.

“INCORRECT OR NOT,

I told President George (H. W.) Bush that I admire his wife very much. First of all, because she wears pearls but also for bringing up her sons to do so well.”

When you ask Leah Chase – born in 1923, the eldest of 14 children, mother of four and great-grandmother of 22 – what it takes to be a good mother, you’ll hear some straight talking just as the former president did (above).

You will also hear some wise advice: “I tried to raise my children like my mother did.

She tried so hard to make sure her children had a better life than she did and there were three words you couldn’t say to her: “can’t,” she’d say, isn’t in the dictionary; “sorry,” because you shouldn’t have done it in the first place; and “tomorrow,” because it never comes.

“Also, even though we were very poor, we always had to do things for others without accepting anything in return and that’s how I brought my children up, which is why we have our foundation.”

Chase thinks that mothers today have it harder than ever: “When we were having babies, they wouldn’t open their eyes for eight days, now they come and they’re talking and reasoning with you like old people before you know it.

“So you have to start teaching them right away. You have 22 years to teach them everything they need for life and by then they need to be able to take care of themselves.” She continues, “And mothers today have to pay

so much attention, all the time, where their children are, what they’re doing; and they’re smart enough to know whether you’re paying attention or not.

“So many women have to work today as well, but no matter what you do, even if you’re the First Lady, you’re a mama first.”

Chase says, “Women shouldn’t forget the power they have. Men can’t produce a human being but women can. Being a mother is a powerful thing and a big responsibility but it’s the best job in the world and pays really well.”

Similarities. Stella Reese is Chase’s daughter and her right-hand woman in running her legendary restaurant Dooky Chase’s. Chase says Reese shares her belief in giving back to the community and just being plain, old-fashioned kind. Chase and Reese ask themselves every day what they were able to do for God and other people.

Differences. Chase believes “Stella is an incredibly talented (retired) teacher, far more so than me. And she works too hard, working every day at 90 is OK for me but I want her to enjoy her retirement more.”

Leah Chase and Stella Reese

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summer travel

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L’Auberge Casino & Hotel Baton Rouge

Summer is a time for straw hats, sunglasses, shorts and linen, so pack your best warm weather garb and get ready for an unforgettable vacation. Whether it’s time to entertain the kids or get away from the daily grind, nearby travel opportunities offer all sorts of great options for fun in the sun.

Beaches, ball games, black jack and bridal suites are just a few of the attractions that extend from Southeast Texas across the Gulf South and over to Florida. Looking to embark on a longanticipated shopping spree? Searching for the perfect summer wedding destination? Want to hit the links with friends or check out a national touring act? The following regional favorites offer a variety of summer experiences sure to please.

TEXAS Visiting Houston this summer? The Hilton Garden Inn Houston Galleria Area hotel is located in the heart of the Uptown District just a few steps from the world-renowned Galleria Shopping Mall. Exclusive boutiques, moderate shops, restaurants and cafes are all within walking distance, and HGI Galleria also provides complimentary shuttle service within a three-mile radius of the hotel.

The Great American Grill serves a full cooked-to-order breakfast, dinner and evening room service – try the delicious new dinner menu or grab a quick bite from the 24-hour Pavilion Pantry. Start your day off in the fitness center and unwind later with a cocktail in the lobby bar. It’s always sunny in Houston. Visitors can enjoy a dip in the tropical outdoor pool or relax in the heated whirlpool. Standard rooms feature a king-size bed with sofa bed or two queens, minifridge, microwave, coffee maker, complimentary high-speed internet access, remote printing, a spacious work desk with an ergonomic chair and much more.

Stay HGI Houston Galleria Area – upscale yet affordable. Call (713) 629-0101.

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LOUISIANA Last summer, Baton Rouge welcomed Louisiana’s newest destination for exciting gaming, delicious cuisine and thrilling nightlife at the L’Auberge Casino & Hotel Baton Rouge.

Spanning across 575 acres of land, this truly unique casino entertainment complex captures the feel of a Southern river lodge. Embracing local culture and cuisine, L’Auberge Baton Rouge offers a genuine Louisiana experience and exudes a Laissez les bon temps rouler atmosphere of fun.

L’Auberge Baton Rouge is located in the heart of South Baton Rouge and features an expansive 74,000-square-foot casino with nearly 1,500 slot machines, 50 table games, a 12-story hotel with more than 200 rooms and a rooftop pool, as well as three restaurants and a casino bar with breathtaking views of the Mississippi River. L’Auberge also features a multi-purpose event center for concerts, banquets and other events, and additionally, the complex includes outdoor festival grounds.

To find out more about L’Auberge Casino & Hotel Baton Rouge, visit MyLAuberge.com or find them on Facebook and Twitter.

Visit beautiful Bayou Lafourche for a wide array of unique Louisiana events and destinations. The good times start rolling this spring and summer at the Thibodaux Firemen’s Fair & Parade on May 2-5. On June 7-9, The Bon Mangé Festival takes over Gheens with food, music and carnival rides. Get your fishin’ rods ready for the Golden Meadow-Fourchon International Tarpon Rodeo July 4-6 at Moran’s Marina in Fourchon, and celebrate the 4th of July this year with fireworks, food and fun at the Let Freedom Ring Festival at Peltier Park in Thibodaux.

Summer is also a great time of year to venture outdoors and see Louisiana’s unique wetlands on one of the area’s many available swamp tours, or learn about the area’s history at the Jean Lafitte National Park Wetlands Acadian Culture Center.

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Go back in time during a visit to Laurel Valley Village Sugar Plantation & Museum in Thibodaux and the Bayou Lafourche Folklife and Heritage Museum in Lockport. Learn the art and craft of wooden boat building at the Center for Traditional Louisiana Boatbuilding in Lockport. Find endless events and attractions at VisitLafourche.com and experience all Lafourche has to offer.

The Hyatt French Quarter is a recently renovated historic hotel in one of the city’s oldest and most popular neighborhoods: the French Quarter. The property resides in the former D.H. Holmes building and now offers more than 10,660 square feet of customizable function space located in one central area of the hotel’s first floor.

With its 10 meeting rooms, the Hyatt French Quarter can accommodate meetings, events and weddings, from three to 300 people. New additions also include their market-inspired eatery, Powdered Sugar, and the new artisan lobby bar, Batch, which showcases a collection of quality bourbons and barrel service. The popular and award-winning Red Fish Grill, Batch, Powdered Sugar and Hard Rock Café are also housed in the Hyatt French Quarter. The hotel is located at 800 Iberville St. For more information, visit FrenchQuarter.hyatt.com.

Hyatt French Quarter Four Points by Sheraton French Quarter is located in the heart of the French Quarter on world-famous Bourbon Street. They offer 186 comfortable guest rooms, more than 4,000 square feet of market-leading meeting facilities, an outdoor pool, tropical courtyard, 24-hour fitness and more.

Café Opéra, the Four Points’ full-service restaurant, features a classic New Orleans menu of Creole and continental cuisine.

Guests can also enjoy a wide selection of specialty drinks at the Puccini Bar. Four Points by Sheraton French Quarter is located on the site of the French Opera House (1859-1919), a legendary New Orleans cultural venue. Their performance series, “Opera Returns to Bourbon Street” features local operatic talent from the New Orleans Opera Association and local classical vocalist group Bon Operatit! For more modern musical tastes, Four Points’ hosts the weekly “Live & Local” musical series, featuring local jazz and contemporary music.

Four Points by Sheraton French Quarter is located at 541 Bourbon St. in New Orleans. For reservations and more, call 524-7611 or visit FourPoints.com/frenchquarter.

The captivating spirit and style of the Big Easy is alive and well at Loews New Orleans Hotel, where plush surroundings, lively flavors and extraordinary service are all within walking distance of the French Quarter, Riverfront attractions and the city’s finest shopping, restaurants, bars and entertainment.

But for true New Orleans flavor, you don’t have to travel much farther than the lobby, where locals and guests alike mingle over perfectly presented signature cocktails at the famous Swizzle Stick Bar, and live music gets you in the right mood every Friday and Saturday night. Or tempt your taste buds with the playful modern Creole menu at Café Adelaide, by the Commander’s Palace Family of Restaurants and Executive Chef Carl Schaubhut.

For more information or to book, visit loewshotels.com or call (800) 23-LOEWS.

MISSISSIPPI Visit Gulfport Premium Outlets in nearby Gulfport, Miss., and shop 70 designer and name brand outlet stores including Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, BCBG Max Azria, Coach, Fossil, Gap Outlet, Guess, J.Crew, Nautica, Nike, Polo Ralph Lauren, Talbots, Tommy Hilfiger, Under Armour and dozens more. Spend your day taking advantage of sales and diverse selections before enjoying exciting local attractions and luxurious accommodations.

Gulfport Premium Outlets provides a comprehensive shopping experience for the serious or casual shopper with its vast array of merchandise, offering access to designer fashions, sportswear, children’s apparel, shoes, fine leather and luggage, accessories, jewelry, housewares and gifts.

Gulfport Premium Outlets is more than a shopping trip – it’s a vacation experience. Join in the fun and find directions, a complete list of stores, upcoming sales (including the Memorial Day Weekend Sale, May 24-27) accommodations and much more at PremiumOutlets.com/Gulfport. Be sure to register for the free online VIP Shopper Club for exclusive coupons and savings offers.

Old Masters to Monet: Three Centuries of French Painting from the Wadsworth Atheneum is on view at the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson, Miss., now through Sept. 8. The exhibition features 50 masterpieces of French art ranging from the 17th-19th centuries and into the beginning of the 20th century.

Théodore Géricault, Eugène Delacroix, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Claude Monet are among the masters represented.

This exhibition was organized by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT, and is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. Old Masters to Monet is the 13th installation of The Annie Laurie Swaim Hearin Memorial Exhibition Series at the Mississippi Museum of Art. Admission: $12 for adults, $10 for seniors (60+), and $6 for students. For more information, visit MSMuseumArt.org or call (601) 960-1515.

ALABAMA Are you ready for a road trip? Beauty, history and adventure all come together in Alabama, a place where each meal is a celebration, each town has a story and each day brings new discoveries. myneworleans.com

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Enter for your chance to win one of eight premium vacation packages in the Alabama Road Trip Giveaway. Each package includes a three-day, two-night stay at one of Alabama’s worldclass resorts plus a unique combination of golf, spa treatments, fine dining, attraction and special event tickets, spending money and more. It is the perfect opportunity to get away with your family, girlfriends or golf buddies. Experience the gracious tradition of Southern hospitality from historic Mobile Bay to the state’s music-rich heritage in the Shoals to six other luxurious accommodations and amazing destinations in between. It is only a short drive away in Sweet Home Alabama.

Enter the contest between now and Aug. 18 by visiting RoadTripGiveaway.com. For more travel ideas, vacation destinations and unforgettable Alabama events, visit Alabama.travel.

and boutiques. Kids of all ages will enjoy mini-golf, thrill rides, go-karts and more. With more than 175 properties ranging from one-bedroom condos to six-bedroom beach homes, Gulf Shores Rentals can help arrange the perfect vacation package for you.

Call today or visit GulfShoresRentals.com and be sure to check out the Hot Deals page. You can also visit the Gulf Shores Rentals profile page and fan page on Facebook for extra savings and updates at facebook.com/gsrentalsfanpage.

Enjoy summer days at the Grand on world-class golf courses, tennis courts, at the pools, beach and resort grounds. Just a short drive from New Orleans, The Grand Hotel Marriott Resort, Golf Club & Spa has been a Louisiana favorite for generations.

Located in Point Clear, Ala., the historic Grand Hotel first opened in 1847 and has grown to 405 guest rooms across 550 acres. A Four Diamond award winner, The Grand provides top accommodations while maintaining Southern tradition and historic charm. The Grand boasts world-class facilities with two newly renovated golf courses, seven restaurants and lounges, five spectacular pools and a European-style spa, ranked as the top Marriott spa in the world.

Finish your day with a beverage or dinner while watching a stunning sunset overlooking Mobile Bay. For your Grand summer getaways, make reservations at the Grand Hotel.

Weekday resort-view rates start at $239 through Sept. 2. Visit MarriottGrand.com or call (251) 928-9201.

Remember your very first family vacation as a child and what it felt like to explore someplace new and wonderful with your parents and siblings? Create those life-long memories with your children. Choose a destination with 32 miles of uncrowded white-sand beaches, a variety of attractions and accommodations, and fresh Gulf seafood. Select a place where the local family welcomes your family to enjoy the relaxed pace of life with a great beach atmosphere and to reconnect with those who mean the most to you.

Gulf Shores and Orange Beach is a quick four-hour car ride away to the simpler things in life – sandcastles, children’s laughter and priceless memories with your family. With great value and variety, this beach destination offers something to entertain every member of the family as well as the opportunity to simply watch the little ones play in the sand. As you begin thinking about an escape from the daily hustle and bustle, consider the family-oriented beach in your backyard.

For more information, visit GulfShores.com/neworleans.

Gulf Shores Rentals Take your summer vacation to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach and see why Gulf Shores Rentals has been one of the region’s favorite vacation destinations for more than 20 years.

For each night reserved, guests receive complimentary tickets to area attractions such as championship golf, deep-sea fishing, Dolphin Cruises and Waterville USA Waterpark. Other bonuses include 14 points to The Track Amusement Center daily and unlimited daily movie rentals.

Comprehensive area activities mean fun for all! Gathering friends for a fishing excursion and enjoy snapper season on the gulf, or perhaps you’d prefer updating your summer and fall wardrobe with a stroll through the area’s unique shops 100

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This spring and summer, enjoy the most exclusive resort experience on the Alabama Gulf Coast. Located on a secluded stretch of pristine white sand, with sweeping views of the sparkling emerald water, The Beach Club is the only full-service resort in Gulf Shores. This is the quintessential beach escape, featuring elegant, gulf-front condos and lakeside cottages in an inviting community setting. At The Beach Club, your every need is cared for, from the pampering of full-service staff to an endless array of leisure activities and upscale amenities.

Choose from five outdoor swimming pools or an indoor pool. Relax poolside in a private cabana or visit the poolside bar and grill. Enjoy private access to the area’s most pristine beach. Delight in fine dining and relaxing spa services. Go shopping, deep-sea fishing or take the clubs to one of several nearby golf courses. Whether you’re looking for romance or

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The Grand Hotel Marriott Resort, Golf Club & Spa

family fun, you’ll find it at this unique tropical locale. Just be warned, once you arrive, you may never want to leave.

For more information or to make a reservation, visit BeachClubAL.com or call (855) 405-4219.

Now that you’ve found your dream mate, you need a dream setting for your wedding. Your special day deserves an ideal setting, and that is precisely what you’ll find in The Veranda through Meyer Vacation Rentals.

In addition to The Veranda’s picturesque location overlooking the sugar-white sands and emerald-green waters of the Gulf of Mexico in Gulf Shores, Ala., this spacious 10-bedroom, 12-bath luxurious beach home features all the extras that, as a bride, you dream of having but rarely find in a resort destination.

Numerous planners and caterers have contributed to making this the ultimate wedding location. Every detail has been considered – from a wedding dress train-friendly dune walkover that delivers you to your groom in style down to the electrical needs of bands and caterers for a ground-floor reception. The 6,500-square-foot house features five gulf-front suites and a 65-inch TV in the two living areas and is well equipped for indoor and outdoor catering. If you can dream it, no doubt you can find it at The Veranda.

For more details visit MeyerRe.com or call (866) 269-6927.

FLORIDA If you’re looking for the way the beach used to be, explore the coastline, streets and waterways of Navarre Beach and Historic Milton, Fla. From Gulf Islands National Seashore to upriver historic sites, every mile reveals another view of Old Florida – a tradition that continues with new attractions and an atmosphere you won’t find anywhere else.

Navarre Beach is a rare opportunity to see Florida’s coast as it looked thousands of years ago. Only 10 coastal areas in

the country have been designated as National Seashores, and our Gulf Islands National Seashore is among the most beautiful. Miles of whitesand beaches and dunes wait to be explored on foot, by pedal or aboard a kayak. We’re also home to the longest pier on the Gulf Coast, the Navarre Beach Fishing Pier, which extends over 1,500 feet into the Gulf of Mexico for prize sunsets and fish.

And, while some beaches seem like a zoo, we actually offer one – the newly reopened Gulf Breeze Zoo. For more information and Navarre Beach attractions, visit DiscoverNavarreBeach.com or call (800) 480-7263.

Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort and Spa, is a Conde Nastrated Top U.S. Resort and Top 20 Florida Golf Resort. The sugar white sands and emerald green waters of Northwest Florida consistently earn these beaches the ranking of most beautiful in the world. With 600 rooms and suites available, Hilton Sandestin Beach offers a variety of accommodations.

Guests enjoy the incomparable expanse of deck overlooking the gulf, indoor and outdoor pools, resort activities and amenities designed to delight both children and adults, including the indulgent Serenity by the Sea Spa, and casual to 4 Diamond-rated dining options. The Kids Krew offers activities for young children and teens, like the Teen Water Excursion for 14 to 18 year-olds.

Hilton Sandestin Beach has something for the entire family. Rates vary by season but special seasonal packages are always available. Call (800) 367-1271or visit HiltonSandestinBeach.com/getaways for exclusive summer savings, such as the Summer to Remember Package (Code “SR”) available through Sept. 2. The package includes daily beach set-up, breakfast for two and a disposable camera to capture all your adventures.

Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort is rated the No. 1 resort in the Destin, Fla., area and the Emerald Coast.

The resort invites guests to a world of 2,400 acres and 30 charming neighborhoods with nearly 1,300 vacation rentals, condominiums, villas and town homes. As a member of Visit South Walton and Visit Florida, the resort features more than seven miles of beaches and pristine bay front, four championship golf courses, 15 world-class tennis courts, 19 swimming pools, a 113-slip marina, a fitness center and spa, meeting space and The Village of Baytowne Wharf, a pedestrian village with shopping, dining and nightlife.

In addition, Sandestin is making it easy for travelers to get away this summer with its FREE Night offer (promotion code: FREE4). Download Sandestin’s free App for iPhone and Android devices, or become a Facebook Fan or Twitter follower for the latest events and news. For details, visit sandestin.com/nom or call (866) 544-1026.

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Austin’s Seafood & Steakhouse

Antoine’s

Audubon Clubhouse Café

713 St. Louis St., New Orleans (504) 581-4422 Antoines.com

6500 Magazine St., On Golf Club Drive New Orleans • (504) 212-5301 AudubonInstitute.org/visit/clubhouse-cafe

Since 1840, world-renowned Antoine’s Restaurant has set the standard that made New Orleans one of the greatest dining centers in the world. Antoine’s Restaurant’s excellent French-Creole cuisine, service and atmosphere have combined to create an unmatched dining experience for both locals and visitors to New Orleans.

Nestled amid the live oaks of Audubon Park is the Audubon Clubhouse, open to the public and ever-popular with Uptown locals and Magazine Street shoppers, it’s a perfect spot for a delicious breakfast or lunch. The breakfast menu is traditional and includes omelets and pancakes and lunch offers up tasty sandwiches, fresh salads and even baskets of fried green tomatoes! A sumptuous buffet is served on Sundays!

Austin’s Seafood and Steakhouse welcomes you to a casual upscale dining experience. Voted Best Restaurant in Metairie and Top 3 Steakhouses in the city. Local owner Ed McIntyre and his son, Austin, invite you and your family to enjoy his famous cuisine time and again. Great menu changes and specials for the new year. Private dining rooms are available for special occasions. Hours: MondaySaturday 5p.m.-’til.

Copeland’s of New Orleans

The Court of Two Sister’s

5 Local Locations CopelandsofNewOrleans.com

Five Happiness

613 Royal St., New Orleans (504) 522-7261 CourtOfTwoSisters.com

3605 S. Carrollton Ave., New Orleans (504) 482-3935 www.fivehappiness.com

The Court of Two Sisters, known for its large dining courtyard, serves a lavish daily Jazz Brunch buffet. At night choose from its à la carte dinner menu or a four-course dinner. Complete menus available at CourtOfTwoSisters.com.

Reservations are recommended.

Come to Five Happiness and let the ambiance and friendly staff take you to a new level of dining experience.

This award-wining restaurant always strives to achieve its best. Private party and banquet rooms are available.

Copeland’s of New Orleans combines New Orleans flavor and comfort in a casual dining atmosphere. Known for its from scratch cuisine, Copeland’s is celebrating its 30th anniversary throughout 2013. Dine at any Copeland’s location to experience exceptional food and hospitality. Celebrate Flavor.

Celebrate Life.

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5101 W. Esplanade Ave., Metairie (504) 523-5433 • AustinsNO.com

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Cheesecake Bistro

Commander’s Palace

4517 W. Esplanade Ave., Metairie (504) 455-5511 MrEdsNO.com

4517 Veterans Blvd., Metairie 2001 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans CopelandsCheesecakeBistro.com

1403 Washington Ave., New Orleans (504) 899-8221 CommandersPalace.com

Mr. Ed’s newest venture is now open!

Serving prime burgers, great seafood, fries, tacos, wings, homemade shakes and martinis in a casual counter-service atmosphere. Here we grind our beef fresh daily so you can build your burger as you like it. Enjoy our patio dining with TV’s for your sporting events. Open for lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday.

Cheesecake Bistro by Copeland’s is a fresh, innovative and exciting dining concept that offers delectable appetizers and a wide variety of fresh New Orleans signature dishes.

Cheesecake Bistro features America’s Best Cheesecake with many signature toppings to choose from. Savor Life’s Sweetest Moments.

Located in the heart of the Garden District, Commander’s Palace is open for dinner daily, lunch MondayFriday, as well as for their worldfamous jazz brunches on Saturday & Sunday. Complimentary valet parking is available. It’s what living in New Orleans is all about! Visit facebook.com/ CommandersPalace, or follow on Twitter @Commanders_NOLA.

Gott Gourmet

Hotel Monteleone

Louisiana SPCA

3100 Magazine St., @ 8th Street (504) 373-6579 GottGourmetcafe.com

214 Royal St., New Orleans (504) 681-4444 CriolloNola.com

1700 Mardi Gras Blvd., New Orleans (504) 368-5191 la-spca.org

The best outdoor seating on Magazine Street! Enjoy “Sunset on Magazine” weekday afternoons, with $5 wine, beer and drink specials, appetizers or try one of our new dinner entrees- selections change every month. Now serving Sunday Brunch all day, 8am-3pm. Pet friendly. Catering Available.

Fashioned with Louisiana and the Gulf South region’s abundant bounty of fresh, home grown products from land and sea, Criollo’s ingredient-driven seasonal menu is designed to offer creative dishes inspired by culinary traditions and an appreciation of today’s contemporary tastes.

The Louisiana SPCA will hold its fourth annual Pause 4 Dinner & Lunch dine out event on Thursday, June 13, 2013. In partnership with notable restaurants in the Greater New Orleans area, the event seeks to raise money for the animals of the Louisiana SPCA.

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Cheeseburger Eddie’s

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Maximo’s Italian Grill

Morning Call Coffee Stand

Mr. Ed’s Restaurant

1117 Rue Decatur, New Orleans (504) 586-8883 MaximosGrill.com

City Park Casino • (504) 300-1157 Metairie behind Lakeside Mall (504) 885-4068 MorningCallCoffeeStand.com

813 1001 Live Oak St., Metairie (504) 838-0022 910 W. Esplanade Ave., #A, Kenner (504) 463-3030 MrEdsNO.com

Indulge in the city’s finest Italian cuisine at Maximo’s, a French Quarter favorite for 25 years. Sit at our Grill-Bar and be amazed as you watch Executive Chef Thomas Woods prepare his fire roasted specialty dishes. We can accommodate your private events as well.

Come enjoy café au lait, beignets & other local favorites at New Orleans’ most famous coffee drinking place since 1870.

Both the City Park & Fat City locations are open 24 hours, seven days a week & 364 days of the year. Live music on Sundays at the City Park location, call us for weekly schedules!

Mr. Ed’s is celebrating its 24th year with two convenient locations and one great menu! Serving New Orleans home cooking from po-boys to the best fried chicken in town! Mr. Ed’s caters for any occasion and is open for lunch and dinner Monday-Saturday.

Rivershack Tavern

Robért Fresh Market

Rouses

3449 River Road, Jefferson (504) 834-4938

135 Robert E. Lee Blvd., New Orleans (504) 282-3428 RobertFreshMarket.com

(985) 447-5998 Rouses.com

As featured on “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives,” the Rivershack Tavern regulary wows its guests with unexpectedly and modestly prices high-end lunch specials, as well as timeless local favorites in an eclectic and friendly neighborhood honky-tonk.

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At Robért Fresh Market, you can always find the foods you are passionate about – from organic produce and prime beef, to freshly prepared gourmet meals and sushi, as well as many New Orleans favorites! And, don’t forget to let Robért cater your next special occasion.

Rouses team of professional chefs use the very best of what’s fresh and what’s local to make Rouses prepared foods.

They’re always sourcing new, fresh ingredients from around the state, and developing new twists on our local favorites. For locations, go to Rouses.com.

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Rene Bistrot

R’evolution

538 Hagan Ave., New Orleans (504) 482-3047

Renaissance New Orleans Arts Hotel 700 Tchoupitoulas St., New Orleans (504) 613-2330 ReneBistrotNewOrleans.com

777 Bienville St., New Orleans (504) 553-2277 RevolutionNola.com

Parkway Bakery and Tavern is the oldest, most entertaining poor boy shop in New Orleans, overlooking the historic Bayou St. John at 538 Hagan Ave., in Mid-City, New Orleans. Come and enjoy a Parkway poor boy in our restaurant, covered patio or our classic New Orleans bar.

Master Chef Rene Bajeux brings his French bistro style restaurant to the Renaissance Arts Hotel – where local ingredients and cooking styles meet classic French cuisine.

Restaurant R’evolution is collaboration between award-winning chefs Rick Tramonto and John Folse. The finedining restaurant, located in the heart of the French Quarter at the landmark Royal Sonesta Hotel New Orleans, offers modern, imaginative, reinterpretations of classic Cajun and Creole cuisine for lunch Monday through Friday, for dinner nightly and for Sunday brunch.

SoBou

Vega Tapas Café

Warehouse Grille

310 Chartres St., New Orleans (504) 552-4095 SoBouNola.com

2051 Metairie Road, Old Metairie (504) 836-2007 VegaTapasCafe.com

Created by the Commander’s Family of Restaurants, SoBou is a spirited restaurant, offering cutting-edge cocktails and Louisiana street foodinspired small plates. SoBou is located in the chic W French Quarter Hotel and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner alongside an innovative cocktail, wine and bar program. Visit facebook.com/ SoBouNola or follow twitter@SoBouNola.

Vega Tapas Café began over 16 years ago and has defined small plates in the New Orleans area. Chef Glen Hogh presents Spanish inspired cuisine with his personal flair in this casual, chic Old Metairie eatery. Come linger over a delicious mosaic of flavors and Bring Your Taste for Adventure.

869 Magazine St., New Orleans (504) 322-2188 WarehouseGrille.com Facebook.com/WarehouseGrille Twitter.com/WarehouseGrille Creativity abounds at the home of food and fun the heart of the warehouse district. Funky décor, full bar with 40 beers on tap, private courtyard, flexible event spaces and plenty of parking – great food and good times await!

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Parkway Bakery & Tavern

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Adler’s

722 Canal St. Lakeside Shopping Center Towne Center, Baton Rouge (504) 523-5292 AdlersJewelry.com Adler’s has the perfect gift for mom from Waterford’s new Illuminology Collection. Four crystal candle designs - Luma, Candela, Chroma & Diama - featuring fragrances like champagne, citrus, mint and lavender, are crafted to conjure emotions like harmony, joy, serenity and celebration. $75

Boudreaux’s Fine Jewelers

701 Metairie Road, Metairie (504) 831-2602 4550 Highway 22, Mandeville (985) 626-1666 7280 Corporate Blvd., Baton Rouge (225) 928-6868 BoudreauxsJewelers.com

AURALUZ

4408 Shores Drive, Metairie (504) 888.3313 • ShopAuraluz.com Temple Tree Jasmine...the newest bath & body collection from Thymes. Softly fragranced with temple tree blossoms and jasmine sambac, entwined with honeysuckle, ylang ylang and damask rose and steeped in silky coconut milk. One of the many wonderful gifts you will find at AURALUZ.

Cristy Cali

(504) 377-9575 CristyCali.com A solid sterling silver initial charm will make the perfect gift for mom on her special day. Initial Charm is $35.

Boudreaux’s Jewelers has been the local choice for over 79 years.

Let Boudreaux’s experienced gemologists help make the most of your Mother’s Day.

Bra Genie

2881 US 190, Mandeville (985) 951-8638 TheBraGenie.com For Mother’s Day treat yourself or your Mother to an expert bra fitting at Bra Genie in Mandeville. Bra Genie, just 30 minutes from New Orleans, has 3,500 square feet and over 10,000 bras in-stock by the world’s leading manufacturers. Gift Cards are One Size Fits All!

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Edible Arrangements

1650 Gretna Blvd., Suite 5 Harvey (504) 367-7798 Edible Arrangements-Harvey specializes in creating delicious fruit designs overflowing with fresh strawberries, pineapple, grapes, oranges, cantaloupe and honeydew. Our arrangements are guaranteed fresh and are available in a variety of styles and sizes. Our arrangments are perfect for showing Mom just how much you appreciate her!

Exterior Designs, Inc.

Beverly Katz, Landscape Designer (504) 866-0276 • ExteriorDesignsBev.com Exterior Designs, the original New Orleans courtyard designer, specializes in transforming outdoor areas into additional living space. From landscape architecture to site planning and construction, we offer a full range of services to commercial and residential clients. As a full-service designer and builder, problem yards are our specialty!

Judy at the Rink

2737 Prytania St., New Orleans (504) 891-7018 Check us out on Facebook

Guerlain Spa at The Roosevelt

Judy at the Rink is a renowned New Orleans gift store representing local and nationally acclaimed artists. Wonderful gifts for all occasions: Mother’s Day, Weddings, Graduation and Birthdays.

Wedding Registry and Wish List available. Free parking under building and free gift wrap!

123 Baronne St., New Orleans (504) 335-3190 TheRooseveltNewOrleans.com

Treat the woman at the heart of your family to the ultimate in relaxation with a gift card from the Guerlain Spa at The Roosevelt. With a full line of spa services – each personally tailored to revive mind, body and soul – and products from the prestigious Guerlain Paris, the Guerlain Spa is sure to please.

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Oil & Vinegar

(985) 809-1693 6111 Pinnacle Parkway, Covington Louisiana.OilAndVinegarUSA.com Come visit our Culinary Gift Shop featuring on-tap oils and vinegars, as well as other edible delights from around the world! Order online or call the store directly. Complimentary gift wrapping and free local delivery for Mother’s Day!

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Perlis

6070 Magazine St., New Orleans • (504) 895-8661 1281 N. Causeway Blvd., Mandeville • (985) 674-1711 Perlis.com Show Mom how much she means to you with an unforgettable jewelry piece from Sarah Cavender Metalworks, which captures the beauty and exquisite detail of nature. The ladies boutique at Perlis also offers several new styles of jewelry boxes sure to be a great gift for Mother’s Day!

Symmetry Jewelers 8138 Hampson St., New Orleans (504) 861-9925 SymmetryJewelers.com The bar pin was an essential item for a well dressed lady in days gone by. Symmetry carries an impressive collection of this fashion statement. Included is this fabulous “Art Deco” pin hand crafted in platinum with bright green jadeite and 1.75 carats of diamond. $4200.

Saint Germain

The Shops at Canal Place 333 Canal St., 2nd Level (504) 522-1720 SaintGermainNewOrleans.com For a special Mom, this perfect gift for Mother’s Day: 14kt rose gold necklace in blue or orange Chalcedony with white sapphire bezel by Suzanne Kalan, blue $748 and Orange $660. These special pieces are available at Saint Germain located in Canal Place.

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Eye Care a variety of retina diagnoses, including diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration and retinal detachments.

For more information, or to schedule an appointment at their Metairie-based clinic, call 455-9825 or visit EyeCareNewOrleans.com.

There’s plenty to see in summer – grandkids playing in the sand, sunsets in the courtyard, homeruns at the ballpark – and these visual memories can last a lifetime. Physicians across New Orleans want to ensure no memories are missed, and making maintaining eyesight and general eye health a priority can lead to more years of memory-making. From routine eye examinations and LASIK surgery to treatment for glaucoma or retina diagnoses, the following local physicians offer a variety of specialized services in eye care.

Doctors at Eyecare Associates are pleased to offer a complete array of eye care services to patients in the New Orleans area.

The clinic continuously updates services and technology to ensure patients receive the best possible outcomes and is one of the top 25 LASIK practices in the country.

Cataract patients can now choose the option of premium lens implants that eliminate the need for contact lenses or glasses following cataract surgery. Contact lens patients are continuously being offered new lenses that improve vision, increase comfort and decrease complications from long-term wear. For those with glasses, the optical shop at Eyecare Associates offers the newest designs in frames while also maintaining a great selection of classic, always popular designs.

Eyecare’s glaucoma specialist offers exceptional care and treatment for patients with glaucoma, and retina specialist Satish Arora, MD, offers the latest treatment for patients with 110

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Individuals with glaucoma continue to benefit by great strides in surgery and treatment. At Gulf South Eye Associates, John W. Boyle IV, M.D. performs two types of surgery that have helped a large number of patients.

“There is an innovative implant called the ExPress MiniGlaucoma Shunt,” says Dr. Boyle. “We use this with the standard glaucoma filtration surgery (trabeculectomy), which has helped to minimize the early complications associated with that surgery.” Those complications, according to Boyle, have to do with having a low eye pressure postoperatively.

The implant allows the surgeon to make a smaller incision from what had previously been required.

“This is a very small device, so the small incision allows for a less invasive, quicker surgery with fewer complications, and faster recovery than a standard trabeculectomy.”

For secondary glaucomas, such as neovascular, inflammatory or traumatic glaucoma, surgeons generally implant glaucoma drainage devices.

“I use the Ahmed glaucoma valve,” says Boyle. “This helps to lower the intraocular pressure in glaucomas after traditional surgery has failed or is unlikely to succeed.”

For more information about Gulf South Eye Associates, call 454-1000 or visit GulfSouthEye.com.

The Tulane Department of Ophthalmology “Eye MDs” are among the most experienced leaders in the field for treating all eye diseases and disorders. Doctors in the department specialize in the care of cataract, retina, cornea, glaucoma, ocular oncology and orbital reconstructive surgery, and pediatric eye problems. The comprehensive ophthalmologic services include premium cataract correction, newest corneal transplant procedures, treatment of all retinal problems, vision correcting innovative surgery for glaucoma patients, surgery to stabilize the cornea in cases of warpage, and surgery and treatment for all children’s eye diseases.

Tulane Eye MDs have dedicated their lives to their patients by developing new and better treatments. They have been instrumental in developing many of the innovative approaches to vision care and surgery in use today while training future generations of Eye MDs. Tulane offers a full range of vision correction services, including contact lenses for the most difficult cases. The Tulane Ophthalmology Clinic and Optical Shop are located on the fourth floor at 1415 Tulane Ave. Valet parking is available.

For more information or to make an appointment, call 988-5831 or 988-4334.

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STOPPING THE SILENCE: The American Cancer Society Turns 100 On May 22, 1913, 15 determined physicians and business leaders began a fight against a deadly disease and word that was rarely spoken: “cancer.”

One hundred years ago, very few patients survived a cancer diagnosis and others were lost never knowing their illness at all. With the formation of the American Cancer Society, those 15 physicians and leaders took not only a step toward raising awareness of cancer, but they also began the fight against it. Since that time, the society’s progress has been remarkable.

As the American Cancer Society turns 100 years old, their commitment to the fight against cancer is stronger than ever. A century into the fight, they’re dedicated to finishing it, to saving more lives and creating more birthdays while eliminating their own.

“I believe with what we’ve learned thus far – and what we will learn tomorrow – we will definitely have the tools to finish the fight against cancer,” says Vincent T. DeVita Jr., M.D., National Volunteer President of the American Cancer Society. “Together, we can make this cancer’s last century. We know that silence won’t finish the fight; only action will.”

The society’s 100th birthday creates an opportunity to be as loud and active as possible in the battle to end cancer. In marking its century-long efforts, a new three-part commitment aims to take the fight to the next level and stop the silence forever.

First, the society intends to “make noise” by continuing to ensure lifesaving cancer research gets funded. Second, efforts to “get loud” will make sure people facing cancer have the help they need, like a free place to stay during treatment and a ride to get there. Third, the organization will “amplify” efforts to keep fighting for everyone to have access to quality health care, lifesaving screenings, clean air and more.

In contrast to 100 years ago, two out of three people today diagnosed with cancer are surviving for at least five years. In fact, more than 400 people a day in the U.S. are celebrating birthdays that would have otherwise been lost to the disease. The American Cancer Society has directly contributed to a 20 percent decline in cancer death rates in the U.S. since

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the early 1990s, helping save nearly 1.2 million lives during that time.

“These advances and others mean that when the volunteer leaders of the American Cancer Society meet, we don’t worry about whether we can make progress – we worry about accelerating our progress,” says DeVita. Between the behind-the-scenes work of playing a role in nearly every cancer research breakthrough in recent history and volunteer groundwork of helping patients get the personalized help they need, the society’s efforts have produced undeniable results and it only plans to increase them with its most ambitious undertaking yet.

“Ours is a culture that celebrates cancer survivorship, where the word ‘hope’ – not ‘fear’ – is associated with the disease. We’re working to transform cancer from deadly to treatable and from treatable to preventable,” says John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., CEO of the American Cancer Society.

The American Cancer Society’s call to action extends to everyone, as they can’t do it alone. To get loud, they need everyone in the community to join in finishing the fight. Several ways to help include making a donation to save more lives faster. With a goal of raising $100 million, the society can fund more lifesaving research and make access to care easier than ever for today’s patients. Volunteer opportunities also abound throughout the community.

For more on how to get involved, visit Cancer. org, like the American Cancer Society on Facebook (Facebook.com/ACS.NOLA) and follow on Twitter (@AmericanCancer). Together, we can finish the fight once and for all.

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Fighting Cancer from the Driver’s Seat: Chris Carroll & the Road to Recovery® About four years ago, retired schoolteacher Chris Carroll spotted an ad in her church newsletter that struck a personal chord. The ad sought volunteer drivers for the American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery® program, one of many free services offered to local cancer patients seeking treatment. A recent survivor of breast cancer, Carroll remembered her many trips to and from the hospital for routine appointments, chemotherapy and radiation.

“I was blessed to have my husband’s support,” says Carroll. “He was able to take me to my treatments, and I wanted to help others who didn’t have that same advantage. It’s hard enough going through chemo and radiation – it must be very hard not having a loved one able to be with you.”

Since that time, Carroll has offered her time and vehicle in helping cancer patients across New Orleans access the care they need. Traveling to and from treatments can be an arduous task for many patients, either for lack of transportation or family support, or in some cases, because of the physical toll both the disease and the treatment can take.

Once a week, a Road to Recovery® coordinator sends Carroll and other volunteers a list of patients and appointment times. In turn, volunteers offer their availability to transport the patients to the necessary hospital or clinic for treatment. Volunteers typically pair up with patients who live or are seeking treatment in nearby neighborhoods. A resident of Gentilly Terrace, Carroll is one of few volunteers who live in Orleans Parish.

“The neighborhoods I visit vary – I’ve gone from New Orleans East to the 9th Ward, Uptown and some here in Gentilly. Currently I’m assisting a man who lives on Tulane Avenue right down from where he’s going for treatment,” says Carroll.

While chemotherapy treatments are often spaced over time – once a week or every two weeks – radiation is typically administered daily and over several weeks.

“For chemo, people are often able to get family support, but when it comes to daily care and radiation, people can’t always take off work to be there. That’s where we come in,” says Carroll, who usually drives at least once a week when she’s not in class with New Orleans People Program. Once volunteers coordinate their availability with the local Road to Recovery® coordinator, patient contact information is given to each driver.

“I call the night before the appointment, let them know I’ll be driving and ask what time they’d like me there,” says Carroll. “I usually wait if it’s a radiation treatment. Chemo can take hours, so sometimes we’ll coordinate different drivers to drop a patient off and another to pick them up.”

In addition to the joy she feels for being able to help others, making new friendships has proved an added benefit to Carroll’s volunteerism.

“There’s one woman I drove quite often because her car wasn’t working. She had to go in once a week nearby. Over time we formed a nice friendship and went to lunch,” she says. Carroll has met neighbors she may not have otherwise as well as fellow alumni of the same high school.

“Usually by the end of treatment, you form a bond and learn about their family – you’re no longer a stranger, and it’s a great feeling knowing you’re able to help them through a rough time,” she says.

It helps that Carroll has been through the diagnosis and treatment process herself. When a patient expresses fear or concern, she is able to offer support and share her own experience as someone who is still celebrating birthdays 13 years after her own diagnosis and who is paying it forward by lending a helping hand.

If you need transportation assistance or would like to volunteer for the Road to Recovery program, contact the American Cancer Society at 1-800-227-2345 or visit cancer.org.

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HOPE AWAY FROM HOME: Hope Lodge® a Lifeline for Travelers In June of 2012, Metairie resident Vicki Russo went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. That visit would eventually affect her outlook on life more than just her eyesight. A year later, Russo now sees the world from the eyes of a person fighting cancer.

“The doctor sent me to a retina specialist who thought I had a detached retina. Instead, he discovered I had choroidal malignant melanoma in my right eye. I was dumbfounded,” says Russo. “I said, ‘What do I have to do?

Where do I go?’”

Russo’s physician referred her to a specialist in Memphis, where he believed she could find the best possible treatment for this rare type of cancer. Russo and her husband made the trek four days later and planned on having to stay in hotels.

“Dr. [Matt] Wilson’s nurse was the one that told us about the American Cancer Society Harrah’s Hope Lodge and set everything up for us when we returned for the surgery,” says Russo, who now stays at Hope Lodge® every four months as she returns to Memphis for check-ups.

A program for cancer patients and their family members as they travel out of town for treatments, Hope Lodge® provides more than free lodging. The nurturing, home-like environment provides peace of mind and community support – a home away from home. Currently, the American Cancer Society oversees 31 Hope Lodges across the United States with plans for more underway.

“It’s a really positive atmosphere, where if you want to talk you can, and if you want privacy you can have that, too. It’s clean and beautiful. You can cook your own food and do your own thing. It’s a nice place to be when you’re not feeling well,” says Russo.

New Orleans also has a Hope Lodge® for out-of-town patients seeking treatment in the city. The American Cancer Society Patrick F. Taylor Hope Lodge has been a

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godsend for Houma resident and Nicholls State University student Ross Mullooly and his parents, Jimmy and Monica Mullooly. In November 2010, the Mulloolys and doctors alike were shocked to discover that Ross, a college-aged cross-country star and athlete, had Stage 3 colorectal cancer.

Since that time, Ross and his family have made frequent trips to and from New Orleans, where he works with Dr. David Beck, a specialist at Ochsner.

Dr. Beck’s nurse introduced the Mulloolys to Hope Lodge®, where they have stayed over 200 nights in the past year and a half.

“It’s like our lifeline,” says Monica Mullooly. “We don’t always know when we’ll have to go, and they do all they can to accommodate us and make sure we can stay close to our family,” she says.

“You can’t go through this by yourself,” adds Jimmy Mullooly. “You need a friend or family member with you, and it’s hard to expect someone to be able to afford accommodations for a prolonged period of time.”

Hope Lodge® staff and volunteers have become like extended family to the Mulloolys, lending a hand with meals at the Lodge and calling to check in on Ross when he’s back home in Houma.

“It may not sound like much, but when you have someone going through this illness and treatment, it takes a load off your mind, and you can focus that little attention elsewhere,” says Jimmy Mullooly.

“The effect that Hope Lodge has had on our family and what we’ve seen with other families led Ross to start his own nonprofit to help it,” says Jimmy.

One of Hope Lodge’s biggest advocates, Ross founded the Ross Mullooly Project and has held several events, including a 5K run, to raise funds and awareness for programs such as Hope Lodge®.

Inspired by their son’s passion to help others even as he continues his own battle with cancer, Jimmy and Monica do what they can to turn Ross’s ideas into realities.

“For Hope Lodge – anything. I’ll give to them for the rest of my life,” says Jimmy. “They’ve given everything to me.”

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FINISH THE FIGHT Cancer Information When You Need It When cancer strikes, the need for information is overwhelming. American Cancer Society specialists are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at 1-800227-2345 to provide comprehensive information about the disease and its treatment, as well as to connect you with local community resources. Online, cancer.org is an unparalleled resource.

ACS Working in New Orleans The American Cancer Society Community Health Advisor (CHA) program aims to reduce cancer disparities by increasing awareness through education about the importance of early detection and cancer screening. This program links individuals in the community with local resources by using volunteer Community Health Advisors who help local community health centers provide access to low or no-cost breast and cervical cancer screenings for women. Along with community partners, the American Cancer Society has educated over 10,000 women and men on breast, cervical and colon cancer. Since the program inception in 2008, they’ve helped 105 women navigate through a breast cancer screening. In 2012, they assisted 90 underserved and/or underinsured women to get breast cancer screenings. And, in the last year alone, they’ve educated more than 1,900 women on breast and cervical cancer.

Cancer Research in Louisiana The American Cancer Society’s research program was founded in 1946 and has funded about $4 billion in cancer research since that time. The society currently funds five researchers in Louisiana, two in New Orleans and three in Shreveport, with more than $4.2 million in grants. The American Cancer Society is the largest non profit, non-governmental source of cancer research funds in the United States, with an annual investment of approximately $130 million. The success of the society’s research program is exemplified by the fact that 46 Nobel Prize winners received grant support from the society before they were awarded the prize.

How Can You Help?

Over the past 100 years of service in cancer research and patient support, the American Cancer Society has learned that cancer hates noise and action. Progress comes when we as a community join together, speak out, and take action. On their 100th birthday, the American Cancer Society asks that we join them in the fight to create more birthdays for all. Let’s take a stand against silence and finish the fight!

• Make a donation to save more lives faster at cancer.org/fight.

• Become a part of the American Cancer Society family. Visit cancer.org/fight, like them on Facebook (facebook.com/ACS.NOLA), and follow on Twitter (@AmericanCancer).

• Get involved! The American Cancer Society in New Orleans offers numerous programs, services, and events. Find the opportunities right for you!

• Join the committee for Hope Gala® and help plan one of the city’s premier events. The event happens each fall and features live and silent auctions, live entertainment and gourmet food from the best restaurants in the area.

Call 504-833-4024 for more information.

• Support the Society’s fight against breast cancer by walking in a Making Strides Against Breast Cancer® event Saturday, October 19 at the Lakefront. Visit MakingStridesNewOrleans.org to learn more.

• Participate in an area Relay For Life® event, and join a global movement to end cancer. This month, Relay For Life® events take place in New Orleans, Metairie, Mandeville and La Place, and Picayune, Miss.. Find a Relay and register at RelayForLife.org/GNORelays • Volunteer to help people with cancer in our area by driving them to treatments in the Road to Recovery® program or show some southern hospitality by cooking a meal for Hope Lodge® guests. Explore these programs and more at cancer.org/involved.

• Speak up and tell your lawmakers the cancer fight must be a top priority at home and around the world.

Visit acscan.org.

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HOW-TO

FOR THE MONTH

Finding the Need For Speed

BY HALEY ADAMS AND MORGAN PACKARD

T

HE ONE THING NOT TO DO

when you’re about to drive cars worth about $300,000 at speeds upward of 100 miles per hour is to have a conversation about the cars you’ve crashed previously.

That might be why we were a little trepidatious when we arrived at NOLA Motorsports Park to try out the Exotic Driving Experience. A bit of a drive from New Orleans, the park is located in Avondale and boasts what we were told might be the safest track in the United States.

We sat through a mini class about being safe while driving the cars – Ferraris, Audis and Lamborghinis – then walked with the rest of the group out to the track. After being fitted for a helmet (complete with microphone and speakers to hear the instructor sitting next to you and a USB port that collects your driving data), we each had a little time to chat with the instructor who helps guide you around the track and tells you when to brake – and when to brake more.

We each drove a black Ferrari 458 Italia to speeds of 97 and 136 respectively.

The cars were extremely smooth compared to the “normal” cars we drive everyday, but it was still a bit difficult to get used to driving on a track instead of on the road. The instructor in the passenger seat says not to look in the rear view mirrors and to not worry about the cars behind you. The speedometer is also covered

Travel

up so drivers keep their eyes on the track instead of on their speed.

We each drove six laps around the track, but we both wished we could have done more. We are both hoping to do it again to see if we can go faster. Like a few of the instructors said, going fast in an expensive car is addictive, and now we understand why.

The Exotic Driving Experience is coming back to NOLA Motorsports Park May 24-26. There are also a few dates in the fall. Visit ExoticDriving.com and NolaMotor.com for more information.

THE BLAKE HOTEL

500 ST. CHARLES AVE., NEW ORLEANS, 522-9000, BLAKEHOTELNEWORLEANS.COM

If you’re looking for a hotel in a great location, try The Blake Hotel. Step outside its doors and you can literally step on to a St. Charles Avenue Streetcar or the new Hop-On, Hop-Off Bus Tours. Turn the other way and you’re steps from the CBD and French Quarter. Part of the Ascend Hotel Collection of hotels by Choice, The Blake Hotel offers other features to enjoy as well including spacious guestrooms, free WiFi, flat-screen TVs and Wolfgang Puck in-room coffee. Its restaurant, Café at the Square, overlooks Lafayette Square, as do the rooms, offering one of the prettiest views of the city. – M I R E L L A C A M E R A N

Travel

THE HILTON SANDESTIN 4000 SANDESTIN BLVD., SOUTH, DESTIN, FLA., (800) 559-1805, SANDESTINBEACHHILTON.COM

The Hilton Sandestin is a great place to enjoy some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Indoor and outdoor pools, activities for all ages, an 11,000 square-foot spa and fourdiamond dining complement the natural environment you can enjoy from the expansive hotel decks. With the “Summer to Remember Package,” available June to September, you’ll be able to enjoy complimentary breakfast buffets and beach set-up. They will even throw in a disposable camera so you won’t miss all those memorable moments. The package isn’t available online, so make sure you call to book. – M . C . myneworleans.com

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A Night at the Prison

S

BY ERROL LABORDE EVERAL YEARS AGO I WAS ASKED BY A FRIEND, WHO WAS

a social worker, to teach a one-evening class in Orleans Parish Prison.

I will admit to being apprehensive, but she assured me that everything would be safe, so I somewhat reluctantly agreed.

I remember the maze along the way as I was escorted to the classroom: down a hall, around another, into an elevator, up a floor, down another hall. Heavy doors opened then slammed behind us.

At the end of the trail was what appeared to be a normal classroom except for the armed guard standing in the back. I took my position behind the podium as the class, about 30 male prisoners, filed in. My topic was supposed to be politics and I gave it my best, ranging from the presidency to the Justice of the Peace with stops along the way to add any anecdotes I could think of. (Here Huey Long and Edwin Edwards proved to be a great source of material.) We talked about congress, the legislature and the judiciary. The conversation took more turns than the path to the room.

Now I had taught classes before in the outside world, so I was no stranger to the process, but there was something about the experience that I hadn’t expected – their behavior. They listened intently without yawning or glancing at the clock. When the time came for questions their hands shot into the air. Not all the questions were relevant, but the students were trying.

Our allotted class time was 90 minutes but, even with their enthusiasm, after about an hour and 15 minutes I was done. There was nothing else to say; no more questions to be asked. So, I closed my notes and delivered the good news that they could leave a little early. In a college class the students are out of the room before the word “leave” is completed. These men, however, just sat there. Surely they misunderstood, so I repeated that they could leave. Then one of the prisoners, an older man sitting in the front row, raised his hand and said, “Don’t you realize where we have to go back to?” I paused, blushed, gasped, then opened my notes and asked, “Are there any more questions?” Hands shot up again. Had it not been for the guard, the questioning could have continued all night, but after 20 more minutes he put a stop to it.

His inner bell had rung. It was time for the guys in the class to return to their cells.

What happened next though totally surprised me. As they left the students passed me in single file. Each extended his hand and thanked me for coming.

That night back in the comfort of home, I couldn’t stop thinking about those men by then locked away. I had gone there to teach. In the end, I learned a lot.

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ARTHUR NEAD ILLUSTRATION