Category Archives: New Orleans

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Creole World by Richard Sexton

Great exhibit at the Historic New Orleans Collection’s Laura Simon Nelson Galleries of photographer Richard Sexton’s details of Caribbean life. It includes New Orleans, Colombia, Haiti, Ecuador and of course Cuba. The exhibit is designed well, with the New Orleans scenes hung next to their Caribbean counterpart, both photos sharing the exact same architectural or at least many composite details.

The exhibit reminds one that the Caribbean face of New Orleans is most likely another reason for its emotional distance from the rest of America. Those places have no great hold on  the American imagination, as seen in the lack of the same architectural styles of Washington DC, or in Savannah or even San Antonio.

America turned its back after its imperialism was slowed by Bolivar, Castro and others and left little New Orleans (and Miami too) without any older sisters to sit with, remembering the past.

On viewing this exhibit, I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes from those dark days of 2005 post-levee break reconstruction, said by a well known Cuban architect in a piece in The Atlantic. Andrés Duany, a co-founder of the Congress for New Urbanism, and a persistent advocate for traditional small-town design, gets to the essence of New Orleans as a Caribbean city said then:

“When I originally thought of New Orleans, I was conditioned by the press to think of it as an extremely ill-governed city, full of ill-educated people, with a great deal of crime, a great deal of dirt, a great deal of poverty,” said Duany, who grew up in Cuba. “And when I arrived, I did indeed find it to be all those things. Then one day I was walking down the street and I had this kind of brain thing, and I thought I was in Cuba. Weird! And then I realized at that moment that New Orleans was not an American city, it was a Caribbean city. Once you recalibrate, it becomes the best-governed, cleanest, most efficient, and best-educated city in the Caribbean. New Orleans is actually the Geneva of the Caribbean.”

Sexton’s Creole World Blog

exhibit and book information

And for those that remember the old Tally Ho Restaurant that was here at the corner of Chartres and Conti, it is a treat to walk through the gallery and remember the ghosts of past grits and red beans had at that counter….

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Ferguson is not forgotten in French Quarter

Malcom, one of the organizers, led a group of about 100 protestors from the cathedral to the river amphitheater, where they stopped for speeches, and then marched to the 1st District Police Station and eventually staged what organizers called a “die-in” or “lie-in.” 

 

peaceful protests continue in French Quarter

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Cane and Table-1113 Decatur Avenue

had a great time at Cane & Table last night, largely because of the company, but credit also to the lovely setting and excellent food-I had tasty green beans, small plate crispy rum ribs, riced cauliflower and broccoli paella (although delicious, they need to call it something that describes it better) and a lovely rice calas for dessert (quite good service as well). check it out. I remember it last was Pravda, but not before that- anyone remember what was there pre-K?

 

The French Quarter is coming back to its dining glory days, thanks to restaurants like these.

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Meauxbar deux

Another amazing meal at Meauxbar; first, the crabmeat and goat cheese app was delicious and just right with chewy bread to scoop it up; Chef Kristen Essig is right- her new fisher family source are first-rate crabbers! House salad with the figs, lovely. (with extra muscadines from Meauxbar’s own vines on the St. Philip side which I had along with a scolding from Essig for absentmindedly leaving one of her prized grapes on my plate!) French fries, mouthwatering-seriously. For entrees, I had the pork and Callie had the lamb- both had deep flavor and there was plenty on the plate, enough to take home for a lunch treat tomorrow. The service is quite excellent; I so enjoy seeing a focused staff led by a ambitious yet fun chef; I predict a future of great meals for me at St. Philip and Rampart.

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Hotel lobby review-Hotel St. Marie

Reviews of French Quarter hotel lobbies’ ambience, service levels and activities available. For people who also spend their time people-watching in air-conditioned comfort. Find all my reviews by searching “hotel lobby reviews” among tags. More will be added from time to time.

Small lobby between Dauphine and Burgundy on Toulouse. Front desk clerks are friendly, no bellman available.
Seating is limited with no bar or shopping available.

http://www.hotelstmarie.com

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Royal Blend French Quarter closes

Well, the end of an era. Simply the best courtyard to sit and relax in the Quarter. Coffee-passable, food pretty good. Service usually excellent.

T-P story about coffeehouse closing

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How Tacky T-shirts Became Contraband in New Orleans – Reason.com

I like some of this tacky stuff and also like the welcoming attitude for our millions of tourists of having many kinds of shops.I do think some of the shopkeepers could try a little harder to find a new niche, rather than crowding more of the same on doorways and on racks with nuclear-level lit interiors and blasting Cajun music across the Quarter. HOWEVER, I agree with a friend of mine interviewed recently in this blog who think incentives and marketing assistance to find new niches may work better than a crackdown, especially one that seems uneven in its focus on certain retailers.
This article makes some very good points here although I might suggest that the author’s comment about “there is little reason to believe they will be replaced by wine cellars or art galleries” is a light slap and one that has no basis in reality, as art galleries do exist in the Quarter, as well as some of our city’s finest antique stores. The culture of our city includes those things and just as some of our loveliest restaurants and best bookstores are found in our city center, those others can and will be found here too.

While a small store owner like Azemas would have to carefully calculate the number of New Orleans Saints shirts he could display in his storefront window when the Saints kick-off their first home game this September, large nearby retailers such as Walgreen’s or H&M can stock rack after rack of New Orleans themed gear without any fear of crossing the 35 percent threshold.

Certainly, no one wants to live in a city overrun with tacky tourists shops, but as the residential population of the French Quarter shrinks, souvenirs are a retailer’s safest bet. Even if opponents of t-shirt shops succeed in getting a few shut down on Bourbon street, there is little reason to believe they will be replaced by wine cellars or art galleries.

Some charge that the attack on t-shirt shops is really an attempt to sanitize the French Quarter and push poor and middle-class people out. Many of the stores are owned by Asian immigrants, and they cater to lower- and middle-class tourists. As an example of zoning enforcement being applied unequally, business owners point to new shop Fleurty Girl. The locally-owned, upscale t-shirt boutique opened a French Quarter location after the 2011 ordinance went into effect—without any major objection from the VCPORA.

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