Tag Archives: French Quarter

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Latitude 29

I for one can’t wait for this to open-we need some fun and liveliness in the Upper Quarter again. I’ve heard great things about the owners and their attention to detail on authentic tiki-ness. And after all, let’s not forget that our vibe is as much Caribbean as it is French or Spanish.
Use the link to join their newsletter to keep up on their opening and their specials.
Latitude 29.

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Located in the Bienville House Hotel

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Petit Amelie

One of my favorite restauranteurs in the Quarter, Cafe Amelie has added a storefront just down the street with lovely items and a pleasing dining space. Jerry and Danny have done wondrous things with the Princess of Monaco courtyard in the middle of the 900 block of Royal and now give early risers a chance for a salmon and bagel plate, healthy juices, tasty pastries and morning espresso and afternoon drinks, or if you like, morning drinks and afternoon espresso-after all, this is the Quarter.
The two have been long time supporters of local produce and cottage industries and have even spent time as vendors at the farmers markets. You can be sure that they source fresh ingredients from farmers and fishers whenever possible.
Stop in at Dumaine and Royal (8-8 Weds-Sun) for a cheerful, healthy breakfast soon.

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Walk On The Wild Side credits

One of the best sets of opening and closing movie credits done by the great Saul Bass ( http://annyas.com/screenshots/saul-bass-title-sequences/), and especially suitable for a movie set in New Orleans. Crazy 1962 movie but with an amazing cast: Anne Baxter as a Mexican for chrissake (why does she always looks middle-aged), Jane Fonda in a small role that she was too perky and oddly wholesome to pull off (the hustling teenager Kitty Twist), Tatum O’Neal’s mother Joanna Moore, as an abused prostitute with the classic heart of gold and exposition role (aka a “she ain’t here” role), Barbara Stanwyck as a lesbian bordello owner, Laurence Harvey as a Texas cowboy, Capucine of Pink Panther fame playing the romantic lead wearing modern clothes and who sounded like a bitch on the set; sadly she took her own life in the 1990s. The accents and plot are ridiculous and of course you could guess what happens to which character from the beginning of this movie, but still worth a watch.

Jax beer on the shelf, 25 cent poor boys signs, shots of lower Chartres street, Lafittes Blacksmith Shop, a few other great shots of the old city. Enjoy.

“The odds against going to heaven are six to one…”

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Moveable Feast On Location with Poppy Tooker in New Orleans

My pal Poppy Tooker gives a short and sweet overview of a few places that visitors and locals should check out or renew their acquaintance with in our city, many of them right here in the French Quarter. That alone makes Poppy an original and an authentic voice for the city and its culture since she is not afraid of embracing the Quarter and its delights and yet I know she won’t say it unless she means it. Brava Poppy. Moveable Feast On Location with Poppy Tooker in New Orleans – FineCooking.com.

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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….