Tag Archives: Royal Street

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Cafe Amelie

Grabbing some wifi at CC’s on St. Philip just now, I ran into the chef from Cafe Amelie, Jerry Mixon who was picking up some caffeine to start his and Danny’s day at the restaurant. This restaurant is a jewel in the middle of the French Quarter and the history of the Princess of Monaco courtyard (that it sits in) is fascinating. This was Prince Albert’s wife (the one from the 1880s, not the son of Grace Kelly). The Princess of Monaco was born as Alice Heine at 910 Royal; her family was instrumental in the cast iron balcony business. Cast iron was fashionable throughout the US in the 1840s and 1850s, but in New Orleans has remained so. Richard Campanella (social scientist, author of New Orleans Then and Now, Bienville’s Dilemma among others) has done research on cast iron work and theorizes that there was a bit of “Keeping up with the Jones” attitude in why you see more elaborate iron work, the closer you get to Jackson Square/wealthier homes.
Heinrich Heine, the well known, highly respected German-Jewish romantic poet & philosopher, was her great uncle. Like Baroness Pontalba, she did not enjoy married life and left the restrictive royal family life she married into and moved to Paris where she entertained artists and such at her salon in Paris. Her family tried to get part of her 6,000,000 dowry back from the Grimaldis but were unable. easy come easy go, I guess. Or maybe freedom is really just a word for nothin’ left to lose.

The hexagon tower seen from the front was commissioned by renowned architect Henry Howard. The courtyard is fabulous for sitting and eating Jerry’s wonderful gumbo with a cocktail in the evenings.

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Royal Street- 1950s

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A Better Mousetrap

If you were ambling down Royal Street back in the early 1970s, you probably went into a store that was owned by Roger Simonson on Royal Street. Closed around 1974, A Better Mousetrap sold posters, cards, and any hot new item of the time..  Roger was raised in Peoria, moved to New Orleans in the 1960s (following his older brother to the area) where he went to UNO and happily found his forever home.  Roger went on to own other businesses after ABM, but spent most of his remaining years as a high-end kitchenware salesman and then as a cab driver. His uniform was usually jeans and a button-down shirt with a snappy tie during the day (and short shorts and clogs in the summer!), a leather-booted lighter peeking from his pocket and after 5 pm,  beer or a gin and tonic in his hand (cheap gin was always the choice). Roger was seen throughout the 80s and 90s at The Steak Pit, Sloppy Jim’s Bar (much more on that place sooner or later), Rawhide, and Mama Rosa’a among other Quarter places. Some may also remember him during his time running the Persian Boy Gallery on Decatur in the 1990s, until PB owner Roger Bogle’s murder shut all of his businesses down.

A Better Mousetrap didn’t last long, but it foretold the trend to fun kitsch/card shops in the Quarter. Roger was one of two longtime Quarter characters that came from ABM: Sooner or later, you’ll meet the other in an interview here with ABM employee Sam, who continues to work in the French Quarter.

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Along the Banquette: French Quarter buildings and their stories

I recommend this odd little book on specific houses in the French Quarter. Written as individual columns for the neighborhood paper in the 1960s (and heavily edited for the book),  it made it to publication because friends and colleagues of the author, who were mostly members of the VCPORA, the leading  neighborhood association in the French Quarter perservered over a period of years to get it done.

It’s exactly what I like: idiosyncratic writing, charming drawings and no obvious reason for its selections of subjects. A meandering of the old city as it should be.

Found at Historic New Orleans Collection shop-lovely but a bit nerve racking to visit if you have large bags or quick children. Both should be left at the door with the hope that they are still sitting placidly when you return.

Do let the fine ladies at the register know (quickly) if you are a member and deserve the discount; seems they are afraid to assume some of us grubby Quarter Rats might have a membership card!