So NOLAnotes issued a NOLA book challenge. Here are my favorites, an incomplete list limited to my top 5 non-fiction books, in no particular order. Old New Orleans by Stanley Clisby Arthur. A walking tour of the French Quarter written by the man who also wrote Famous New Orleans Drinks & How to Make...
There’s been a lot said about the HBO drama Treme. It’s set in New Orleans, from mid-November 2005, just a few months after Katrina, to St. Joseph’s Day, March 19 in 2006. In the 10 episodes of the series’ first season, the show managed to cram in a huge amount of, what for many...
I try to go to the cemetery (St. Louis No. 1) every year on All Saints day. Save Our Cemeteries is there every year, too, with a list and the map from the Dead Space project to help families locate tombs. They’ve been doing a good job over the years working with various groups...
The Louisiana Film Museum opening was last Wednesday, September 2. The latest addition to the NOLA museum scene is located at the Riverwalk, inside the Southern Food and Beverage Museum (SoFAB), also the home of the Museum of the American Cocktail. It was a subdued opening with a small but engaged crowd wandering about....
Updated 07/23/2009. Tales of the Cocktail 2009 is now over. From the opening ceremony Wednesday, July 8 (celebrating the 75th anniversary of NOLA’s own Herbsaint), to the Wormwood Society’s grand soirée closing things out on Sunday night, it was a whirlwind of boozing, networking and learning. Tales of the Cocktail’s official cocktail, the Creole...
While I’m still working on some more detailed posts on things I learned at Tales of the Cocktail this year, I want to hand out some kudos to everyone involved. Ann and Paul Tuennerman, along with the Cocktail Angels Melissa Young, Christina Gaspari and Michelle Dunnick and the rest of Ann’s staff did a...
Updated, see below. So a while back, while researching the Roosevelt Hotel’s opening, I couldn’t help noticing all the references to the Ramos Gin Fizz, along with the Sazerac (at the Sazerac Bar) it’s the hotel’s signature drink. The Ramos Gin Fizz was the favorite drink of Governor Huey Long, famous rogue politician who,...
The Hotel Montleone, one of New Orleans’ historic hotels, and home to Tales of the Cocktail, is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its Carousel Bar. The Royal Street landmark is famous for its literary connections. Literary greats have haunted its halls for decades. Tennessee Williams was a frequent guest, Truman Capote often quipped that...
Tom Fitzmorris opined, back in 1977, that there were three restaurants he couldn’t live without: Antoine’s, Maylie’s and the Bud’s Broiler on City Park Avenue. Tom would have say whether all of that still stands today, since although Antoine’s is going strong, Maylie’s has been closed for years now (the also-defunct Smith & Wollensky...
It’s celebrated for its storied dining rooms named after and decorated with memorabilia from some of New Orleans’ most staid carnival krewes. Antoine’s is expanding on its traditions with a new venue, next door to the hallowed restaurant: the Hermes Bar. The bar’s grand opening was Friday, coinciding with the opening day of French...
A breezy day. Lots of music and food. Day 1 of French Quarter Fest was a good fest day. I didn’t plan on doing much more than hitting my favorite food booths and keeping in touch on the net to meet up with people. I did meet one; I taunted the rest of the...
New Orleans and cocktails, two things nearest and dearest to my heart. Each year Tales of the Cocktail presents all the best of these two things; cocktails, cocktail history, New Orleans’ cocktail history, and, for the finale, your chance to participate in New Orleans cocktail history in the making. I’ll have more details for...
Sylvester Francis runs the show at the Backstreet Cultural Museum in Treme. He’s a film maker, photographer and historian. A world of New Orleans African-American culture awaits inside the museum, located at 1116 St. Claude, across the street and down a little ways in the same block as St. Augustine church. Mr. Francis has...
Last year was my first encounter with Krewe du Vieux. It’s definitely “one for the locals;” highly satirical and raunchy to the extreme, it’s also held early enough each year that it’s off of the regular Mardi Gras beer-and-hand grenade-swilling, boob-flashing tourist crowd’s radar. As KdV’s website says: It is unique among all Mardi...
As explained in the last post, Sunday was a streetcar hunting day. Besides the lunch at Parkway Bakery, we went to see, as Nola called them, “the bunnies at the brewery.” She said they were part of Prospect.1, so we figured we had to check them out immediately because P.1 was ending that day....
I let loose my New Year’s resolution a couple of weeks ago: To eat better in 2009. Better steaks, better shrimp, better meals all around. One wag, Yat Pundit, echoed the theme with “less Subway, more Parkway!” Yeah, you rite! That reminded me of a glaring omission in my life. I’ve yet to have...
I was cleaning up my cube today and ran across a stack of papers left over from some genealogy research I did a few years ago. I took a look at an obituary, my great-great grandfather’s brother (great-great grand uncle?), Paul ______, from 1898. I guess I hadn’t paid much attention to it after...
“On my honor I will do my best: To do my duty to God and my country…” Oath, Boy Scouts of America. “I vow to personally buy the first Sazerac for any visitor who asks ‘Hey, where do I get a Hurricane?’ and pledge to pull out the Herbsaint and Rye no matter the...
I’ll let the press release from Ann Tuennerman explain all the good news: TALES OF THE COCKTAIL OPENING RECEPTION TO BE HELD AT THE NEWLY RESTORED ROOSEVELT HOTEL TOAST OF THE EVENING TO OCCUR AT THE ORIGINAL SAZERAC BAR NEW ORLEANS, LA—December 1, 2008 – Tales of the Cocktail, a cocktail and culinary festival...
