Disaster May Save Us
Disaster can illuminate how we are connected and how we rely on one another. This is what is happening in my life, my relationships, and in my Uptown neighborhood near Magazine Street and Jefferson Avenue. By day the streets…
Side Dish
At Your Service: You've Got a Deeply Flawed Friend in Me
Until two weeks ago this weekly column/blog was largely dedicated to a combination of dining specials and fun things, usually free, to do in New Orleans in your free time. Now that most of us have nothing but either…
Celebrate St. Joseph's Day with an Attitude of Gratitude and Dinner at Home
Today is St. Joseph's Day, a big deal here in New Orleans, but my advice to you is quite different this week then it was last. Last week I was encouraging you to visit St. Joseph altars and restaurants:…
The Best Outings for the Next Week: Get Out and About While You Can
With corona virus cases ticking up in New Orleans and mass public gatherings, such as the Irish Channel St. Patrick's Day parade, cancelled for this weekend, some will choose to hunker down while others will want to take precautions…
The Best Meatless Specials to Try for Lent
For Catholics, the practice of forgoing the consumption of meat during Lent (Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday) has its roots in the early days of the church and the Black Fast, when the righteous were expected to partake of…
The Best Places to Find Real Crawfish Bisque
In 1957 a feature in Holiday magazine described ladies dining on bowls of crawfish bisque Galatoire's. The article was already a relic by the time I read it years ago but it stuck for its description of the women…
The Best Places to Seek Shelter During Mardi Gras
Few things are more valuable than a friend with a home and a working bathroom on a parade route. Hell, even a parade-side portable toilet with crowds bumping into its side and water sloshing about can be a blessing…
The Best Things to Do at The Higgins Hotel
My late father, Andrew Ernest Benson, Jr., was born in May of 1929. He was a war history buff, particularly when it came to WWII, which dominated his New Orleans childhood. For years I have gone to Parkway Bakery when…
The Best Fun Things Going on This Week
New Orleans became home to many thousands of Vietnamese people following the fall of Saigon in the early 1970s. This weekend, the Vietnamese community celebrates the annual free, family-friendly Tet Fest at Mary Queen of Vietnam Church (14001 Dwyer Blvd.)…
The Best New Things to Try This Weekend
A voyeur, I like to people watch. One of my top spots for doing so is the deep, gracious balcony off of the second floor of the triangular-shaped building that houses Gris Gris (1800 Magazine St., 272-024, grisgrisnola.com). Over…
The Best King Cake Creations to Try this Weekend
We are most assuredly in the Season of the King Cake. They are seemingly everywhere. Throughout Carnival Season, both Cochon Butcher (930 Tchoupitoulas St., 588.7675, cochonbutcher.com) and La Boulangerie (4600 Magazine St, 269.3777, laboulangerienola.com) will offer King Cakes ranging…
The Best FREE Things to Do for the Next Week
I have known the fabulous and talented photographer Cheryl Gerber since we were both very green young journalists. We once joked that it must have been a kindergarten teacher who first pulled us together, pointed at me and commanded "You,…
The Best Food & Drink Specials to Get You Through the Next Week
To know Mosca's – an old, white clapboard Mafioso hangout of a restaurant with real-deal Italian food – is to know you will shout "Mama Mia" for mercy while sweating pure olive oil, safe in knowing you and your…
Get Ready for Twelfth Night: The Best Ways to Welcome Carnival Season
Twelfth Night is celebrated annually on Jan. 5. It is the last day of the Twelve Days of Christmas and is the traditional end of the Christmas season. It is also known as Epiphany Eve as it is followed…
The Best Places to Ring in the New Year in Style
How fortuitous for me! Cozy, super-chic Luvi (5236 Tchoupitoulas St., 504-605-3340, luvirestaurant.com) is located right around the corner from my house. The diminutive Asian restaurant is offering early dinner seatings at 6 and 8 p.m., at either a table…
The Best Places to Celebrate the Season Starting This Weekend
Whether you are seeking time out in a festive holiday atmosphere or a means of entertaining guests without bringing the fa-la-la to your own kitchen a bevy of New Orleans restaurants have you covered for the next week of…
The Best Resources for Locally Made Holiday Gifts
Every year I am faced with sending gifts to members of my extended family in Sweden. I makes no sense to me to buy mass produced items made in China then ship then to my relatives across the pond,…
The Best Cocktail Specials and Happy Hours to Check out This Weekend
New Orleanians of a certain age may recall when local "happy" hours came in three basic forms with slight variations thereof: Sure-bet barf-inducing three-for-one well brand specials at The Boot, Friar Tucks, Hillary's, and Shanahan's; the Friday evening "Sippin' into…
Out To Lunch: The Best Lunch Specials to Add Some Sizzle to Your Day
A slew of local restaurants have recently upped the lunch game allowing for exciting, diverse dining options often at value-driven prices. Check them out. Marjie's Grill (320 S Broad Ave, 603.2234, marjiesgrill.com) offers a unique take on the meat-and-three…
The Best Spots for Soul-Warming Soups to Beat the Cold Weather
It has happened again only this year it happened much earlier and with greater ferocity than ever before: The weather went from months of unrelenting big-dog-breathing-on-you- heat to a few blissful days of brilliant skies, cool breezes and low…
Side Dish Picks For Best New Food, Drink Specials and Weekend Events
The Link Stryjewski Foundation’s dinner series continues tonight at 7 p.m. at Calcasieu (930 Tchoupitoulas St.) with the theme, “European Vacation.” The fundraiser features a four-course dinner with wine pairings inspired by a recent trip to Europe by chefs de…
The Best Things to do for Halloween and the Weekend
For Halloween fun, this evening guests are invited to Nolé Cuisine de las Americas (2001 St. Charles Ave., 593-9955, nolerestaurant.com) in costume for a trick or treat experience – a surprise from the kitchen…
Four Best Places to Eat and Drink This Weekend
Have you ever wanted to know how to make the best tortilla? Tonight Chef Will Alevar will reveal his family tradition. You’ve probably eaten his family’s tortillas at several restaurants around town, but now is your chance to learn…
The Best Places to Drink and Dine Outdoors This Weekend
Unlike the hours-long little teaser that dropped us into the 70s a few weeks ago, a bonafied days-long cool front offering evening lows in the 60s and daily highs in the 70s has settled upon our sweaty city. The…
The BEST Places to Celebrate with ME This Weekend
A dream of five years comes true for me this evening. For the past five years I have served as the Director of Culinary Programming for the Southern Food & Beverage Museum (SoFab) in Central City. In this capacity I…
The Best Healthful Dining Options to Launch You Into Autumn
Despite the unwelcome hanging around of the heat, the holiday season is launching into full swing next month and bringing with it a host of rich foods and opportunities for over-indulgence. In an attempt to hedge my bets against…
The Best Reasons to Visit Historic Gretna
I recently spent some time exploring historic Gretna, a fascinating, somewhat mysterious city on the West Bank (technically east of New Orleans but that's another story). Like Uptown New Orleans, where I live, Old Gretna is loaded with historic…
The Best Freebies and Fun On-the-Cheap
It's still hot outside. Take shelter on Saturday in one of our city's many fantastic, often world-class museums when you and a guest can get in for free compliments of Smithsonian magazine and its annual Museum Day. Participating museums…
A Few of the Best Places to Watch the Saints Crush the Rams on Sunday
After that nail-biting, hair-raising experience the Saints treated us to on Monday night we could all use a bit of soothing as we head into the next go-round on Sunday when the Saints pay a visit to Los Angeles…
Saturday In The Quarter
The seventh annual Downriver Festival kicks off at 10 a.m. at the New Orleans Jazz Museum (400 Esplanade Ave., 568.2564, nolajazzmuseum.org). Celebrating the cultural, economic, environmental and inspirational impacts and contributions of the Mississippi River to our fair city…
