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New Orleans Magazine May 2018

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Last Call: Toasting History!

For over 100 years, 1831-1932, a train, operated by the Pontchartrain Railroad, carried day-tripping New Orleanians from the heat of the city to the cooling breezes on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. The Smoky Mary ran up Elysian Fields Avenue to an area known as Milneburg, the eventual site of Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park, which […]

Restaurant Insider: News from the Kitchen

Paloma Café Paloma Café took over the spot formerly home to Café Henri in the Bywater, serving a menu largely comprised of Latin food. Chefs Danny Alas and Justin Rodriguez hail from Venezuela and the Dominican Republic respectively, but most recently they both worked at Compere Lapin, chef Nina Compton’s outstanding restaurant in the CBD. […]

Table Talk: Cooking Korean

Looking for a way to shake up your dining experience? If so, consider Gin Korean BBQ in Fat City, where the line between kitchen and dining room blurs thanks to the tabletop grills that enable guests to experiment with ready-to-cook meats and a constellation of accompaniments that will make any meal an adventure. Gin is […]

Camp Crusader

It’s May in New Orleans, otherwise known as “Have all the good summer camps filled up already?” season for parents. Well, I’m here to tell you … probably not yet? There are still openings at all the camps I just this week signed my kids up for. Georgia is scheduled for both St. Martin’s camp […]

Streetcar: A Mayor, An Inauguration and Two Crises

May 1, 1978 was a fine day, especially for Dutch Morial who stood at the place of honor on the grandstand erected in front of City Hall. The crowd watched as Morial, dressed in the traditional white suit of mayors-elect on inauguration day, raised his right hand and took the oath. It would forever be […]

ETC.

New Addiction Treatment Center Opens in Old Metairie A new outpatient addiction treatment center, Longbranch Wellness Center, has opened in Metairie. It is part of Longbranch Healthcare, whose inpatient program at Longbranch Recovery Center in Abita Springs is part of the largest investment in addiction treatment in Louisiana. Founder and CEO Chris McMahon achieved his […]

Roar of the PT Boat

“When I come back, I’m gonna marry you, kid,” Earl told Lucille the last time he dropped her off at home before he shipped out for the second time. It was around 1944 and he was one of the 16.1 million soldiers who would fight in World War II. My grandparents truly were part of […]

The Namesake's Art

As New Orleans celebrates its Tricentennial, nothing could be more fitting than a visit from the city’s namesake, Philippe II, Duc d’Orléans. Of course the duke can’t come in person, he died in 1723, but what is coming to the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) in October is a large selection from his vast […]

O Canada

When Paul Prudhomme put Cajun cooking on the world-wide map, he told food writers beating down his door, “Go to the country.” Or, in other words, New Iberia, St. Martinville, Lafayette, his home-town of Opelousas and other southwest Louisiana towns where French-Canadians settled in the mid-1700s. In one week, recalled Cajun chef Alex Patout of […]

Built on Tradition

Ashley Barrios grew up in Bay St. Louis. Her husband, Byron Barrios grew up in New Orleans. When the couple, who met and married while working in New York (he on Wall Street, she for designer Diane Furstenberg) decided to return to their southern roots to raise their daughters (Isla and Annie), they chose Covington […]

Spirit of Fi Yi Yi

The Mardi Gras Indians carry a cultural memory rooted in dances of enslaved Africans at the antebellum park, Congo Square. Choctaw and other indigenous peoples watched the swirling ring dances with people in costumes, and as black people moved beyond slavery, the circles opened into streams of dancers following bands in streets, and black men […]

Book Reviews

Freedom’s Dance by Eric Waters and Karen Celestan LSU Press In New Orleans, we celebrate a little bit differently. In “Freedom’s Dance,” photographer Eric Waters visually explores the dazzling array of celebrations, parades, second lines and more from the city’s social aid and pleasure clubs. From ornately decorated suits, fans and sashes to energetic displays […]

A Tale of Two Fests

Now that Jazz Fest is just about behind us, it’s time to start looking ahead to the summer festival scene. In one of the great annual injustices, two of the best May festivals fall on the weekend of the 18th. If you’re looking for an excuse to head down to the coast to Gulf Shores, […]

Maritime Munching

Doing the Tricentennial thing, our cover story this month features recipes from French Canada from which the LeMoyne Brothers, Iberville and Bienville, arrived. The information is fine if you’re cooking at home. I was wondering, however, what if we were on a trip to the Canadian maritime province and wanted to go native at the […]

Biodegradable Beads

Remember when the city pulled 49 tons of Carnival beads out the storm drains on St. Charles Avenue? And everybody said, “Well, looka that. So THAT’s why we been flooding.” This gives my daughter Gladiola a brilliant idea. She can do her science project and save Mardi Gras at the same time. She goes on […]

Eye in the Sky

Remember that song, “Somebody’s Watching Me?” All I want is to be left alone in my average home; But why do I always feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone. I always feel like somebody’s watching me. It was one of those ubiquitous pop supernovas that you couldn’t get off your radio – or out […]

Prudent Collection

Saratoga Trunk, a 1945 film, partly set in New Orleans, was based on a novel by Edna Ferber. Ferber, a careful researcher for her historical fiction, had as her heroine “Clio Dulaine,” the daughter of a white father and a free woman of color, who returned to New Orleans from Paris looking for a rich […]

Digging for the Truth

Earlier this year, yet another water pressure fall triggered a boil-water advisory for the entire east bank of New Orleans. These boil-water advisories are occurring with increasing frequency and are becoming old hat. State adopted drinking water regulations mandate local authorities to issue these advisories. The theory behind these advisories appears straightforward. The soil surrounding […]

Canine Companions

Meet Benny, Chaz, Gunther and Harvey, volunteer reading specialists. They have no academic degrees or lesson plans, no pencils or paper, yet parents of struggling young readers praise their skill and return month after month for another round of their special brand of magic.   Their secret? Just being themselves: cute and canine.   These […]

Roll of the Dice

Twenty years ago, the idea that an industry could start up in Louisiana and within a relatively short time become a significant source of state tax revenue may have seemed a pipedream. Then again, in the view of some people at the time, the prospect of widespread legalized gambling seemed more of a nightmare. Arguments […]

Desi Oakley

Singer, songwriter, dancer and actor, Desi Oakley is a quadruple threat and is bringing her interpretation of the lead role of Jenna in the groundbreaking musical “Waitress” to the Saenger’s Broadway in New Orleans series, June 12-17. Originally from the mid-west, Oakley made her Broadway debut in the musical “Wicked,” and following it up with […]

Postcards of the Imagination

As is with many visitors, there was something indefinable but appealing about Hope Gutwrench’s first hours in New Orleans. “The magic of long-armed trees reaching over the streets, the thick air, the warmth of the people. I love the slow pace of July, the stupid heat and sudden showers and realizing you just have to […]

May

Crawfish Mambo If you like crawfish and supporting the University of New Orleans and development programs for its students, you’re in luck. On May 12, the Crawfish Mambo is a crawfish boil contest held at the UNO Alumni Center. There will be live music and dancing. It is a family-friendly event and children 7 and […]

Julia Street with Poydras the Parrot

Dear Julia, In the early part of the 20th century, air races were a big deal, and as a native of New Orleans I often heard about them, but never saw them. Do you think it would be possible to gas up Poydras and let him take a turn around the course and give us […]

The Fair and the City's Founding

By now the verdicts on New Orleans’ World’s Fair, whose opening day anniversary is this month, May 12, 1984, are widely accepted: It was a financial flop. It was an artistic success. Locals loved it. It hastened riverfront redevelopment. With those points conceded, we can now look from the perspective of three decades plus four […]

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