Hey J & P,
Since Louisiana is the Pelican State, we should all be aware of that great poem about the bird. I would recite it, but I don’t remember it. Do you recall it? And who was the author?
Drake Manuel, Westwego, LA
Even Poydras, who does not take kindly to references about other birds likes this classic:
A wonderful bird is the pelican.
His bill can hold more than his belican.
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week,
But I’m damned if I see how the helican.
That was written by Dixon Lanier Merritt (1879–1972) who was an American poet and humorist. He was a newspaper editor for the “Tennessean,” Nashville’s morning paper, and president of the American Press Humorists Association. According to PoemHunter.com, he wrote the limerick in 1910. It was inspired by a post card sent to him from a female reader of his newspaper column who was visiting Florida beaches.
You know, sometimes when a person is working on one question, such as what I am doing, they stumble across something else, such as I just did. Merritt’s middle name was “Lanier.” There was a rather famous playwright born in the South whose middle name was also Lanier – Thomas Lanier Williams, better known by his first name of “Tennessee.” Was there any relationship? The two men were obviously gifted with words. Hmmm.
Meanwhile, there is a book out from LSU Press called “Brown Pelican.” It is a great piece of writing by New Orleans author Rien Fertel that explores the science and the mystique of the bird, of which there is plenty.
Speaking of family connections, Fertel is from the family of Ruth Fertel as in Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. Be careful though. A sizzling t-bone plate can hold more than the belican.
Hello Julia and Poydras,
I am writing in connection to your April article about Regal Beer. As a native of the city, I remember New Orleans having four operating breweries – Falstaff, Dixie, Regal and Jax. My father-in-law was a brewer at Jax for many years.
My questions are: when did they shut down the tasting rooms, and when did the three breweries shut down and why?
Thomas Roberts, Fort Mill SC
Yes. Jax, Dixie, Regal, and Falstaff were all brewed in New Orleans. Falstaff had several owners (including Pabst) and several names through the years. The New Orleans facility did have a tasting room and an adjacent color-coded weather ball, which still stands, as does the original brewery, which was converted to condos after the building closed in 1979.
Dixie beer was the last surviving local name. Its final owners were Tom and Gale Benson who built a new brewery in eastern New Orleans. The name “Dixie” was changed to “Faubourg” in 2019.
Located in the French Quarter, Regal Beer was once very popular, but died a slow death as its French Quarter facility, now the site of the Royal Sonesta Hotel was closed in 1960. The Chicago-based owner still used the “Regal” name until the 1970s.
Jax’s main facility still stands as the site of the Jax Brewery shopping area on the French Quarter riverfront.
Once, most cities had several local breweries, but the rise of the advertising-rich mega breweries, with their refrigerated trucks, made it easier for the big nationals to move into extended markets.
Now the trend has gone the opposite direction with tightly regulated micro “craft” breweries serving regional markets. All serve beer on premises, so, in a sense, the tasting room has returned.
And because of the craft breweries, the tastes have expanded.
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