We have the Mardi Gras Spirit(s)
Crescent City Steak House
A Legendary Dining Experience in New Orleans
BlakePONTCHARTRAIN New Orleans Know-it-all Questions for Blake: askblake@gambitweekly.com
1934 – 2011
Come sip and sample!
Hey Blake,
5725 Magazine Street (corner of Nashville)
504.302.1455
Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > february 14 > 2012
AMPLE PARKING ON THE CORNER & IN REAR OF STORE
DO THE
MARDI GRAS LUNCH MAMBO opEN 12pM - 4pM ThuRs. FEB. 16ThsaT. FEB. 18Th MAKE A RESERVATION & GET YOUR SPOT AT THE P-RADE EARLY! closED FoR DiNNER FEB. 16Th - FEB. 21sT
LUNCH TUE-FRI 11AM-2PM
DINNER MON-THUR 5:30-10PM FRI & SAT 5:30-10:30PM 4501 TchoupiToulas sT.
16
504-894-9880 www.dickandjennys.com
TUES–FRI 11:30am–9:30pm SAT 4-10pm • SUN 11:30-9pm
821-3271
I just found out that Red Bull offered to put a skate park in City Park, but City Park refused. I know Baton Rouge has a skate park. When is New Orleans going to get one?
The Red Bull Mississippi Grind barge traveled from Minneapolis to New Orleans for a skateboard competition. The skate park structures were donated to New Orleans, and they have been in storage since.
Chuck Dear Chuck, There is a skate park in New Orleans, but it’s not usable yet. The elements are disassembled and stored where the brake tag station used to be on North Jefferson Davis Parkway. It will all stay there until the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission (NORDC) acts on a recommendation by the city’s capital projects staff that the Lafitte Greenway is the best place to assemble the skate park. The skate park was a donation, but the big questions were where it should be installed and who would foot the bill. Several locations were considered, including Joe Brown Park and Behrman Park, but the Lafitte Greenway beat out the competition. Most of the folks who came to the public meetings to comment on the location of the park preferred the Lafitte Greenway, a 3.1-mile former railroad right of way extending from Armstrong Park near the French Quarter to Canal Boulevard near City Park. The skate park came to New Orleans from Minneapolis on a specially outfitted barge, and contestants competed in skateboarding events on the vessel. The 195-foot barge, nicknamed the Red Bull Mississippi Grind, and the story of its three-week journey down the river with its cargo, will be told in a documentary film. Years ago, City Park was offered the skate park, valued at more than $150,000. City Park wanted to accept the generous gift but was unable to find the money required to install it. Extra expenses include site preparation, utilities installation, a fence, parking and more — totaling several million dollars. The problem is now in the hands of the NORDC.
Hey Blake,
In Ed Haslam’s book Dr. Mary’s Monkey, the author makes reference to Thompson’s Restaurant, which apparently was located near Lafayette Square in the early 1960s and was frequented by Lee Harvey Oswald and the local anti-Castro crowd during the summer of 1963. Any insight on when it closed and what occupies that space today? Curious Conspiracy Theorist Dear Curious, Thompson’s Restaurant was located at 133 St. Charles Ave., just a few blocks from Lafayette Square. It closed about 1970, and today is occupied by Mike Serio’s Po-Boys and Deli. One of the women mentioned in the book, Anna Lewis, was a waitress at the restaurant and knew Oswald as a customer.
Notes from Blake: In the Jan. 31 issue, I answered Cheryl Beck about an ice cream shop she remembered from the 1970s that was on Franklin Avenue. I wrote that she probably remembered Hayes Very Fine Ice Cream Shop. However, she may have meant Melba’s Ice Cream Shop, which was also on Franklin near Claiborne Avenue. There has been some confusion about what the initials J.B. stand for in Col. J.B. Walton’s name. He has been called John Burgess and James Burdge; however, the correct name for the adjutant of the Washington Artillery is James Burdge Walton.