Gambit: August 8, 2020

August 11-17, 2020 Volume 41 // Number 30

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t e e w S

CONTENTS

HOW

AUG. 11 — 17, 2020 VOLUME 41 | NUMBER 30 NEWS

IT IS

OPENING GAMBIT

7

COMMENTARY 9

ROSES $8 / DOZEN

BLAKE PONTCHARTRAIN 10

CASH & CARRY

CLANCY DUBOS

11

FEATURES

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 5 EAT + DRINK

BACK TO SCHOOL

MUSIC 33

ROLL CALL!

GOING OUT

EXCHANGE 35

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PUZZLES 35

A JAPANESE RESTAURANT & SUSHI BAR

THE SAM-DAN ROLL

27

UNSUNG HEROES Behind the scenes with five school workers preparing for the new semester.

STAFF

COVER PHOTOS BY SHIRLEY CLAYTON, RICCARDO EMILIEN, DAVID GRUNFELD, AUDIE JACKSON AND SARAH RAVITS COVER DESIGN

BY DORA SISON

Publisher | JEANNE EXNICIOS FOSTER

EDITORIAL

ADVERTISING

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Advertising Inquiries (504) 483-3150

Editor | JOHN STANTON

Advertising Director | SANDY STEIN BRONDUM

Political Editor | CLANCY DUBOS Arts & Entertainment Editor | WILL COVIELLO Staff Writers | JAKE CLAPP, SARAH RAVITS Contributing Writers | IAN MCNULTY

PRODUCTION

(504) 483-3150 [sstein@gambitweekly.com]

Senior Sales Representative JILL GIEGER (504) 483-3131

[jgieger@gambitweekly.com]

Creative Services Director | DORA SISON Pre-Press Coordinator | JASON WHITTAKER

Sales Representatives

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KATIE BISHOP

Graphic Designers | CATHERINE FLOTTE,

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TIANA WATTS

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BUSINESS & OPERATIONS

KELLY SONNIER

Billing Inquiries 1 (225) 388-0185

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Administrative Assistant | LINDA LACHIN

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Gambit (ISSN 1089-3520) is published weekly by Capital City Press, LLC, 840 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70130. (504) 4865900. We cannot be held responsible for the return of unsolicited manuscripts even if accompanied by a SASE. All material published in Gambit is copyrighted: Copyright 2020 Capital City Press, LLC. All rights reserved.

Krewe of Iris

Go for it THE MONTHLY MOTH STORYSLAM CONTINUES its online series with a night dedicated to the theme of enthusiasm — the kind of zeal that can earn the respect or resentment of others. Participants can sign up to share their own five-minute stories in the Zoom event Tuesday, Aug. 11, via themoth.org. Sign up is at 7:15 p.m., stories begin at 7:30. Admission is pay-what-you-will.

Iris Martin Cohen bares the souls of burlesque dancers, Catholic school girls and barflies in ‘Last Call on Decatur Street.’

Horn racket ASHLIN PARKER IS THE DON OF THE NEW ORLEANS TRUMPET MAFIA, a syndicate of local horn players playing jazz, hip-hop styles and more. The group performs on the balcony of the New Orleans Jazz Museum at 5 p.m. Tuesday, and a livestream is available on Facebook. com/nolajazzmuseum/live.

BY WILL COVIELLO HEAVY BLACK MAKEUP, CHEAP CHAMPAGNE — tasting like a mix

of gasoline and apple Jolly Ranchers — and the lusty adoration of a French Quarter club full of hipsters help propel Rosemary’s burlesque routine. She’s also interested in a man she sometimes hooks up with finally coming to see the show, but her long strange night is really just beginning in Iris Martin Cohen’s latest novel, “Last Call on Decatur Street.”

Released this week, the novel is set among the hipsters, punks, drunks, gawkers and misfits of millennial French Quarter nightlife — a scene Cohen knew from her own teens and early 20s. “[Writing the book] was one of these fever dream experiences,” Cohen says from her home in Brooklyn. “Once I went back into that world, it all poured out really fast.”

Cohen grew up in the French Quarter, the daughter of art photographer Josephine Sacabo and writer (and former Gambit theater critic) Dalt Wonk.

“I started sneaking out and going to the Dragon’s Den at 16,” Cohen says. The novel revisits the stomping grounds of Lower Decatur and more far flung spots around the city, including enclaves of privilege. The book’s setting will feel familiar to people who spent time in bars including El Matador and the Hideout, went to retro burlesque shows at the Shim Sham Club, and performances of The Bingo! Show and the Happy Talk band.

In the book, Rosemary has returned to the French Quarter scene after dropping out of college. She works in a trendy lingerie shop in Uptown and is a part-time burlesque dancer. She hangs out at dingy bars and negotiates the testosterone-charged social scene, where everyone from bartenders to gutter punks and rockabilly dudes want her attention.

“When you’re a young woman out in bars in your 20s, there’s a lot of nonsense to wade through when it comes to men,” Cohen says.

Breaking bread

The novel reframes that world from a young woman’s point of view.

“We’ve got a lot of cult movies with a lot of really messed up boys that are vaguely self-destructive,” she says.

“Part of me wanted to have a female perspective on that moment.”

Despite the wild night, Rosemary is coping with more immediate personal issues. Her dog died, which has her longing for the companionship of her former best friend, Gaby. She’d even settle for the company of her usually distracted mother, who spent her younger years drinking in some of the same bars and working in the Quarter’s big hotels.

Rosemary and Gaby were odd-couple friends at a Catholic school full of rich kids. Rosemary is Jewish, and Gaby was the only Black girl in her class. Flashbacks to their antics as inseparable high school buddies begin an exploration of their bond and some of Rosemary’s blind spots about how they see the world differently.

The structure bears some similarity to Cohen’s well-received debut novel, “The Little Clan.” Set in a secluded niche within New York’s literary scene, it also centered on the friendship between two young women.

Cohen has spent much of the time since 2004 in New York.

P H OTO B Y K R I S A L E X A N D E R S O N

Iris Martin Cohen releases “Last Call on Decatur Street” this week.

“(In New York) you feel like an outsider,” she says. “I don’t feel as implicated as I do when I talk about New Orleans.”

“Last Call on Decatur” touches on her own experiences. She and several women, including some strippers, lived in a rented mansion on Elysian Fields Avenue she says. She was a go-go dancer with a retro ’60s band, and later while living in Austin, Texas, started doing burlesque herself.

“I spent a lot of time living in this world with dive bars and vintage culture,” Cohen says. “Now I need to talk about the punks and the weirdos and the burlesque dancers.”

She says she’s surprised when New York friends find it odd that she danced for a while.

“I don’t know why people are surprised,” she says. “Maybe it’s because I wear glasses now and don’t give off that vibe.” ”Last Call on Decatur” is available Aug. 10. At 5 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 11, Cohen will be interviewed by Alison Fensterstock via Zoom and burlesque dancer Trixie Minx will perform.

Find the link at gardendistrictbookshop.com.

JAMES BEARD AWARD-WINNING PASTRY CHEF LISA DONOVAN has broken ground on bringing traditional Southern desserts and baking into restaurant repertoires. She also published a book of essays, “Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger,” which addresses subjects including sexist barriers in professional kitchens and abuse of women in the industry and beyond.

Lolis Elie interviews Donovan in a Zoom event available via a link at gardendistrictbookshop.com at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

P H OTO B Y A S H L E Y L A N D I S /A P P H OTO

Final buzzer THE NEW ORLEANS PELICANS CLOSE OUT THE SEASON in the bubble with games against the Sacramento Kings (8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 11) and the Orlando Magic (Thursday, Aug. 13 time TBD). Games are broadcast on Fox Sports New Orleans and ESPN Radio 100.3 FM.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

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N E W

O R L E A N S

N E W S

+

V I E W S

Maybe the mayor can crowdfund donations to help pay our S&WB bills

# The Count

Thumbs Up/ Thumbs Down

75

Center for Disaster Philanthropy has awarded $90,000

to Culture Aid Nola, to fight food insecurity in New Orleans’ arts, culture and hospitality communities.

CAN has so far served more than 250,000 pounds of food in the city through free meals, groceries and other help. The national Center for Disaster Philanthropy distributes domestic and international disaster funds through grants, such as the one given to Culture Aid Nola, which will be used to continue offering meals and grocery delivery in New Orleans.

The percentage of people who have died of COVID-19 in Orleans Parish who were Black.

P H OTO B Y R O B N O E L K E / P R OV I D E D B Y J R N O L A

Gambit will be partnering with JRNOLA students and their mentors on some of our upcoming stories. Pictured: Top row, from left: Chief Operations Officer Allison McCarroll, Editor in Chief Liam Pierce, Lana Lawson and Mark Joseph. Bottom row, from left: Taylor Pittman, Jacklyn Leo, Hannah Darcey and Phillip Petty

A NOTE FROM OUR EDITOR Pat Green, a former New Orleans resident who rode a pink casket on wheels through the French Quarter for her own (premature) jazz funeral, has recovered from the coronavirus at the age of 96. Green moved to New Orleans in 2015 after nearly 30 years of visiting and getting to know the local music community. In 2017, she threw her own jazz funeral through the Quarter as Hurricane Nate approached the Gulf Coast.

The Louisiana Supreme Court decided not to review the

life sentence of a man in prison for attempting to steal hedge clippers.

Fair Wayne Bryant, was arrested in 1997 after trying to steal the hedge clippers and because he had previous convictions for past crimes, he was given the life sentence under habitual offender laws. Chief Justice Bernette Johnson alone dissented; her opinion called habitual offender laws a “modern manifestation” of Reconstruction era laws used to target and penalize Black Americans.

A WISE WOMAN ONCE SAID, “I believe the children are our future.

Teach them well and let them lead the way.” That woman — nay, Goddess — was Whitney Houston. Rest In Power, Whitney.

In an era when the adults in charge of this nation have utterly failed, it occurs to us that perhaps it’s time to start listening to our children.

Lord knows they couldn’t screw things up any worse than we have.

That’s why I’m proud to announce that this issue of Gambit marks the beginning of a new partnership between our paper and JRNOLA, a nonprofit that works with local teens interested in journalism. Over the coming weeks and months, we will be bringing you stories not only about our community’s children, but also reported, written and photographed by them. Through this project, we hope to not only give JRNOLA students real-world experience as reporters, but to also provide them a platform to tell stories that are important to them, from their perspective.

Our cover story about some of the unsung heroes of local schools, reported and written by staff writer Sarah Ravits and JRNOLA’s Evelynn Coffie, a recent graduate from Lusher Charter School, is one such story. Sarah and Evelynn worked together, along with JRNOLA’s editor-in-chief, Liam Pierce, to tell the stories of the school cafeteria workers, counselors, administrators and other workers who together are the backbone of our educational system. These people care deeply for the students they work with and are too often overlooked by society — especially in a time when a deadly pandemic threatens not only their lives, but the lives of children we entrust to them every day.

This week’s Gambit is also the first in a series of editions we will be publishing focused on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the lives of ordinary New Orleanians in ways large and small, and how we are — and are not — adapting to this new reality. — JOHN STANTON

Evictions return in earnest to New Orleans On Aug. 4, a photo of an unidentified family’s possessions littering Urquhart Street, unceremoniously dumped as part of an eviction, began to PAGE 8

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently awarded a $700,000 grant to a team of Tulane University researchers who are studying the virus and hoping to explain why COVID-19 is causing much higher death rates among Black and Hispanic residents. The disparities have been evident since public health officials began tracking the virus in the United States.

The team is tracking patients from hospitals and clinics in the area. Tulane hopes to identify whether variants in the patients or the virus itself have contributed to the high mortality rate seen in Louisiana, and that it could be useful for broader predictions of COVID-19 response moving forward.

C’est What

?

How far will the Pelicans go in the NBA bubble?

39.4%

24.4%

*JIM MORA VOICE* PLAYOFFS?! YOU KIDDING ME?

OUT OF THE PLAYOFFS BY THE SECOND NASAL SWAB

12.6%

IF THEY PLAY ZION, THEY WIN IT ALL

23.6%

CORONAVIRUS CANCELS THE SEASON AGAIN

Vote on “C’est What?” at www.bestofneworleans.com

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OPENING GAMBIT

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OPENING GAMBIT PAGE 7

go viral. It’s a bleak reminder of the growing housing crisis facing the city, a scene that threatens to become all too familiar to New Orleanians.

Sue Mobley, an urban design advocate, tweeted out the photo of kitchen items, children’s furniture and clothing, noting “New Orleans, the eviction cairns have returned.” A family, including six children, at 3624 Urquhart St. was evicted on June 30, a neighbor said, and the family living at 3622 Urquhart St. was evicted about a month ago.

The property is listed on the website of Ely Edwards Enterprises Inc., an “affordable housing” and construction management company owned by Albert Ely Edwards.

According to a person who self-identified only as Ely Edwards’ listings manager, the residents of both sides of the St. Claude neighborhood duplex were evicted for not being able to pay rent and the belongings were curbed after being left behind.

Edwards did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to his website, he wrote a book titled “Beginning Your Wealth In Affordable Housing,” which he describes as serving as a “pathway to wealth accumulation, highlighting the advantages of affordable housing investment.”

The evictions are part of a growing wave of people expelled from their homes in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Louisiana housing advocates and activists for months have sounded the alarm about the threat of eviction, warning that tens of thousands of people in the New Orleans area have lost work and fallen behind in their ability to pay rent in a city that already had a high eviction rate before COVID. Mayor LaToya Cantrell is also facing scrutiny for suggesting on Aug. 6 that residents crowd-fund those facing evictions — rather than advocating for eviction courts to close or pushing to re-allocate city funds to address the problem.

Last month, the state’s COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which would pay a tenant’s rent directly to the landlord, ran out of funding and had to be suspended within four days. A group of more than 50 fair housing and civil rights organizations have called on Gov. John Bel Edwards to commit an additional $432.2 million to the program in order to sustain renters through the year.

He has not responded.

— JAKE CLAPP

Street Renaming Commission considers ‘objective’ approach to fixing racist names Key members of the City Council’s Street Renaming Committee made clear on Aug. 5 they won’t simply be going after the most egregiously racist namesakes when considering

street name changes. They also warn that figures with clearly “offensive beliefs” or histories could be on the chopping block — including, perhaps, some of the Founding Fathers.

During the committee’s meeting, vice chair Mark Raymond Jr. said he wants the panel to consider the harm caused by retaining the names of certain landmarks, and suggested the committee explore whether honorees’ historical significance outweighs their problematic beliefs or behaviors. The process should be “objective, not subjective,” Raymond said, and also suggested evidence be “clear and unambiguous.”

Fellow commissioner Richard Westmoreland agreed the committee must consider names beyond the obvious Confederate generals, but also suggested the panel simplify the process by mandating that no Confederates or slave owners be honored ever again.

Westmoreland, a former Marine, argued that must also include Founding Fathers who owned slaves, and said complicating the process by “individually picking out who the rotten bastard was based on a myriad of factors” will make it harder for the committee to rid the city of racist memorials.

Westmoreland also rejected the notion, popular among many white opponents to eliminating memorials like statues and street names, that these historical figures were unaware that slavery and white supremacy were immoral.

“There are Founding Fathers that didn’t have slaves,” Westmoreland said, adding that “some were abolitionists — very vocal ones. People are going to get upset about Washington and Jefferson, but if we’re replacing them with Adams and Hamilton, we offer less opportunity to be upset.”

Paul Cramer of the City Planning Commission also joined the meeting and said city planners support dropping criteria that requires a namesake to be deceased for five years.

He said they have also recommended this to the City Council. Dr. Norman C. Francis, the former longtime president of Xavier University, is alive and a potential new namesake for Jefferson Davis Parkway.

The committee also heard public comments — the majority of which called for them to include grassroots activist group Take ‘Em Down NOLA in the renaming process and to put them on the panel of experts that is advising the commission.

Take ‘Em Down NOLA has co-organized several protests against systemic racism this summer — and in previous years — and has repeatedly called on elected officials to “finish the job” and remove statues and monuments and rename streets and public schools that honor racist figures.

The commission’s next meeting is scheduled for Aug. 19, when Raymond’s proposed decisionmaking policy could take effect.

— SARAH RAVITS

9

COMMENTARY

Summer Shoe Sale shop now looooove forever

IT TAKES A PARTICULAR SORT OF INDIFFERENCE to the plight of others

to evict a tenant unable to pay rent during a pandemic. All the more so when the pandemic stretches into hurricane season. It shocks the senses, yet that’s exactly what’s happening across New Orleans.

A photo of a family’s crib, clothes and other possessions strewn across a 9th Ward corner went viral last week, bringing the eviction crisis into high relief for many New Orleanians. The larger truth hits even harder: After a brief reprieve from court ordered eviction under emergency powers exercised by Gov. John Bel Edwards in the spring, the rate of evictions has soared. Additionally, numerous illegal evictions have continued.

America’s housing policy is a disaster. Renters in particular face immediate danger. Fixing the longterm problem will take time, won’t be easy, and will require action by all of us. Here’s a to-do list to address the immediate problem: Vote in the Aug. 15 runoff for judge of First City Court, which has jurisdiction over evictions. Gambit does not endorse judicial candidates. However, we urge readers to study the platforms and qualifications of Marissa Hutabarat and Sara Lewis, then decide which candidate you think most likely to help ease the local eviction crisis, including a policy of treating those subject to the eviction process with dignity, empathy and respect.

Landlords must stop evictions.

Putting people out in this moment is putting people at risk of death.

Similarly, lenders should step up and defer mortgage payments while the pandemic is raging. Locally, many lenders did this after Hurricane Katrina. It was the right thing to do, but lenders also knew that driving wide swaths of our city into foreclosure, bankruptcy and homelessness made no business sense.

S TA F F P H OTO B Y J A K E C L A P P

Belongings are piled outside of 3624 Urquhart St. after the family formerly living there was evicted on Thursday.

We are not so naïve as to assume businesses that profit by providing often subpar housing to desperate poor people will make decisions based on a moral imperative. That’s why we also urge tenants and good faith landlords to band together and speak with one voice against evictions. Many landlords treat their tenants with respect and have worked with them to keep families in their homes. Speak up now, loudly, in defense of tenants’ rights and the need to halt evictions.

The pandemic’s adverse economic effects will hurt Americans through at least the end of the year; many experts say far longer. That makes it imperative for our political leaders to act. They can start by taking three steps to ease the crisis: Immediately, our congressional delegation must work for the common good and reinstate the $600 a week federal assistance. If Congress can bail out corporate America, it can keep average Americans from going homeless. At the state level, Gov. Edwards should reinstate an eviction ban through the end of the year and begin pressing mortgage holders to defer payments. Locally, Mayor Cantrell should take steps to bar landlords from discriminating on the basis of income, which would help hundreds of homeless families who qualify for housing assistance find homes.

How a nation treats the least amongst its citizens is a fundamental measure of that nation’s greatness.

When it comes to housing, we are failing that test, miserably.

pandemic hours mon - sat 10 - 5:30 7732 m a p l e 865 . 9625

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End evictions now

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Extraordinary care,

right where you need it.

BLAKE PONTCHARTRAIN™ @GambitBlake | askblake@gambitweekly.com

Hey Blake, Can you tell me the history of the massive vacant building on Tchoupitoulas Street near Mardi Gras World? It looks like it could have been a power plant at one point.

— PAUL

Dear Paul,

LCMC Health Urgent Care is dedicated to providing quality, convenient care in a way that ensures the highest level of safety for you and your family. We’re the urgent care clinic you choose to experience

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Hours for all locations Monday-Friday 8am-8pm Saturday-Sunday 8am-5pm Algiers 3801 General DeGalle Dr. 504.362.2829 Gretna 2600 Belle Chasse Hwy. 504.349.2273 Clearview 1105 S. Clearview Pkwy.

504.676.5550

That huge riverfront building, with its towering twin smoke stacks and industrial brick facade, is the former Market Street power plant. It generated electricity for New Orleans for more than 65 years.

It was billed as “the largest electrical generating plant in the south” in a Times-Picayune article when it opened in 1905. The plant was built by the New Orleans Railways Company, which later merged and reorganized into the city’s utility company, New Orleans Public Service Inc. Commonly known as NOPSI, it was the predecessor to Entergy New Orleans.

The Market Street power plant remained in service until 1973. It has been vacant since then, with plans for its redevelopment fizzling over the years. According to The

R US T Y C O S TA N Z A / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E | T H E N E W O R L E A N S A DVO C AT E

The Market Street power plant in New Orleans.

Times-Picayune, in 2006 Entergy sold the property for $10 million to a company that planned a hotel, condominiums, retail stores and entertainment venues for the site.

That group went bankrupt, and in 2015, developer Joe Jaeger’s MCC Real Estate Group paid more than $8 million for the plant and its 20-acre site. Redevelopment plans for the site have stalled since then.

Despite — or more likely because of — its derelict condition, the graffiti-covered plant has been used as a setting for several films, including “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” and “Oblivion.”

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JAMES BOND’S 1973 OUTING, “Live and Let Die,” tops our list of 1970s and ’80s films made and set in New Orleans. It’s the first Bond movie to star Roger Moore as agent 007. The film features the Olympia Brass Band leading a jazz funeral through the French Quarter, a voodoo villain (Geoffrey Holder) and chase scenes at Lakefront Airport, Irish Bayou and Bayou Liberty.

Praised by some critics and reviled by others, 1978’s “Pretty Baby” fueled controversy with nude scenes of Brooke Shields, who was 12 when the movie was filmed here. She played a child who’s sexually exploited in Storyville, the city’s notorious red light district. Susan Sarandon plays her mother, Hattie, and Keith Carradine portrays the real-life photographer Ernest J. Bellocq. Directed

by Louis Malle, the film was shot at the Columns Hotel on St. Charles Avenue.

The hotel also appears in the 1984 thriller “Tightrope,” which features Clint Eastwood as a New Orleans police detective on the trail of a serial killer. Former WWL-TV anchor Angela Hill plays herself, questioning Eastwood on the steps of Criminal Court. Scenes include interiors of the old Dixie Brewery and a score featuring music by James Rivers Movement.

There’s lots of local music, scenery — and plenty of cliches — in 1986’s “The Big Easy,” starring Dennis Quaid as NOPD Detective Lt. Remy McSwain, with co-workers played by Ned Beatty and John Goodman. Quaid’s love interest is an assistant district attorney played by Ellen Barkin. The film features scenes at several local landmarks including Tipitina’s, Antoine’s, the Piazza d’Italia and Blaine Kern’s Mardi Gras World.

Finally, which 1980s film was shot here and in Baton Rouge and starred Paul Newman as a Louisiana governor? “Blaze,” based on the memoir of Bourbon Street burlesque star Blaze Starr, recounts the stripper’s infamous 1959 relationship with Gov. Earl K. Long. Lolita Davidovich portrayed Starr, who had a cameo herself in the 1989 film. It received an Oscar nomination for best cinematography.

11

CLANCY DUBOS

Edwards notches an early win against science deniers IN THE MIDDLE OF A LETHAL PANDEMIC, if faced

with a decision directly impacting the health of millions of Louisiana citizens, who would you trust to guide your judgment — state Attorney General Jeff Landry or Dr. Alex Billioux, the state’s top public health official?

It shouldn’t be a trick question.

Fortunately, state District Judge Janice Clark of Baton Rouge didn’t have to ponder that one very long.

She chose to trust Billioux, and in doing so she delivered a first-round win to his boss, Gov. John Bel Edwards, in one of several court challenges to the governor’s emergency order restricting bars and large gatherings and requiring masks in response to recent COVID-19 numbers across Louisiana.

Turns out the judge relied not just on Billioux, though the highly regarded epidemiologist is expert enough. She also cited other public health experts and the White House Coronavirus Task Force, which advised the governor to close bars, mandate masks and take other steps.

Clark’s decision, rendered Aug. 6, came after hearing a lawsuit brought by three Jefferson Parish bar owners and a parish businessman-musician. They relied in part on an opinion by Republican AG Landry (a constant Edwards critic and consummate grandstander) that the governor’s restrictions are inappropriate. They also argued that the regulations unconstitutionally targeted bars and musicians.

Clark dispensed with such nonsense, concluding the state needs to “get a hold” of the virus. More specifically, she ruled that the governor can exercise emergency powers to “limit the loss of life.” She acknowledged that businesses will suffer as a result of restrictions, but she noted that the feds can address that problem by providing more aid to the private sector.

Plaintiffs can appeal Clark’s decision, but her ruling represents an important early win for Edwards, who also faces two federal lawsuits challenging his emergency powers.

Jimmy Faircloth, who previously lawyered (rarely if ever successfully in similarly questionable cases) for

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Louisiana public health official Dr. Alex Billioux updates legislators on COVID-19 in Baton Rouge.

then-Gov. Bobby Jindal, represents bar owners in those suits.

“What we are doing is necessary, and what we are doing is working,” Edwards said in response to Clark’s ruling. “Further, my orders are fully consistent with the constitution and statutory authority I have as governor to protect our people during a public health emergency.”

Citing recent virus statistics in Louisiana, Edwards pledged to “continue to let science and data drive my decisions when it comes to the health and safety of the people of Louisiana.”

Soon after Clark’s ruling, Edwards signed an extension of his order keeping Louisiana in Phase Two. His order maintains a statewide mask mandate, closes bars to on-premises consumption and limits gatherings of more than 50 people through Aug. 28. It also revokes parishes’ authority to opt out of the statewide mask mandate, which a previous order allowed under certain conditions.

Meanwhile, the state agency that regulates bars took action against four bars that saw their alcohol permits pulled for violating coronavirus rules. The Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control shut down a Grand Isle bar till the end of the month and fined three others while placing them on probation.

Oh, and one of the bar owners who filed the suit? She’s tested positive for COVID-19, and missed the hearing as a result.

Judge Clark got it right — citizens must act responsibly, and the feds must address the economic fallout. Sadly, both appear to be tall orders.

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15

UNSUNG HEROES Behind the scenes, school staff brace for the COVID-19 semester

BY EVELYNN COFFIE AND SARAH RAVITS

WITH ORLEANS AND JEFFERSON PARISH OFFICIALS still trying to figure out what exactly school will look like when students “return” over the next few weeks, much of the attention has been on teachers and students. And for good reason: The safety of our children should be our paramount concern, and teachers are being forced to figure out how to teach their classes and keep their students safe at the same time.

But there’s another group of adults whose lives are being deeply affected by these decisions — the thousands of administrators, bus drivers, counselors, custodians and others who work in our schools. Like teachers, they have dedicated their lives not only to educating our children, but to making them safe. And they too are trying to navigate the coronavirus, and figure out how best to do their job while keeping the children nurtured.

These are just a few of their stories — but we hope it shows how much sacrifice and effort goes into keeping kids safe, fed and supported — especially in a crisis.

PAGE 16

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PHOTO PROVIDED

BY BENJAMIN FR ANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL

16 G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > Au g u st 1 1 - 1 7 > 2 02 0

PAGE 15

DIONNE ROBINSON IT Coordinator at Eleonor McMain Secondary School

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Educating The Next Generation of Healthcare Workers Discovery Schools does not discriminate in the rendering of educational services to, or regarding employment of, individuals based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, and/or age.

In March as COVID-19 began its rapid spread across Louisiana, Dionne Robinson, IT coordinator at Eleanor McMain Secondary School, developed symptoms and suspected she had the virus.

Diagnostics were in short supply at the time, but her doctor eventually conducted an antibody test which indicated her hunch was correct.

Robinson recovered, but to this day, she says she suffers from breathing troubles. A single mother who just settled her daughter in for STEM studies at Louisiana State University, she remains concerned about possible reinfection and the potential to spread the virus to her mother, a medically vulnerable 64-year-old cancer survivor.

Robinson has been helping her colleagues, parents and students at McMain adapt to online education. She makes distance learning possible through her technological expertise; installs computer programs; ensures networks are running properly and fixes printers when they break — and makes sure they always have enough ink. Because of her, the less tech-savvy faculty members can connect virtually with students. Recently, she set up roughly 200 Google accounts for incoming freshmen and helped distribute Chromebooks provided by the district.

Robinson says she takes pride in working hard and sometimes goes into other schools within the InspireNOLA charter network.

PHOTO PROVIDED

BY DIONNE ROBINSON

“I’m supporting parents around the clock,” she says. “That’s just what I do. I go above and beyond with whatever job description I am in at that moment.”

A former teacher, she has a natural affinity to nurture children, particularly those with behavioral issues and special needs, and she’s an advocate for the many students who come from troubled and low-income families.

Sometimes she spends her own money on buying them clothing, snacks and even haircuts. She has taught them how to do “normal childhood” activities, like decorating cookies. She misses seeing kids in-person but knows it’s for the best that they can’t return to campus until the virus is under greater control.

Still, she worries about students who have difficulty concentrating because of the discipline that online learning requires. She says she’s willing to meet with them in parks or other areas where she can follow physical distancing guidelines.

She believes in their abilities to succeed academically, but says, “We’re going to have to have a good support system.”

In the meantime, Robinson’s job at the school requires her to be on campus, and she’s busier than ever. In addition to working on a doctorate online in her spare time, she says, “I’ve been going to the campus every day.

IT has to go in,” she says. “We can’t work from home.”

— SARAH RAVITS

17

— SCARLE T O’DELL BERCKES, SOCIAL WORKER

”

ALISHA DEAN Administrative Secretary at Eleanor McMain Secondary School

Alisha Dean, an administrative office worker at Eleanor McMain Secondary School, worries that reopening schools could jeopardize her health if safety measures aren’t enforced.

It’s been challenging to cope with her grief and stress from losing loved ones to COVID-19, and her physician recommended that she stay home as much as possible.

“I am at an age with chronic health conditions that put me a higher risk,” Dean says. “I was a little wary because the administration asked me to return sooner, but I informed the principal and human resources director about my uncomfortability. They were more than understanding.”

Dean is relieved the school is following protocol and implementing mitigation measures, including temperature checks, mandated masks, appointment-only visits, virtual meetings, and no congregation. But she also acknowledges that there’s room for error and sympathizes with those who don’t want to return because “this pandemic isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.”

Pre-COVID, Dean helped ensure juniors and seniors arrived at their internships, which allowed students to connect with local organizations and businesses for potential career experience after high school. With restrictions in place, the school halted internship opportunities, and Dean worried about the continuity of the program. “Students come out with credentials they can use in the workforce, so losing the program would hit the students hard.”

PHOTO BY AUDIE JACKSON / PROVIDED BY ALISHA DEAN

Dean’s workload has not decreased since March. Working from home gives her more flexibility to focus on a book she plans to publish later this year about her late partner — NFL player Andre Waters — and the effect chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has on a person’s well-being. Of course, the distance from in-person engagement also proves difficult because Dean cherishes the relationships she developed with colleagues and students.

“Our teachers went above and beyond for virtual learning, and I applauded them for their efforts to keep the students connected,” Dean says. “Safety is the first priority, and it’s important to provide students with the education they would have if they were on campus.”

— EVELYNN COFFIE

SCARLET O’DELL BERCKES Social Worker at various local schools A licensed clinical social worker, Scarlet O’Dell Berckes has worked in both the Jefferson and Orleans Parish school systems for the last 20 years, helping students with everything from coping skills to grief counseling. After schools shut down in March, Berckes has faced new challenges and has been forced into new territory, holding virtual counseling with students through Facetime or Zoom sessions.

“No day is a typical day,” Berckes says. “If a crisis occurs, you have to stop everything you’re doing and attend to that crisis.” Before schools shut down, crisis teams made up of clinically licensed peer groups guided children through the loss of a family member, teacher, or stable home life. The crisis teams will continue working in the fall, and Berckes believes social workers are as prepared as they can be for students who may come in with trauma from losing loved ones to COVID-19.

Berckes began her social work career as a child protection investigator and foster care case manager, where she conducted individual and family risk assessment of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, as well as neglect of children. Around the early 2000s, she switched to the Louisiana school system to help provide crisis intervention and individual and group counseling for at-risk youth and families.

Even though social workers are trained to handle traumatic situations, many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder themselves due to their jobs — especially common among social workers who survived Hurricane Katrina. To cope, Berckes clings to her colleagues who have also been in and out of schools in the Crescent City.

“We’re in fight-or-flight mode all the time,” Berckes says. “We can’t say ‘We’re not coming to work,’ because we have to be there for our kids and clients. I know there are things to improve on, but the most important thing is that people receive the services they need.” Virtual coun-

seling helps alleviate stress from in-person interactions because there’s more flexibility in scheduling. But even virtually, she’s available for emergency phone calls because engagement is essential for a secure session.

For some, it’s been difficult adjusting to home-bound life, and Berckes admits that it may be a challenge for students to adjust back into a school setting.

But, she says virtual learning and counseling have improved students’ behavioral skills.

While speaking with her peers, she realized that students who

PHOTO PROVIDED BY SCARLET O’DELL BERCKES

struggled with ADHD, anxiety, depression, or low self-esteem tended to perform better online.

As schools prepare to reopen, Berckes’ main priority is to find a balance between raising her two children, who attend Orleans Parish schools, and caring for students who’ll need mental health assistance in the fall. She’s generally stayed home and adhered to guidelines since the pandemic started spreading in Louisiana, because after all, Berckes says, “I’m nothing if I’m not healthy.”

— EVELYNN COFFIE PAGE 18

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“

We’re in fight-or-flight mode all the time.

We can’t say ‘We’re not coming to work,’ because we have to be there for our kids.

18 G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > Au g u st 1 1 - 1 7 > 2 02 0

PAGE 17

TIFFANY DELCOUR Chief Operating Officer for NOLA Public Schools

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As chief operating officer of NOLA Public Schools, the governing body that oversees charter and public schools in Orleans Parish, Tiffany Delcour is the driving force of a successful feeding program that ramped up during shutdowns.

Her general job duties are wide-ranging and include oversight of school facilities and properties, technology, working on emergency preparedness plans, and managing child nutrition.

“When bad things happen, I get real busy,” she says.

Delcour anticipated school shutdowns about two weeks before they went into effect. She was particularly worried about the children who rely on schools to feed them.

In the earliest days of the pandemic, she was “just constantly on the phone” trying to get as many resources together for them.

“We knew that child nutrition was going to be a major factor,” she says. “The majority of our children get their meals at school. If we’re not opening our doors, what was that going to mean for food security?”

NOLA Public Schools quickly built a coalition with charter management groups to provide meals to families in a graband-go style in order to follow physical distancing guidelines. To date, they’ve served almost 1.5 million meals.

Logistics played a major factor in their decisions.

“We looked across the city and looked at where the children in need lived. We picked school sites that were easy to get to with public transportation. We also bused meals to shopping center parking lots, New Orleans Recreational Department facilities and other retail spaces.”

Delcour additionally facilitated a partnership with ride-sharing service Lyft, which provided free trips to community feeding sites for families lacking transportation.

The program also kept bus drivers, kitchen staffers and others employed. Some workers

inevitably got sick from COVID19, but she says it was mostly isolated cases — never to the degree that required the sites to shut down.

“There were a lot of precautions,” she says. “We worked with the [Louisiana Department of Health], so we had a really smooth program.”

Aside from one weekend getaway, Delcour spent the entire summer working and planning ahead through all kinds of uncertainties.

“We are all working really hard and hours we’re not used to,” she says of school employees. “And that’s OK — it’s a pandemic and

PHOTO BY RICCARDO EMILIEN / PRO VIDED BY TIFFANY DELCOUR

it’s global. My life has changed in that I have less personal time.

But I think everyone in schools has made sacrifices.”

For now, she is also working to help teachers and faculty get all of their tools in place for the year and implement training sessions.

The “data isn’t in a place where it’s appropriate to bring children back,” she says, “But there’s a ton of work that will continue to happen.”

— SARAH RAVITS

19

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INSPIRING ACADEMICS JEWISH VALUES COMMUNITY

PHOTO BY SAR AH R AVITS

ANDREA BOLAND Cafeteria Manager at Benjamin Franklin High School

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Andrea Boland, who leads the cafeteria program at Benjamin Franklin High School, says the ability to cook and provide food for children throughout the pandemic has been a â&#x20AC;&#x153;blessing.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hesitate to want to go and serve them during this ordeal. I did what I had to do.

I threw my mask on and my gloves on,â&#x20AC;? she says.

Though schools have been shuttered for students, Boland and other cafeteria employees at Franklin and around the city have been able to work throughout the pandemic because of the meal assistance program set up through NOLA Public Schools.

Franklin has served as one of the pick-up sites, and Boland says sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s glad sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been able to interact with the students and their caregivers when they visit the school to pick up their meals a couple times a week. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We love our students, and they love us,â&#x20AC;? she says fondly.

Boland, who has worked in food services in the public school system since the mid1980s, says her favorite menu items to prepare for students are Salisbury steak and potatoes, along with red beans and rice.

Providing comfort food is in her nature â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s become especially therapeutic for her and the students during a time of crisis and uncertainty.

She lost â&#x20AC;&#x153;everythingâ&#x20AC;? in Hurricane Katrina, but she believes the pandemic is more devastating. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We were able to clear it up, and clean it up,â&#x20AC;? she says of the wreckage from the storm. But with COVID-19, â&#x20AC;&#x153;We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have control over it.â&#x20AC;?

In the meantime she is thankful to work in an environment that she believes is prioritizing her safety, and says the students have been especially gracious.

Between shifts, she enjoys Facetiming and chatting with her twin daughters, who are 30 years old and live in Texas.

She hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t been able to visit with them in months, but one of them is getting married next month, and she looks forward to celebrating with them in-person.

Even though she misses the daily interaction with students and looks forward to a return to normalcy, she says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a fortunate one.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; SARAH RAVITS

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Inspired by Van Gogh.

Designed a prosthesis for children with cerebral palsy.

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SPONSORED CONTENT

Ecole Bilingue de la Nouvelle-Orléans

Jewish Community Day School of Greater New Orleans

jcdsnola.org Celebrating its twenty-fifth year, Jewish Community Day School of Greater New Orleans (JCDS) balances challenging academics with an enriching Jewish Studies program for children in Preschool through 6th Grade. At JCDS, each child is seen and each child is valued. With the benefit of small classes and differentiated instruction, kids find themselves meeting challenges that they never before thought themselves capable of tackling.

Now more than ever, understanding the interconnectedness of the world is essential to preparing students for adulthood. By learning about Jewish identity and history, by learning about each person’s duty to make the world a better place (Tikkun Olam), and by participating in a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum, JCDS graduates become better critical thinkers, better advocates for themselves, and better advocates for others. Alumni leave prepared to continue the scholarship, service, and leadership that have been the hallmark of the Jewish community of New Orleans for nearly 300 years.

ebnola.net Ecole Bilingue de la Nouvelle-Orléans is the only private French school in New Orleans accredited by the French Ministry of Education and State of Louisiana. The school’s mission is to provide a strong, distinctive education by combining the best of French and American academics.

Ecole Bilingue follows the curriculum of the French Education Nationale, one of the most rigorous educational systems in the world. The school has students and teachers from the U.S. and around the world. Ecole Bilingue offers classes from preschool (18 months) through 8th grade.

The student/teacher ratio is 7 to 1, allowing each student an opportunity to have personalized attention for a better, differentiated education.

Ursuline Academy uanola.org

Founded in 1727, almost 50 years before America, Ursuline Academy of New Orleans is the first all-girls’ Catholic school in the nation.

Today, that legacy inspires girls to confidently blaze their own trails. To succeed in tomorrow’s world, Ursuline Academy believes girls must learn to think creatively, articulate their ideas confidently and compassionately, and solve problems collaboratively. Through highly interactive experiences powered by STEM and the arts – and a nurturing community diverse by design – Ursuline develops tomorrow’s brightest independent thinkers, innovators, and community builders. The Academy – made up of people with different backgrounds, beliefs and talents – fuel every girl’s success.

Academy of the Sacred Heart

ashrosary.org Faith. Academics. Service. Community. Growth. The 5 goals of Sacred Heart have been the cornerstone of their educational foundation from the day they first opened their doors in 1867. Now, Sacred Heart invites you to schedule a Personal or Virtual Tour to meet teachers, students and learn about the advantages of an all-girls, Sacred Heart education. Come see how Sacred Heart girls are truly inspired to change the world.

To schedule a Personal Tour, call 504.269.1213

University View Academy

universityview.academy University View Academy is a Louisiana-based K-12 tuition-free online charter school available to students statewide from any parish. One of the most innovative charter schools in Louisiana, they offer a unique online environment with certified teachers and proven curricula that allow student families the flexibility and freedom to learn in a way that fits their lifestyle needs.

University View Academy’s mission is to understand, engage, and empower each unique student for college and beyond. University View Academy is dedicated to providing a flexible and innovative learning environment that accommodates the needs of all learners while striving for academic excellence.

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > Au g u st 1 1 - 1 7 > 2 0 2 0

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SPONSORED CONTENT

F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N A B O U T E A C H B U S I N E S S , L O O K F O R I T S A D I N T H I S E D I T I O N

Habitat Restore

The ReStore sells gently used furniture and construction materials at discounted prices. With locations in New Orleans and Kenner, the stores provide affordable home goods to the local community and raise funds for New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity’s mission of building affordable homes. You can donate to the store by dropping off or scheduling a contact-free pickup at restorepickup.org, and you can shop online through shopnolarestore.com and shopkennerestore.com. Stores are open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, at 2900 Elysian Fields in New Orleans and 2425 Williams Blvd. in Kenner.

Kenner Discovery discoveryhsf.org

Discovery Schools are open enrollment public charter

Forward New Orleans

Forward New Orleans for Public Schools (FNOPS), a coalition of diverse organizations, has released an issue-based platform ahead of the Nov. 3 School Board elections. It establishes issues important to improving educational opportunities and outcomes for public school students. FNOPS will seek a pledge from each candidate to implement the platform’s action items.

The candidates’ responses will be published prior to the election as a tool for voters to assess the candidates.

View the platform at fnops.org.

schools in Jefferson Parish serving diverse learners Kindergarten through 12th grade. Through a strong academic program, health sciences integration, and a robust athletic program, students are able to discover talents, explore opportunities and achieve success.

Starting November 2, 2020, Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy is accepting applications for students entering K-12. Dr. John Ochsner Discovery Health Sciences Academy is accepting applications for students entering grades K-6, with a growth plan to expand to 8th grade by 2023. Since its inception in 2013, Discovery has been one of the highest performing open enrollment schools in Jefferson parish.

Club Z! Tutoring

MJ’s of Metairie

Club Z! Tutoring has been an industry leading tutoring company for more than 20 years. 1-on1 tutoring has been found to be extremely helpful for students. Our tutors are handpicked to be a good match for the students. They work with students in-home and online and can provide everything from homework help and test preparation, to building lifelong study skills or even learning a new language. Our online tutoring is a two-way video chat where both student and tutor can interact in real time the same as they would with an in-home session. For each referral who signs up and begins lessons, we will credit you one lesson. Call us at 504-308-1069.

For over 35 years, MJ’s on Metairie Road has been a local favorite for jewelry, shirts, flags, home decor and gift items with Louisiana flavor. MJ’s has an assortment of masks and clear protective face shields in adult and kids sizes. Officially licensed LSU masks are back in stock. Adjustable adult sizes, made of spandex and washable. Call us at 504-835-6099. Store hours are Monday through Friday 10am to 5 pm, and Saturday from 10 am to 3pm.

clubztutoring.com/neworleans

mjsofmetairie.com

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SPONSORED CONTENT

Nola Boo

Stay safe and stylish with these must have hand sanitizers.

They clip on backpacks and hand bags for easy access. Multiple colors to choose from. Shop Nola Boo’s Back to School sale with 40% off all shoes. Use code BACKTOSCHOOL at nolaboo.com, or shop in store at 517 Metairie Road, Monday through Saturday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Arden Cahill Academy ardencahillacademy.com

Arden Cahill Academy combines a strong education with the unique qualities of an outdoor country environment minutes from downtown. Nestled along Bayou Fatma in Gretna, the 12-acre campus currently serves students from six weeks in its Infant Center through High School. Arden Cahill Academy enrolled its first class of high school freshmen in August 2019 and is proud to continue its tradition of academic excellence and cultural enrichment through its college preparatory curriculum.

Horse stables and a petting farm, a STEAM Lab, art studios, band and music rooms, and a 300-seat theater make the Arden Cahill Academy campus unique.

The academy also hosts Camp Corral, a 10-week summer camp.

For more information on face-to-face or virtual options for the 2020/2021 school year, please call 504392-0902. Attend an Open House on October 22 from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Virtual or Private Tours will be scheduled by appointment.

Nola Gifts

nolagiftsanddecoronline.com Show your school spirit with a burlap door hanger from our High School Collection or take-and-make this adorable burlap Back to School garden flag kit. The kit comes with everything you need – flag, paint, paint brush and instructions.

We have a large selection of masks for kids and adults in a variety of colors.

Alliance Française de La Nouvelle-Orléans

1519 Jackson Ave, New Orleans, LA 70130 (504) 568-0770 • www.af-neworleans.org The Alliance Française de La Nouvelle-Orléans is proving that you can, in fact, teach old dogs new tricks.

People of all ages and of all levels of French are taking time out of their days, nights, and weekends to learn one of the original languages of New Orleans—Le français.

From French classes, to children’s programming, to conversation classes, your local Alliance Française, one of over 1,000 worldwide, has all that you need to “Fall into French” this Fall Classes start September 14th and early bird pricing is until August 24th -Classes offered online and in-person. Bonne rentrée!

St. Edward the Confessor

www.steddy.org St. Edward the Confessor School is planning for a very safe and successful 2020-2021 school year. Our reopening plan is based on the latest safety and hygiene recommendations and will be adapted as guidance evolves. Our academic program is making use of Google Suite tools, whereby we will be able to provide at-home virtual learning to students in grades PK3-7th, as needed. We shall continue those spiritual, extracurricular, and family activities that we are allowed to have—modifying as needed, and will seek additional opportunities to allow students to experience the fullness of a Catholic School experience.

We are ready!

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B E S T O F NE WO R L E A N S.C O M /2020 Since 1986, Gambit readers have voted for the things they think make the New Orleans area special and unique. And every year we celebrate their choices in our Best of New Orleans® issue. But this year is different from others. The pandemic, the stay-at-home orders, the slow reopening phases may mean it has been a while since you’ve seen some of your favorite New Orleans people, places and things.

Despite these uncertain times, our mission will be to continue to support local organizations and businesses through this beloved edition and continue to honor the people and places that you think make our city so great. So even if it’s been a few months since your neighborhood bar has been open or you’ve stepped foot into a restaurant, we still want to hear about those places. Stay healthy, socially distance and cast your votes online for your local favorites. Vote now at bestofneworleans.com/2020

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Best new restaurant (opened October 2019 or later) Best place for curbside pickup Best Kenner restaurant Best Metairie Restaurant Best New Orleans restaurant Best Northshore restaurant Best St. Bernard Parish restaurant Best West Bank restaurant Best bakery Best barbecue restaurant Best burger restaurant Best Chinese restaurant

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Best doughnut Best food hall Best French restaurant Best Indian restaurant Best Italian restaurant Best Japanese/sushi restaurant Best Latin American restaurant Best locally owned coffee house Best Louisiana-made food product Best Mexican restaurant Best Middle Eastern/ Mediterranean restaurant Best pizza restaurant Best restaurant for vegetarians/vegans

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Best seafood restaurant Best sno-ball stand Best steakhouse Best Thai restaurant Best traditional Louisiana restaurant Best Vietnamese restaurant Best chef Best gumbo Best fried chicken Best king cake Best outdoor dining Best place for desserts Best place to get frozen desserts Best place to get a po-boy Best place to get boiled seafood Best place to get breakfast/ brunch Best place to get poke Best place to get a sandwich Best place to get tacos Best restaurant for romantic dining Best balcony for dining and drinking Best bar for cocktails Best bar for day drinking

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Best beer selection Best casino Best distillery Best dive bar Best dog-friendly bar Best LGBT bar Best gentlemen’s/strip club Best happy hour Best hotel bar Best local brewery Best neighborhood bar Best place to get a bloody mary Best place to get a glass of wine Best place to get a margarita Best place to get a martini Best place to get a traditional Louisiana cocktail Best rooftop bar

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Best nursery/preschool Best grammar school Best high school Best local college/university

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Best assisted living / retirement community Best art gallery Best golf course Best high school band Best marching group Best Mardi Gras parade Best museum Best nonprofit Best place to get married Best summer camp (virtual or IRL) Best virtual concert or event during COVID-19 Best live music venue Best music artist / band Best theater company Best movie theater

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Best local investigative reporter Best local radio personality Best local TV news anchor Best local TV station Best local TV sportscaster Best local TV weathercaster Best radio station

Best Congress member from Louisiana Best New Orleans City Council member Best Jefferson Parish Council member Best member of the Louisiana Legislature

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Best new retail store (opened October 2019 or later) Best Jefferson neighborhood grocery Best New Orleans neighborhood grocery Best Northshore neighborhood grocery Best antiques store Best bank/credit union Best barbershop Best bicycle shop Best car dealership Best costume store Best day spa Best dry cleaner

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Best florist Best garden store Best hair salon Best health club/fitness studio Best hospital Best hotel Best law firm Best liquor store Best local shop to buy lingerie Best locally owned bookstore Best locally owned bridal shop Best locally owned children’s store Best locally owned jewelry store Best locally owned kitchen design store Best locally owned men’s clothing store Best locally owned music store Best locally owned pharmacy Best locally owned shoe store Best locally owned women’s boutique Best pet boarding/day care business Best pet grooming business

Blend of

VOTE FOR US BEST NEW RESTAURANT • BEST HAPPY HOUR

VOTE FOR US!

Sicilian tradition & New Orleans flavor - Ian McNulty

OPEN FOR DINE IN & TAKE OUT WED - FRI 11AM - 10PM SAT 12PM - 10PM SUN 12PM - 9PM 134 N CARROLLTON • 488-7991 • VENEZIANEWORLEANS.NET NS.NET

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Best place to buy adult toys Best place to buy CBD oil products

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Best locally owned store for home decor / accents Best locally owned furniture store Best place to buy vintage / consignment furniture Best store for vintage / consignment clothing Best place to buy wine Best place to get a manicure/ pedicure

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Best real estate office

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Best tattoo/piercing parlor

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Best veterinary/animal clinic

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DINNER MENU

CRAWFISH BEIGNET KATIE’S CLASSIC BURGER & FRIES BOUDREAUX PIZZA FRIED SHRIMP POBOY & FRIES GRILLED CHICKEN SALAD

A wide range of expressions to personalize your decor

PHOTO PROVIDED BY ECLECTIC HOME

A

Rattan

Pulitzer PRIZE

By SARAH RAVITS Photos provided

by ALEXA

$74 each from Hazelnut (5525 Magazine St., 504-891-2424; hazelnutneworleans.com).

Audrey acrylic tray | Jamie Hayon paper vase | Jamie Hayon paper vase, $29 from Octaevo (octaevo.com).

$290 from Ashley Longshore Studio (4537 Magazine St., 504-333-6951; ashleylongshore.com).

PHOTO PROVIDED BY ASHLEY LONGSHORE STUDIO

inside

EXPR

Versatile and sturdy, this woven material adds natural textures and style to any space.

PHOTO PROVIDED

BY SUNDAY SHOP

Carlo bar cart | $598 from Sunday Shop.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY SUNDAY SHOP

PHOTO PROVIDED

BY OCTAEVO

Peace planter by Marianne Angeli Rodriguez | $45 from Home Malone (629 N. Carrollton Ave., 504-324-8352; 4610 Magazine St., 504-766-6148; homemalone.com).

PHOTO PROVIDED BY HOME MALONE

During nonpandemic times, the salon, often referred to as “the music room,” is frequently filled with friends, artists and musicians.

For now, the room serves as a place for peace and quiet.

Coquette vases | $25-$32 from Judy at the Rink (2727 Prytania St., 504-891-7018; judyattherink.com).

PHOTO PROVIDED BY JUDY AT THE RINK

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S A PULITZER’ P. 4 // A LEX ESSI V E ACCENTS

PHOTO PROVIDED BY ECLECTIC HOME

$275 from Sunday Shop (2025 Magazine St., 504-342-2087; sundayshop.com).

theme parties Pulitzer says. “I “whenever I was Pulitzer, who has twice in recent raised on entertaining.” niere” for her power years been named to bring people a “Top 100 Salongatherings, says together at she and Levine Faubourg St. John purchased their sophisticated, festive spacious residence “We make a solidin 2012 with their love of hosting in pair,” she says. music, logistics “I take pleasure in mind. bartending and and aesthetics, and Seth is fabulousin procuring the live taking at curating chefs, The house fosters care of our guests.” a creative, welcoming oversaw the renovation environment. of the Eastlake ago, which included Victorian home Pulitzer eight years work, triple crown the installation of new and plaster mouldings, electrical and plumbing wood floors and a new

PHOTO PROVIDED

BY HAZELNUT

$816 from Eclectic Home (8211 Oak St., 504-866-6654; eclectichome.net).

Large rattan ottoman |

PULITZER

Pre-pandem her husband ic, designer and stationer Alexa Pulitzer had a reason,” Seth Levine threw lavish and

“She is Fierce” pillows |

Grandeur rattan chandelier |

Renaissance

THE HOME OF DESIGNER AND STATIONER ALEXA PULITZE R AND HUSBAND, SETH LEVINE, SHOWCA HER CREATIV ITY SES AND SOPHIST ICATION

2ND COURSE CHOICE OF:

FRIED SEAFOOD RAVIOLI W/ SEAFOOD CREAM SHRIMP REMOULADE & 3RD COURSE CHOICE OF: FRIED GREEN TOMATO BLACKENED CATCH OF THE DAY KATIE’S TOPPED W/ HERBED BUTTER CRABCAKE FRIED SHRIMP & 4TH COURSE DESSERT: CATFISH PLATTER WHITE CHOCOLATE CRAWFISH BEIGNET BREAD PUDDING PANEED CHICKEN MARSALA

Expression footed planter | $65 from Eclectic Home (8211 Oak St., 504-866-6654; eclectichome.net).

TIPS P. 18 16 // DECOR M A LONE P. 12 // HOME R ATTA N P. HOME P. 8 //

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while introducing our readers to some of our city’s unique retailers, designers and creators.

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Gambit Details showcases how New Orleanians love to intersect classic style with the eclectic,

GAMBIT DETAILS

LUNCH MENU

+ STYLE + DESIGN

GAMBIT D ETAILS

COOLINARY 2020 MONDAY - SATURDAY ONLY

New Orleans H O M E

Rattan Pagodas | $275 & $399 from Sotre (3933 Magazine St., 504-304-9475; sotrecollection.com).

Maya bed |

$2,299 from Arhaus (939 Girod St. |

PHOTO PROVIDED

BY SOTRE

504-581-6684; ARHAUS.COM).

PHOTO PROVIDED BY ARHAUS

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The couple purchased to the 1860s, and a Faubourg St. John home, which dates back began an extensive renovation in 2012.

Designer and stationer Alexa Pulitzer

PHOTO BY CHRIS GR ANGER/ THE TIMES-

PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

I S SU E DAT E

A D SPACE

SEP 1

AUG 21

Ad Director Sandy Stein 504.483.3150 or sstein@gambitweekly.com

3701 IBERVILLE ST• NOLA 70119• 504.488.6582 • katiesinmidcity.com

Union organizers

Double feature

UNION RAMEN, A SPOT FOR CREATIVE RAMEN and Japanese dishes and

cocktails, opened in an unassuming corner spot in the Lower Garden District in July. It currently offers takeout and delivery for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday.

Union Ramen’s signature tori ramen includes roasted pork, seasoned egg, fried garlic and noodles in poultry broth. A vegetarian miso ramen includes mushrooms, roasted tomato and spinach, poached egg and kale noodles. There also are a couple of

Find Filipino food and Smoked Bowls pop-ups at The Broad Theater

BY B E T H D ’A D D O N O CHEF CRISTINA QUACKENBUSH’S MILKFISH POP-UP has been one of

the attractions at The Broad Theater, even with the movie house temporarily closed. She offers curbside service and delivery of the Filipino cuisine she has popularized under her Milkfish name since 2011, as well as food by Smoked Bowls, a collaboration with her roommate, chef Hayley Vanvleet, formerly the executive chef at the shuttered Belle Epoque on Bourbon Street.

Quackenbush’s culinary career has had many plot turns, with restaurants opening and closing, big deals falling through and pop-ups hopscotching around the city. Enter the pandemic, which put the kabash on her long-planned wedding, but she remains unflappable.

“I think things work out the way they’re supposed to,” she says. “I’m thankful I didn’t commit to anything super crazy now that [the pandemic] has come along. I have my spot at the theater, my regulars keep me busy and I don’t have to do anything detrimental to my well-being or livelihood.”

The chef has been popping up at the Broad for a few years now, although the theater has been closed most of the time since March 15. Theater owner Brian Knighten temporarily closed the theater but plans to reopen soon.

Milkfish was the first Filipino eatery in the city to showcase the strong flavors of her home country. Quackenbush puts her sassy spin on traditional dishes while using local, seasonal ingredients. Chicken adobo comes with pancit (stir fried noodles) and lumpia, a version of fried spring rolls. A sisig bowl, featuring the country’s staple dish, is a boldly flavored combo of pork belly and Thai chilies in soy-citrus sauce over garlic rice, topped with an egg.

There’s always a vegan option, such as sweet potato coconut curry over rice.

Venvleet dreams up fusion dishes like a roasted chicken rice bowl with mixed mushrooms and pork adobo sliders.

The menus change weekly, and usually are posted by Wednesday on Instagram. Garlic, soy sauce, vinegar and black peppers are at the heart of

Email dining@gambitweekly.com

many of her meat dishes, and pork is king when it comes to Filipino food.

Chicken tinola is a soup with bok choy, ginger and fish sauce. Mechado is a Filipino-style beef stew that doesn’t seem very different from an American beef stew — until the first mouthful delivers the umami pop of soy sauce and vinegar. Tolong silog combines sugar-cured pork and garlicky sausage, and it is served, like many Filipino dishes, over garlic rice with a fried egg.

Quackenbush was born in the Philippines and raised in Indiana farm country, where she honed her farmto-table cooking sensibility. She has cooked and worked in restaurants all over the country and has called New Orleans home since 1999.

“There’s no city that compares to New Orleans and when I realized the ties we have here to the Filipino culture, I wanted to bring that food to the table.”

A fishing village in St. Bernard Parish called St. Malo was the first and largest Filipino community in the U.S., until it was destroyed by a hurricane in 1915.

“When I first got here, I was surprised nobody was cooking Filipino food,” she says. “Now there are a few pop-ups, which makes me so happy.”

For many years, Quackenbush worked for Adolfo Garcia and hosted Filipino pop-ups at his restaurants.

After opening Milkfish in 2014 in MidCity, she earned rave reviews, but

P H OTO B Y C H E R Y L G E R B E R

Cristina Quackenbush (left) and Hayley Vanvleet serve Filipino dishes and more from their pop-ups at The Broad Theater.

closed it for financial reasons in 2016.

“The space was just too big and expensive for what I wanted to do,” she says.

The next year, she came close to partnering with Creole Cuisine Restaurant Concepts to bring a version of Milkfish to the Bywater space that had been Maurepas Foods.

“We had all the details worked out, the place was remodeled,” she says. “I changed my mind. We didn’t want the same thing, so I went in a different direction.”

Milkfish offers curbside pickup, and free, no-contact delivery is available Thursday through Saturday from 2 p.m. until food runs out. Diners can order by text from Milkfish (504-2841969) and Smoked Bowls (206-3354792) by including name, address and special instructions.

“This has really helped us both make it through this COVID time,” Quackenbush says. “It’s just so good to see my regulars again. That’s what’s kept me going, how much people love the food. This is my dream, the reason why I moved here.”

?

What Milkfish & Smoked Bowls The Broad Theater, 636 N. Broad St.

When 2 p.m. until, Thursday-Saturday

How Milkfish Text 504-284-1969 @milkfishnola on Instagram Smoked Bowls Text 206-335-4792 @smoked bowls on Instagram

P H OTO B Y W I L L C OV I E L LO

Union Ramen opened at 1837 Magazine St.

brothless ramens called mazemen. Diners can add other items to their ramens, such as blackened chicken, tasso, confit oyster mushrooms, bamboo shoots, roasted sweet peppers, nori and more.

The small menu has a roasted pork and watermelon salad, sauteed shishito peppers, fried chicken wings with pepper jelly glaze, crawfish and shrimp lumpia (a type of fried spring roll from the Philippines) and spam musabi, a sushi roll with seaweed cucumber and curry aioli.

Food and drink specials are posted on the restaurant’s social media.

Union Ramen was opened by Nhat “Chef Nate” Nguyen and Jeff Gapultos. Nguyen’s family owned a restaurant and food truck. He worked at restaurants in California and at Emeril Lagasse’s recently shuttered Las Vegas restaurant Stadium. In New Orleans, he worked at Bayona and Meauxbar Bistro and opened the former Central City Asian-cuisineturned-ramen-stop Kin. Gapultos is a graduate of Loyola University New Orleans and has focused on marketing and entertainment.

Located at 1837 Magazine St., Union Ramen occupies the building that was for decades home to Jim Russell’s Records.

Union Ramen is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Visit unionramen.com for information. — WILL COVIELLO PAGE 28

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Tortilla reform

Sicilian • Creole Italian

OWNER/CHEF FRANK CATALANOTTO

4445 W. METAIRIE AVE. (504) 533-9998

OPEN FOR DINNER TUES - SAT • 5:30PM - 10PM

NEAR CLEARVIEW PKWY

VALET AVAILABLE

Back to School

MJ’s

.- Fri. 10-5 & NOW OPEN Mon

Sat. 10-3

Beaded Mask Chains $3.99 ea.

Assorted colors (Mask and chain sold separate) separ

Daily

SPECIALS

Monday

Corned Beef & Cabbage • Hamburger Steak White Beans w/Pork Chops

Tuesday

Mask Lanyards $1.99 ea.

Veal Cutlet • Lamb Shank Reuben Sandwich w/French Fries

Assorted colors (Mask and lanyard sold separate)

Wednesday Beef Brisket • Stuffed Bell Pepper Chicken Cordon Bleu

Thursday Meatloaf w/Mac & Cheese • Chicken Fried Steak w/Mac & Cheese • Oven Roasted Turkey

Friday Creole Jambalaya • Catfish Tacos Shrimp & Mushroom Fettuccine

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MJ’s

1513 Metairie Rd. 835-6099

TTake k outt orders d callll (504) 891-0997 891 0997

METAIRIE SHOPPING CENTER MJSMETAIRIE • mjsofmetairie.com

3001 Magazine Street | JoeyKsRestaurant.com

ARE YOU THE

ORIGINA E

O

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EA DER S’ P

LL

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ST BE OF NEW ORLEANS ?

LET THE CITY KNOW! PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS CONTACT Sandy Stein TODAY! 504.483.3150 sandys@gambitweekly.com

IN NORMAL TIMES, Mawi Tortillias was filled with the aroma of warm tortillas and the sounds of a chugging, gas-fired tortilla machine cranking them out.

Today, the tiny Metairie storefront is filled with the sounds of greetings hollered over the counter as lunch customers enter.

To Will Avelar, that’s the sound of hope for his family’s business.

That fight has meant shifting from tortilla supplier to eatery and market.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays it also means birria tacos.

All the rage in taco havens from Houston to Los Angeles, birria tacos are corn tortillas filled with cheese and stewed beef that are dabbed with rich, oily drippings and fried on the griddle. They’re served with a little cup of broth for dipping.

At Mawi, Avelar’s beef is brisket, his broth is streaked with guajillo and ancho chiles and achiote, and the tortillas, of course, are his own.

In its home turf of Jalisco, in western Mexico, birria is a family-style stew, sometimes made with goat or lamb. A version with beef made the leap to street food in taco form and became a food trend.

They’re part of a lifeline for Mawi Tortillas, another example of a local food business adapting to make it through the coronavirus crisis.

As the local Latin American community has grown, the tortilleria assumed a role akin to the Sicilian bakeries that dotted New Orleans a century ago or the Vietnamese bakeries that emerged in more recent decades.

Will Avelar formerly was chef de cuisine at Emeril Lagasse’s newest local restaurant, Meril. Leaving that job for Mawi was a dramatic career change, but baked into the plan from the start was his family story. His father Carlos Avelar wanted his own business, one that his family could run and that would stand as a legacy. Since migrating from El Salvador during that country’s civil war, the senior Avelar’s dream was deferred as he built a family and a career to support them.

Mawi was doing well in its second year of business, until the pandemic arrived. The drastic hit to restaurants reverberated down the supply chain, and business nearly ceased.

“It happened quick,” Avelar says.

“The orders just stopped. I knew we had to start cooking. I knew I had to keep people working here.”

Mawi’s transition to eatery got an early boost from Feed the Front Line, an effort launched by members of the Carnival group Krewe of Red Beans that paid restaurants to prepare meals for medical workers. From a handful of plates a day, Mawi was fielding orders for 100 lunches at a time.

At Mawi, the evolution continued from restaurant supplier to lunch

spot and specialty market. Pupusas are a mainstay, along with weekend baleadas (tortillas stuffed with beans, egg and crema). In the display cases, there are pints of shrimp ceviche and bean dip, bags of tostadas and chicharrones and specialty cheeses from Central America, like mellow, crumbly queso morolique.

Mawi also makes a quesadilla Hondurena, which is not even remotely like a Mexican quesadilla. It’s more like cornbread crossed with tres leches cake, moist and slightly sweet, suffused with cheese and milk. It’s a homey snack to have with coffee.

The birria tacos have been the biggest hit.

“We’re not set up here to do all the different tacos like a taqueria, but this is something that we can do to really draw people in,” Avelar says.

Will and his brothers Raul and Fernando work the now-multi-faceted business with their father.

Before the crisis, Mawi was expanding. The Avelars took over a warehouse space in Kenner where they could move tortilla production and increase volume. That’s where they’ve set up the tortilla machine now. A second one will arrive soon.

“I think we can get through this and keep growing,” Will Avelar says.

Mawi Tortillas is located at 5050 W. Esplanade Ave. in Metairie. It’s open daily. Visit mawinola.com for more information. — IAN McNULTY/ THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

Revolving door THINGS CAN CHANGE QUICKLY

during the pandemic, which can be especially tough for restaurateurs.

Port of Call reopened Friday, Aug. 7, for the second time in the span of two weeks. It has a revised plan to continue business amid the latest city restrictions, with a mix of outdoor tables for food and drink and takeout for food orders only.

“It’s survival mode, that’s all it is,” proprietor Mike Mollere says.

The French Quarter restaurant dates to the 1960s and is famous for its burgers and its house cocktail, the monsoon.

After being closed since March, it reopened on July 24 with limited hours and a takeout-only format for its food and drinks. Unfortunately, that first day back coincided with an announcement of new rules from City Hall prohibiting restaurants and bars from serving drinks to go, so it shut down the next day.

This time around, Port of Call’s plan calls for five picnic tables on the sidewalk and patrons get takeout service for food only. In light of rules against go cups, Mollere said staff will remind anyone ordering drinks at the outdoor tables that they can’t leave with them.

Port of Call will open Friday through Sunday, noon to 8 p.m.

For more information, visit portofcallnola.com. — IAN McNULTY/ THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

EAT+DRINK

Zella Palmer

HEAT COOL with these

Historian

DEALS

ZELLA PALMER IS THE DIRECTOR of

the Ray Charles Program in African American Material Culture at Dillard University. She made a documentary “The Story of New Orleans Creole Cooking: The Black Hand in the Pot,” released in 2016, and last year she released the cookbook “Recipes and Remembrances of Fair Dillard, 1869-1970.”

Aug 11 - Sept 13

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ONE $39 FOR PERSON A FAMILY $95 FOR SIZED MEAL

Order online at www.BrownButterRestaurant.com or call (504) 609-3871

What did you include in the Dillard cookbook?

ZELLA PALMER: It’s a compilation of recipes that have been in our archives for about 70 years.

It’s broken down in three sections.

There is a section for the 1950s under President (Albert W.) Dent and his wife (Ernestine) Jessie Covington Dent. We have recipes from Eleanor Roosevelt, Lena Horne, Marian Anderson the opera singer and Ralph Bunche the UN ambassador. (That portion) was a community cookbook put out by the Dents to raise scholarship money. This was before financial aid.

They collected all of these famous people’s recipes, and it shows how far Dillard’s reach was. There was a recipe from the Israeli embassy and the president of Liberia.

The second section is from the ’70 and ’80s. We used to have an international food festival. So there are a lot of recipes from international professors and Creole recipes. The last section is contemporary and its under (President Walter M.) Kimbrough, with faculty and staff and top chefs we know through the Ray Charles Program. Leah Chase wrote the foreword for the cookbook.

Recent food media has called attention to the credit denied Black chefs. What did you find in your research?

P: If you read the New Orleans Times-Picayune’s Creole cookbook, that was written around 1900 — if you look at some of the old Creole cookbooks — the white women who wrote them always gave credit to the Creole Black women who they had to get the recipes from to write the book. In “The Picayune’s Creole Cookbook,” in the introduction, they are very clear that they

P H OTO B Y J A N A E H U R S T

didn’t know how to cook. After the Civil War, they had to figure out how to cook because they didn’t have free labor anymore. So they had to gather the recipes from Black women who did the cooking.

“Creole Feast” is a superb book, and I am glad it’s been reprinted because if we didn’t have Dr. (Rudy) Lombard’s research, we wouldn’t know who those executive chefs were. Once the Food Network, Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse came out, it became a heavily dominated white male rock star culture.

But in New Orleans, it was always an all-Black kitchen. Even if the executive chef or the front of the house face of it was white. The restaurant or executive chef always got credit for the dishes.

231 N Carrollton Ave. Suite C • 504-609-3871

Open for Take-out & Limited Delivery Tuesday - Saturday 12pm - 7pm

What’s new with the Ray Charles Program?

P: We launched a food studies minor last semester. We’re pushing to get more students enrolled in the course. We may be online or hybrid; we’re still figuring that out.

Also, we have a greenhouse we’re raising money for. It’s great to see so many urban farmers growing food, because food scarcity is so real right now. We’re starting to see a lot of local Black farmers. The greenhouse is in middle of campus. We want to start growing and give away starter plants and have students taste red okra and Creole tomatoes. We have kids coming from all over the country. If they come to the South, it’s important that they see the abundance of what we grow. Dillard had a horticulture and floraculture program in the 1930s. We’d like to bring that back. — WILL COVIELLO

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OUT EAT Contact Will Coviello wcoviello@gambitweekly.com 504-483-3106 | FAX: 504-483-3159 C O M P L E T E L I S T I N G S AT W W W. B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M Out 2 Eat is an index of Gambit contract advertisers. Unless noted, addresses are in New Orleans and all accept credit cards. Updates: email willc@gambitweekly.com or call (504) 483-3106.

Notice: Due to COVID-19, dining at restaurants is impacted, with limited indoor seating and other recommended restrictions. All information is subject to change. Contact the restaurant to confirm service options.

BYWATER Luna Libre — 3600 St. Claude Ave., (504) 237-1284 — Roasted chicken enchiladas verde are filled with cheese, hand-rolled and served with special house-made cheese dip. The menu combines TexMex and dishes from Louisiana and Arkansas. Curbside pickup is available. B Sat-Sun, D Wed-Sun. $

CBD 14 Parishes — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave.; www.14parishes.com — Jamaican-style jerk chicken is served with two sides such as plantains, jasmine rice, cabbage or rice and peas. Delivery available. Curbside pickup and delivery available. L and D daily. $$ Eat Well — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave.; www.pythianmarket.com — Phoritto is a spinach tortilla filled with brisket, chicken or tofu, plus bean sprouts, jalapenos, onions and basil and is served with a cup of broth. Curbside pickup and delivery available. L and D daily. $ Kais — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave., (941) 481-9599; www.pythianmarket. com — A Sunshine bowl includes salmon, corn, mango, green onions, edamame, pickled ginger, ponzu spicy mayonnaise, cilantro, masago and nori strips. Curbside pickup and delivery available. L and D daily. $$ La Cocinita — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave., (504) 309-5344; www.lacochinitafoodtruck.com — La Llanera is an arepa stuffed with carne asada, guasacasa, pico de gallo, grilled queso fresco and salsa verde. Curbside pickup and delivery available. B, L and D daily. $ Meribo Pizza — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave., (504) 481-9599; www.meribopizza.com — A Meridionale pie is topped with pulled pork, chilies, ricotta, mozzarella, collard greens and red sauce. Delivery available. L and D daily. $$ Willie Mae’s — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave.; www.williemaesnola.com — The Creole soul food restaurant is known for its fried chicken, red beans and more. Takeout available. L and D Mon-Sat. $

CARROLLTON/UNIVERSITY NEIGHBORHOODS Mikimoto — 3301 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 488-1881; www.mikimotosushi. com — Sushi choices include new and old favorites, both raw and cooked. The South Carrollton roll includes tuna tataki, avocado and snow crab. Takeout and

B — breakfast L — lunch D — dinner late — late 24H — 24 hours

$ — average dinner entrée under $10 $$ — $11 to $20 $$$ — $21 or more

delivery available. L Sun-Fri, D daily. $$ Pyramids Cafe — 3151 Calhoun St., (504) 861-9602 — Diners will find Mediterranean cuisine featuring such favorites as shawarma prepared on a rotisserie.

Takeout and delivery available. L, D daily. $$

SAINTS 2020 NEW ORLEANS

NFL PREVIEW ISSUE

CITYWIDE Breaux Mart — Citywide; www. breauxmart.com — The deli counter’s changing specials include dishes such as baked catfish and red beans and rice. L, D daily. $

FAUBOURG MARIGNY Kebab — 2315 St. Claude Ave., (504) 383-4328; www.kebabnola.com — The sandwich shop offers doner kebabs and Belgian fries. A falafel sandwich comes with pickled cucumbers, arugula, spinach, red onions, beets, hummus and Spanish garlic sauce. No reservations. Takeout and delivery available Thu-Mon. $

HARAHAN/JEFFERSON/ RIVER RIDGE The Rivershack Tavern — 3449 River Road, (504) 834-4938; www.therivershacktavern.com — This bar and music spot offers a menu of burgers, sandwiches and changing lunch specials.

Curbside pickup and delivery available.

L, D daily. $ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 1212 S. Clearview Parkway, Elmwood, (504) 7333803; www.theospizza.com — There is a wide variety of specialty pies and diners can build their own from the selection of more than two-dozen toppings. The menu also includes salads and sandwiches. Curbside pickup and delivery available. L, D Tue-Sat. $

LAKEVIEW Lakeview Brew Coffee Cafe — 5606 Canal Blvd., (504) 483-7001; www.lakeviewbrew.com — This casual cafe offers gourmet coffees and a wide range of pastries and desserts baked in house, plus a menu of specialty sandwiches and salads. For breakfast, an omelet is filled with marinated mushrooms, bacon, spinach and goat cheese. Tuna salad or chicken salad avocado melts are topped with melted Monterey Jack and shredded Parmesan cheeses. Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery are available. B, L daily. $ Lotus Bistro — 203 W. Harrison Ave., (504) 533-9879; www.lotusbistronola.com — A Mineko Iwasaki roll includes spicy snow crab, tuna, avocado and cucumber topped with salmon, chef’s sauce, masago, green onion and tempura crunchy flakes. The menu also includes bento box

PROM OTE YOU R

Black + Gold Merchandise Game Day Food + Drink Specials Your Who Dat Spirit AD SPACE AUGUST 28 ISSUE DATE SEPTEMBER 8

To advertise call Sandy Stein at 504.483.3150 or email sandys@gambitweekly.com

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lunches, teriyaki dishes, fried rice and more. Takeout and delivery are available.

L and D Tue-Sun. $$

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Andrea’s Restaurant — 3100 N. 19th St., Metairie, (504) 834-8583; www.andreasrestaurant.com — Chef/owner Andrea Apuzzo’s specialties include speckled trout royale which is topped with lump crabmeat and lemon-cream sauce.

Capelli D’Andrea combines house-made angel hair pasta and smoked salmon in light cream sauce. Curbside pickup and delivery are available. L, D daily, brunch Sun. $$$ Kosher Cajun New York Deli & Grocery — 3519 Severn Ave., Metairie, (504) 8882010; www.koshercajun.com — This New York-style deli specializes in sandwiches, including corned beef and pastrami that come from the Bronx. Takeout available.

L Sun-Thu, D Mon-Thu. $ Mark Twain’s Pizza Landing — 2035 Metairie Road, Metairie, (504) 832-8032; www.marktwainpizza.com — Mark Twain’s serves salads, po-boys and pies like the Italian pizza with salami, tomato, artichoke, sausage and basil. Takeout and curbside pickup are available. L TueSat, D Tue-Sun. $ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 2125 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, (504) 510-4282; www.theospizza.com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description. $

MID-CITY/TREME Angelo Brocato’s — 214 N. Carrollton Ave., (504) 486-1465; www.angelobrocatoicecream.com — This sweet shop serves its own gelato, spumoni, Italian ice, cannolis, fig cookies and other treats. Window and curbside pickup.

L, D Tue-Sun. $ Brown Butter Southern Kitchen & Bar — 231 N. Carrollton Ave., Suite C, (504) 609-3871; www.brownbutterrestaurant. com — Sample items have included smoked brisket served with smoked apple barbecue sauce, Alabama white barbecue sauce, smoked heirloom beans and vinegar slaw. A Brunch burger features a brisket and short rib patty topped with bacon, brie, a fried egg, onion jam and arugula on a brioche bun.

Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery are available. $$ Doson Noodle House — 135 N. Carrollton Ave., (504) 309-7283; www.facebook. com/dosonnoodlehouse — Bun thit is Vietnamese-style grilled pork with cucumber, onions, lettuce, mint, cilantro and fish sauce served over rice or vermicelli. The menu includes rice and vermicelli dishes, pho, spring rolls and more.

Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery are available. $$ Five Happiness — 3511 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 482-3935; www.fivehappiness.com — The large menu at Five Happiness offers a range of dishes from wonton soup to sizzling seafood combinations served on a hot plate to sizzling Go-Ba to lo mein dishes. Takeout and delivery available. $$ Katie’s Restaurant — 3701 Iberville St., (504) 488-6582; www.katiesinmidcity.com — Favorites at this Mid-City restaurant include the Cajun Cuban with roasted pork, grilled ham, cheese and pickles pressed on buttered bread. The Boudreaux pizza is topped with cochon de lait, spinach, red onions, roasted garlic, scallions and olive oil. There also are salads, burgers and Italian dishes.

Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery available. L and D Tue-Sun. $$

Nonna Mia — 3125 Esplanade Ave., (504) 948-1717; www.nonnamianola.com — A Divine Portobello appetizer includes chicken breast, spinach in creamy red pepper sauce and crostini. The menu also includes salads, sandwiches, pasta, pizza and more. Curbside pickup and delivery are available. Service daily. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 4024 Canal St., (504) 302-1133; www.theospizza.com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description. $ Willie Mae’s Scotch House — 2401 St. Ann St., (504) 822-9503; www.williemaesnola.com — This neighborhood restaurant is known for its wet-battered fried chicken. Green beans come with rice and gravy. There’s bread pudding for dessert. No reservations. L Mon-Fri. $$

NORTHSHORE Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 70488 Highway 21, Covington, (985) 234-9420; www.theospizza.com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description. $

UPTOWN Joey K’s — 3001 Magazine St., (504) 891-0997; www.joeyksrestaurant.com — ­ This casual eatery serves fried seafood platters, salads, sandwiches and Creole favorites such as red beans and rice.

Sauteed trout Tchoupitoulas is topped with shrimp and crabmeat and served with vegetables and potatoes. Takeout and delivery available. $$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 4218 Magazine St., (504) 894-8554; www.theospizza.com — See Harahan/ Jefferson section for restaurant description. $

WAREHOUSE DISTRICT Carmo — 527 Julia St., (504) 875-4132; www.cafecarmo.com — Carmo salad includes smoked ham, avocado, pineapple, almonds, cashews, raisins, cucumber, green pepper, rice, lettuce, cilantro and citrus mango vinaigrette. The menu includes dishes inspired by many tropical cuisines. Takeout and delivery are available. Mon-Sat. $$ Provisions Grab-n-Go Marketplace — Higgins Hotel, 500 Andrew Higgins Blvd., (504) 528-1941; www.higgingshotelnola. com — The coffeeshop serves salads, sandwiches, pastries and more. Takeout available. Service daily. $

WEST BANK Mosca’s — 4137 Hwy. 90 W., Westwego, (504) 436-8950; www.moscasrestaurant.com — This family-style eatery has changed little since opening in 1946.

Popular dishes include shrimp Mosca, chicken a la grande and baked oysters Mosca, made with breadcrumps and Italian seasonings. Curbside pickup available. D Wed-Sat. Cash only. $$$ Specialty Italian Bistro — 2330 Belle Chasse Hwy., Gretna, (504) 391-1090; www.specialtyitalianbistro.com — The menu combines Old World Italian favorites and pizza. Chicken piccata is a paneed chicken breast topped with lemon-caper piccata sauce served with angel hair pasta, salad and garlic cheese bread. Takeout and delivery available.

Service daily. $$

MUSIC

opt-Ad A

Nicholas Payton fills his pandemic with new music

BY JAKE CLAPP NICHOLAS PAYTON HAS BEEN BUSY DURING THE PANDEMIC. He has

released two albums and a handful of singles expounding on the era, while finishing work on a vocal R&B album and a project he says will be a companion piece to his 2008 record “Into the Blue.” He also has been regularly live-streaming performances, often featuring Sasha Masakowski.

“When I’m in the crisis mode, my art gives me the means to throw myself into that and to use tragedy and turn it into art,” Payton says.

Within days of New Orleans’ stayat-home order going into effect, the trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist and composer called Cliff Hines and Masakowski to record an album at his home in Uptown. They had been playing together for the past year, but hadn’t had time to record — until the shutdown orders cleared their schedule — and they knocked out “Quarantined with Nick” in two days.

With its title and cover — Payton in protective coverings, gloves and a gas mask — riffing on his 2019 album “Relaxin’ with Nick,” the trio captures the strangeness and uncertainty of the pandemic moment. The diverse tracks on “Quarantined with Nick” employ sampling, looping, synths and drum machines along with Payton’s trumpet, keys and bass. The voices of scientists and news pundits can be heard on loop, distorting and twisting, while reading the pandemic headlines over the groove.

“I felt like there was a lot of, perhaps angst, in my ‘Quarantined with Nick’ album,” Payton says. “I felt like I wanted to balance out that feeling with something more soothing, something more soulful and loving and inviting. ‘Maestro Rhythm King’ sort of provided that.”

Recorded in December and January and released in May, “Maestro Rhythm King” is named after the vintage drum machine that appears on each of the six tracks, along with Payton playing Moog, Hammond B-3, Fender Rhodes, P-Bass and other instruments. In the album’s liner notes, Payton points to Sly Stone’s “There’s a Riot Goin’ On” — his favorite Sly Stone record — which heavily features the Maestro Rhythm King, dubbed the “funk box” by Stone.

“Maestro Rhythm King” is a warm, vibrant love album, providing “an

PRESENTED BY P H OTO P R OV I D E D B Y J I M M Y K AT Z

New Orleans trumpeter and composer Nicholas Payton

oasis in the middle of catastrophe,” Payton says.

More recently, Payton released two songs and videos motivated by the summer’s uprisings against racism and police brutality. The first was a new arrangement of “Black and Blue,” made famous by Louis Armstrong. Payton’s recording features a verse by Common.

“It’s a sad reality that the oppressive songs and imagery from decades and centuries past still ring true today,” Payton said on Facebook. “As Black folk, we have traditionally used music as a means of connecting with our ancestry and reclaiming who we are.”

“We Will Breathe!” was released on July 31. The song is a tone poem based on a 1966 image taken by photojournalist Kwame Brathwaite while capturing the Black Power era.

Payton is joined by drummer and keyboardist Marcus Gilmore, spoken word artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph and vocalists Melanie Charles, Vegas Cola and Jasmine Mitchell.

Brathwaite’s son is an executive producer with Brandon Baker for the track.

“Brathwaite had this concept of imagery of Black is Beautiful,” Payton says, “and this is at a time where to be Black was almost shameful because for so many years, Black people were colonized and conditioned through the slavery system to hate themselves. There was this big push of Black is Beautiful, and you had James Brown with ‘Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud.’

“We’re in a similar civil rights moment now. There’s a resurgence in Black consciousness and awareness and upliftment, so we figured we’d create music to go along with this movement.”

From Magazine Street to Metairie Road, independently-owned shops and restaurants help our region thrive. As we all face the economic disruptions wrought by COVID-19, we at Gambit want to do our part by offering a new way to support local businesses.

“Adopt A Small Business” is an initiative designed to promote locally-owned businesses AND support local journalism. Help your favorite local businesses advertise — in Gambit at very reduced rates — so they can let customers know they’re still open, even if at reduced levels, and keeping people employed.

Crises often bring out the best in people. Helping one another is as much a part of New Orleans’ culture as food, music, and art.

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Gambit keeps me connected to the cultural life of the city I love.

When it comes to looking for what shows to see or places to eat, Gambit is my trusted guide. But it's more than that; it provides vital coverage of political and news stories impacting our city and region — stories that do not always get enough ink elsewhere. I also love Gambit for its sometimes zany, always interesting, perspective on the tragicomic nature of living in New Orleans.

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IT’S NOT EASY TO CAPTURE ON FILM

what’s entertaining about the randomness of a night in a dive bar. But brothers Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross found a formula for “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets,” and they crafted a strangely enthralling film about a motley crew of regulars at a Las Vegas bar on its last day in business.

The movie premiered in a documentary category at the Sundance Film Festival, but it’s not a documentary. It’s also not really a narrative film. Its structured, but unscripted.

The people who play the bartenders and patrons of The Roaring 20s bar were selected for the film, although only some have acting credits.

Michael, played by local actor Michael Martin, is slumped over the bar as the morning shift starts, with a bartender pouring whiskey into a teacup while singing, “The best part of waking up is bourbon in your cup.” Michael heads to the restroom to shave, and it’s a good indication that he practically lives in the bar.

The bar is on an unremarkable strip far from Sin City’s bright lights and casinos. The sun provides an occasionally blinding light as the door of the dimly lit place opens.

Many shots are captured in the mirrors behind the bar, and video poker machine screens glare in the background. Throughout the day, regulars come and go, greeting familiar faces, toasting friendship and, as the day and drinking wear on, cursing their neighbors. Older hippies, tattooed millennials and the occasional patron in business attire nurse beers and down shots, though rarely do we hear a name or learn much about their lives. One bartender has her son meet her at the bar, and he smokes weed in an alley behind it. Conversation spills out in snippets of wisdom or blather. One stone-faced man tries to explain,

P H OTO P R OV I D E D B Y CIRCLE COLLECTIVE

“When you’re in a platoon, you’re family.” And Michael gamely shares, “I overslept the day the bottom fell out of manufacturing. I’m sorry.”

“Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” was filmed in three days at a bar in Terrytown. Martin is a great anchor for the film, and he interacts with most of the others at some point. A bartender with a long, reddish ZZ Top-style beard is Marc Paradis of Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes.

Lowell Landes, who appeared in “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” looks like an aging hippie in the film and is one of the friendlier drunks. Standup comic Kamari Stevens plays one of the more sobor patrons.

The Ross brothers’ earlier unconventional film “Tchoupitoulas” is set in New Orleans and relies heavily on its tone and ambient sights and sounds of the city as three brothers travel through a long night. Despite the disjointed chatter and lack of a narrative, “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” is smoothly stitched together. It’s well paced, even if the appeal is like watching a car wreck in slow motion. Sometimes transitions come as patrons sullenly stare at classic movies or lob answers at TV game shows, and scenes can feel both urgent and lost in time.

A bartender leads a sing-along of Kenny Rogers “The Gambler,” and it’s a subtle reminder that they’re on the outskirts of Vegas.

The Ross brothers’ cinema verité style makes the forgettable nights and moments of boozy distraction memorable on screen. Dive bars and non-narrative styles aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s an impressive film.

“Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets” is available online via links from The Broad Theater and Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge.

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