Spacious and spectacular 3bed,2 bath,light-filled 1,813 SqFtCORNER unitcondo at the historic Cotton Mill with 11 oversized windows andsoaring ceilings! Sixclosetsprovide ample storage.Anupstairsloftwith wroughtironrailings could serveasaguest bedroom or homeofce. Unique NewOrleans touches include custom-madeBevololights and pendantlighting from Rosetree GlassArtists
Well-maintained, the condo associationofownersofthe 287units,the largest in Louisiana, completed atotally newroofin2026. Itsfinancial position is solidwith impressive operating and reservefunds. Flood zone X.
TheCottonMill also ofersanextensivefitness center,heated pool, outdoor grilling area, large entertainmentroom, well-stockedlibrary,anoutdoordog run, and three large courtyards. Garage parking across the street is available. Many restaurants, bars,and museumsare within a 5- or 10-minute walk. Pets arewelcome.
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Family values
Ilana Glazer performs at The Joy Theater
A FEW YEARS AGO, COMEDIAN AND ACTOR ILANA GLAZER, her husband and their new baby took their first family trip together to Florida.
Glazer’s parents had sold the Long Island house the “Broad City” co-creator had grown up in and moved to Florida during the Covid pandemic, so each year Glazer books an Airbnb and visits for a few weeks.
Glazer wanted that first trip as a family to be perfect, they say in their 2024 stand-up special “Human Magic,” setting up a story that quickly goes off the rails.
As usual, they booked a house through Airbnb, but when the family arrived, things felt off. The house was almost too clean. The couch was shallow and slippery. There was a strange shelf with an electrical outlet placed in a weird spot overlooking the bedroom. Chess pieces were the size of Glazer’s hand.
When Glazer took down a poster off the wall and discovered a Brazzers sticker, everything suddenly made sense. This was a porn house. It explained why the rental was relatively cheap, and Glazer jokes about looking through porn sites for scenes shot in the house.
But there was also the anxious horror of realizing they unwittingly brought their baby into the house.
“We had our baby there, and it was such a gross feeling,” Glazer recently told Gambit. “But it was also like the place is squeaky fucking clean. So we were just like, laugh at it and pretend it never happened — but it was such a gross feeling.”
Glazer is spending time on the road this summer performing stand-up and stops in New Orleans on Wednesday, June 24, for a show at The Joy Theater.
“Human Magic,” Glazer’s second hour-long special, focuses on the experience of becoming a parent. It weaves together a narrative from conception to working while pregnant and being recognized at awkward doctor’s visits, and then to birth and raising a new human being.
Throughout, Glazer detours into observations about sex and porn, weed, Jewish heritage and progressive ideals.
“The narrative of having a kid was just so fascinating to me,” she says. “It was such a simple and clear way to show that experience and show it through the lens of the way I see the world, which is a harsh world — absurdly harsh because
by Jake Clapp |
it doesn’t have to be this way. The people in power are really missing the point. It could be so chill and so fun.”
Glazer is now touring new material, drawing from their everyday life, like going to the gym, being in therapy — and thinking about sex with their therapist — and trying to go grocery shopping without being stoned.
“Grocery shopping sober is new for me. I used to only do it stoned, which I don’t even know how I got any groceries into my kitchen for the past 15 years,” Glazer says. “I’m just like, ‘Maybe I’ll be a chef.’ You’re not going to be a chef.”
But the set also picks up on a thread Glazer started in “Human Magic,” about the unexpected joy of parenthood.
“When I started thinking about parenting and the shock that the joy still gives me five years into this game, that’s when the framework of the world started coming in,” they say. “I’m blissed out on parenting. It’s hard and I’m exhausted, but I just find the joy so shocking. But against the backdrop of billionaires trying to take over our world and destroy it, that’s when I started finding the tension within this hour.”
Glazer dove into comedy when she was 19 and got her start with the Upright Citizens Brigade in New York. She was initially doing it all — stand-up, improv and sketch comedy — but began making “Broad City” with comedian Abbi Jacobson as a web series.
“Broad City” focused on the day-to-day lives of two millennial best friends living in New York, and it took off, gaining the attention of Amy Poehler, who helped Glazer and Jacobson develop the web series into a television show. The series ran for five seasons on Comedy Central before ending in 2019.
Glazer also has acted in the shows “BoJack Horseman” and “The Afterparty” and in the films “False Positive” and “Babes,” both of which Glazer also co-wrote and co-produced. They also recently performed on Broadway alongside George Clooney in “Good Night, and Good Luck,” and Glazer hosts the podcast “It’s Open.”
Around 2016, Glazer says, they made their way back into performing stand-up, and that aspect of their career has grown over the last decade. Glazer’s first special, “The Planet is Burning” was released in 2020.
Glazer has toured around the country as a stand-up several times over the last decade, but they learned a lot about the craft and their own anxieties while performing in the lead up to “Human Magic.”
“I’m realizing how much OCD ritual I had around just combating my anxiety,” they say. “This tour, I’m feeling so much more comfortable, excited and taking so much pleasure in every show.”
Glazer performs at 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 24. Tickets start at $51.05 via thejoytheater.com.
Mitchell Robinson Parade
Chalmette will honor native son Mitchell Robinson’s historic NBA Championship with a parade down Judge Perez this Thursday, June 25. The parade will start at 6:30 p.m. at Big Lots at Chalmette Mall and will proceed to Chalmette High School, where Robinson attended and played ball. The Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs June 13. For more information, check facebook.com/stbgov.
Siam Night Market
The event features nearly 20 local and visiting food vendors offering Thai and other Southeast Asian cuisines. There are Thai vendors Thai NOLA Restaurant, Boom’s Thai Kitchen and Siam Siam; Filipino food pop-ups Sogbu, Piknik Street and more including Sushi Iku, Nori Guys, AOK, Saigon Street Kitchen and Nola Noods. Entertainment includes Thai song and dance, a Dragon Dance team and a K-pop dance group from Tulane University. From noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, June 27, at the Westwego Farmers Market. Admission is free. For information, visit @nolathaifoodfest on Instagram.
Family Meal fundraiser
Big Freedia headlines a fundraiser for Toups Family Meal, the food assistance program started by chef Issac and Amanda Toups to help people in need. Mid Drift also performs, and there’s food from local restaurants and pop-ups. There’s also a silent auction. At 5-9 p.m. Sunday, June 28, at the Broadside. Tickets $43.27 via broadsidenola.com. Visit toupsfamilymeal.com for information about the program.
Jack Bensinger
Comedian and writer Jack Bensinger became known for short videos he posted online. He’s also a veteran writer for “The Eric Andre Show” and the most recent season of “Saturday
Big Freedia
PHOTO BY ENAN CHEDIAK / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE
Ilana Glazer PROVIDED PHOTO BY MARY ELLEN MATTHEWS
THUMBS UP/ THUMBS DOWN
G.W. Carver High School
students and volunteers collected 1,825 pounds worth of litter from around their area in the 9th Ward during the recent Love the Boot Week, which promotes beautification projects around Louisiana. The school rallied around 200 volunteers to collect trash and sort out recyclables during the week, earning recognition from Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser’s office and the Keep Louisiana Beautiful program.
OPENING GAMBIT
Oh, hello, Cone of Uncertainty. We certainly didn’t miss you.
The Louis Armstrong House Museum in New York recently honored Wynton Marsalis during its annual gala, recognizing the New Orleans-born trumpeter and Jazz at Lincoln Center artistic director for his jazz preservation work and carrying on Armstrong’s legacy. Fellow New Orleanian Herlin Riley also performed at the gala as part of a lineup celebrating the centennial of the influential Hot Five recordings.
Decatur Street businesses press o cials over construction woes: ‘We’re barely surviving’
FRUSTRATED DECATUR STREET BUSINESS OWNERS JUNE 16 demanded answers from the Sewerage & Water Board and other city officials over their handling of the long languishing construction along the popular French Quarter strip, what they’ll do to help them survive, and — perhaps most importantly — when it will finally end.
“I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for an economic issue,” she said.
Swaths of Lower Decatur have been torn up since September, when the S&WB began work on muchneeded, long overdue infrastructural projects, including updating its 115-year-old water mains and utility lines, along with repaving the streets.
THE NUMBER OF BUSINESSES ON DECATUR STREET THAT HAVE PERMANENTLY CLOSED DUE TO ONGOING CONSTRUCTION CHAOS IN THE AREA.
The Indian restaurant Lufu, which has another location in the Central Business District, recently closed its Decatur Street spot, as did Cafe Sbisa. The shop Dead on Decatur also closed this spring. The businesses have blamed the ongoing delays in construction and building obstructions along Decatur Street as the Sewerage & Water Board continues to lag in its efforts to repair vital infrastructure.
C’EST
the rst thing to happen if driverless cars come to New Orleans?
Attorney General Liz Murrill has joined Republican attorneys general from 13 other states and a group of GOP Congress members to ask the EPA to classify mifepristone as a water contaminant. Mifepristone is used with misoprostol to end a pregnancy and has been shown to be safe and effective. Murrill and the rest of the right-wing coalition claim that traces of mifepristone found in water could lead to problems for the general population. Health science experts say there’s no evidence that will happen.
At a meeting hosted by District C Council Member Freddie King at the French Market Restaurant and Bar, business owners described losing revenue and aired their grievances over street closures and other massive obstructions that have steered away visitors. The construction has continued for the last ten months, including during traditionally busy times of year like Mardi Gras going into festival season.
“This (infrastructure) project is devastating this whole area economically, and it’s affecting tourism,” said Rhonda Findley, owner of the shop Pop City. “People are closing their businesses.”
Findley said that even during the recent French Market Creole Tomato Fest — which she had hoped would provide a much-needed financial boost to the area — she experienced “the worst sales revenue in 17 years.”
The tall fences — which S&WB says are legally required by FEMA, which is funding the infrastructural project — has obscured several buildings and deterred visitors from going to the area, though there are walkways to use.
Many are worried that they may go out of business if the projects are not completed soon. The area has already lost two restaurants, the Indian restaurant Lufu’s Decatur Street location and Cafe Sbisa.
Randy Hayman, executive director of the Sewerage & Water Board, spoke extensively at the meeting and tried to assure the room that progress was underway, claiming that in some areas of Decatur, the project is “largely complete,” including the 1100 block. He alleged the project was in the “final stages” and urged attendees to be patient over the next couple of months.
57.1%
16.6%
The Sewerage & Water Board’s mismanaged construction project is wreaking havoc on Lower Decatur
PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE
“I ask you to be patient for just a little bit longer,” Hayman told the crowd. ‘We really are in the final stages of it.”
He sought to push off responsibility for problems, claiming that many of the reasons the projects have stalled over the past year have been out of the agency’s control.
“The initial timeline was the beginning of 2025, but the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras interfered,” he claimed. “Then we had high water levels (in the nearby Mississippi River) and we can’t excavate when there’s high water.”
However, S&WB, like the rest of New Orleans, was aware of both the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras years before work began.
The project hit additional snags when construction crews discovered historic artifacts buried underground.
Notably, many if not most construction projects in the Quarter run into similar issues, and it is unclear if S&WB built that likelihood into their planning process.
“It always was a project that was going to take 365 days, and we’re still within that period,” Hayman said. But people in the room were not convinced, and some said there were days
on end with no construction workers on-site. Others reported witnessing destruction, not construction. For example, one attendee said she saw workers accidentally breaking water lines and causing “geysers” to shoot up forcefully toward second-floor balconies.
Attendees also pressed officials to find a way to help compensate them for their troubles.
“You have a room full of people who are suffering with their businesses, economically,” Findley said. “What can you commit today? Offer a program for economic relief. Can you make a commitment today, to offer that relief?”
Hayman said that public utility companies are not able to compensate private businesses, but that he is working with other city leaders to see what the options are.
Mayor Helena Moreno, meanwhile, signaled over the weekend that she is working on securing grants for these struggling businesses. But her office did not respond to questions from Gambit hours prior to the meeting regarding where the funding would come from or how much these grants would be.
Hayman also claimed he would take some of the business owners’ ideas into consideration, such as figuring out ways to keep construction crews out past 5:30 p.m. in order to speed up the work being done.
At times, the meeting was tense.
Candice Lathrop, owner of Minnow Jewelry Bar, said if the project isn’t wrapped by October, when tourism and business tends to pick up, the damage could be irreversible.
“This has to be wrapped,” Lathrop said. “We can’t survive if we don’t have October. We’re barely surviving. The fact that we didn’t have February, March, April, May — these are five months in New Orleans to do business well, and if we don’t do business during those months, we will not survive in the slow months.”
Others blasted the city for ripping up the entire street instead of going blockby-block as other city projects have gone.
Hayman alleged S&WB was forced to do so in order to get funding by FEMA ahead of its expiration date.
“Is anyone in the office acknowledging that this is just a really bad way to approach a project?” asked Joseph
Walton, who owns an eponymous photography gallery.
After the meeting ended, Lathrop told Gambit she relocated to New Orleans after living in Brooklyn, a famously expensive area of the country for creative types.
She said she came to New Orleans a few years ago because she thought “you can make your dreams come true.”
After Tuesday’s meeting, she teared up as she described locking into a three-year lease last July just before the construction began. She said she estimates her sales have dropped by about 70%.
Like business owners across the city, she said she’s always braced herself for slower months throughout the year, like summertime. But because of the construction delays hindering her business all year, she said she is struggling and not sure what she’ll do if the project isn’t completed soon.
“Usually there’s an ebb and a flow, and you peak during certain months,” she said. “But with the construction, you never hit those peak numbers, and there’s no way to come out of that hole.” — Sarah Ravits
Lessons My Father Taught Me
JUNE 21 WAS FATHER’S DAY. To be honest, Father’s Day has never been a huge deal for my family, especially as an adult when it more or less became a convenient reminder to call and tell Pop I loved him.
This year, things are different. Pop passed this year after battling Alzheimer’s disease. It’s a particularly pernicious and ugly disease, one that seems to delight in flaying every bit of its victim’s self from them.
In the months since, I’ve struggled with even thinking about Pop, let alone talking or writing about him. It’s not so much I don’t know what to say — that part is easy. Instead, I think I’ve ultimately been simply afraid to do it.
I’m not good with Sadness. I can’t stand listening to sad songs, watching sad movies or reading sad poetry. For as long as I can remember, Sadness has kicked my flight instincts into high gear the second it comes knocking.
And the last few years, Sadness has been my — hell, all of our — constant companion. The Covid pandemic, the loss of dear friends to Hurricane Ida, car accidents and drugs, the violent repression and displacement of immigrants and the rise of fascism.
All of that playing out upon the backdrop of slowly losing Pop to Alzheimer’s has made it feel like there’s no escape from Sadness’s long, dark shadow, especially since most of what Pop taught me about living finds offense in what is happening around us.
You see, Pop was larger than life for me, and his words and deeds carried more weight than even he ever imagined. I don’t know if he ever knew how much of who I am is a purposeful reflection of him.
Take tattoos. I waited until I was 35 to get my first one: not because I was being thoughtful, but because one night when I was 16, I told Pop I was getting one (a particularly silly Black Flag-Grateful Dead mashup design), and he made me promise I’d wait until I was 35. Pop rarely made me promise to do, or not do, anything. So when he did, it always felt to me like Moses returning from the mountain with an unbreakable command, and I always did my level best to obey.
Turns out Pop had no idea that simple phrase “promise me” carried so much weight. In fact, when I showed him my first tattoo and told him why I’d
waited, he shook his head and said “I don’t even remember having that fight. If I’d known you took it so seriously, I’d have told you to wait till 50!”
Pop was a true believer in the Golden Rule, and he lived by it with an ease that to this day I find remarkable. Any person who came to his door was always greeted with the most sincere, warm “welcome,” an offer of a place to sit and rest, a drink and, of course, a friendly smile.
Growing up in the D.C. area in the 1980s, my sister and I had incredibly diverse friend groups — on any given day, our kitchen could have the children of diplomats, limo drivers, judges and carpenters shoveling snacks in their faces. No matter your race, religion, gender identity or class, if you came home with me or Christine, you knew you were family and welcome. While the ’80s were fueled by selfishness and greed, Pop was a steady force of empathy and kindness, and a firm believer in justice and fairness. An accomplished bankruptcy attorney, he spent several years running the Department of Justice’s program
JOHN STANTON
Pop Stanton carrying Gambit Editor John Stanton on his shoulders, a common occurrence both figuratively and literally.
PROVIDED PHOTO
that oversaw the government’s involvement in bankruptcies. So he fully understood how the system could be stacked against someone, particularly if they didn’t have money for a good attorney.
That didn’t sit right with Pop, so he spent untold hours quietly working to help poor or struggling people navigate the legal system with dignity and the promise of a light at the end of the tunnel. While he “officially” never took pro bono clients, countless people never wound up receiving a bill — or were the monthly victim of a mix-up at the post office, which once again lost their payment check, never to be cashed.
Over the years, he helped countless friends of mine and my sister when they found themselves in legal trouble or in need of advice from a lawyer, giving them a reassuring hand to hold through traumatic or difficult times. He did work for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, though he never spoke about it and certainly never made a big deal of being involved with them. That wasn’t out of some sort of purposeful humility, mind you. For Pop, doing what’s right, standing up for justice and extending a hand to those in need was the natural way of things.
One thing Pop didn’t stand for, and would get mightily angry over, was bullying. He found people who took advantage of others viscerally distasteful, and it was something I learned from him at an early age. Loud, dramatic fights between me and my sister Christine were a regular part of life growing up. And while Pop would yell at us to knock it out, he only really got mad on those occasions when I took it too far and physically bullied my little sister. That’s when he’d become an angry, Irish Catholic storm of retribution that terrified me.
I can still see the anger in his eyes and feel his palpable disappointment after those fights as if they just happened. But it helped ingrain in me the sense of right and wrong Pop intuitively felt — and that I have sought to use as a guide ever since.
My family and I fully started coming to terms with Pop being sick when Alzheimer’s finally got its claws into him and he started acting mean. It’s a very common phase of the disease, but for us it was so out of character to
see this towering pillar of love say ugly things to people closest to him. He began parroting the hateful rhetoric poured into his head by Fox News, which he had taken to watching nearly every waking moment. It was terrifying and heartbreaking — and the moment we knew we were losing him.
But even in the midst of that ugly period, Pop was still there. Still the man who’d taught me the strength of empathy and kindness.
One weekend when I was visiting, he was reading a 2021 Gambit cover story Jake Clapp had written on House of Tulip, a trans housing group in New Orleans. I was worried how he’d react because Fox was pumping out anti-trans propaganda.
“Why do people hate trans people so much?” he asked me after putting the paper down.
“Well, I don’t really understand it either. I think it has a lot to do with fear and hatred,” I said carefully.
“And they won’t rent them houses?”
“Yeah, no. It’s really hard for them,” I said. He looked at me for a long moment, and I was worried he’d say something I’d regret hearing.
“Well, that’s stupid. Why can’t they leave these people alone? They’re not hurting anybody by just being themselves,” he said before turning back to the paper.
Thomas John Stanton transitioned to the next life on Feb. 2, 2026, surrounded by his family. He will be missed — but never forgotten.
shop @ gaetanasnola
Gambit Editor John Stanton with his Pop, Tom.
PHOTO BY JOHN STANTON / GAMBIT
BLAKE PONTCHARTRAIN™
@GambitBlake | askblake@gambitweekly.com
Hey Blake, Dinner theater was the rage in the 1970s and ’80s. I remember going to a couple of shows on the West Bank. What were some of the other spots for dinner theater around town?
Dear reader,
THE BEST-KNOWN LOCAL DINNER THEATER WAS THE BEVERLY DINNER PLAYHOUSE at Labarre and River roads. Opened in a former plantation home that for many years operated as a supper club and casino, the Beverly’s time as a dinner theater dates to 1972. It featured local and national performers, including Lana Turner, Joan Fontaine, Cesar Romero, Cyd Charisse, Van Johnson and more. The building was destroyed by fire in 1983. About the same time, the Camelot Dinner Theater opened in Mandeville along with Minacapelli’s Dinner Theatre in Slidell. West Bank theater goers could enjoy dinner and a show from Theater West at the Bayou Barriere Country Club in Belle Chasse or Gretna’s Rose Dinner Playhouse. It was once owned by actor and director Eliott Keener, who also taught at NOCCA where his students included Wendell Pierce and Anthony Mackie.
Ann Acykbourn’s comedy ‘How the Other Half Loves’ was staged at the Beverly Dinner
In 1990, the West Bank also welcomed Starcastle Dinner Theatre in Gretna. Owned by Rick Sasnett and Sandy Bravender, it also briefly operated a cabaret theater in Canal Place. Both closed in 1995.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, there were productions at Carlone’s Dinner Theater at Airline Drive and Labarre Road, Rivertown Repertory Theater (now Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts) in Kenner and Teatro Wego at the Westwego Performing Arts Theatre.
Recent dinner theater productions have been staged at the Lacombe Community Theatre as well as murder mysteries by Killer Theater at The Maison on Frenchmen Street.
BLAKE VIEW
TO CELEBRATE NATIONAL PRALINES DAY ON THURSDAY, JUNE 24, we explore the history of three of the city’s best-known purveyors of the iconic sweet treat. The oldest is Evans Creole Candy Factory, founded in 1900 by Andre DulacEvans. Located in the French Market at 848 Decatur St., the business was purchased by Jay Cuccia in 1968. Family members ran it until the company was acquired in 2015 by the nearby Café du Monde.
Located steps away, at 810 Decatur St., is Aunt Sally’s Creole Pralines, founded in 1935 by Diane and Pierre Bagur. According to the company, Pierre Bagur recalled buying pralines as a child from a street vendor known as “Aunt Sally,” for whom he named his business. Now available in several varieties, Aunt Sally’s pralines are sold from the French Market location, a second location in the Warehouse District, as well as online and by retailers across the country.
A favorite year-round, but particularly at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, are Loretta’s Authentic Pralines. Founder Loretta Harrison grew up in St. Bernard Parish as one of 12 children, according to her 2022 Times-Picayune obituary. She recalled making pralines with her mother, using a recipe that dated back to her great-grandmother’s era. After graduating from Southern University at New Orleans, she worked at the LSU Medical Library, where she sold pralines on the side.
She set up shop at the Jazz Fest in 1978 and was successful enough to go into the candy business full-time. She opened her first shop in Jax Brewery in 1983, later moving to the French Market and the Faubourg Marigny. Her menu expanded when she added praline filling to beignets, later introducing beignets stuffed with chocolate and one filled with crabmeat. The business continues at Jazz Fest as well as online and at the two locations now run by Harrison’s family.
Playhouse.
PHOTO BY JOHN B. BARROIS / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE ARCHIVE
GOOD,
BAD UGLY
AND
DA
THE
LOUISIANA LEGISLATURE
ADJOURNED JUNE 1, following months of often acrimon ious work. The full effects of its lawmaking won’t be truly felt for some time, but between changes to electoral maps, heavy-handed meddling in New Orleans politics and the decision not to take on the tech industry, it’s clear the 2026 session will go down as a pivotal moment in the state’s history.
ROLLING BACK BLACK POLITICAL REPRESENTATION
Wrapping up the 2026 Louisiana legislative session
BY JOHN STANTON | GAMBIT EDITOR
COMING INTO THE SESSION, it appeared that the state’s new congressional electoral map would stay in place at least through this fall’s midterm elections. The Supreme Court was set to rule in Louisiana v. Callais, which was challenging the map because it included two majority-Black districts. Given the state’s primary schedule, though, many observers assumed a ruling wouldn’t affect this year’s election.
But after the high court’s April 29 ruling in the case, which gutted the Voting Rights Act, Gov. Jeff Landry suspended the ongoing primary elections and directed lawmakers to ram through legislation replacing one of the two seats held by Black members with a district that will now be majority white and Republican.
That bill, Senate Bill 121, was carried by state Sen. Jay Morris, a West Monroe Republican, who this year was one of Landry’s most reliable hands in the legislature. Republicans opted to target U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields’ district,
which goes up from Baton Rouge to Shreveport, for replacement.
Despite the fact that Black people are more than a third of the state’s population, Republicans in the Senate and House made quick work of the bill, which was signed by Landry shortly after passage.
It now appears increasingly likely that Republicans could eventually replace New Orleans’ Democratic U.S. Rep. Troy Carter’s district with one which would be represented by a white Republican. The plaintiffs behind the original Callais case have already said they’d challenge the revised map because it still has one majority-Black district. And Republicans nationally are moving swiftly to force as many Black lawmakers out of Congress as possible through congressional district gerrymandering.
NEW ORLEANS COURTS IN THE CROSSHAIRS
GOV. LANDRY HAS MADE NO SECRET of his desire to exert more control over New Orleans, and Republicans in the 2026 legislature was more than happy to oblige.
In fact, one of the biggest stories out of the session was the effort to keep Calvin Duncan from assuming office as the city’s clerk of criminal court. Duncan is a Black New Orleanian who was wrongfully imprisoned for nearly three decades for a crime he didn’t commit. After his release from prison, he became a lawyer and in 2025 won election as the city clerk of criminal court.
Calvin Duncan at a symbolic ceremony swearing him into the office of clerk of criminal court before the Louisiana Legislature eliminated the position.
PHOTO BY CHRIS GRANGER / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE
Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, holds up a proposed congressional map.
PHOTO BY JAVIER GALLEGOS / THE ADVOCATE
State Sen. Mike Fesi, R-Houma
PHOTO BY MICHAEL JOHNSON / THE ADVOCATE
Duncan’s victory itself was a major event. Beating an incumbent like his opponent Darren Lombard is rare, particularly in New Orleans. Lombard also had the backing of the city’s political machines, most notably U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, who worked hard to keep Lombard in office.
But Duncan also was facing opposition from Republicans in Baton Rouge, most notably Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill. Republican lawmakers swiftly passed legislation to eliminate the criminal clerk of court position entirely and task the clerk of civil court, a position held by Chelsey Richard Napoleon, with carrying out its duties.
The end result was Morris’ carefully worded SB 256, which the legislature passed — and Landry signed into law — just before Duncan was scheduled to take office. Although the New Orleans City Council tried to still force an election for what is in practice a new elected position, Morris’ wording of the bill combined with a Landry-friendly state Supreme Court seems to have sealed Duncan’s fate, at least for now.
But Landry and his allies weren’t finished tinkering with the city’s judicial system. In the waning days of the session, Republicans pushed through a modified version of Morris’ SB 217 reducing the number of judges in the city.
Originally, the measure would have eliminated three seats on the city’s criminal district court: Section A Judge Simone Levine, Section J Judge John Fuller and Section I Judge Leon Roché. But Morris ultimately saved Roché’s seat and instead cut District E Judge Rhonda Goode-Douglas’ seat, and the legislature passed the bill on its final day.
Baton Rouge GOP Rep. Dixon McMakin’s House Bill 911 would have made sweeping changes to the city’s courts by combining the civil, criminal and juvenile courts. But that measure never made it out of the House.
OTHER NEW ORLEANS BILLS
THE LEGISLATURE ALSO PASSED A NUMBER OF OTHER BILLS directly affecting New Orleans, the biggest and most controversial of which is New Orleans Republican Rep. Stephanie Hilferty’s HB 1243. Hilferty’s bill will give the city significantly broader control over the Sewerage & Water Board, a quasi-state agency which is headed by the mayor in name but has traditionally been largely unaccountable to city leaders.
Hilferty’s bill gives the city more oversight over its operations and vests the city council with the ability to control S&WB’s billing practices and bud-
get. Although HB 1243 was backed by Mayor Helena Moreno and City Council President JP Morrell, some city officials opposed it over concerns it could make the board more susceptible to political pressures. Others, like New Orleans Democratic Rep. Mandie Landry, were against the bill because they believed the public had not been given adequate input on it.
Lawmakers passed Mandie Landry’s HB 813, which moves up the swearing in for the Orleans Parish sheriff to January from its current date in May starting in 2029, bringing it in line with the swearing in date for the mayor and council members.
They also approved McMakin’s HB 463, which raises the cap on cellphone fees used to fund the 911 system, another bill backed by Moreno.
The New Orleans delegation also secured tens of millions of dollars in funding for a host of projects, including the Lincoln Beach and Municipal Auditorium re-development projects.
BIG CHANGES FOR THE UNHOUSED
THE LEGISLATURE THIS SESSION joined a growing list of states and local governments in criminalizing the unhoused, passing Kenner Republican Rep. Debbie Villio’s HB 211.
The bill makes it illegal to sleep outside in public spaces, including sidewalks and underpasses. On a first conviction, an unhoused person could be fined up to $500, imprisoned for up to six months or both.
Local governments are authorized under the bill to create “homelessness courts” through which the unhoused could waive their right to a trial and plead guilty in exchange for being placed on probation, which can include mandatory mental health or substance abuse treatment.
It also allows local governments to set up camps to send unhoused people too if there isn’t enough shelter space.
Under the law, those camps, which must be renewed annually, can only be established in areas where they would not negatively impact property values. If governments were to set up such camps, they would likely end up being set up in more isolated and remote areas, which in turn will make it harder for unhoused people to get to work or access services.
During consideration of the bill, Villio repeatedly denied it would criminalize homelessness, despite the fact that it creates a new crime of “public camping,” which it broadly defines as “lodging or residing overnight in an outdoor space.”
Lawmakers also passed HB 864 by New Orleans Democratic Rep. Alonzo
An encampment photographed near the former Naval Base in New Orleans in April 2026.
PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE
Knox which would allow local governments to establish rules governing or entirely prohibit “the storage, placement, accumulation, abandonment, or use of flammable, explosive, or combustible material above ground within the right-of-way of a public bridge, overpass, viaduct, or tunnel.”
Knox’s bill came in response to a series of fires at homeless encampments in the city. Under the bill, violators could be fined up to $1,000 for each violation.
The law does allow for exemptions for permitted uses of combustible products under bridges — meaning festivals and other permitted events under the Claiborne Bridge could host food vendors.
However, it remains less clear whether the law could be used against vendors under the bridge following second lines, which are extremely popular but are not always permitted. Former Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration targeted these vendors on multiple occasions under existing laws prompting complaints from the second line cultural community.
The legislature also passed Knox’s HB 823, creating a “Homeless Diversion Pilot Program” in Orleans Parish. Operated by the District Attorney’s Office, the program’s goal is to provide addiction, mental and physical healthcare, employment, education and housing services to the city’s unhoused population. Unhoused people being criminally prosecuted could be diverted into the program at the DA’s discretion.
One bill affecting the unhoused the legislature didn’t pass was New Orleans Democratic Rep. Delisha Boyd’s HB 712. That bill would have waived fees for obtaining a state ID for the unhoused. Notably, while the measure easily passed through the House on 87-1 vote, it failed twice in the Senate.
DATA CENTERS AND AI
AT THE START OF THE SESSION, it appeared tech issues would be a rare instance of bipartisan cooperation in the legislature. Republicans and Democrats alike filed a host of bills on AI use, data centers and other issues. But under pressure from Gov. Landry and the Trump administration, nearly all of those efforts either were defeated or never made it out of committee.
Lawmakers did pass a handful of AI-related measures governing its use in political campaigns and the creation of child sexual abuse images, but they failed to pass a host of key bills aimed at protecting Louisianans from big tech interests.
Data center and AI bills not passed include:
▶ HB 922 by Hornbeck Republican Rep. Rodney Schamerhorn prohibiting energy rate increases caused by data centers on homeowners and others;
▶ HB 1206 by Shreveport Democratic Rep. Joy Walters creating new water use permitting and reporting requirements for data centers;
▶ SB 5 by Abbeville Republican Sen. Bob Hensgens creating regulations governing the use of AI in mental health treatment;
▶ HB 157 by Gretna Republican Rep. Vincent E. Cox III creating a legal “cause of action” against the AI misuse of people’s image or identity, something that is of growing importance to musicians and artists;
▶ HB 425 by Mandie Landry, which would require companies to disclose to consumers when they are interacting with an AI chatbot;
▶ HB 471 by Baton Rouge Democratic Rep. Edmond Jordan prohibiting surveillance-based price discrimination; and
▶ HB 734 by Lafayette Republican Rep. Josh Carlson, which would have created a “consumer bill of rights” regarding AI, among a number of others.
FORTIFIED ROOFS
ALTHOUGH LAWMAKERS CAME INTO THE SESSION LOOKING TO MAKE PROGRESS on the state’s insurance crisis with a series of fortified roof measures, in the end not much ended up getting passed.
One bill that did get through was Baton Rouge Republican Rep. Paul Sawyer’s HB 1187. Sawyer’s bill moves $50 million from the Citizens Insurance program into the state’s Fortify Homes Program. That onetime money is expected to help pay for 3,000 additional grants to Louisiana homeowners to install fortified roofs. Unfortunately, other fortified roofing bills didn’t fare so well. New Orleans Democratic Rep. Aimee Freeman’s HB 467 would have required fortified roofs for new residential builds in coastal parishes. It never made it out of committee.
Things didn’t go any better in the Senate. New Orleans Democratic Sen. Royce Duplessis authored two related bills, SB 299 and SB 355, which failed. SB 299 would have allowed nonprofit organizations to provide additional resources to help with the cost of installing a fortified roof. SB 355 would have required insurers to provide a minimum 20%
Workers with Sunbelt Roofs install a fortified roof with impact-rated shingles on a home in Jefferson on Friday, May 22, 2026.
PHOTO BY BRETT DUKE / THE TIMES- PICAYUNE
Construction on an electrical substation continues at the Hut 8 data center site on Friday, March 13, 2026 in St. Francisville, Louisiana.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL JOHNSON / THE ADVOCATE
discount to those participating in the state’s fortified roof program.
Similarly, River Ridge Republican Sen. Kirk Talbot’s SB 147, which would have required all new roofs and replacement roofs constructed on residential property to meet or exceed the standards of a fortified roof, also failed.
OTHER MEASURES THAT ADVANCED
OUTSIDE OF THE TOP LINE ISSUES, lawmakers passed a number of other bills, some of which have already been signed by the governor.
Landry has already signed into law SB 4, a conspiracy theory-based bill authored by Houma Republican Sen. Michael Fesi. SB 4 would make it possible for communities to vote to end water fluoridization. Anti-fluoride conspiracy theories have proliferated for decades and are rooted in anti-communist and antisemitic beliefs.
He’s also signed SB 292, by Lake Charles Republican Sen. Jeremy Stine, which makes significant changes to the state inspector general. While the IG has traditionally been one of the few safeguards against executive branch overreach, the IG’s role may now be transformed into something more akin to tech oligarch Elon Musk’s DOGE, focusing more on issues like government “efficiency” and less of a watchdog.
How that will play out in practice is unclear. However, if it does follow in the same path as DOGE, it could mean significant changes to the state government – and disruptions to the services it provides.
DOGE is widely viewed as a disaster on the federal and international level. It gutted much of the federal government workforce – only to end up in some cases having to rehire laid off workers or otherwise fill positions it eliminated.
The short lived department also resulted in thousands of Americans’ sensitive social security information being leaked, and is responsible for the return of the screwworm parasite in U.S. cattle herds. DOGE has also been linked to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people thanks to its ending of critical humanitarian programs. While the Louisiana IG clearly won’t end up causing those sorts of problems, how the law is implemented will be a major question mark over the coming months and years.
Another bill signed into law, SB 194, sponsored by New Iberia Republican Blake Miguez, will make it harder for immigrants to access key food and healthcare programs, including SNAP
which is designed to help pregnant people, mothers and children access food.
Republicans easily passed legislation targeting trans and gender-nonconforming Louisianans. Landry has already signed into law East Pineville Republican Rep. Mike Johndson’s HB 578, to replace the word “gender” with “sex” in state laws. It also defines a person’s sex as their assigned sex at birth.
HB 410 will make Louisiana a quasi-two party consent state for recording conversations. Authored by Metairie Republican Rep. Laurie Schlegel, the bill requires all parties be informed they are being recorded in certain circumstances. Exceptions include public meetings, hearings and rallies, when the recording is being used for a criminal or civil legal action, situations involving law enforcement and public officials and when recording in one’s own home.
The Louisiana Press Association opposed the bill over concerns it will impede the work of reporters or expose them to potential lawsuits.
While climate change continues to wreak havoc on our coastline, economy and communities, rather than find new ways to combat this manmade disaster the legislature instead decided to ban climate-based lawsuits against the oil and gas industry.
HB 804, authored by Lake Charles Republican Rep. Brett Geymann, prohibits climate change related lawsuits in state courts against the industry. Although no such suits have been brought in Louisiana to date, the industry is facing at least 30 state level climate change suits around the country. The law is a potentially significant new de facto subsidy for the industry, since it will not only allow it to avoid the basic cost of litigation, which could run in the millions, but it also means Louisianans can’t use the court system to force the industry to implement changes to its activities or foot the bill caused by climate disasters which theoretically could run into the billions. Landry signed the bill earlier this month, and Louisiana joins four other states in banning climate-based suits.
Lawmakers also approved Boyd’s HB 950, which aims to strengthen protections against deceptive business practices for the elderly.
DEAD FOR NOW
THE LIST OF MEASURES NOT PASSED IS, AS USUAL, MUCH LONGER. Lawmakers every session introduce far more bills than the body will even consider, let alone pass. Still, Republicans either defeated or buried a number of bills designed to
help working Louisianans, control gun violence and other issues.
Two minimum wage bills, HB 353 by Shreveport Democratic Rep. Tammy Phelps and Boyd’s HB 209 were both defeated in committee. Relatedly, Republicans killed in committee Boyd’s HB 293, which would have barred employment discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
Knox’s HB 472, which would have allowed local governments to implement rent control policies, also died in committee. Knox was able to get a resolution approved to study the issue.
Two cannabis related bills also never made it out of committee: New Orleans Democratic Rep. Candice Newell’s HB 373 creating a new recreational
cannabis pilot program and Mandie Landry’s HB 460, which would have extended employment protections for state employees who use medical marijuana outside of work to more employees.
Likewise, HB 563, Mandie Landry’s bill to create a voluntary Do Not Sell List for guns, didn’t make it out of committee. On a different note, farright Rep. Danny McCormick, an Oil City Republican, pulled his bill to allow guns on college campuses.
A House committee defeated Boyd’s HB 261, which would have added a rape and incest exception to the state’s abortion ban, despite overwhelming public support among Louisiana residents outlined in a 2023 survey.
Representatives Delisha Boyd, D-New Orleans, and Rodney Lyons, D-Marrero
PHOTO BY JAVIER GALLEGOS / THE ADVOCATE
State Rep. Stephanie Hilferty, R-Metairie, smiles alongside New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno in support of HB573.
PHOTO BY JAVIER GALLEGOS / THE ADVOCATE
EAT + DRINK
Outside in uence
Gaijin Sandos opens on St. Claude Avenue by Beth D’Addono |
IN JAPAN, THE WORD “GAIJIN” TRANSLATES TO “OUTSIDER,” and it’s what locals call people who aren’t Japanese. Chef Zac Hill, a Southerner from Fairhope, Alabama, who came to New Orleans to get a business degree at Tulane, embraces this notion.
“I’m clearly not Japanese,” says the chef, whose Gaijin Sandos opened in May in the old Rosalita’s tacos space in Bywater. “But I love the Japanese culinary approach.”
His concept, “Japanese style, Southern flavor,” is proclaimed on the wall of the compact restaurant at 3304 St. Claude Ave. Hill and his partner, chef Nhat “Nate” Nguyen, worked together for years at Union Ramen. In 2024, Hill decided to do his own thing and started sando (the Japanese word for sandwiches) popups at places like Sea Cave, the AllWays Lounge and Parleaux Beer Lab.
The key to getting his concept rolling was mastering making the fluffy, thickly sliced, white milk bread that forms the foundation of all the sandos. “Making my own milk bread and doing everything from scratch is important to me,” Hill says.
Although firmly rooted in Southern flavors, Hill is drawn to the Japanese commitment to letting ingredients shine without being overly complicated.
The space adheres to this same minimalist mantra. There are two concrete tables for eight, four spots to sit by the window, wooden cube stools, hanging paper lanterns and buttery yellow walls. The plan is to use the outdoor patio space once Hill gets it organized. He’s been busy from Day 1. On a recent Saturday, a party of eight National Guard men and women lined up to order just a few minutes after the 11 a.m. opening hour. Fried chicken thigh sandwiches started flying out of the kitchen. The menu is divided into “sandos” and “not sandos,” each with the option to add a side and make it a combo. Prices are reasonable, and portions are large. The sandos each arrive on the chef’s house-made bread, griddled to buttery perfection.
The crowd-pleasing chicken sandwich has a Southern accent, with a buttermilk-marinated piece of fried chicken served with pickled jalapenos and pimento cheese. There’s also a burger, and this version is a patty melt with two smashed patties, jack cheese and soy-caramelized onions. Katsu is the other fried option: a pork schnitzel with slaw and dueling barbecue and katsu plum sauces. The traditional Japanese egg salad includes a soft-boiled egg at its center, adding ideal creamy ooze. There is a solid vegetarian choice: miso roasted red cabbage with Swiss and tomato. And a traditional fruit sando spotlights seasonal offerings like local strawberries and yuzu-spiked Chantilly cream.
On the “not sando” side, there are addictive triple-cooked fries with house-made togarashi, a zippy chili-forward seven-spice mix, and house-made mayo on the side for dipping. And perfect for summer, the cucumber melon salad is bright and refreshing, with a nuttiness added by
sesame seeds. The salad comes with divine dressing based on yuzu goshu, an aromatic, fermented condiment made with fresh yuzu zest and chili.
There also are double-fried karaage chicken nuggets and skewered Japanesestyle chicken meatballs with toasted sesame seeds.
Hill grew up cooking with his grandmother. He mastered pot roast when he was about 8, cycling through classic American dishes out the of the Betty Crocker cookbook. The now29-year-old has been cooking ever since.
Working at District Donuts on Magazine Street was his first restaurant job. And the idea was to move to Detroit to work at a modern Roman restaurant, but the pandemic derailed those plans.
Hill’s foray into Asian food was unplanned. “I was walking a lot, going stir crazy a few months into Covid,” he recalls. “I walked by Union Ramen and saw they were hiring.”
He started as a cook and worked his way up to chef de cuisine, researching Izakaya dishes and trying out ways to tie Japanese cuisine to New Orleans. For the brick-and-mortar, Nguyen, who had mentored him at Union, came in as a financial partner.
“He helps out here and there, but we agreed that I’d deal with the day-to-day,” Hill says.
Why Japanese sandos?
“I saw an opening in the market,” he says. “That’s something they taught us to pay attention to in business school. And the aesthetic appeals to me. Instead of what do I need to add to a dish, I think. ‘Is there anything we can take away to make it simpler and better at the same time?’
Dakar NOLA wins second James Beard award
A RESTAURANT THAT STARTED AS A POP-UP WITH COMMUNAL SEATING and has grown into a magnet for high-profile culinary awards nabbed another on June 15.
Serigne Mbaye, chef and co-owner of the Senegalese tasting menu restaurant Dakar NOLA, won the James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef South during an awards gala held in Chicago. It’s the second James Beard award to land at Dakar NOLA, which the group named Best New Restaurant in 2024.
Mbaye’s cuisine tells an interlacing tale of African diaspora influences set in the broader culinary world.
“I’m grateful the food I grew up with at my mother’s table has found a larger table,” Mbaye said while accepting the award along with business partner Effie Richardson.
“I have to give everything to the South, especially New Orleans,” he said. “It’s where I finally felt free to be my self and found a community where I belong.”
The Best Chef: South award is a regional honor, covering Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Puerto Rico.
Going into the event, New Orleans had three more finalists in different categories: Donald Link and Stephen Stryjewski of the Link Restaurant Group, nominees for Outstanding Restaurateur; E.J. Lagasse of Emeril’s Restaurant, a nominee for the Emerging Chef award; and Ana Castro of Acamaya, also for Best Chef: South.
Zac Hill opened Gaijin Sandos. PHOTO BY MADDIE SPINNER / GAMBIT
Effie Richardson and chef Serigne Mbaye of Dakar NOLA.
PROVIDED PHOTO BY CLAY WILLIAMS
MAKE SUSH I AT HOME
The latest award arrives in a new chapter for Dakar NOLA.
The restaurant has a new location, now at 937 Leonides St., in the levee-side address that was previously Mat & Naddie’s Restaurant. It opened in June, with a new approach to its tasting menu.
The James Beard media awards, which were doled out June 13, included numerous nominees of local interest.
The Lifestyle Visual Media award went to the streaming series “Duck Camp Dinners, The Texas Tour,” hosted by Jean-Paul Bourgeois, a Thibodaux native who has been tapped as chef for the forthcoming restaurant (yet to be named) now taking shape at 741 Nashville St. in Uptown New Orleans.
now looking around the area for possible new locations.
Pressure has been building on Decatur Street businesses in the construction zone for months.
On June 14, the historic Cafe Sbisa one block away at 1011 Decatur St. served its last brunch and shut down for good. It closed, the restaurant explained in a social media post, because after exploring “every option to remain open, the ongoing construction ultimately made it impossible to continue.”
Cafe Sbisa had also lost its chef and co-owner, Alfred Singleton, who died in March at age 46.
Other nominees in different categories included Compere Lapin chef Nina Compton for “Kwéyòl / Creole: Recipes, Stories, and Tings from a St. Lucian Chef’s Journey: A Cookbook,” local writer Sue Strachan for “The Obituary Cocktail: Iconic New Orleans Cocktails,” the public radio program Sea Change for “The True Cost of Fertilizer,” local writer Brett Martin for the GQ story “The Ethical Assassin: One Man’s Quest for the Perfect Way to Kill a Fish,” and New Orleans-based journalist Boyce Upholt for “Caught!” for Food & Environment Reporting Network and Inc. Magazine.
In addition, a feature on Brigtsen’s Restaurant chef Frank Brigtsen, “Frank: A Love Story,” by writer Michael Oates Palmer for the Bitter Southerner, was a nominee. — Ian McNulty / The Times-Picayune
LUFU NOLA closes Decatur restaurant
The construction has blocked off the roadway of Decatur Street on the 900, 1000 and 1100 blocks since last summer. It is needed to replace water mains. City officials said last week they expect the project to be completed and the area cleared by August or September. Businesses on the 600 block of St. Peter Street in the French Quarter are contending with a similar situation. In May, businesses along Decatur Street banded together for an event called Defend Decatur to raise awareness of their plight. Many people turned up for a one-day event, packing restaurants, bars and shops and spilling onto the sidewalks between construction barriers. But day to day, business owners say they’re doing a fraction of their usual sales and did not see the perennial boom from Mardi Gras and French Quarter Festival to build up finances for the summer. Most of the restaurants, bars and shops on these blocks are small, independent businesses.
FOR THE SECOND TIME IN A WEEK, A FRENCH QUARTER RESTAURANT CONTENDING WITH SLOW-ROLLING INFRASTRUCTURE WORK and road closures on Decatur Street has closed.
This time it was LUFU NOLA at 1117 Decatur St.
“We tried everything we could, but it reached the point where we couldn’t keep it open,” says Aman Kota, one of the three chefs who created the restaurant.
Their original LUFU NOLA at 301 St. Charles Ave. remains open. That restaurant in the CBD was included on the Michelin Guide to the American South last year in the Bib Gourmand category, recognizing great value.
The chefs still want to operate two restaurants and are
LUFU, which stands for “Let Us Feed U,” was created by three young chefs from India who met while working in other New Orleans restaurants. They earned a following for showcasing dishes from their respective regions back home, with flavors often less familiar than the curry house standards. They have also won many awards at local food competitions, including Top Taco and Food Fight. In 2024, they expanded to the French Quarter, initially with a different concept, Cajun Flames, offering Louisiana-style cuisine. Last year, they converted this to a second LUFU. This restaurant opened in July. Decatur Street construction began the following month. — Ian McNulty /
Christopher Vazquez
Chef by Will Coviello
CHEF CHRIS VAZQUEZ’S FIRST RESTAURANT JOB WAS AS A TEENAGER WORKING AT POPEYES, and he later went to culinary school before getting into fine dining. As a chef, he’s spent a dozen years in California, working for Wolfgang Puck at restaurants including Spago Beverly Hills. After returning to New Orleans, he’s worked for the Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group and is currently the executive chef at Ralph’s on the Park. On Friday, June 26, Vazquez will compete in the Louisiana Seafood Cook-Off at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner.
There are a dozen chefs from around the state competing for the crown, and the winner will represent the state at other events, including the Great American Seafood Cook-Off. The event is open to the public, and it includes food from tasting stations from local restaurants as well as some drinks. For more information about Vazquez, visit ralphsonthepark.com. The Louisiana cookoff is at 6:30-9:30 p.m. Tickets are $71.21 on eventbrite.com.
How did you get interested in becoming a chef?
CHRISTOPHER VAZQUEZ: I am from Boston. I moved down here when I was a teen because my father worked for Al Copeland. He was a regional manager for Popeyes. My original, first job in food was at Popeyes Fried Chicken seasoning the chicken. I always had a cooking job. I always had a passion for it because I come from an Italian-Cuban family, who was deep rooted in food. None of them were chefs, but we always had a love for food. Eventually I went to college at Delgado (Community College). I did my externship at Mr. B’s. I did it when Ralph (Brennan) still owned the restaurant, and it moved over to Cindy (Brennan). Then I got a job with Wolfgang (Puck), and I moved to California. I was in California for a long time, and I became a private chef while I was out there. Los Angeles at that time — there were so many huge names, and I wanted to get back to the focus on regional food and enjoying New Orleans.
I came back because I wanted to get back into a restaurant scene ... I was executive chef at Red Fish Grill, and I ran the catering division (for the Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group) as well. I became the executive chef at Ralph’s on the Park (in 2025).
What kind of seafood dishes do you do at Ralph’s on the Park?
V: I am a seasonal person. Whatever is in season is what’s most important to me. We are so fortunate in New Orleans to have the Gulf of Mexico and the bayous all around us. I love the soft-shell crabs from Lake Pontchartrain, the crawfish, any kind of fish that comes out of the Gulf. Tuna is great in the summer, snapper is fantastic, and there’s swordfish and so on. You can’t get anything better than fresh shrimp. There are a lot of my dishes on the menu (at Ralph’s). For the shrimp and grits, we use a special grit, Unicorn Grits. They come from a pink corn from South Carolina. It gives a more floral, brighter flavor and the grits have more texture to them. We use fresh Louisiana shrimp, and with the sauce, instead of doing a Worcestershire sauce, we use lemon sauce with a little chili, and we pickle peppers we get from around here. We use crispy garlic and green onions as well.
We recently did a Vietnamese version of redfish on the half-shell. We deglazed it with bok choy, mushrooms and sesame seeds. We did a citrus ponzu. We use local citrus like Meyer lemon or satsuma.
How are you preparing for the competition?
V: I have been in the competition before. It was during the pandemic. I got second place for a snapper with curry. We ended up running that dish at Red Fish for a while. I am studying the judging more this time. People always ask what it tastes like, and that’s part of it, but it’s also the style, technique and presentation. They tell you they grade you one through five on particular items. I look at it as me against the scoreboard. I look at the things on which we’re being judged. We plan on bringing the most modern version of seafood you can see in Louisiana. You have to do one dish. You have to use a Louisiana seafood product. After that, you can do whatever you want to do. You can bring one sous chef with you.
You can bring base items, like a stock, but not finished items. If you’re going to make bordelaise (sauce), you can’t bring it done. But you can bring the staples like stocks, spices and your ingredients.
You bring enough in case something happens. Not only that, you have to bring your own equipment. If I’m going to sous vide, I am going to bring two machines in case one doesn’t work.
You have 60 minutes, but you have 50 minutes to cook because you have to leave 10 minutes to plate it. You have to calculate what you have time for and what you can actually produce. I have done “Beat Bobby Flay” and a couple of other things. When it’s live and there are people looking at you, some people buckle in that situation. The audience has no sway, but once that time gets going, it goes quicker than you think. Minutes go by like seconds, and it’s a little surprising.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY RALPH’S ON THE PARK
June 19 -21
—LUNCH —
Etouffee with friedcatfish
BBQBrisket on bun with potato salad
—Brunch
EGGS ACADIANA
Banana fosters waffle
Watermelon feta salad
BRUNCH Saturday &Sunday
—DINNER—
Barbecue brisket with 3meat bakedbeans andslaw
Italian stuffed pork loin with tomato, rice & green beanS
Spicycrawfish gnocchi H ! gnoc
OUT TO EAT
Out to Eat is an index of Gambit contract advertisers. Unless noted, addresses are for New Orleans and all accept credit cards. Updates: Email willc@gambitweekly.com or call (504) 483-3106.
3rd Block Depot — 316 Chartres St., (504) 552-4095; 3rdblockdepot.com — The menu ranges from seafood and sausage gumbo and Gulf shrimp ceviche to smashburgers and steaks. Brunch brings crab cake Benedict with hollandaise on an English muffin. Reservations available. Breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner daily. $$$
Acropolis Cuisine — 3841 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, (504) 888-9046; acropoliscuisine.com — The menu of classic Greek dishes includes souvlaki, gyros and pita wraps, spanakopita, hummus and Greek salads. Moussaka has layers of eggplant, potatoes, zucchini, ground beef and bechamel. No reservations. Lunch and dinner daily. $$
$ — average dinner entrée under $10
$$ $11-$20
$$$ — $20-up
Angelo Brocato’s — 214 N. Carrollton Ave., (504) 486-1465; angelobrocatoicecream. com — This Mid-City sweet shop serves its own gelato in flavors like praline, salted caramel and tiramisu, as well as Italian ices in flavors like lemon, strawberry and mango. There also are cannolis, biscotti, fig cookies, tiramisu, macaroons and coffee drinks. No reservations. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $
Don’s Seafood — 4801 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, (504) 888-1555; donsseafoodonline.com — The seafood options range from char-broiled oysters to seafood gumbo, fried shrimp and catfish platters and stuffed flounder. The menu also has rib-eye steaks. Reservations accepted for large parties. Lunch and dinner daily. $$ Elizabeth’s Restaurant — 601 Gallier St., (504) 944-9272; elizabethsrestaurantnola. com — Elizabeth’s is known for its signature praline bacon, and the menu also includes boudin balls, shrimp and grits, chicken and waffles and eggs Florentine. Outdoor seating available. Reservations accepted for parties of 10 or more. Breakfast and lunch daily. $$ Katie’s Restaurant — 3701 Iberville St., (504) 488-6582; katiesinmidcity.com — The Cajun Cuban is stuffed with roasted pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard. The eclectic menu also includes char-grilled oysters, sandwiches, burgers, pizza, fried seafood platters, pasta, salads and more. Delivery available. Reservations accepted for large parties. Lunch and dinner daily. $$
inmidcity com
3701 iberville st •504.488.6582 katiesinmidcity.com Mon-Thurs 11am-9pm Fri&Sat 11am-10pm•Sun 10am-5pm
Annunciation — 1016 Annunciation St., (504) 568-0245; annunciationrestaurant.com — Gulf fish Capri includes artichokes, crawfish, tomatoes and capers. There also are oysters, seafood pasta dishes, salads, steaks, lamb chops and desserts like bananas Foster bread pudding and lemon icebox tart. Reservations recommended. Dinner Thu.-Mon. $$$
Audubon Clubhouse — 6500 Magazine St., (504) 558-1200; audubonclubhouse.com — The menu by Dickie Brennan and Co. includes crabmeat cheesecake, shrimp remoulade, fried oysters, burgers, sandwiches and more. Shrimp Tchefuncte combines house-made andouille, mushrooms, popcorn rice and Creole meuniere sauce. Outdoor seating available. Reservations recommended. Brunch, lunch and dinner daily. $$$ Banana Blossom — 500 9th St., Gretna, (504) 500-0997; 504bananablossom. com — There are traditional Thai dishes like pad thai, green curry, pineapple fried rice, drunken noodles and coconut shrimp as well as original creations. Beef rib Chiang Mai features a slow-braised beef rib with yellow curry, egg noodles, pickled mustard greens, cilantro and chili oil. No reservations. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sat. $$
Boil & Barrel — 900 Harrison Ave., (504) 3322645; boilandbarrel.com — The menu includes dishes like barbecue shrimp, char-broiled oysters, boiled crawfish, seafood platters and roast beef po-boys. B&B fruit de mer includes shrimp, mussels and crawfish tossed with spaghetti in San Marzano tomato sauce. The bar offers a long list of bourbons and whiskies. Outdoor seating available. Reservations available. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $$$
Chef Budsaba Mason prepares dishes from her native Issan region of Thailand and other popular Thai dishes like papaya salad, grilled pork shoulder, larb, khao soi, pad thai and red curry. No reservations. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sun. $$
Chef Ron’s Gumbo Stop — 2309 N. Causeway Blvd., Metairie, (504) 835-2022; gumbostop. com — The Gumbo Stop has several gumbo
varieties including chicken and sausage gumbo and seafood gumbo with shrimp, crab and crawfish. The menu also has boudin balls, Bayou shrimp scampi, crawfish etouffee and fried shrimp po-boys. Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sat. $$ The Commissary — 634 Orange St., (504) 274-1850; thecommissarynola.com — Dickie Brennan’s Commissary supplies his other restaurant kitchens and also has a dine-in menu and prepared foods to go. A smoked turkey sandwich is served with bacon, tomato jam, herbed cream cheese, arugula and herb vinaigrette on honey oat bread. The menu includes dips, salads, sandwiches, boudin balls, fried oysters and more. No reservations. Outdoor seating available. Lunch Tue.-Sat. $$ The Country Club — 634 Louisa St., (504) 945-0742; thecountryclubneworleans. com — The Bywater restaurant and pool has a menu of crab beignets, truffle mac and cheese, shrimp and grits, burgers and more. Seared redfish is served with kale, toasted chickpeas, sesame seeds, chili crisp and whipped tahini. Outdoor seating available. Reservations recommended. Lunch, brunch and dinner daily. $$$
With views overlooking the Mississippi River, the restaurant serves a mix of South Louisiana dishes like smoked duck gumbo, crawfish bisque, shrimp Creole, blackened redfish and crawfish étouffée. Drum amandine is served with green beans and stewed potatoes. Reservations available. Lunch and dinner daily. $$$
Desire Oyster Bar — Royal Sonesta New Orleans, 300 Bourbon St., (504) 5860300; sonesta.com/desireoysterbar — A menu full of Gulf seafood includes oysters served raw on the half-shell or char-broiled with with Parmesan, garlic and herbs. The menu also includes po-boys, gumbo, blackened fish, fried seafood platters and more. Reservations recommended. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$
Dickie Brennan’s Bourbon House — 144 Bourbon St., (504) 522-0111; bourbonhouse. com — There’s a seafood raw bar with raw and char-broiled oysters, fish dip, crab fingers, shrimp and more. Redfish “on the half-shell” is cooked skin-on and served with crab-boiled potatoes, frisee and lemon buerre blanc. The bar offers a wide selection of bourbon and whiskies. Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner daily. $$$ Dickie Brennan’s Steakhouse — 716 Iberville St., (504) 522-2467; dickiebrennanssteakhouse.com — The menu includes a variety of steaks, plus seared Gulf fish, lobster pasta, barbecue shrimp and more. A 6-ounce filet mignon is served with fried oysters, creamed spinach, potatoes and bearnaise. Reservations recommended. Dinner Mon.-Sat. $$$ Domenica — 123 Baronne St., (504) 6486020; domenicarestaurant.com — The Italian restaurant offers a mix of wood-fired Napolitano-style pizzas and house-made pastas. Appetizers include various salumi and cheese boards, antipasti, roasted cauliflower and more. Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner daily. $$$
King Brasserie & Bar — Kimpton Hotel Fontenot, 501 Tchoupitoulas St., (504) 3243000; kingbrasserieandbar.com — The restaurant’s menu is inspired by the cuisine of the Riviera and southern France. There are dishes like steak frites and bouillabaisse as well as blackened Gulf fish and barbecue shrimp and oysters. Reservations recommended. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$$ Legacy Kitchen’s Craft Tavern — 700 Tchoupitoulas St., (504) 613-2350; legacykitchen.com — The menu includes oysters, flatbreads, burgers, sandwiches, salads and sharable plates like NOLA Tot Debris. A slow-cooked pulled pork barbecue sandwich is served with coleslaw on a brioche bun. Reservations accepted. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$ Legacy Kitchen Steak & Chop — 91 Westbank Expressway, Gretna, (504) 513-2606; legacykitchen.com — The selection of steaks and chops includes filet mignon, bone-in rib-eye, top sirloin and double pork chops and a la carte toppings include bearnaise, blue cheese and sauteed crabmeat. There also are burgers, salads, pasta, seafood entrees, char-broiled oysters and more. Reservations accepted. Outdoor seating available. Lunch and dinner Mon.-Sat. $$ Luke — 333 St. Charles Ave., (504) 378-2840; lukeneworleans.com — The raw bar offers oysters, boiled shrimp, cured tuna, smoked trout dip and more. The menu has dishes like shrimp and grits, crab omelets, crawfish etouffee and steak frites. Reservations encouraged. Breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner daily. $$$ Lyons Corner — 537 Gravier St., (504) 527-0006; lyonscornernola.com — The eclectic menu includes Cajun prawns, bang-bang fried oysters, chicken sandwiches, salads and more. In the morning, there are breakfast empanadas, muffins, croissants, scones, beignets and more. Delivery and takeout available. No reservations. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$ Mikimoto — 3301 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 488-1881; mikimotosushi.com — The menu of Japanese cuisine includes sushi, signature rolls, tempura fried items, udon noodles, teriyaki, salads and more.The South Carrollton roll includes tuna tataki, avocado, snow crab, green onion and wasabi roe. Reservations accepted. Delivery available. Lunch Sun.-Fri., dinner daily. $$
Mosca’s — 4137 Highway 90 West, Westwego, (504) 436-8950; moscasrestaurant.com — This family-style eatery serves Italian dishes and specialties including shrimp Mosca, baked oysters Mosca and spaghetti bordelaise and chicken cacciatore. Chicken a la grands is sauteed with garlic, rosemary, Italian herbs and white wine. Reservations accepted. Dinner Wed.-Sat. Cash only. $$$ Mother’s Restaurant — 401 Poydras St., (504) 523-9656; mothersrestaurant. net — This counter-service spot serves po-boys dressed with sliced cabbage like the Famous Ferdi filled with ham, roast beef and debris. Creole favorites include jambalaya, crawfish etouffee, red beans and rice and more. Breakfast is available all day. Delivery available. No reservations. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$ Orleans Grapevine Wine Bar & Bistro — 720 Orleans Ave., (504) 523-1930; orleansgrapevine.com — The wine bar offers a selectoin of cheese boards and appetizers. Creole pasta combines shrimp and andouille in tomato cream sauce. Reservations accepted for large parties. Outdoor seating available. Dinner Thu.-Sun. $$ Pascal’s Manale — 1838 Napoleon Ave., (504) 895-4877; pascalsmanale.com — This Creole-Italian spot invented New Orleansstyle barbecue shrimp, and the menu also includes seafood gumbo, crab cakes, oysters and Italian-style pasta dishes. There’s also an oyster bar. Reservations recommended. Lunch and dinner Tue.-Sat. $$$ Peacock Room — Kimpton Hotel Fontenot, 501 Tchoupitoulas St., (504) 324-3073; peacockroomnola.com — At brunch, braised short rib grillades are served over grits with mushrooms, a poached egg and shaved truffle. The dinner menu has oysters, salads, pasta, shrimp and grits, a burger, cheese plates and more. Reservations accepted. Dinner Wed.-Mon., brunch Sun. $$ Pizza Domenica — 4933 Magazine St., (504) 301-4978; pizzadomenica.com — Pizza is the focus of this offshoot of the Italian restaurant Domenica. There also are meatballs, roasted cauliflower and house-made pastas. No reservations. Lunch and dinner daily. $$ Restaurant August — 301 Tchoupitoulas St., (504) 299-9777; restaurantaugust. com — The fine dining restaurant serves Creole and contemporary dishes featuring foie gras, Gulf fish, duck and more. Gnocchi are served with crab, summer truffles and Parmesan. Reservations recommended.
Dinner Sun.-Fri., lunch Fri. $$$
Rivershack Tavern — 3449 River Road, Jefferson, (504) 834-4938; rivershacktavern.com — This tavern along the levee offers a casual menu of roast beef po-boys, burgers, wraps, fried shrimp platters, catfish and gumbo. A country fried steak is served with brown gravy, mashed potatoes, vegetables and salad. Outdoor seating available. No reservations. Lunch and dinner daily. $$ Shaya — 4213 Magazine St., (504) 891-4213; shayarestaurant.com — The Mediterranean and Middle Eastern menu includes dishes like hummus, falafel, kebabs, grilled chicken and wood-oven pita bread. A chicken schnitzel sandwich is dressed with little gem lettuce, pickles and harissa mayonnaise on sesame brioche bread. Outdoor seating available. Reservations recommended. Lunch and dinner daily. $$$ Stingray’s Restaurant & Bar — 1303 W. Esplanade Ave., Kenner, (504) 443-4040; stingraysseafoodrestaurant.com — Zydeco
fish is stuffed with crabmeat dressing and topped with shrimp cream sauce. The menu also includes fried shrimp and oyster platters, grilled redfish, crabmeat jalapeños, and boudin egg rolls. Reservations available. Lunch and dinner daily. $$$
Tableau — 616 St. Peter St., (504) 934-3463; tableaufrenchquarter.com — The menu features traditional and creative Creole dishes. Pasta bouillabaisse features squid ink mafaldine, little neck clams, Gulf shrimp, squid, seafood broth, rouille and herbed breadcrumbs. Outdoor seating available on the balcony. Reservations recommended. Dinner Wed.-Sun., brunch Thu.-Sun. $$$ Tacklebox — 817 Common St., (504) 827-1651; legacykitchen.com — The menu includes raw and char-broiled oysters, seafood platters, po-boys, fried chicken, crab and corn bisque and more. Redfish St. Charles is served with garlic-herb butter, asparagus, mushrooms and crawfish cornbread. Reservations accepted. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$
Tavi — 330 N. New Hampshire St., (985) 200-2045; tavirestaurant.com — The menu combines dishes from the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean. There’s hummus, falafel, kebabs, flatbreads, grilled fish, lamb burgers and more. Reservations accepted. Lunch and dinner daily. $$$
Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 1212 S. Clearview Parkway, Elmwood, (504) 733-3803; 2125 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, (504) 510-4282; 4024 Canal St., (504) 302-1133; 4218 Magazine St., (504) 894-8554; 70488 Highway 21, Covington, (985) 234-9420; theospizza. com — A Marilynn Pota Supreme pie is topped with mozzarella, pepperoni, sausage, hamburger, mushrooms, bell peppers and onions. There also are salads, sandwiches, wings, breadsticks and more. Delivery available. Lunch and dinner daily. $
The Vintage — 3121 Magazine St., (504) 324-7144; thevintagenola.com — There’s a full coffee drinks menu and baked goods and beignets, as well as a full bar. The menu has flatbreads, cheese boards, small plates and a pressed vegetable sandwich with avocado, onions, arugula, red pepper and pepper jack cheese. No reservations. Delivery and outdoor seating available. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. $$
Vyoone’s — 412 Girod St., (504) 381-4384; vyoone.com — The French-Creole menu includes dishes like escargot, crawfish beignets, crab cakes, shrimp pasta, duck a l’orange and lamb chops. Reservations recommended. Dinner Wed.-Sun. $$$
Willa Jean — 611 O’Keefe Ave., (504) 509-7334; willajean.com — The bakery and cafe serves biscuits with honey butter, cookies, pastries, breakfast sandwiches, shrimp and grits and more. Avocado toasts are made with house-baked ciabatta topped with tomatillo, spiced pepitas, pickled onion, cilantro and chipotle aioli. Outdoor seating available. No reservations. Breakfast and lunch daily. $$
Yinzer’s Amazing Cheesesteaks — 1514 Delachaise St., (412) 860-6801; yinzersamazingcheesesteaks.com —There are classic and original cheesesteaks filled with steak, chicken and more. Diners can opt for toppings like provolone, house-made cheddar whiz, mushrooms, onions, banana peppers and more. Delivery available. No reservations. Lunch and dinner Wed.-Sun. $
Night Live.” And he starred as a one of the rappers in the hapless Coolbaugh Crew in the mockumentary “Rap World.” He performs stand-up at 7 p.m. Sunday, June 28, at Sports Drink. Tickets $23.56 via sportsdrink.org.
Stooges Brass Band
The Stooges Brass Band headlines a Free Fridays show at Tipitina’s. Very Cherry opens at 9 p.m. Friday, June 26. Admission is first come, first served. Find information at tipitinas.com.
Jackie Fabulous
Comedian Jackie Fabulous got the semi-finals on “America’s Got Talent” in 2019, and she’s gone on to appear in “That Damn Michael Che,” latenight TV including “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and more. Her debut comedy special “Menopause” is available on Hulu. She performs at 7 & 9 p.m. Friday, June 26, and Saturday, June 27, at Sports Drink. Tickets $28.99 via sportsdrink.org.
48 Hour Film Project
The local edition of the 48 Hour Film Project finished on June 14. Roughly 20 teams of amateur and professional filmmakers wrote, shot and edited short films based on a randomly drawn film genre and a revealed character, line of dialog and prop. Top completed films are screened for viewers to choose the audience awards in numerous categories. The screening is at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 25, at The Broad Theater. Find information at 48hourfilm.com/neworleans. Tickets $10 via thebroadtheater.com.
Billy Sorrells
Comedian Billy Sorrells is a veteran of the MTV show “Wild ’N Out,” and he’s also been on BET’s “Office Code” and Adult Swim’s “Black Jesus.” He built a following online with characters like Peaches, and he released the comedy special “Toxic AF” in 2024. He performs at 7 p.m. Friday, June 26, at The Howlin’ Wolf. Tickets $28.35-$34.24 via thehowlinwolf.com.
Pixies tribute
New Orleans bands The World is a Vampire, Silver Godling and Swarm Comp take on the Pixies catalog for a tribute show helping to raise money for a friend’s medical bills. The show is at 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 24, at Gasa Gasa. Cover is sliding scale donations at the door, and suggested $10 and $20 advance ticket options are on sale at gasagasanola.com.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Rahim Glaspy
Musician and actor Rahim Glaspy is gearing up to release a new solo music project, which he’s teasing as “a whole new universe” — and recent Instagram posts have featured clown makeup and a masked Kr3wcial. Glaspy premieres his new concept with a show at 7 p.m. Friday, June 26, at 3OneOne6 on St. Claude Avenue. Admission is free, but RSVP requested via eventbrite.com.
Louisiana Seafood
Cook-O and Foodie Feast
A dozen chefs from across Louisiana compete in the live cooking competition for the title and chance to represent the state in other competitions. Local competitors include Trudy Alexander of Kenner Seafood, Jason Hall of Don’s Seafood and Chris Vazquez of Ralph’s on the Park (see 3-Course interview, page 21). Attendees can watch the competition and sample food from 20 restaurant tasting stations and some free drinks. The event is 6:309:30 p.m. Friday, June 26, at the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner. Tickets $71.21 via eventbrite.com.
The Greenhouse
Fat Squirrel Productions presents the summer installment of its new short play series. The theme is “June Bugs,” and there will be six 10-minute plays by local writers. At 8 p.m. Monday, June 22, at Big Couch. Find tickets and information at fatsquirrelnola. square.site.
Ryan Plunkett
Magician Ryan Plunkett performs card tricks and sleights of hand, both up close with audience members and on stage. He’s a regular at places like the Chicago Magic Lounge and Los Angeles’ Magic Castle. He brings his Old Fashioned Magic show to the Eliza Jane Hotel on Friday, June 26, and Saturday, June 27. Tickets $58 and up via ofmnola.com.
L.A. Guns
The Los Angeles hard rock and glam metal band was founded by lead guitarist Tracii Guns, and for a time in the 1980s included Axl Rose, and members became Guns N’ Roses before everyone went their separate ways. The L.A. Guns lineup has changed, disbanded and reunited over the years, but Guns’ group has released several albums in recent years, including “Leopard Skin” last year. L.A. Guns are at Southport Hall Wednesday, June 24. Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets $27.76 via southporthall.com.
Celebratethe season with “The Commodore” served in acollectible
To learn more about adding your event to the music calendar, please email listingsedit@gambitweekly.com
MONDAY, JUNE 22
ALLWAYS LOUNGE — Betsy Propane & The Accessories, 7 pm
APPLE BARREL Mark Appleford, 6 pm; Decaturadio, 10:30 pm
BACCHANAL Byron Asher, 6 pm
BAMBOULA’S — The New Orleans Rug Cutters, 12 pm; Jon Roniger, 4:30 pm; Ted Hefko & the Thousandaires, 9 pm
BJ’S LOUNGE — Red Beans & Blues with Washboard Chaz & Jonathan Freilich, 9 pm
BUFFA’S — David Doucet, 8 pm
CARROLLTON STATION Biscuits n’ Jam with Meryl Zimmerman & Friends, 10 pm
DBA Secret Six Jazz Band, 6 pm; Corey Henry & The Treme Funktet, 9:30 pm
DOS JEFES John Fohl, 8:30 pm
FAVELA CHIC — Josh Benitez Band, 7 pm
FRITZEL’S JAZZ CLUB Tin Men, 5 pm; Richard Scott & Friends, 8 pm
MAHOGANY JAZZ HALL — Victor Campbell, 6 pm; The Original Tuxedo Jazz Band, 8 pm
THE MAISON — Gene’s Music Machine, 8:30 pm
MAPLE LEAF BAR — George Porter Jr. Trio, 7 pm; 10 pm
POORBOYS — Gumbolaya, 9 pm
SATURN BAR BC Coogan, 8:30 pm
SIBERIA — Beach Face with Just Kidding and Violet Moons, 9 pm
BAMBOULA’S — The New Orleans Rug Cutters, 11 am; Felipe Antonio Quarteto, 2:15 pm; Les Getrex & Creole Cookin’, 6:30 pm; Bettis & the 3rd Degree Brass Band, 10 pm
BAR REDUX — Children of Judas/Drew Frank June, 9 pm
BJ’S LOUNGE Whip Appeal John Wesley Harding Record Release Party + The Glue + Max & The Martians, 9 pm
BLUE NILE Kermit Ru ns & The BBQ Swingers, 10 pm; Sage The Sag (Upstairs), 10 pm
BMC — Josh Benitez Band, 6 pm; Big Mike & The R&B Kings, 9 pm
BROADSIDE That’s So Fetch, 8 pm
BROTHERS THREE LOUNGE — Brother Tyrone & The Mindbenders with Special Guests, 9:30 pm
BRUTTO AMERICANO — Audrey LeCrone, 6 pm
BUFFA’S — Washboard Chaz Blues Trio, 8 pm
CAFÉ ISTANBUL — Latin Night ft. La Tran-K Band, 10 pm
CAFÉ NEGRIL — Jamey St. Pierre & The Honeycreepers, 6:30 pm; Higher Heights, 10 pm
CARROLLTON STATION — My Beloved & Friends, 8 pm
CHAPEL CLUB AT HOTEL ST. VINCENT
DJ Chloëdees, 10 pm
CHICKIE WAH WAH Ed Volker’s Zeko
Perdido w/ Rod Hodges, René Coman + More, 9 pm
DBA — Michael Watson & The Alchemy, 6 pm; Sporty’s Brass Band, 10 pm
DOS JEFES — Vivaz!, 9 pm
DOUBLE DEALER —
Lynn Drury, 9:30 pm
FAVELA CHIC — Jass Hysteria, 4 pm;
J.A.M. Brass Band, 7 pm
GOOD MEASURE — Basher, 9 pm
HOLY DIVER — DarkLounge
Ministries, 8 pm; DJ Reverend Robert Sinewave, 10 pm
LE BON TEMPS ROULÉ Robo Go-Go, 11 pm
THE MAISON Nola Sweethearts, 3 pm; Shotgun Jazz Band, 5 pm; Caitie B. & The Hand Me Downs, 8 pm; DJ LemonHead, 11 pm
NO DICE Abby and the Arsonists single release + Giovanni Ventello + Butte, 9 pm
SANTOS BAR — Touched: A French Touch Party ft. DJPHANTOM64, 10 pm
SATURN BAR — Humans Horse Races presents: Horses in Heat, 10 pm
SIBERIA — Them Ol Ghosts + Derek W.
Dooms + Atom Cat, 9 pm
TIPITINA’S Free Fridays Concert Series ft. Stooges Brass Band + Very Cherry, 9 pm
SATURDAY, JUNE 27
ANNA’S C’est Funk, 9 pm
BACCHANAL — Miles Berry, 7 pm
BAMBOULA’S — Aaron Levinson & Friends, 11 am; James McClaskey & the Rhythm Band, 2:15 pm; Johnny Mastro Blues, 6:30 pm; Paggy Prine & Southern Soul, 10 pm
BAR REDUX — Chasm Comfort/Natash
Doleres/DJ Solo X, 9 pm
BJ’S LOUNGE — Sarah Quintana + Charlie Halloran & The Tropicales, 9 pm
BLUE NILE The Caesar Brothers’ FunkBox, 7:30 pm; Afrobeat NOLA, 10 pm
BMC — Andre Lovett Band, 3 pm; Mother Ruckus, 6 pm; Sierra Green, 9 pm
BUFFA’S Tim Robertson Trio, 8 pm
CAFÉ NEGRIL — The Rumpshakers, 1:30 pm; Lynn Drury, 6 pm; Zena Moses & Rue Fiya, 10 pm
CARROLLTON STATION — She Might Be A Beast + Chess + Nova Junction, 8 pm
CARROLLTON STATION — Dana Ives + Neutral Snap + Bozo Red, 8 pm
DBA Paradise Jazz Band, 6 pm; The Jump Hounds, 9:30 pm
FAVELA CHIC — Christian Coleman & His Band, 6 pm
SATURN BAR — Siren Night with Anna Laura Quinn & Friends, 9 pm
SNUG HARBOR Lawrence Sieberth & Christian Winther, 4:30 pm; Charlie Halloran & the Tropicales, 7:30 & 9:30 pm
SCAN FOR THE COMPLETE GAMBIT CALENDAR
MUSIC
Low pressure
by Jake Clapp
DAN DEACON IS EXCITED TO GET BACK TO SIBERIA on St. Claude Avenue.
The Baltimore-based electronic musician and composer has been spending the last six months or so working on a re-imagination of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” in collaboration with contemporary dance company BalletX. He joined BalletX earlier this month to perform “The Four Seasons Reimagined” at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York. It was a challenge that was exciting but “felt like a doctoral project or a senior thesis or something,” he says. “It was a beast.”
So Deacon, whose manic indietronica often brings out dance-offs during his kinetic live shows, is ready for a relatively smaller club this weekend. It helps that he has spent his fair share of time in New Orleans.
“Going from the Saratoga Performing Arts Center to Siberia is awesome, and I’m psyched,” Deacon says with a laugh. “Siberia is a rad venue. When I’m in New Orleans, I tend to be hanging out on [St. Claude]. I used to come down for Mardi Gras every year and miss it dearly.”
Deacon’s career has grown and changed since the 2020 release of his fifth studio album, “Mystic Familiar,” a buoyant, colorful electro-pop album that explored human connection, influenced by his regular meditation practices.
Over the last few years, Deacon has dived headfirst into film, TV and documentary scoring work, including composing the scores for HBO’s “Task,” the blockbuster “Venom: The Last Dance” and the A24-produced doc “Andre is an Idiot.” His latest score is for the upcoming comedy “Little Brother” with John Cena and Eric Andre. Deacon had done a handful of films — his first was Francis Ford Coppola’s “Twixt” in 2011 — or special projects throughout his career while touring often and maintaining a busy live show schedule. But in recent years, film and TV composing as well as collaborations with Kronos Quartet and the L.A. Philharmonic have offered new challenges and reliable opportunities, helping ease the anxiety of a bad tour or bad album review wrecking his livelihood.
These kinds of new projects “influence my work in two ways,” Deacon says. “One, they push me beyond my existing limits and take me out of that sort of comfort zone structure. And they also really make me appreciate making an album and playing these kinds of club shows. It’s something I’m yearning for now.”
These days, Deacon says, he only gets to play shows one weekend a month or so.
“With work and my family and stuff, I try to limit my time on the road,” he says. “Whereas a few years ago, I was on the road 10 months out of the year.”
Deacon recalls seeing Ian MacKaye, co-founder of Dischord Records and frontman for Minor Threat and Fugazi, talk about “how he always made sure that his music was never his job.” It took a long time for that to make sense, Deacon says, but he’s come to understand if your rent or bills are tied to an artistic output, it can either be a good motivator or cause real stress.
He’s not taking MacKaye’s advice 100%, Deacon says, but the way his career has evolved “has changed the way I can approach the show and approach my own records, because that negative pressure is gone.”
At Siberia, Deacon will be joined by drummer Jeremy Hyman. A Dan Deacon live show is usually full of energy, and he’ll often section the audience, appoint “team captains” and call for a dance off.
It can really depend on the crowd or the night, but “I would be surprised if we didn’t have some shenanigans,” he says.
Deacon performs Saturday, June 27. Tashi Delay opens at 9 p.m. Tickets
Dan Deacon
PROVIDED PHOTO BY MICAH EWOOD
Twist of fate
by Will Coviello
THE NEW ORLEANS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL AT TULANE OPENED ITS SEASON WITH “KING LEAR,” the epic tragedy of an aging king losing his power and his mind over an unwise plan to divide his kingdom among his daughters.
The second main stage production is “Macbeth,” another tragedy about power, but this one is about the unrestrained ambitions of Macbeth and his wife.
The festival used its own streamlined script for “King Lear,” but “Macbeth” is already a thriller as written.
“It’s Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy,” says director Graham Burk, who also is the interim artistic director for the company. “It’s action packed. It’s almost like a film. There are very few scenes that are over five pages long. There are a lot of scenes that move.”
“Macbeth” runs June 26 through July 12 at Lupin Theatre at Tulane University.
The drama opens with the classic scene of three “weird sisters,” or witches, convening. They say in unison, “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” as they await Macbeth.
Macbeth and Banquo, both Scottish generals serving the king, are returning from victory in battle. They cross paths with the witches, who tell them what the future will bring, including that Macbeth will become the Thane of Cawdor and king of Scotland.
While productions of the play often view the witches as supernatural meddlers, Burke is taking a different view. In some productions, “the witches are puppet masters pushing and shaping Macbeth,” Burk says. “This production is going to treat them more like prophets.” How people respond to prophecy is one of the big differences among the powerful figures in the play.
Classic Greek tragedy is full of heroes who try to avoid the predictions shared with them. Here, Macbeth takes a more eager approach.
Soon after meeting the witches, he is elevated to Thane of Cawdor, confirming the first part of the prophecy. His predecessor has been executed for treason, and he has been elevated. He immediately starts thinking about the rest of the prediction and writes a letter to his wife, Lady Macbeth.
“When the prophecy happens in Act I, Banquo hears about it and is like, ‘Whoa, something is weird about
this,’ ” Burke says. “Macbeth has completely the opposite reaction. He’s like, ‘I’m the guy. We’re doing this.’ ”
Lady Macbeth also is interested in seizing the moment. The Macbeths have an opportunity as King Duncan is coming to see them at Inverness Castle.
Ascending to the throne is a bloody proposition, and it throws the kingdom into chaos.
Macbeth dispatches assassins, and no one is safe. He feels emboldened by the witches’ words of seeming invincibility.
“Everybody that’s around Macbeth is complicit in some sort of way,” Burke says. “They allow it to go on. Who’s going to actually stop this from happening?”
Duncan’s sons flee, and other nobles and generals react — none of them ready to trust Macbeth with power.
There also are other prophecies from the witches that have not yet become true.
The show is also being presented in the round, meaning there are no private spaces in a play where much is supposed to happen off stage or in the shadows.
There are traditional elements to the costumes, including tartan patterns, but there also are modern accents.
David Lind plays Macbeth, a role he also played at Flat Rock Playhouse in North Carolina. He’s also appeared on TV on shows including “NCIS: New Orleans.” Lady Macbeth is played by veteran New York actress Jana Mestecky. She directed the recent production of “King Lear.”
“Macbeth” runs at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 26, and Saturday, June 27, and 1:30 p.m. Sunday, June 28, and continues July 1-12. There’s a preview show June 25. Tickets $27-$42 via neworleansshakespeare.org.
David Lind plays Macbeth PHOTO PROVIDED BY NEW ORLEANS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
PREMIER CROSSWORD PUZZLE
HEAVY METAL MUSIC
By Frank A. Longo
88 Soprano solo
End of the riddle
Bettor’s note
“This -- outrage!”
-- Alamos
“Attack, Fido!”
These, in Spain
Rapper Tracy Marrow, familiarly
Sch. near Hollywood
Riddle’s answer
Raises a glass to
Writer Hurst or Flagg
Take a breath
Restriction at a boys’ club
Jewish house of worship
Fungal timber decay
“Be that as it may ...,” informally
Sofa or pew
San -- (Italian resort)
“Boss” on “The Dukes of Hazzard”
Letters before
79 “Fame” vocalist David 80 Group values 81 Tavern on “The Simpsons” 82 Italian river
Diaries 84 Mexican Mrs.
86 More gruesome
90 Rights-ceding documents 91 Risqué
92 Like veal calves 93 Carrier to Muscat
98 Check endorser, e.g. 99 Outfielder Suzuki
100 Maximally adorable 102 “-- a stinker?!” 104 Bite the dust
105 Loin steak 106 Wipe from one’s memory, jocularly
Spectating group
Kids’ book illustrator -- Schart Hyman
Fiendish look
Roman Cath., e.g.
“Major” constellation
Mid-voyage
Lavigne of pop music 78 Perjurer, e.g.
Egg-shaped
Diplomat Emanuel 111 “Quickly!” 112 “C’mon, -- be fun!” 113 Jones played by Harrison Ford, informally
