Gambit Digital Edition: June 2, 2020

June 2-8, 2020 Volume 41 // Number 20

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J U N E 2 - 8 > 2 0 2 0

2

Lane Lacoy Historic Home Specialist

Asociate Broker/Realtor®

929 ELYSIAN FIELDS AVE. $514,000

Stunningly renovated Marigny 2 BR, 2.5 BA Sidehall Single.

Wood Floors, F/p’s, High Ceilings, Cent. A/H, Gourmet Kitchen/Appliances, Slate Roof, Fenced Patio/Yard, EASY WALK TO THE QUARTER!

Why remove your old bathroom and kitchen fixtures?

RE-GLAZE THEM!

CERAMIC TILE FORMICA CAST IRON C U LT U R E D M A R B L E FIBERGLASS

504-957-5116 • 504-948-3011 840 Elysian Fields Ave N.O., LA 70117

www.lanelacoy.com - ljlacoy@latterblum.com

504-348-1770

Wind Spinners

MJ’s

NOW OFFERING MILITARY, VETERAN, FIRST RESPONDER AND SENIOR CITIZEN DISCOUNTS

-3 i. 10-5 & Sat. 10

.- Fr NOW OPEN Mon

Balloon Spinners $25.99 each

Two Premium Cremation Niches

RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL

MOST JOBS DONE IN HOURS

southernrefinishing.com

BULLETIN BOARD

CERTIFIED FIBERGLASS TECHNICIAN

LSU Balloon Spinner $29.99

MJ’s 1513 Metairie Rd. 835-6099

METAIRIE SHOPPING CENTER MJSMETAIRIE • mjsofmetairie.com Family owned and operated since 1996

Cleaning Service

Photo: Cassagne Photography

Client-Driven Real Estate with Collective Results!

Let our crew help you with all your cleaning needs!

• Disinfecting/Sanitation Services Available • • General House Cleaning • • After Construction Cleaning • Residential & Commercial • Licensed & Bonded

504-232-5554 cristinascleaningnola@gmail.com

Don’t go to court without an Attorney Call Eugene Redmann 504.834.6430 Se Habla Espanol www.redmannlawnola.com Die hard NOLA fans! In Lake Lawn Metairie Cemetery’s St. Thomas Mausoleum.

Al Hirt & many famous NOLA personalities nearby. R.I.P. @ $4750. 504.462.1666.

708 BARATARIA BLVD. |

Cristina’s

Immigration. Criminal Law. Traffic Tickets

Voted by Gambit readers as the #1 Best Real Estate Office in the Metro Area 2019!

900 Camp Street, Suite 301, New Orleans, LA 70130 504.291.2022 • wcnola.com Licensed in Louisiana, USA

REAL ESTATE FOR RENT

GARDEN DISTRICT 1/2 BLOCK TO MAGAZINE

1 & 2 bedrooms available in ideal location and ROOMS BY THE MONTH with PRIVATE BATH. All utilities included monthly. Call 504-202-0381 for appointment.

3

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 0 2 0

12 �ou���ul

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 02 0

4

�en�menʦ

CONTENTS

JUNE 2- 8 VOLUME 41 | NUMBER 20 NEWS

OPENING GAMBIT

6

COMMENTARY 9

ROSES $10 / DOZEN CASH & CARRY

CLANCY DUBOS

10

BLAKE PONTCHARTRAIN 11

FEATURES

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 5

ORDER YOUR ARRANGEMENT TODAY!

ROLL UP! OOR OUTD ING SEAT O N W E! BL AVAILA

EAT + DRINK

18

MUSIC 25 STAYING IN

26

CURBSIDE PICK-UP & DELIVERY

PUZZLES 27

Order at www.LotusBistroNOLA.com Or Call Us at (504) 533-9879

EXCHANGE 27

Tues- Sun Lunch 11:30am-2:30pm Dinner 4:30pm - 9pm

LotusBistroNOLA.com A JAPANESE RESTAURANT & SUSHI BAR

203 W. HARRISON AVE .

FINE ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES KRATOM • CBD 3137 CALHOUN ST. MON - SAT 11-7

•

504-309-4717

CALHOUNTRADINGCO.COM

@The_Gambit @gambitneworleans @GambitNewOrleans

12

Head space

STAFF

Publisher | JEANNE EXNICIOS FOSTER

EDITORIAL (504) 483-3105// response@gambitweekly.com Editor | KANDACE POWER GRAVES Political Editor | CLANCY DUBOS Arts & Entertainment Editor | WILL COVIELLO

5236 BURGUNDY ST. • $350,000 Exceptionally renovated income producing 2 unit cottage in the Holy Cross neighborhood. Fully licensed Air BnB with signed year lease. Spacious front unit with open kitchen, large great and dining rooms with lots of light. Cute and quaint owner's back unit with kitchen/breakfast room and large suite style master bedroom with full bath and office den area. A literal 'diamond in the rough'. Must see in person to fully appreciate.

COVER IMAGES BY GETTY IMAGES COVER DESIGN

BY DORA SISON

The pandemic’s effects on mental health

ADVERTISING Advertising Inquiries (504) 483-3150 Advertising Director | SANDY STEIN BRONDUM (504) 483-3150 [sstein@gambitweekly.com]

Staff Writers | JAKE CLAPP, SARAH RAVITS

Senior Sales Representative

Listings Coordinator | VICTOR ANDREWS

JILL GIEGER

Contributing Writers | KEVIN ALLMAN

PRODUCTION Creative Services Director | DORA SISON Pre-Press Coordinator | JASON WHITTAKER Web & Classifieds Designer | MARIA BOUÉ

(504) 483-3131

[jgieger@gambitweekly.com] Sales Representatives KATIE BISHOP

Graphic Designers | CATHERINE FLOTTE,

(504) 262-9519

TIANA WATTS

[kbishop@gambitweekly.com]

BUSINESS & OPERATIONS

KELLY SONNIER

Billing Inquiries 1 (225) 388-0185

(504) 483-3143

Administrative Assistant | LINDA LACHIN

[ksonnier@gambitweekly.com]

ACCEPTING APPOINTMENTS FOR VIEWING NOW

DAVID STASSI • 504-957-2532

DAVID.STASSI@ENGELVOELKERS.COM

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

Intermission Cabaret P H OTO P R OV I D E D

BY AU D U BO N N AT U R E I N S T I T U T E

Ricky Graham directs and co-hosts a telethon-style show with many local performers at Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts beginning at

A male lion cub born at the Audubon Zoo in January will be introduced to visitors when the facility reopens June 3.

P H OTO B Y J O H N B . B A R R O I S

Ricky Graham

Mild life refuge The zoo, sculpture garden and other attractions open

BY WILL COVIELLO THE AUDUBON ZOO CLOSED ITS GATES to visitors because of the

COVID-19 pandemic, and the social distancing has been tough on the animals, too.

“I think some of them miss the interaction,” says Liz Wilson, who curates the zoo’s Jaguar Jungle and Louisiana Swamp exhibits. “As soon as the alpacas see any human activity (now), they run up to the gate, looking for attention. It’s the same with the lions; they look like they’re searching.”

The creatures will get to experience the city’s new normal as the zoo reopens Wednesday, June 3.

Entrance will be via online reservations and there will be adjustments for physical distancing. The zoo is among several New Orleans attractions, parks and sports facilities that opened last week or open this week, most with limited capacity and policies for physical distancing.

At the zoo, the alpacas were recently shorn and have new haircuts for summer, and several animals will get their first introduction to visitors.

A pair of male lion cubs born Jan. 11 have been highlighted on the Audubon Nature Institute’s website (www.auduboninstitute.org), but

now Haji and Asani will be on view in the lion habitat. The zoo also is introducing visitors to a recently born sebu calf, a member of the smallest breed of cow, native to India and Sri Lanka.

The zoo has created one-way paths for viewing, but not all areas will be open. The nocturnal exhibit was renovated, but it and the reptile building and aviary won’t reopen yet. There won’t be keeper chats or feeding segments to avoid drawing crowds. Staff will wear masks and are doing extra sanitizing. Some animals, such as great apes, are normally susceptible to illness, so some of the staff’s enhanced handling safety precautions to keep animals healthy were already in place in parts of the zoo.

Behind the zoo, the Riverview park, aka “The Fly,” has been open to pedestrian and bike traffic.

In New Orleans City Park, the New Orleans Museum of Art (www.noma. org) remains closed, but it reopens the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden this week. The number of visitors will be limited to 25% capacity, and visitors are asked to wear face masks. It’s open to seniors and immunocompromised

visitors from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. The general public is welcome from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the block from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. is reserved for museum members. Admission is free for members, guests under 20, health care workers and first responders; $5 general admission and $3 for seniors, students and active military.

The garden is open June 1-7 and then Wednesdays through Sundays after this week.

New Orleans City Park (www.neworleanscitypark.com) has opened many of its attractions. Locals have been using its open spaces since the pandemic began, but public restrooms (outside reopened attractions) remain closed. Currently accessible are the NOLA City Bark dog park, City Putt Mini Golf, the Bayou Oaks golf course and boat and bicycle rentals at the Big Lake near Esplanade Avenue park entrance. Tennis courts are available, and sports fields can be used for noncontact sports.

Storyland is open, but amusement rides and the City Park train are not. Other park playgrounds will be reopened over time. The Louisiana Children’s Museum remains closed, but its Acorn cafe is open. Other food available in the park includes the snowball stand at the Goldring/ Woldenberg Great Lawn and takeout service from Cafe Du Monde.

The New Orleans Botanical Garden is open Wednesday through Sunday, and its Kitchen in the Garden serves food for takeout or physically distanced dining in the garden on Wednesday evenings and Sunday brunch.

5 p.m. Tuesday, June 2. The event will be broadcast on the theater’s social media channels and some seating is available at the theater. Visit www.rivertowntheaters.com for information.

Petit Pranks LE PETIT THEATRE CONTINUES ITS RADIO PLAY SERIES WITH A COLLECTION OF COMEDY BITS, including the Abbott and Costello classic “Who’s on First.” There also are selections from George Burns and Gracie Allen’s TV show and a game show spoof called “It Pays to be Ignorant.” The half-hour presentation airs at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 5, on the Le Petit Theatre website (www.lepetittheatre.com) and its Facebook page.

D-Day remembered THE NATIONAL WORLD WAR II MUSEUM HAS REOPENED AND THIS WEEK IT MARKS TWO ANNIVERSARIES. Saturday is the 76th anniversary of D-Day, or June 6, 1944, when Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy and began to liberate France from Nazi control.

The museum also celebrates its 20th birthday. There are lectures, a commemoration and a discussion with veterans June 1-6. Many sessions are available on Zoom. Visit www.nationalww2museum.org for details.

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 0 2 0

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

5

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 02 0

6

OPENING GAMBIT N E W

O R L E A N S

N E W S

+

V I E W S

Walking in the French Quarter … alcohol delivery … split jury convictions … and more

# The Count

Thumbs Up/ Thumbs Down

60%

The chance that the Atlantic Basin (which includes the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico) will experience an above-normal hurricane season, according to forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Baptist Community Ministries (BCM) has an-

nounced $400,000 in grants to United Way of Southeast Louisiana and Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana to support food distribution to the needy and financial help to individuals amid the coronavirus pandemic.

It’s the second round of grants awarded by BCM, which previously provided $500,000 to local partners.

P H OTO B Y DAV I D G R U N F E L D/ T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E | T H E N E W O R L E A N S A DVO C AT E

There is a move afoot to curtail vehicle traffic in the French Quarter.

MAYOR TO EXPLORE CHANGING FRENCH QUARTER TO PEDESTRIAN-ONLY ZONE MAYOR LATOYA CANTRELL WANTS TO TURN THE FRENCH QUARTER

The Emeril Lagasse Foundation is awarding a

half-million dollars in grants to local nonprofits to help with their efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic. The foundation said the grants are part of a multitiered response to provide shortterm and long-term support for community programs, including feeding youth and families of hospitality industry workers in Louisiana, Nevada and Florida. A second round of funding will be distributed in the fall, the foundation said.

Steven Bochinski, a painter and photographer, dripped paint over several beloved murals along Frenchmen Street the weekend of New Orleans’ Phase 1 reopening, sparking criticism on social media from fans of the artworks. Bochinski apologized to the artists and said he intended the rivulets of paint to represent tears for victims of the coronavirus pandemic.

and other areas in the city into pedestrian-only zones, the mayor said last week.

Speaking in an online town hall May 27 with The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate, Cantrell said she has asked a task force to study the idea of excluding vehicular traffic from some areas, including the Vieux Carre.

She said the coronavirus pandemic has created opportunities to reimagine public spaces to promote social distancing and safe recreation.

“I call it, ‘No cars in the Quarter,’ ” she said of her idea. “This is the city’s time to reimagine just how we live, how we move about, how we enjoy, and how we get to know and learn the fabric of our city.” — JESSICA WILLIAMS/THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

It should get easier to have alcohol delivered soon Louisiana lawmakers have passed legislation making it easier for companies to deliver alcohol, granting third-party delivery services like UberEats, Waitr and Shipt the ability to deliver beer and wine through contract workers.

The state House passed the bill, SB 178 by Sen. R.L. “Bret” Allain, R-Franklin, on a 83-13 vote May 28.

When lawmakers legalized alcohol delivery last year, they only allowed businesses such as grocery stores, restaurants and liquor stores to deliver beverages — provided they did so with their own employees.

That excluded major third-party delivery services, like UberEats and Shipt, from participating.

Allain’s bill makes several changes to the alcohol delivery laws, but perhaps most important it allows independent contractors to deliver.

That change is expected to bring major delivery services into the fold and expand the delivery of alcohol to homes across the state.

The state Office of Alcohol and Tobacco Control already loosened its rules for alcohol delivery amid the coronavirus pandemic — as many states have done — and allowed restaurants offering takeout and curbside sales during the stay-at-home order to include alcohol in those deliveries.

As of March 1, about 50 companies, mostly grocers and liquor stores, got the necessary paperwork to deliver alcohol in Louisiana. But

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center expects 13 to 19 named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher), of which they say six to 10 could become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including three to six major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5; with winds of 111 mph or higher). An average hurricane season typically yields 12 named storms, of which six become hurricanes, including three major hurricanes.

Hurricane season runs June 1 through Nov. 30.

CORRECTION: IN “THE COUNT” MAY 26, WE ERRONEOUSLY STATED THAT 6 MILLION PEOPLE IN LOUISIANA ARE FOOD INSECURE. THAT NUMBER IS 1.6 MILLION. GAMBIT REGRETS THE ERROR.

C’est What

?

Should customers be denied entry to a business if they refuse to wear a face mask?

83.1% YES

16.9% NO

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

OPENING GAMBIT

Split jury convictions tossed due to Supreme Court decision Manslaughter and molestation convictions from New Orleans went up in smoke last week as state appellate judges applied a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision invalidating split jury verdicts.

In decisions on separate cases from Orleans Parish Criminal District Court that yielded long prison sentences, the Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeal tossed convictions because of the April ruling from the nation’s high court.

Gabriel Hunter, who was convicted on a 10-2 jury vote and received a 50-year sentence in 2017 after he was convicted of molesting a preteen girl, could receive a new trial.

So could Richard Donovan, whose defense attorney once warned that his 40-year sentence for manslaughter meant he would die in prison because he has advanced Parkinson’s disease. Donovan also was convicted

on a 10-2 jury vote of shooting Bernell Collins Sr., 36, on Sept. 30, 2016.

The April decision from the U.S. Supreme Court left the 4th Circuit judges with no choice but to throw out the convictions, they noted. “The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled definitively that non-unanimous jury verdicts are unconstitutional,” Judge Sandra Cabrina Jenkins wrote in Donovan’s case.

The Louisiana Supreme Court long relied on a prior U.S. Supreme Court decision from 1972, which upheld the right of states to allow jury convictions based on less than unanimous jury votes. Louisiana and Oregon were the only two states allowing split jury verdicts — until Pelican State voters passed a constitutional amendment requiring unanimity in 2018. That amendment applied only to crimes committed on or after Jan. 1, 2019.

The 4th Circuit’s decisions on Wednesday appear to be some of the first applying the U.S. Supreme Court decision. On April 29, the circuit court also vacated the second-degree murder conviction of Tyrone C. Myles.

Orleans Parish jurors voted 10-2 to convict Myles in the 7th Ward killing of 23-year-old Antoine Brumfield on Nov. 26, 2017.

At least two other Louisiana cases have been tossed under the U.S.

Supreme Court decision, according to Chris Aberle, an attorney with the Louisiana Appellate Project. — MATT SLEDGE/THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

Sheriff Marlin Gusman says he wants his jail back Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman last week asked a federal judge for permission to resume control of the city’s lock-up — and exit a seven-yearold reform pact.

In a combative, 44-page court brief, Gusman assailed the monitors deployed by U.S. District Judge Lance Africk, claiming that they’ve held him to an unreasonably high standard.

“Continued enforcement of the Consent Decree seeks a jail utopia, reflective of the court-appointed monitors’ personal preferences and idealistic aspirations, not the ‘narrowly drawn … least intrusive means necessary to correct the violation’ requirement that controls prospective relief for jail conditions,” Gusman said, quoting a federal law that limits lawsuits against jails and prisons.

The standard that should apply, he said, is “the constitutional minimum.”

The filing comes after years of Gusman chafing under the terms of the

consent decree, which he assented to in 2013.

In 2016, the judge approved a new agreement that essentially benched Gusman, after court hearings during which monitors described frequent violence and absentee guards. A court-appointed administrator took over jail operations.

Gusman said in April that he planned to file to reassume control of the jail.

But in the explosive filing entered into the court record May 26, a day after the deadline Africk gave him, Gusman asked for an end to the consent decree. Alternatively, he would like the judge to prune its mandates.

Africk did not immediately respond to Gusman’s request, which could prompt the judge to hold a full hearing on whether the sheriff has completed the consent decree’s reforms and whether the pact still applies.

That could involve extensive testimony on current conditions inside the jail.

In a January report, monitors had praised progress at the jail and improvements under Compliance Director Darnley Hodge, who was appointed to run the lockup in 2018. The judge’s monitors toured the jail virtually in midMay in preparation for another update, and their next report could influence Africk’s decision.

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 0 2 0

access was uneven, as services such as Waitr and UberEats that covered wide swaths of the state were boxed out. The legislation headed to Gov. John Bel Edwards for a signature. — SAM KARLIN/THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE ADVOCATE

7

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 02 0

8

OPENING GAMBIT

ned.

F a m i ly O w

E R AT E D. F A M I LY O P

S E R I O U S LY

GOOD

WINES FROM NAPA

SLO JAMS SAUVIGNON BLANC • 750 ML 16.99

SEND NUDES ROSE • 750 ML 19.99

BROKEN DREAMS

SEXUAL CHOCOL ATE

CHARDONNAY 750 ML 17.99

RED • 750 ML 24.99

STAND OUT RED • 750 ML 24.99

710 VETERANS MEMORIAL BLVD. | METAIRIE | DORIGNACS.COM SENIOR SHOPPING HOURS: Monday & Thursday 7am - 8am (504) 834-8216

Open 8am-7pm Everyday

In an interview two weeks ago, Hodge said he believes he’s completed the task outlined for him in a 2016 court order and that the jail has fulfilled the consent decree. — MATT SLEDGE/THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

Bike-share program may be racked The company that operates New Orleans’ bike-share program suspended its services in late March to reduce the spread of coronavirus. Now, it’s unclear if it will be coming back at all.

Jump Blue Bikes, previously owned by Uber, changed ownership in early May and announced it was “joining forces” with Lime, the electric scooter company. Lime acquired Jump as part of the deal and Uber gained a larger investment in Lime and the option to purchase the e-scooter company in two years, according to the Wall Street Journal.

No decision has been made yet on whether Lime will continue the bikeshare program in New Orleans, company spokesman Russell Murphy said. “We’re continuing discussions with the city,” he said.

The pedal-powered bicycles that had been in service since 2017 were replaced in February with e-bikes that have a lithium battery in their frames and a motor in their front wheel hub, allowing them to go up to 20 mph.

Most of the e-bikes were collected from around the city when the program was suspended in March, said a mechanic who worked in one of the Blue Bike warehouses.

City Hall is in conversations with Uber and Lime and with Blue Bikes sponsor Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana to come up with a solution that is in the best interest of residents, said Laura Bryan, director of the Mayor’s Office of Transportation.

“The City of New Orleans has requested to both Uber and Lime that bikes are not removed until next steps are finalized,” she said. “The city remains committed to providing a bike-share program and to improving bicycling infrastructure.” — SARA SNEATH/ THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

New Orleans’ film industry hopes to resume work in July; Harrah’s also working to reopen New Orleans’ once-bustling film industry is preparing to reopen in July under strict new guidelines to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said May 27.

The mayor said the specifics of how movies and television shows will be filmed are still being ironed out, but that the industry hopes to reopen in New Orleans next month.

Cantrell said she will meet soon

with Harrah’s Casino to discuss its plans for reopening. Casinos are closed as part of Cantrell’s first phase of reopening New Orleans.

The mayor did not provide a date when the city will move into Phase 2 of reopening, saying information about how the city is progressing in Phase 1 hasn’t come in yet.

Cantrell’s reopening plan has been more cautious than the one governing most of the rest of Louisiana, with tighter restrictions on casinos, churches and restaurants compared to other parts of the state.

Her approach was criticized by some business owners who wanted to see New Orleans reopen earlier than the May 16 date Cantrell set.

They also questioned her requirement that businesses track names and phone numbers of patrons in case they were needed for contact tracing. Despite the complaints, Cantrell said most businesses have been following the rules.

More than 2,300 businesses have registered with the State Fire Marshal as required, she said, and about 144 are not in compliance with rules.

Residents also have largely adhered to the rules, she said, although the city received 83 calls about oversized public gatherings over the Memorial Day weekend, compared to a high of 300 calls in late March. — JESSICA WILLIAMS/ THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

Doobie Brothers postpone New Orleans stop on 50th anniversary tour The Doobie Brothers have postponed their entire 2020 tour due to the coronavirus pandemic, including an Oct. 15 stop in New Orleans. The band has rescheduled most of the tour dates for 2021.

The Doobies now are slated to end the rescheduled tour at the Smoothie King Center on Oct. 23, 2021. Tickets purchased for the original show will be honored, or ticketholders can receive a refund.

Several stops on the original itinerary, including a date in Bossier City, have been canceled outright.

The tour was to have celebrated the band’s 50th anniversary. The delayed tour will feature former Doobie Brothers vocalist Michael McDonald reunited with longtime Doobies Pat Simmons, Tom Johnston and John McFee. New Orleans’ own Dirty Dozen Brass Band was slated to be the opening act for the original tour’s opening act. No word yet if the Dirty Dozen will be a part of the postponed tour, which starts in July 2021. — KEITH SPERA/THE TIMES-PICAYUNE | THE NEW ORLEANS ADVOCATE

9

COMMENTARY

yo

n e ve r h a ve too m

a ny

THE NEW ORLEANS CITY COUNCIL WILL VOTE Thursday,

June 4, on a landmark proposal to give direct assistance to residential Entergy customers rendered unemployed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The “City Council Cares” program is the brainchild of council utilities committee chair Helena Moreno, who asked the council’s utility advisers to figure out a way P H OTO B Y T R AV E L I N G L I G H T/G E T T Y I M AG E S to help financially “This program could benefit more stressed ratepayers pay their monthly bills during the pandemic. The than 50,000 Entergy customers,” plan put forth by the advisors, with Moreno said. “It won’t cover all their input from Entergy New Orleans, bills, but it will help them — and it represents a needed win-win-win will help the utility because it will during these difficult times. encourage people to pay at least The program, which appears cerpart of their bills. Entergy has a tain to gain council approval, would very high percentage of its customprovide unemployed residential ers in arrears right now, which hurts ratepayers a total of $400 in direct the utility as well as other paying bill credits, up to a maximum of $100 customers because utilities can per month for four months starting recover their losses via higher with the July billing cycle. In addition, rates. This represents a win for all current late fees would be waived. all [Entergy] ratepayers in The plan would cost Entergy a New Orleans.” total of $22 million but would not reWe agree. We would add that quire a rate increase. The money will the program also reflects the come from two sources: $7 million wisdom of having utility advisors from a Federal Energy Regulatory with national expertise helping the Commission (FERC) settlement council regulate Entergy. In fact, that Entergy holds in abeyance; and it was Clinton Vince, the council’s $15 million from an excess disaster lead utility consultant, whose work preparedness reserve fund. Enterin recent decades produced all $22 gy maintains two storm reserve million that now will fund the rate accounts, one containing more than relief program. Vince represented $67 million and another with more the council against Entergy in the than $15 million. Funds from the FERC case that yielded the $7 milsmaller account, which the council lion settlement, and he negotiated and Entergy consider no longer with Entergy after Hurricane Katrina needed to buffer the utility against to establish the storm reserve fund future disasters, would go to the that still contains $15 million. Credit rate relief program. also goes to Entergy for working Ratepayers can qualify for the with the council to help implement program by providing proof of the program. unemployment benefits received Moreno says the council also under the federal CARES Act, which hopes New Orleans will get a covers salaried workers as well as healthy share of $30 million in local “gig” and 1099 workers, Morefederal funds allocated to Louisiana no said. People who get benefits to help poor and elderly people pay under the act received notification their utility bills. We hope so, too. letters that will suffice as proof needed to qualify for the utility bill Such programs are big wins for assistance, Moreno added. local ratepayers.

muscle tie- dye scoop $ 28 - $36

@ gaetanasnola shop with us on instagram & facebook

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 0 2 0

N.O. Council plan will help unemployed Entergy customers pay past-due bills

n u ca

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 02 0

10

PERFECT FOR GRADUATION OR ANY OCCASION!

CLANCY DUBOS @clancygambit

No cars in the Quarter?

In politics, timing is everything THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A MINOR DIFFERENCE OF OPINION when

sterling silver & diamond

SHOP ONLINE AT WWW.FISHERSONSJEWELERS.COM EMAIL US AT INFO@FISHERSONSJEWELERS.COM TUES - THURS 10AM-4PM • FRIDAY 10AM-5:30PM SATURDAY 10AM-3PM 5101 W. ESPLANADE AVE. | 1 BLOCK OFF TRANSCONTINENTAL

(504) 885-4956

KATIE’S UNDER THE Big Top! ENJOY OUR AIR-CONDITIONED TENT!

DINE IN & TAKE OUT WITH

OUTDOOR SEATING!

WE ARE OPEN!

CURBSIDE TO-GO OR DELIVERY TO YOUR DOOR! MON-SAT 11AM-9PM

SUNDAY BRUNCH 10AM-2PM

PLACE YOUR ORDER @ (504) 488-6582

ALL TO-GO & DELIVERY ORDERS PREPAID OVER THE PHONE 3701 IBERVILLE | MID-CITY | KATIESINMIDCITY.COM

the topic of discussion involves New Orleans’ French Quarter.

Every proposed rule change, no matter how minor or nuanced it may seem to people who don’t live or work there, triggers a political brawl among the Vieux Carre’s oft-competing constituencies.

When an idea crops up that genuinely has the potential to transform life and commerce in all corners of the Quarter, the gloves tend to come off early.

It’s surprising, therefore, to see some early agreement around the idea of turning much of the Quarter into a pedestrian mall. The idea is not new, but it has suddenly gained new traction as the COVID-19 pandemic cripples businesses in the city’s oldest neighborhood.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell unveiled the concept — and her support of it — which she calls “No Cars in the Quarter,” during a May 27 online question-and-answer session hosted by The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate. “This is the city’s time to reimagine just how we live, how we move about ... and how we get to know and learn the fabric of our city,” Cantrell said.

In normal times — and who knows when we might return to something resembling “normal” times — such comments would spark a chorus of super-heated responses almost immediately. Instead, according to the newspaper’s story, representatives of some of the Quarter’s leading constituencies voiced at least minimal openness to, if not outright support for, the idea.

Quarter business folks have long protected vehicular access in the interest of deliveries and customer access. It practically took an act of Congress to get oversized tour buses out of the Quarter decades ago, and the group successfully blocked former Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s idea of banning traffic on Bourbon Street.

Now, French Quarter Business Association Executive Director Brittany Mulla McGovern says the group is “open to exploring” Cantrell’s idea. “It’s not an immedi-

P H OTO B Y RICHARD A. WEBSTER

Musicians play near the intersection of Royal and St. Peter streets in the French Quarter. A move is afoot to make much of the Quarter a pedestrian mall.

ate ‘no.’ It’s not an immediate ‘yes,’ but it’s like, ‘Let’s talk about this,’ ” McGovern says.

That’s a sea change.

Similarly, Vieux Carre Property Owners, Residents and Associates (VCPORA) Executive Director Erin Holmes said the group could consider short-term options to help local businesses remain open during these difficult times. Holmes said VCPORA opposes blocking all vehicular traffic in the Quarter.

Cantrell says the concept is still in development by a “tiger team” that she quietly assembled in early May. Among the idea’s possibilities are allowing Quarter restaurants to use street space for additional outdoor seating. The city’s reopening rules strictly limit how many patrons can dine indoors.

District C Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer, whose district includes the Quarter, says she supports the idea but wants to make sure residents will have ready access and businesses will be able to get deliveries.

Few neighborhoods in America have as many strong, vocal constituencies as does the Vieux Carre.

Big decisions there always require a delicate balancing act, and the devil is in the details. Timing likewise plays a key role.

As COVID-19 changes how we live and work — and govern — is the timing right for another big change in the city’s oldest neighborhood?

Time will tell.

BLAKE PONTCHARTRAIN™

11

@GambitBlake | askblake@gambitweekly.com

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 0 2 0

Hey Blake, I went to St. Augustine School on Gov. Nicholls Street. My mother graduated from there in 1926, when it was the first Mount Carmel Academy, before that school moved to the lakefront.

What can you tell me about its history?

—PETER

Dear Peter,

While the historical importance of St. Augustine Church, a Treme landmark regarded as the country’s oldest black Catholic church, is well-known, readers may not be familiar with the schools that operated nearby.

Before the church opened in 1841, the property in the 1200 block of Gov. Nicholls Street (then called Hospital Street) was home to the College d’Orleans, a school for the city’s French-speaking population.

It was established in 1811 on what had been the plantation of Claude Treme, the neighborhood’s namesake. According to the Friends of the Cabildo book “New Orleans Architecture: Faubourg Treme and the Bayou Road,” classes were held in the former plantation house. The school closed in 1823. A school for free children of color opened on the site sometime after 1826. In 1836, the Ursuline nuns bought the school and ran it for four years.

The Sisters of Our Lady of Mount Carmel purchased the property in 1840. They operated a school for young women in the former plantation house, which also served as the nuns’ convent. In 1926, the sisters relocated to Robert E. Lee Boulevard and opened Mount Carmel Academy, the all-girls

P H OTO B Y J O H N M C C U S K E R / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY U N E | T H E N E W O R L E A N S A DVO C AT E

St. Augustine Church in Treme is a center of cultural life and for a time operated a parochial school.

Catholic high school. After the sisters left Treme, their convent and school were demolished.

St. Augustine Church then established its own parochial school on the property. According to a 1967 Times-Picayune article, St. Augustine’s enrollment peaked at about 250 students in the mid-1950s. In the 1960s, nuns from the Sisters of the Holy Family taught students in kindergarten and elementary school classes. When the school closed in 1967, it had fewer than 75 students.

The school had no connection to St. Augustine High School, which the Society of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart (the Josephites) opened on A.P. Tureaud Avenue in 1951.

BLAKEVIEW THIS WEEK MARKS THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY of the National World War II

Museum, which opened in the Warehouse District on June 6, 2000. That date was selected to coincide with the anniversary of the 1944 D-Day invasion, since the original name of the facility was the National D-Day Museum.

It fulfilled a dream of University of New Orleans history professors Stephen Ambrose and Gordon “Nick” Mueller. For years, the pair championed the city as an ideal location for such a museum because this was the home of Higgins Industries, whose New Orleans-built landing crafts were instrumental in the Allied invasion of Normandy, France.

Special guests at the opening ceremony included “Saving Private Ryan” actor Tom Hanks; the film’s director, Steven Spielberg; and newsman Tom Brokaw. In 2003, the museum was designated by Congress as America’s official National World War II Museum. It has experienced phenomenal growth, with a campus now encompassing 6 acres. Its exhibits, multimedia experiences and thousands of personal accounts tell the story of World War II on the battlefront and the home front.

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 02 0

12

HEAD SPACE New Orleanians will deal with the trauma from the coronavirus pandemic long after the city reopens.

BY JAKE CLAPP

SOON AFTER NEW ORLEANS’ STAY-AT-HOME ORDER WAS PUT IN PLACE , the

University of Holy Cross began offering the public free, remote counseling sessions through its Thomas E. Chambers Counseling and Training Center. The center offers low-cost — normally $20 for a 50-minute session — counseling services for the public, faculty and students. It also is a training ground for students working toward degrees in counseling.

“We’re already seeing the anxiety and depression and a tremendous amount of fear that everyone has,” Carolyn White, the school’s dean of counseling, education and business, told Gambit when the program began. “We’re bombarded with so much information that it’s hard to sort through and process, so the anxiety rises.”

The remote counseling program has held about 900 sessions since March 17.

“Some of these were our long-

term clients that would normally come into the center,” White said recently, “but a tremendous amount are new clients. We get anywhere from five to 20 new calls a day from people from the community.”

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) New Orleans, which offers case management, medication management and counseling services for people with mental illness, also quickly moved to provide telehealth services to its enrolled clients, often counseling over the telephone.

So did the LSU Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC) Department of Psychiatry. The department provides most of the mental health services at LSU Medical Center and the child psychiatry components at Children’s Hospital. It also works closely with the Metropolitan Human Services District (MHSD), which offers a variety of remote services including a virtual support chat line.

In addition, Bastion Community of Resilience began offering free talk therapy and health coaching for military veterans and their families; The New Orleans Grief Center began group teletherapy sessions over Zoom; and the Louisiana Department of Health set up a 24-7 “Keeping Calm through COVID” hotline.

The city’s NOLA Ready website

collected many of these resources and others in a central location.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left a heavy mark on mental health across the country. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 56% of U.S. adults who responded reported that “worry or stress related to the coronavirus outbreak has caused them to experience at least one negative effect on their mental health and well-being, such as problems with sleeping or eating, increased alcohol use, or worsening chronic conditions. Stress and worry around the coronavirus also seem to affect larger shares of frontline health care workers and their families (64%) as well as those who experienced an income loss (65%).”

By May 28, Orleans Parish has had 7,067 coronavirus cases and 505 deaths, and there have been 7,424 cases and 441 deaths in Jefferson Parish. In early May, New Orleans’ unemployment rate hit 25%, the highest in the state.

According to area mental health professionals, the pandemic has many people they talk with worried about an uncertain future, causing an increase in stress, anxiety and depression, which is only worsened by job loss or cut wages and isolation through physical distancing measures.

While New Orleans and the state grapple with reopening plans, local mental health professionals are considering the trauma left by the coronavirus era.

“The mental health issues as we begin and further reopen may become more apparent,” says Dr. Howard Osofsky, chair of LSU’s Department of Psychiatry.

“They’ve certainly been here throughout the epidemic. There are concerns that people have, in addition to depression and anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder. We’ve seen an increase in irritability, and people having difficulty falling asleep and for others waking up and not being able to fall back asleep.

“It doesn’t mean that these are all going to be resolved when stores begin to open up. There are fears about risk of infection, what’s going to happen next with employment or unemployment, people who’ve been told they’ve lost their jobs or have to take a pay cut.”

Stresses during an infectious disease outbreak can include: fear and worry about your health or the health of loved ones; changes in sleep or eating patterns; difficulty sleeping or concentrating; worsening chronic health problems; and an increased use of alcohol, tobacco or other drugs, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Health professionals also worry about increased rates of child abuse, domestic violence and suicide. One of the challenges of combating the pandemic has been that physical distancing, one of our most useful tools, leads to isolation for many who already are anxious or depressed.

Health experts now emphasize sayings like “physically distant, but socially con-

In May, the City of New Orleans launched an initiative to provide no-cost, virtual mental health services for city employees and their families, including New Orleans Police Department, Fire Department and Office of Emergency Medical Services employees. The program is in partnership with LSUHSC’s Department of Psychiatry — faculty of the school provide the services — the New Orleans Health Department and New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

“We need to look at mental health the same way we look at physical health in our response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell said in a press statement.

“So we know that one of the most vital services we can provide during this time is mental health services.”

Frontline workers are facing a host of mental health risk factors.

As cited in an April BBC article about “moral injury” (trauma associated with emotional guilt over witnessing, committing or failing to prevent an event that goes against a moral belief), a recent paper by Rita Brock and HC Palmer stated

that “the fight against the coronavirus is strikingly similar to battlefield medicine: desperate and unrelenting encounters with patients, an environment of high personal risk, an unseen lethal enemy, extreme physical and mental fatigue, inadequate resources and unending accumulations of the dead.”

“They’re dealing with crucial services,” Osofsky says. “First responders are getting called in for major needs, including taking people to the hospital, especially at the height of the epidemic. There are significant numbers who themselves have had infection, fortunately most of them are better now, but there are concerns about family and family concerns about them.

At the same time, they’re doing greater risk services.”

Osofsky emphasizes it was important to the Department of Psychiatry to provide these services confidentially and at no cost — many of those workers earn low wages.

“This came up after Katrina, when we had been in the field with first responders, they would reach out and say, ‘We would like help for us and our families,’ ” says Osofsky.

Following Hurricane Katrina, Osofsky and his wife, Dr. Joy Osofsky, were clinical directors with the Louisiana Spirit Crisis Counseling Program, which worked with displaced first responders.

Isolation through physical distancing also has been a particular challenge for returning military veterans, says Dylan Tete executive director and founder of Bastion Community of Resilience. Bastion, on Mirabeau Avenue in Gentilly, is a neighborhood campus of 58 apartments for veterans transitioning out of military service and their families to live alongside retired military and civilian volunteers. The organization also is building a commercial wellness center.

Historically, isolation has been a major hurdle for the returning veterans, says Tete, who fought in the Iraq War. The Bastion concept connects veterans in a supportive community.

“And that’s why this quarantine can be so hard,” he says. “This is unprecedented. We’ve been at war for two decades, and we’ve asked a lot of our military. And while it is true that our military and our returning warriors are some of the most resilient, we struggle with things like posttraumatic stress and anxiety and depression.”

When the pandemic closed New Orleans, Bastion began offering talk therapy sessions with a licensed social worker — also a Marine veteran — as well as health coaching and virtual support groups.

Many returning veterans may not want to reach out, Tete says. “We

P H OTO P R OV I D E D B Y DAV I D S C H M I T

Dylan Tete is the founder and executive director of Bastion Community of Resilience, a neighborhood campus in Gentilly for returning military veterans and their families.

P H OTO P R OV I D E D B Y TO N Y T R I B O U

Dr. Howard Osofsky, chair of LSU’s department of psychiatry.

P H OTO B Y F I Z K E S / G E T T Y I M AG E S

Students training to be counselors at the University of Holy Cross are offering free therapy sessions that will be conducted remotely, as residents in the New Orleans area struggle with anxiety and other mental health concerns during the coronavirus pandemic.

don’t like asking for help, we’ve been trained a certain way, and the perception is that that is a sign of weakness. You really have to know your population, and they have to trust you. When I think about access, it’s not just creating a telehealth program that’s a silver bullet — you have to have a relationship and reputation with the folks that you serve.”

During a disaster, Tete says, people tend to come together and find a sense of commonality, pitching in and helping one another.

“That was my experience in post-Katrina New Orleans,” he says.

“But it’s after the disaster where things get more complicated. I predict that the need for these types of services will only increase.”

There will be challenges in New Orleans for equitable mental health care as the city begins to reopen, professionals say.

“I think the government is trying very hard,” Osofsky says. “I think Mayor Cantrell, the Health Department, the Board of Education are all trying very hard. But there are limited economic resources. That’s true throughout the country in many ways.”

The impact of the pandemic on urban areas as well as society’s racial and economic inequities — made that much more vivid by COVID-19 — will affect and need to be addressed in access to care, Osofsky says.

New Orleans mental health professionals are “all trying very hard to make the quality of care that is needed for our community,” he says. “But school districts will be faced with, in all likelihood, budget cuts. The city, as you know, is dealing with the economic costs, and starting off with some underlying problems that I know everyone would like to address and … economic difficulties add a further layer of concern.”

Osofsky says the city has resources like the public agency Metropolitan Human Services District and two medical schools as well as Ochsner Health.

“We do have resources. But do we have enough? The answer is no,” he says.

White believes the greater New Orleans area has a lot of good, capable counselors and social workers. But there may not be “enough,” she says, for everyone who may need services, and there is room for those who graduate from counseling and social worker programs to find jobs.

The number of psychiatrists, especially for those who do not have insurance or can afford their co-pays, White adds, has lagged since Hurricane Katrina.

PAGE 14

13 G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 0 2 0

nected” to urge people to check on each other and stay connected by phone, social media or online.

And for people with mental illness, such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and PTSD, isolation can exacerbate the challenges they face.

“For many of the people that we work with, [NAMI New Orleans] is one of the few places that they can come for regular support and for interaction, for therapeutic opportunities,” says Lisa Romback, executive director for NAMI New Orleans.

“Isolation is not good for anyone, but especially for someone with a mental health condition.”

NAMI New Orleans, which normally hosts support groups and operates drop-in centers Uptown and on the West Bank, has been working with its clients digitally and over the telephone during the pandemic.

But “talking with someone over the phone is not the same as having an in-person interaction,” Romback says, and some patients don’t have phones or regular housing.

The pandemic has “created a trauma situation,” Holy Cross’ White says. “And it’s a collective trauma.

It’s sort of like after [Hurricane] Katrina, even the people who didn’t lose their home, there was still that collective trauma that you felt as a community.”

Recovery from that trauma, White adds, could take a while. “Not for everyone, maybe,” she says, “some people may bounce back — it could depend on personality and mental health before this started — but I do think there’s going to be lasting trauma here.”

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 02 0

14

WE ARE OPEN!

PAGE 13

Take

WWNO

with you wherever you go.

Download the App Today

P H OTO B Y S A R A H R AV I T S

Clockwise from far left: Jack Groh, Elisha Schiller, Benjamin Wilkins, Alexander Wilson, Kaylie Cross and Zachary Wilkins (front) are high school students involved with Remedy Ribbons, which was started by Zachary Wilkins. They are working to raise funds for healthcare workers in need of mental health support services. In May, they tied blue ribbons around trees on the neutral ground outside of Tulane Medical Center as a show of gratitude.

FRESH NEW MENU Dine-in service open for Dinner Tuesdays-Saturdays Call 504.218.5753 for reservation

www.gallianorestaurant.com 200 Julia Street NOLA 70130

ROSES IN STOCK COLORS

7.50

$

ONE DOZEN Cash and carry only.

Expires June 15, 2020.

METAIRIE

750 MARTIN BEHRMAN AVE (504) 833-3716

COVINGTON

1415 N. HWY 190 (985) 809-9101 VILLERESFLORIST.COM

New Orleans Public Radio • wwno.org

Before the hurricane and the federal levee failures, New Orleans had 196 psychiatrists; that number fell to just 22 in the year following the storm. Around the same time, the number of inpatient mental-health beds dropped from 487 to 190. Both numbers have since risen, but are not back to pre-storm levels.

It’s also tough for many New Orleanians to include care into their budgets, White says.

There are good counselors in the city, she says, “I think the problem is mainly, how do people pay for it? How do they stretch their budget to pay for it if they don’t have insurance? And even if they have insurance, some people can’t come up with that $30 or $40 copay.”

There’s also stigma around seeking mental health care.

“Long term, I think people have to realize there is no stigma to saying, ‘I need some help, I need somebody to talk to, I need to sort this out, and it’s easier to do that if I’m talking to someone who is there for me.’ ” Like other businesses, NAMI New Orleans has experienced staff reductions, Romback says, “which then puts … a strain on your other workers.” The organization currently is trying to fill positions, but hiring has been challenging since the position requires direct contact with others.

NAMI New Orleans has started to offer some services in the community again, which requires personal protective equipment for both workers and clients.

“Prior to COVID-19, we could have anywhere from five to 25

P H OTO P R OV I D E D B Y C A R O LY N W H I T E

Carolyn White is the dean of counseling, education and business as well chair of counseling and behavioral sciences at the University of Holy Cross.

people in our program on a given day,” Romback says. “I don’t know that we’ll be able to return to a point where we could have 25 people at the program at the same time. We’ll have to deal with a staggered schedule, and that’s difficult when you’re operating a drop-in [center].”

Oftentimes, Romback says, people may stop seeking care when it’s difficult to find or isn’t a good match for what they need.

NAMI New Orleans operates a Mental Health Navigation Team that helps callers find information and services provided by the organization and its community partners.

“Don’t be afraid to reach out for help,” Romback says. “If you don’t get what you need on the first try, please continue seeking out help.”

Resources in the New Orleans area

Bastion Community of Resilience.

1-888-737-5577; www.joinbastion. org. Offering talk therapy, health coaching and support groups during the pandemic for returning veterans and the general public.

Domestic violence and sexual assault services.

The City of New Orleans lists these resources for those seeking help in domestic violence and sexual assault situations: The New Orleans Family Justice Center (504-866-9554; www.nofjc. org); Women with a Vision (504302-8822; www.wwav-no.org); and Sexual Trauma Awareness & Response (855-435-7827; www.star.ngo).

“Keeping Calm through COVID” Hotline.

1-866-310-7977. A 24/7 hotline that connects people with trained mental health and substance abuse counselors. People can also text REACHOUT (all caps together) to 741741 to connect to a trained crisis counselor for free, confidential support.

Louisiana 211.

Dial 2-1-1 to find health and human services available in the state.

Louisiana Department of Health.

www.ldh.la.gov/coronavirus. The state provides information and updates about COVID-19.

LSU Health’s Behavioral Science Center.

(504) 412-1580; www.lsuhn.com/ services/behavioral-science-center. Offers psychiatry services and other mental health specialists.

Metropolitan Human Services District.

(504) 568-3130; www.mhsdla. org. Offering person-centered support and services for people with mental illness, addictive disorders and intellectual and/ or developmental disabilities in Orleans, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes. Uninsured or Medicaid eligible people are accepted. MHSD operates a virtual support chat line during the week and has a 24-hour crisis hotline at (504) 826-2675.

’S KIDE S E! L SAIZ B IL A

AV

We Got Your ESSENT IALS!

National Alliance on Mental Illness New Orleans.

Uptown, (504) 896-2345; West Bank, (504) 368-1944; www.namineworleans.org.

Offering an array of services for those with mental illness, NAMI New Orleans also offers a Mental Healthcare Navigation Team (MHNT) to help connect people to proper care that is available 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday. MHNT can be reached at (504) 8962345 or email gladys@namineworleans.org.

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

1-800-273-8255; www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org. Offering free, confidential support 24-7 over the phone or through chat.

New Orleans Grief Center.

(504) 475-8312; www.neworleansgriefcenter.com. Offering counseling, group sessions and teletherapy for those experiencing grief through loss of a loved one.

NOLA Ready.

ready.nola.gov. Emergency information from the City of New Orleans along with the latest news about COVID-19 in the area.

SAMHSA Disaster Distress Helpline.

1-800-985-5990 and 1-800-6624357. A crisis support hotline operated by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The helpline also takes text messages: Text TalkWithUs to 66746.

University of Holy Cross Counseling Program.

(504) 398-2168. Free, remote counseling program offered by the University of Holy Cross’ Thomas E. Chambers Counseling and Training Center.

Voice Care.

(504) 264-1381; voicecare.help.

Free telecare for health care workers, first responders, and coronavirus patients and their family members.

Curbside or Delivery!

Mon-Sat 10am-5pm

5101 W. ESPLANADE at Chastant • Metairie

504.407.3532

nolagiftsanddecor.com @nolagiftsanddecor

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 0 2 0

Mental Health

15

FOR SUPPORTING

OUR READERS & ADVERTISERS

WE

AND LOCAL JOURNALISM

» Aaron Frumin

» Avery Penman

» Charmaine Caccioppi

» Doug Weisz

» Georgie Smith

» Jennifer Marusak

» Karen Abell

» Laura Rochon

» Mark Romig

» Pat Macaluso

» Rose Dobrez

» Therese Duke

» Alan Borne

» Barbara Poche

» Chelsea Rourke

» Ed Walters

» Giancarlo Caratini

» Jennifer Osburn

» Kate Welsh

» Laurel Clausen

» Marlane Drake

» Patricia Podell

» Ryan Smith

» Thomas Braly

» Alexandra Reisner

» Beth Utterback

» Cherie Thompson

» Eileen Minahan

» Gina Salvatore

» Jennifer Schuyler

» Katherine Stuke

» Lauren Morel

» Mary Adams

» Patricia Ravits

» Sallie Shafto

» Alicia LaRose

» Beverli Turner

» Cherry Fisher May

» Elise Dabezies

» Gretchen Caillouet

» Jess Carter

» Kathleen Edmundson

» Lawrence Centola

» Mary F Bergeron

» Patrick Carson

» Samantha Hanks

» Alisha Reed

» Bill Bass

» Clancy DuBos

» Elizabeth Glassell

» Harry Shearer

» Jesse Hemeter

» Kathleen Mazure

» Leigh Thorpe

» Mary Friley

» Patrick Landry

» Samantha Yrle

» Alix Tarnowsky

» Blaine Lindsey

» Clara Gould

» Elizabeth Hyde

» Heather Trumble

» Jessica Hawkins

» Kathleen Padian

» Leigh Wall

» Paul Clement

» Sandy Rosenthal

» Allison Dandry

» Bobbi Ritz

» Clark Tiffiny

» Elizabeth Jee

» Hether Smiroldo

» Jessica Mason

» Kathryn Hobgood

» Liliane Bavister

» Mary Matalin and James Carville

» Paul Tamburello

» Sandy Stein

» Tiffany French

» Amanda Maggio

» Bonnie Buras

» Claud Clark

» Elizabeth Smith

» Holli Hamilton Lindsey

» Jill Dryden

» Kathy Vicari

» Linda Browm

» Paula Harrelson

» Scott D’Aunoy

» Timothy Ruppert

» Amanda Schroeder

» Brenda Mickol

» Corinna Weir

» Ellen Byron

» Howard Turoff

» Jill Wagner

» Katie Bishop

» Linda Lachin

» Penny Dufrene

» Scott Schick

» Tom Perrault

» Amy Dailey

» Brent Meche

» Cynthia Morse

» Ellie Avegno

» Howard Zimmerman

» Jo-Ann Ledger

» Katie Welsh

» Lindsay Hannah

» Penny Reed

» Shannon Corrigan

» Tony Laska

» Amy Exnicios

» Brian Sands

» Elliott Bauman

» Jackie Shreves

» Joe Giarrusso

» Keith Thompson

» Lindsay Manco

» Pierre Champagne

» Shenea Mathews

» Anastasia Roberts

» Bridget Hellmers

» Dan Askin

» Emma Fleckman

» Jaime Loebner

» John Exnicios

» Kelly Sonnier

» Lisa Chmiola

» Melissa Gnibus

» Quentin Stewart

» Sherrie Sherrin

» Andrea Blumenstein

» Bruce Hoffman

» Dan Bess

» Eric Mund

» Jake Clapp

» John Foster

» Kevin O’Shaughnessy

» Lisa Snyder

» Melissa Hardison

» Rachel Kellogg

» Sidney Levin

» Andrew Ravits

» Buddy King

» John Mclachlan

» Killian Jordan

» Rahlyn Gossen

» Sonia Gasparini

» Kim Janowski

» Randi Baudoin

» Stephanie Kleehammer

» Veronica Bird

» Jonah Seligman

» Kim Sport

» Michelle Hansen

» Rebecca Friedman

» Stephanie McShane

» Walter Leger, Jr.

» Carol Senft

» Erin Luetkemeier

» James Jang

» Anna Clayton Bullock

» Dawn Ofodile

» Luis, Erin & Nadia Salcedo

» Michelle Bushey

» Caire Restaurant Supply

» Erica Hirsch

» John Stolf

» Angelique Carter

» Dawn Carl

» James Furlow

» Lisa Williford

» Michael Tisserand

» Bushra Ahmad

» Erica Cardosi

» James Cook

» Angel Serigne

» Dana Reynolds

» Kipp Rhoads

» Lynnette Judge

» Mindy Milam, LCSW

» Regina Cairns

» Steve Graves

» Wanda Jenkins

» Caroline Ross

» Ernestine WashingtonHarris

» Joy Braud Sims

» Anna Hugel

» Dayna Ann GesslerPoitevent

» James Morris » James Robertson

» Juan Barreto

» Kris Shull

» Madelyn Corkern

» Mist Works

» Renee Rothman

» Sue Southon

» Annie Johnson

» Carolyn Steel

» Deborah Augustine Elam

» Everett Bonner

» Jeanne Foster

» Juli Miller Hart

» Kristen Schorp

» Malain Collins

» Natalie Robinson

» Renny Martyn

» Suri Duitch

» Will McCrary

» Anthony Bentley

» Cassie Lentz

» Demetric Mercadel

» Frank Israel

» Jeanne McGlory

» Julia Barecki

» Kristina Teran

» Malia Hamilton

» Neil Farnsworth

» Robert Gramenz

» Susan Bledsoe

» April Babin

» Cecile Castello

» Denise Templeton

» Frenchie Kessler

» Jennifer Adams

» Julie Gernhauser

» Kristy Saunders

» Margo DuBos

» Nick Mauer

» Robert Lecher

» Tara Hernandez

» April Sanchez

» Celeste Gauthier

» Dina Zeevi

» Fritz Westenberger

» Jennifer Cuddihy

» Julie Graybill

» Krystan Hosking

» Margo Moss

» Nicole Boyer

» Robert Levy

» Teagan Connors

» Aran Donovan

» Chanel Salzer

» Donna DeHoog

» Gail Richardson

» Jennifer Herbert

» Justine Morgan

» Kyuwon Kim

» Marie-Claire Serou

» Norah Friar

» Robert Monk

» Teddy Lopez

» Zac Zelazny

» Ashley Rice

» Charles Chester, MD

» Donna Svenson

» George Kulman

» Jennifer Lloyd

» Kandace Graves

» Laney Blakemore

» Marisa Naquin

» Pamela Theriot

» Robin Johnstone

» Terry Ryder

» Zaccai Free

» Cyril Vetter

» Mary McCarthy » Maxwell Rieman » Melanie Bray » Melissa Bacino

Give where you live, NO NEWS IS BAD NEWS Gambit reports on the city we love, connects you to New Orleans, and covers the issues that matter —all for free.

By becoming a Gambit Member, you are showing your support for local journalism and helping us continue our mission (you will receive some great perks too!)

BESTOFNEWORLEANS.COM/MEMBER

adopt-a-small business.

April 28, 2020 Volume 41 // Number 15 March 17-23, 2020 11 Volume 41 // Number

bestofneworleans.com/shopsmall

For more information visit bestofneworleans.com/shopsmall *PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A CHARITABLE DONATION AND DOES NOT QUALIFY FOR A TAX DEDUCTION.

» Tiana Watts » Tiara Washington Konate » Tiffany Campo

» Tracey Collins » Tracy Centanni » Tracy Jenkins

» William King » William Triplett » Xiomara Blanco

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

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

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 02 0

24

GIVE Where You Live opt-Ad A

SPONSORED BY ELIZABETH GLASSELL

ADOPTED BY SURI DUITCH

GET

live streamed

CLASSES & MORE FREE TO BE POWER YOGA IS NOW EVERYWHERE THROUGH OUR ONLINE PROGRAMMING. ZOOM & INSTAGRAM LIVE STREAMED CLASSES ON-DEMAND CLASSES ON OUR VIRTUAL HUB PODCAST FULL OF CLASSES!

OPEN EVERYDAY 4:0 0PM - 8:30PM

SUNDAY BRUNCH

From Magazine Street to Metairie Road, independently-owned shops and

11AM - 1PM

TAKE-OUT ONLY

restaurants help our region thrive. As we all face the economic disruptions wrought by COVID-19, we at Gambit want to do our part by offering a new

F O R A L L T H E YO G A !

way to support local businesses.

511 Marigny Street

ADOPTED BY LUIS, ERIN & NADIA SALCEDO

VISIT

www.freetobepoweryoga.com

Socially Distant 504-509-6782 NEW ORLEANS | 70117

Patio Opening Soon Open Now for Takeout!

Wednesday - Sunday

“Adopt A Small Business” is an initiative designed to promote local-

LUNCH & DINNER

ly-owned businesses AND support local journalism. Help your favorite local businesses advertise — in Gambit at very reduced rates — so they can let customers know they’re still open, even if at reduced levels, and

404 Andrew Higgins Dr. | New Orleans

Find your

keeping people employed.

a part of New Orleans’ culture as food, music, and art.

• Receive (1) 1/8 page ad to give to your favorite small business.

VALUE: $438

(NEAR THE ANNUNCIATION/TCHOUPITOULAS SPLIT)

(504) 533-0016

Creating Rich, Beautiful Memories One Trip at a Time

Crises often bring out the best in people. Helping one another is as much

$125 adoption

happy place.

For menu go to www.ryenpie.com/menu

ADOPTED BY TIANA WAT TS

CO N TAC T M A H O GA N Y T R AV E L TO B O O K A TR I P TO DAY.

MAHOGANY-TR AVEL .COM 504 -356 -1011 mahoganytravel18@gmail.com

$200 adoption

$350 adoption

• Receive (2) 1/8 page ads to give to two of your favorite small businesses.

• Receive a free Gambit tote bag

• Receive (3) 1/8 page ads to give to three favorite small businesses.

• Receive a free Gambit tote bag • Receive a $10 gift card to Coast Roast Coffee.

VALUE: $886

VALUE: $1,334

For more information visit bestofneworleans.com/shopsmall *PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A CHARITABLE DONATION AND DOES NOT QUALIFY FOR A TAX DEDUCTION.

EATDRINK

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 02 0

18

Not-sofast food

Email dining@gambitweekly.com

Local journalists collect Beards TWO NEW ORLEANS-BASED JOURNALISTS are among the winners of

James Beard Foundation (www. jamesbeard.org) media awards, which were announced May 27.

Brett Martin won the profile category for his piece in GQ magazine about chef Tunde Wey and some of his dinners provoking thought about gentrification in Nashville, Tennessee, and elsewhere. Wey lives in New Orleans and formerly operated a food

Restaurants reopen with different approaches suited to their needs

BY I A N M C NU LT Y AS PHASE 1 CORONAVIRUS REOPENINGS BEGAN , many restaurants recon-

figured their dining rooms to meet new occupancy limits. At MoPho (514 City Park Ave., 504-482-6845; www.mophonola.com), staff instead moved tables to create a corral by the front door, a staging area for takeout orders of pho, lemon grass chicken wings and spicy cucumbers.

The Asian fusion restaurant by City Park shut down early when the pandemic hit in March. To plan its return, chef Michael Gulotta and his partners surveyed their staff. They found takeout-only was the approach where most felt safest and most comfortable.

“A lot of our people still wanted to talk it out, see how it goes,” Gulotta says. “We didn’t want to have to juggle managing tables and social distancing in our dining room on top of everything else it takes to reopen.”

With new options available to them, New Orleans restaurants are choosing different approaches, from opening at the maximum 25% occupancy now allowed to remaining closed.

Some are finding a middle road by sticking to takeout, or blending a variety of approaches. Commander’s Palace now serves takeout and ships dishes nationally, while Parkway Bakery & Tavern converted its parking lot for pickup service of food shuttled via golf cart.

In all cases, restaurateurs are trying to save their businesses while navigating a changing terrain of government rules, public health guidance and customer expectations.

Meals always have been served family style at Mosca’s (4137 Highway 90 West, Westwego, 504-436-8950; www.moscasrestaurant.com), the Italian restaurant in Westwego where dishes are portioned to share among diners. Now, the pans of garlicky chicken a la grande and baked oysters Mosca are all packed for home.

“My background is in public health, so we’ve been taking this very seriously,” says Lisa Mosca, who helps run the restaurant her grandfather Provino Mosca opened in 1946.

FORK CENTER

“My mother Mary Jo is here, we have a couple employees who are older, so our priorities have been safety for them,” she adds.

Mosca rearranged the dining rooms to see how they would look at 25% occupancy, and what she saw didn’t give her much confidence that they could pull it off. So Mosca’s will remain takeout-only for now.

“When I saw restaurants doing family meals to feed four or feed six, I thought, ‘Oh well at least we don’t have to change much,’ ” Mosca says.

Mosca’s long has been a dinner destination drawing people from Houma and the Northshore to Westwego. They’re still coming for takeout, and, Mosca guesses, maybe just to get out of the house.

One couple arrived in an RV, picked up food and had dinner in the parking lot.

Pizza is a natural for takeout, but the decisions guiding the path back for Pizza Delicious (617 Piety St., 504676-8482; www.pizzadelicious.com) in the Bywater have not been simple.

The pizzeria reopened May 21 with a takeout-only format, an online ordering system and a limited number of orders available per day, all meant to manage kitchen capacity and the flow of people through the door.

“We’re making an effort to open a purposefully smaller operation,” said co-founder Mike Friedman. “It feels crazy, because that requires you to say, no, I’m not going to make and sell all the food I can when we really need it.

But this is what we can pull off with the staff who wanted to come back and the safety measures we’re taking.”

The new format is strikingly similar to its first incarnation. Friedman and co-founder Greg Augarten started

S TA F F F I L E P H OTO B Y BRETT DUKE

Mosca’s Restaurant serves platters of chicken cacciatore (left) and chicken a la grande.

Pizza Delicious in 2010 as a pop-up for the New York-style pies and people called in orders starting early in the day. Now, customers order online (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) for designated pick up times later (4 p.m. to 9 p.m.)

Thursday through Sunday.

The menu is smaller to start, but Pizza Delicious has also added pasta by the pound, sauces and take-andbake prepared meals.

Friedman hopes the business will be in better shape than if it stayed closed.

“If we can make some money now, maybe we can weather whatever comes next,” he said.

Takeout orders of family meals have been keeping the lights on at Carrollton Market (8132 Hampson St., 504-252-9928; www.carrolltonmarket.com), chef Jason Goodenough’s upscale Riverbend bistro. Following a short break, he plans to reopen in June with a retooled approach, mixing family meals with some grab-and-go items and, perhaps, a tasting menu available in the restaurant a few nights a week.

The cottage-sized restaurant could seat only a handful of customers under 25% occupancy restrictions.

“My business model was barely sustainable before,” Goodenough says.

He’s taking a flexible approach that moves Carrollton Market closer to its culinary style.

“I think we’re all feeling creatively stifled,” Goodenough says. “We’re trying to take it one day at a time and evolve.”

stall at St. Roch Market. He recently spoke to The New Yorker about the opportunity to rethink restaurants after the pandemic.

Betsy Shepherd won an audio reporting award for her segment on the Gravy podcast about gospel singer Mahalia Jackson putting her name on a fried chicken restaurant. The podcast is produced for the Southern Foodways Alliance (www.southernfoodways.org). John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, based in Oxford, Mississippi, won a Beard award for an article titled “My Mother’s Catfish Stew,” published in the Oxford American. In January, Edge shared his column space in the Oxford American with Wey for a debate titled, “Who Owns Southern Food?”

There are media awards for cookbooks, books, reviews, long- and short-form journalism, broadcast media and more. The Beard Foundation will announce culinary awards in September, and many local chefs, restaurateurs and others are nominated. — WILL COVIELLO

Sweet spot THERE ARE MORE PIGEONS THAN PEOPLE in Jackson Square, the norm

for the French Quarter since the corornavirus shutdown began. But as a steamy Friday morning got underway May 22, just across Decatur Street the smell of chicory coffee and beig-

EAT+DRINK tion, however, is experiencing a different dynamic. The French Quarter is still very quiet. But from the calm that had settled over the streets, little gusts of activity have turned up recently.

Roman has been around the French Market almost daily since the shutdown and noticed the

P H OTO B Y S O P H I A G E R M E R / T H E T I M E S - P I C AY UNE | T H E NE W O R L E A N S A DVO C AT E

Customers eat takeout beignets at Cafe Du Monde, which reopened May 22.

change. He credits street artists and recent graduates.

“After people started painting art on the plywood over all the boarded up windows around here, that drew people down to check it out,” Roman says. “Then with graduations, it was the tour of caps and gowns, parents taking their pictures in front of landmarks without a lot of tourists around them.”

On opening day, there were some signs of tourism activity. The office phone kept ringing with calls from out-of-towners looking for updates.

For Rob McCloskey and Meg Helf, the order they picked up on opening day was their first taste of beignets.

They live in eastern Pennsylvania and have been traveling to escape the somber mood there. They couldn’t do many of the usual tourist activities, but they did find their way to Cafe Du Monde and hopped in line.

“This was on our list of things to do anyway,” McCloskey says.

Kim Hoffman was thrilled to see them. She has worked at the French Market location of Cafe Du Monde for 43 years, starting here not long after she emigrated from Vietnam.

She’s been mostly staying home since the shutdown, taking care of her husband. She leapt at the chance to get back to work.

“When they called, I felt like I’d won a million dollars,” she says.

“You see everyone here — famous people at one table, grandfathers, fathers and sons at another,” Hoffman says. “I love it. I missed the people.” — IAN MCNULTY

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 0 2 0

nets once again wafted from Cafe Du Monde (800 Decatur St., 504-5870833; www.cafedumonde.com).

The landmark New Orleans coffee and beignet parlor in the French Market reopened for the first time since March.

One of the first people in line was Stacie Ancar. A Belle Chasse native, she lives in Atlanta now and was in town for a weekend visit. Cafe Du Monde was her first stop.

“There is no New Orleans without Cafe Du Monde,” said Ancar, her shirt adorned with a cafe au lait pin and the inevitable dusting of powdered sugar from her beignets.

Between the awnings and arches of Cafe Du Monde’s covered patio, Ancar had plenty of room around her.

The cafe is serving takeout only from a makeshift counter set up by the front door. Though it normally can seat 400 people at a time, Cafe Du Monde now has about 20 outdoor tables for people to sit at with their takeout bags.

“We’re not going to have the crowds we normally would, but that’s not important right now,” says Jay Roman, one of the family owners of Cafe Du Monde. “What’s important is showing the city is open again.

We want people to know that New Orleans is back.”

Restaurants have been returning to business in one form or another across New Orleans since the governor and mayor announced Phase 1 of the reopening process two weeks ago. As an iconic New Orleans restaurant, Cafe Du Monde’s decision to return could resonate beyond the city.

People don’t just eat beignets at Cafe du Monde. Tourists tell stories about them when they get home, and locals argue the particular merits of Cafe Du Monde versus Morning Call or any of the new beignets makers.

Hours are curtailed from the normal 24-hour schedule, now operating 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Roman expects to extend those hours when the city gets to Phase 2 of its reopening.

“Our business plan is written on a white board with erasable marker, because it changes every day,” he says. “Every time you think you have a plan, you read something else, you watch another webinar, you learn about something different that you have to do.”

Cafe Du Monde has been reopening its suburban locations, starting with drive-through service. On May 1, it reopened the takeout window at its location in New Orleans City Park.

Business has been encouraging at those cafes, and Roman said Mother’s Day weekend was a big boost, showing that many customers were ready to venture out again.

The original Cafe Du Monde loca-

19

EAT+DRINK

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 02 0

20

3-COURSE INTERVIEW

Annie Moore FARMER ANNIE MOORE AND CHERYL NUNES STARTED THEIR RIVER QUEEN GREENS (www.riverqueengreens.

DONATE TO

The Times-Picayune Doll & Toy Fund JUNE 2, 2020 GiveNOLA.org

PRESENTS THE 2020

PET PHOTO

CONTEST Send your favorite pet photo to vip@gambitweekly.com for the chance to have your pet published in Gambit’s June 30th Pet Issue.

one grand prize winner will be chosen! bestofneworleans.com/

petphoto

DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES:

JUNE 22

Guidelines and Photo Protocol Photo files must be hi-res and not exceed 5mb. Please submit only (1) photo per family. For complete contest rules, please visit bestofneworleans.com/petphoto.

com) urban farm in Bywater in 2017 and added a second production area on the West Bank last year. They developed the farm by networking with SPROUT NOLA and selling at the Crescent City Farmers Market before the COVID-19 pandemic, and they’ve increased their online farm share business in recent months.

How did the pandemic affect your farm?

ANNIE MOORE: The demand for local food has gone through the roof, which has been great. It’s a weird bright side of the pandemic. We had to make a bunch of adjustments, so we’re being more proactive about sanitizing things and packaging and things like that.

We were fortunate that we started a “farm share” through an online service called Harvie. We started that five or six weeks before the pandemic and had 40 or 50 people signed up. (Before that) we were doing two farmers markets, and we dropped one and replaced it with the farm share. Then when the pandemic hit, we were able to ramp up with Harvie. We went from doing 45 shares a week to between 200 and 250 a week. It was a big jump.

A lot of people like picking up the share instead of going in a grocery store. You pick up the food outside and the only other person who touches the food is the farmer.

Everyone is wearing a mask. There’s no money exchanged. It’s a safe pickup space.

We lost some restaurants, but we never had a lot of restaurants — we were only selling micro greens to them.

Has it affected how you work at the farm?

M: We have one full-time staff person, who’s been full time for a year.

But now we have way more volunteer help because people have been available. Some people are working for food. We have some people who are getting a work share.

How does River Queen’s farm share work?

M: Some people doing veggie boxes say, “Pay $20 and here’s what you’re

P H OTO P R OV I D E D B Y R I V E R Q UEEN G R EEN S

Cheryl Nunes and Annie Moore run River Queen Greens.

going to get.” What’s great about Harvie is you can customize your share. We have 25-30 items in our share and people can choose what they’re going to get.

For the farm share, there are other farmers out there like Compostella Farm in Mississippi — which was mostly selling to restaurants — they lost a ton of business, so we started buying stuff from them. One of the ways we’ve been able to ramp up is by aggregating with other local farms. We knew their growing practices, and we’ve basically partnered with them to buy produce to serve more people.

We get things from Poche Family Farm, Indian Springs (Farmers Association), Pointe Coupee (Farmers Co-op). SPROUT NOLA has been doing some aggregating. We get berries from the Northshore.

(Harvie) makes it easier for us to plan our season. And it’s a nice service, so people stay on it. We have our share members, but we also can sell extras. We’re selling things like Insanitea Kombucha, eggs and mushrooms, which aren’t things that we grow. You can buy your share and then add on extra things.

We’re continually expanding. This is our first season on the West Bank and we have a lot of space to keep growing. Right now we have about an acre in production, but hopefully in the fall we’ll be up to 2 acres. So we might need more outlets then.

— WILL COVIELLO

TAKE-OUT TO EAT

21

C O M P L E T E L I S T I N G S AT W W W. B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S .C O M Out 2 Eat is an index of Gambit contract advertisers. Unless noted, addresses are in New Orleans and all accept credit cards.

Updates: email willc@gambitweekly.com or call (504) 483-3106.

BYWATER Luna Libre — 3600 St. Claude Ave., (504) 237-1284 — Carnitas made with pork from Shank Charcuterie and citrus from Ben & Ben Becnel farm fills a taco topped with onion and cilantro.

The menu combines Tex-Mex and dishes from Louisiana and Arkansas.

Curbside pickup is available. B SatSun. $ Polly’s Bywater Cafe — 3225 St. Claude Ave., (504) 459-4571; www.pollysbywatercafe.com — A grilled biscuit is topped with poached eggs, hog’s head cheese and Creole hollandaise and served with home fries or grits. $$

CBD 14 Parishes — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave.; www.14parishes.com — Jamaican-style jerk chicken is served with two sides such as plantains, jasmine rice, cabbage or rice and peas. Delivery available. Curbside pickup and delivery available. L and D daily. $$ Eat Well — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave.; www.pythianmarket.com — Phoritto is a spinach tortilla filled with brisket, chicken or tofu, plus bean sprouts, jalapenos, onions and basil and is served with a cup of broth. Curbside pickup and delivery available. L and D daily. $ Kais — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave., (941) 481-9599; www.pythianmarket.com — A Sunshine bowl includes salmon, corn, mango, green onions, edamame, pickled ginger, ponzu spicy mayonnaise, cilantro, masago and nori strips.

Curbside pickup and delivery available.

L and D daily. $$ La Cocinita — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave., (504) 309-5344; www. lacochinitafoodtruck.com — La Llanera is an arepa stuffed with carne asada, guasacasa, pico de gallo, grilled queso fresco and salsa verde. Curbside pickup and delivery available. B, L and D daily. $ Meribo Pizza — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave., (504) 481-9599; www. meribopizza.com — A Meridionale pie is topped with pulled pork, chilies, ricotta, mozzarella, collard greens and red sauce. Delivery available. L and D daily. $$ Red Gravy — 125 Camp St., (504) 5618844; www.redgravycafe.com — Thin cannoli pancakes are filled with cannoli cream and topped with a chocolate drizzle. The menu includes brunch items, pasta dishes, sandwiches, baked goods and more. Takeout available.

Check website for hours. $$ Willie Mae’s — Pythian Market, 234 Loyola Ave.; www.williemaesnola.com — The Creole soul food restaurant is known for its fried chicken, red beans and more. Takeout available. L and D Mon-Sat. $

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

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

CARROLLTON/UNIVERSITY NEIGHBORHOODS Mikimoto — 3301 S. Carrollton Ave., (504) 488-1881; www.mikimotosushi. com — Sushi choices include new and old favorites, both raw and cooked. The South Carrollton roll includes tuna tataki, avocado and snow crab. Takeout and delivery available. L Sun-Fri, D daily. $$ Pyramids Cafe — 3151 Calhoun St., (504) 861-9602 — Diners will find Mediterranean cuisine featuring such favorites as shawarma prepared on a rotisserie. Takeout and delivery available. L, D daily. $$ Vincent’s Italian Cuisine — 7839 St. Charles Ave., (504) 866-9313; www.vincentsitaliancuisine.com — See Metairie section for restaurant description. Curbside pickup and delivery available. $$

SPONSORED BY AVERY PENMAN

We’re Open!

Book Now !

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

FAUBOURG MARIGNY Kebab — 2315 St. Claude Ave., (504) 383-4328; www.kebabnola.com — The sandwich shop offers doner kebabs and Belgian fries. A falafel sandwich comes with pickled cucumbers, arugula, spinach, red onions, beets, hummus and Spanish garlic sauce. No reservations. Takeout and delivery available Thu-Sun. $ Mardi Gras Zone — 2706 Royal., (504) 947-8787 — The grocery and deli has a counter offering po-boys, sides such as macaroni and cheese and vegan and vegetarian dishes.

Wood-oven baked pizza is available by the pie or slice. $

Home Cooked Food with a European Flair Daily Hot Lunch Specials Keto Items • Paninis Grilled Wraps Hamburgers and Snacks Private Dinner Parties 7614 Hwy. 23 • Belle Chasse 504-912-2751 11am-2pm Monday-Friday klaraseurokitchen.wixsite.com/ klaraskitchen

Tuesday 10 am - 5 pm Wednesday 9 am - 5 pm Thursday 11 am - 8 pm Friday 9 am - 6 pm Saturday 9 am - 3 pm

613 METAIRIE RD 504-832-3900 www.salontereska.com

FRENCH QUARTER Palace Cafe — 605 Canal St., (504) 523-1661; www.palacecafe.com — Creative Creole dishes include crabmeat cheesecake topped with Creole meuniere. Andouille-crusted fish is served with Crystal beurre blanc. For dessert, there’s white chocolate bread pudding.

L and D daily. $$$

HARAHAN/JEFFERSON/ RIVER RIDGE Bienvenue — 467 Hickory Ave., Harahan, (504) 305-4792; www.bienvenueharahan.com — A Marrone sandwich features smoked prime rib, provolone, horseradish aioli and jus on Gendusa’s French bread. The menu also includes po-boys, seafood platters, pasta and more. Drive-through pickup available.

L daily, D Tue-Sat, brunch Sun. $$ PAGE 22

It’s in the Bag!

NOW OPEN 11AM TO 4PM OR SHOP ONLINE AT WWW.NOLABOO.COM FOLLOW US!

517 METAIRIE RD. OLD METAIRIE | 504-510-4655 | nolaboo.com

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 0 2 0

Contact Will Coviello wcoviello@gambitweekly.com 504-483-3106 | FAX: 504-483-3159

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 02 0

22

TAKE-OUT TO EAT PAGE 21

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

Curbside pickup and delivery available.

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

L, D Tue-Sat. $

Curbside pickup and delivery available.

Tue-Sun. $$

MID-CITY/TREME

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

A DVO C AT E S TA F F P H O T O B Y I A N M C N U LT Y

Kebab (2315 St. Claude Ave., 504-383-4328; www.kebabnola.com) serves doner kebab sandwiches.

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

Capelli D’Andrea combines house-made angel hair pasta and smoked salmon in light cream sauce. Curbside pickup and delivery are available. L, D daily, brunch Sun. $$$ Austin’s Seafood & Steakhouse — 5101 W. Esplanade Ave., Metairie, (504) 8885533; www.mredsrestaurant.com/austins — Crabmeat Austin features crabmeat over lettuce, tomatoes and honey-

Dijon mustard dressing. The menu also includes steaks and Creole-Italian dishes. Reservations accepted. D MonSat. $$$ Kosher Cajun New York Deli & Grocery — 3519 Severn Ave., Metairie, (504) 8882010; www.koshercajun.com — This New York-style deli specializes in sandwiches, including corned beef and pastrami that come from the Bronx. Takeout available.

L Sun-Thu, D Mon-Thu. $ Mark Twain’s Pizza Landing — 2035 Metairie Road, Metairie, (504) 832-8032; www.marktwainpizza.com — Mark Twain’s serves salads, po-boys and pies like the

Italian pizza with salami, tomato, artichoke, sausage and basil. Takeout and curbside pickup are available. L Tue-Sat, D Tue-Sun. $ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 2125 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, (504) 510-4282; www.theospizza.com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description.

Vincent’s Italian Cuisine — 4411 Chastant St., Metairie, (504) 885-2984; www.vincentsitaliancuisine.com — Corn and crab bisque is served in a toasted bread cup.

Osso buco features a veal shank with angel hair pasta and veal demi-glace.

FATHER’S DAY All Father’s Day advertisers will receive a Business feature in our Father’s Day Gifts promotional section in the June 16th issueof Gambit.

ONE PHOTO A ND UP TO 100 WORDS

ISSUE DATE: June 16 | RESERVE AD SPACE: June 5

Ad Director Sandy Stein 504.483.3150 or sstein@gambitweekly.com

Angelo Brocato’s — 214 N. Carrollton Ave., (504) 486-1465; www.angelobrocatoicecream.com — This sweet shop serves its own gelato, spumoni, Italian ice, cannolis, fig cookies and other treats. Window and curbside pickup. L, D Wed-Sun. $ Brown Butter Southern Kitchen & Bar — 231 N. Carrollton Ave., Suite C, (504) 609-3871; www.brownbutterrestaurant. com — Sample items have included smoked brisket served with smoked apple barbecue sauce, Alabama white barbecue sauce, smoked heirloom beans and vinegar slaw. A Brunch burger features a brisket and short rib patty topped with bacon, brie, a fried egg, onion jam and arugula on a brioche bun.

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

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

Takeout, curbside pickup and delivery available. L and D Tue-Sun. $$ Nonna Mia — 3125 Esplanade Ave., (504) 948-1717; www.nonnamianola.com — A Divine Portobello appetizer includes chicken breast, spinach in creamy red pepper sauce and crostini. The menu also includes salads, sandwiches, pasta, pizza and more. Curbside pickup and

TAKE-OUT TO EAT 23

WAREHOUSE DISTRICT

S TA F F P H O T O B Y I A N M C N U LT Y

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

Owner Joel Brown takes a food order at Kosher Cajun Deli (3519 Severn Ave., Metairie, 504-888-2010; www.koshercajun.com).

WEST BANK

delivery are available. Service daily. $$ Ralph’s on the Park — 900 City Park Ave., (504) 488-1000; www.ralphsonthepark. com — The restaurant is known for dishes such as turtle soup finished with sherry and barbecue Gulf shrimp. Family-style dinner specials include Louisiana crawfish etouffee with rice, potato salad and garlic bread. Curbside pickup available. Wed-Sun. $$$ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 4024 Canal St., (504) 302-1133; www.theospizza. com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description.

Willie Mae’s Scotch House — 2401 St. Ann St., (504) 822-9503; www.williemaesnola. com — This neighborhood restaurant is known for its wet-battered fried chicken.

Green beans come with rice and gravy.

There’s bread pudding for dessert. No reservations. L Mon-Fri. $$

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

UPTOWN The Delachaise — 3442 St. Charles Ave., (504) 895-0858; www.thedelachaise.com — The bar offers wines by the glass and full restaurant menu including mussels steamed with Thai chili and lime leaf. Twice cooked pork is served over plantains. $$ Joey K’s — 3001 Magazine St., (504) 891-0997; www.joeyksrestaurant.com ­— This casual eatery serves fried seafood platters, salads, sandwiches and Creole favorites such as red beans and rice. Daily specials include braised lamb shank, lima

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

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

Service daily. $$

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 0 2 0

beans with a ham hock and chicken fried steak served with macaroni and cheese.

Takeout and delivery available. $$ Miyako Japanese Seafood & Steakhouse — 1403 St. Charles Ave., (504) 410-9997; www.japanesebistro.com — Miyako offers a full range of Japanese cuisine, with specialties from the sushi or hibachi menus, chicken, beef or seafood teriyaki, and tempura. Delivery available. $$ Piccola Gelateria — 4525 Freret St., (504) 493-5999; www.piccolagelateria. com — The cafe offers 18 rotating flavors of small-batch Italian-style gelatos and sorbettos. The menu also includes flatbreads on piadina, crepes and espresso drinks. Takeout and curbside pickup available. L and D Tue-Sun. $ Theo’s Neighborhood Pizza — 4218 Magazine St., (504) 894-8554; www. theospizza.com — See Harahan/Jefferson section for restaurant description.

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 02 0

24

GIVE Where You Live opt-Ad A

SPONSORED BY ELIZABETH GLASSELL

ADOPTED BY SURI DUITCH

GET

live streamed

CLASSES & MORE FREE TO BE POWER YOGA IS NOW EVERYWHERE THROUGH OUR ONLINE PROGRAMMING. ZOOM & INSTAGRAM LIVE STREAMED CLASSES ON-DEMAND CLASSES ON OUR VIRTUAL HUB PODCAST FULL OF CLASSES!

OPEN EVERYDAY 4:0 0PM - 8:30PM

SUNDAY BRUNCH

From Magazine Street to Metairie Road, independently-owned shops and

11AM - 1PM

TAKE-OUT ONLY

restaurants help our region thrive. As we all face the economic disruptions wrought by COVID-19, we at Gambit want to do our part by offering a new

F O R A L L T H E YO G A !

way to support local businesses.

511 Marigny Street

ADOPTED BY LUIS, ERIN & NADIA SALCEDO

VISIT

www.freetobepoweryoga.com

Socially Distant 504-509-6782 NEW ORLEANS | 70117

Patio Opening Soon Open Now for Takeout!

Wednesday - Sunday

“Adopt A Small Business” is an initiative designed to promote local-

LUNCH & DINNER

ly-owned businesses AND support local journalism. Help your favorite local businesses advertise — in Gambit at very reduced rates — so they can let customers know they’re still open, even if at reduced levels, and

404 Andrew Higgins Dr. | New Orleans

Find your

keeping people employed.

a part of New Orleans’ culture as food, music, and art.

• Receive (1) 1/8 page ad to give to your favorite small business.

VALUE: $438

(NEAR THE ANNUNCIATION/TCHOUPITOULAS SPLIT)

(504) 533-0016

Creating Rich, Beautiful Memories One Trip at a Time

Crises often bring out the best in people. Helping one another is as much

$125 adoption

happy place.

For menu go to www.ryenpie.com/menu

ADOPTED BY TIANA WAT TS

CO N TAC T M A H O GA N Y T R AV E L TO B O O K A TR I P TO DAY.

MAHOGANY-TR AVEL .COM 504 -356 -1011 mahoganytravel18@gmail.com

$200 adoption

$350 adoption

• Receive (2) 1/8 page ads to give to two of your favorite small businesses.

• Receive a free Gambit tote bag

• Receive (3) 1/8 page ads to give to three favorite small businesses.

• Receive a free Gambit tote bag • Receive a $10 gift card to Coast Roast Coffee.

VALUE: $886

VALUE: $1,334

For more information visit bestofneworleans.com/shopsmall *PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A CHARITABLE DONATION AND DOES NOT QUALIFY FOR A TAX DEDUCTION.

MUSIC

BY JAKE CLAPP AND WILL COVIELLO

“Central City” JOHN “PAPA” GROS (Funky Krewe Records) UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES, John “Papa” Gros wrote on his website, he would have been celebrating the release of “Central City,” his third solo album, at Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro and French Quarter Festival. Still, Gros went live on Facebook in April for a listening party and to talk about the making of the 10-track album. The release party may not have been exactly what Gros wanted, but “Central City” is the kind of feel-good record that New Orleanians could put to use during a pandemic.

“Central City” is all upbeat rhythm and blues originals and covers — including two Alex McMurray songs, Lloyd Price’s “Personality,” the Allen Toussaint-penned Irma Thomas-staple “It’s Raining” and a trad jazz-esque spin on John Prine’s “Please Don’t Bury Me,” which sinks in a little differently now that the songwriter has died.

“Central City is a departure from my other records in that it’s a return to my roots,” Gros says. “This is the tra-

dition of New Orleans and the sounds I heard at every family celebration as a kid.”

Along with Gros behind the Steinway piano, “Central City” features bassist George Porter Jr., drummer Herlin Riley and trumpeter Mark Braud along with several other musicians on various songs. — JAKE CLAPP

“La Danse a St. Ann’s” GOLDMAN THIBODEAUX & THE LAWTELL PLAYBOYS (Nouveau Electric Records) Goldman Thibodeaux recorded his first album in 13 years, “La Danse a St. Ann’s,” in November 2019 at the Thibodeaux family reunion in the Acadiana town of Mallett. Hearing Thibodeaux announce that the food is ready during a song break or asking family members how they like the music lends a special “snapshot of life” touch to the 15-track album.

Thibodeaux can certainly be considered a living legend — especially important in an era when Louisiana music is rapidly losing its legends. At 87 years old, the singer and accordi-

onist specializes in Creole lala music, a style that predates zydeco, and “La Danse a St. Ann’s” is meant to fill a dance floor for two-steps and waltzes.

Thibodeaux is joined onstage by Brock Thibodeaux (rubboard), fiddler and singer Louis Michot — on whose label, Nouveau Electric Records, the album was released — guitarist Courtney Jeffries, bassist Justin Leger and drummer Barry Cormier. — JAKE CLAPP

“Satirifunk” JUNKO BEAT (Drumparade Records) “Satirifunk” is the second album from drummer Chris Lacinak’s Junko Beat.

The group has been around since 2012, when Lacinak returned to New Orleans after work with bands including Family of God. His roots in New Orleans include, along with Junko bassist Vernon Rome, forming Tribe Nunzio, a group that helped draw crowds to Frenchmen Street when it became a popular night

spot in the 1990s. Lacinak drives the band’s funky New Orleans beats, and the group has incorporated more percussion from Ivory Coast native Seguenon Kone. Will Snowden adds cello, Jane Brody sings and Dave Easley contributes pedal steel guitar. Standout tracks on the seven-song album include “Lotus Rising” and “Land of Milk and Honey,” in which the band builds on rhythmic grooves, adding trance-y electronic sounds and mystical Middle Eastern vibes.

— WILL COVIELLO

25 G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 0 2 0

New albums from John ‘Papa’ Gros, Goldman Thibodeaux & the Lawtell Playboys and Junko Beat

STAYING IN

G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J u n e 2 - 8 > 2 02 0

26

Ornery grandma

BY WILL COVIELLO

New Orleans H O M E

+ STYLE + DESIGN

WHILE HIDING FROM HAPLESS LOW-LEVEL MEMBERS OF THE RED DRAGON GANG, Grandma Wong

Gambit Details showcases how New Orleanians

love to intersect classic style with the eclectic, while introducing our readers to some of our city’s unique retailers, designers and creators.

95,892

Gambit’s Average Issue Readership

67%

of Gambit readers own their own home

1 out of 3

Gambit readers earn a household income of $100,000 or more

IS SUE DATE

RE SERV E SPACE

JUNE 23

JUNE 12

CALL FOR SPECIAL OFFER Ad Director Sandy Stein 504.483.3150 or sstein@gambitweekly.com *SCARBOROUGH CUME RESEARCH: NEW ORLEANS, LA 2019 RELEASE 2 (AU G 201 8 -S EPTEM B ER 201 9)

(Tsai Chin) sits on her couch watching TV with her bodyguard, the hulking Big Pong (Corey Ha). She’s hired him at a discount from the Zhongliang mob protection racket because she didn’t want to pay full price.

She asks him if he’s ever been with a woman, and it’s not entirely clear whether she’s sizing up his suitability for his line of work or something more lurid. It’s one of the funny ways director Sasie Sealy flirts with dark humor in her debut feature film.

“Lucky Grandma” works against all sorts of norms by building a New York crime story around an older woman’s gruff determination to live independently — although she’s nearly broke and could move into a comfortable, spacious home with her son and adorable grandchildren.

Chin, a veteran actress, is great as the chain-smoking, stubborn Wong, who’s lost her husband but not her hope of beginning a new chapter late in life. Wong escalates a tricky entanglement with organized crime groups and seems to have all the right connections in Chinatown.

The film opens with a sense of Greek tragedy as a fortune teller says Wong has great luck in her future. Wong presses for more details, and on the forecasted day, she empties her bank account and boards a bus full of older Asian gamblers bound for an Atlantic City casino.

The chips start piling up as soon as she hits the tables and, of course, she pushes her luck. The windfall she brings home to New York can’t escape attention, however, and Wong turns to the Zhongliang gang for help. She can’t afford the bodyguard she wants and settles for Big Pong.

The comedy is best in the early going, as the old woman defies a

P H OTO P R OV I D E D B Y G O O D D EE D EN T E R TA I N M EN T

Tsai Chin stars in the action comedy ‘Lucky Grandma.’

pair of slick young gangsters who don’t expect her to offer any resistance. They bear the full brunt of her cranky determination, and she keeps gambling that good fortune is still in her cards. Sealy reveals Wong’s maternal and lonely side as she develops a bond with the gentle giant, Big Pong, though it’s never like “Harold and Maude.”

As hijinks and slapstick ensue, the crime story gets more involved, and the film starts to stretch credulity. As good as Chin is, the only way Sealy can create any distance between Grandma Wong and some gangsters in a chase sequence is simply putting them further behind in every change of camera angle, as Wong races through Chinatown restaurant kitchens and tchotchke markets. Sealy never tries to make Wong superhuman, and the conflict gets gritty.

There are some unattended loose ends. Wong’s family never seems terribly alarmed that their grandmother is involving herself and them in a gang war. The sudden companionship of Big Pong also doesn’t have them asking many questions.

Sealy has won awards at the Tribeca Film Fest for short films, including “The Elephant Garden,” and she’s an experienced comedy writer. The script for “Lucky Grandma” was a collaboration with Angela Cheng, and it has enough surprises and twists to propel the action and comedy. Chin grounds the film with her dry humor and poise, and Ha adds unflappable charm.

The film screens at 7:30 p.m. at Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge through June 4, and also is available to stream via a link on the theater website (www.zeitgeistnola.org).

UPTOWN BEAUTY

1637 N. TONTI STREET

4934 CONSTANCE STREET

Renovation just completed. High Ceilings, Beautiful Original Pine Floors, Double Parlor w/ Pocket Doors, Elegantly Appointed Kitchen w/ Bosch Appliances. Master Suite w/ Luxurious Bath. Home is situated on a Wide Lot ( 83 ft ) w/a Large Side Yard that extends the length of the lot (98 ft). Parking for 3 or 4 cars behind automatic gate. Conveniently located between the French Quarter & City Park/Fairgrounds! $625,000

Well maintained property includes a 3BR/3BA unit, which could be an Owners unit with Original Hardwood Floors, High Ceilings & Old World charm. Lots of potential for increased revenue. Fully rented with some long term tenants.

Includes recently renovated rear building/studio apartment. MAGAZINE ST. - Restaurants, Coffee Shops, Boutiques, and More!!! $875,000 W NE

G TIN LIS

TOP PRODUCER

(504) 895-4663

GARDEN DISTRICT OFFICE 2016 & 2017

ABR, CRS, GRI, SFR, SRS

PRIZEWORTHY

By Frank A. Longo

FOLLOW YOUR DREAM, HOME.

If you are considering buying a new home, call me!

It's now a Buyer's Market here in New Orleans and time to invest. For more information, visit nolastyles. com or call me at +1 504-777-1773.

TOP PRODUCING MILLION+ CLUB 2016•2017•2018•2019

58 Rice dish 61 Walton who wrote “The Compleat Angler” 63 Leaves port 64 Rub roughly 68 Ventriloquist with the dummy Charlie McCarthy [mystery writing] 71 Horse pace 72 “Incredible!”

74 Delight in 75 Bus stop 77 She’s asked to “peel me a grape” in film 79 Call to a pig 81 1982 Dustin Hoffman film 86 “Shameless” actress [television]

88 “The Picture of Dorian Gray” novelist [film] 91 Panache 92 La — Tar Pits 93 “The Piano” actor Sam 94 Remits in advance 98 Kids’ racers on tracks 101 Lyric verses 102 American labor leader [French film] 105 Verbalized 107 Go- — (no slouch) 108 Cager’s hoop 109 Went flat 110 Be in arrears 113 Blind as — 114 Uncork, e.g.

116 What any of the eight people fea tured in this puzzle should be?

118 Dust particle 119 Blu-ray Disc producer 120 Work benefit 121 Puts into law 122 Squeezed (out) 123 Circus barker 124 Actress Harper 125 Least refined DOWN 1 Witty Mort 2 Like facts 3 Rules, for short 4 1969 Beatle bride Yoko 5 “— I love thee?”

6 Cooks, as asparagus 7 Kitschy 1960s light 8 First 9 High-quality 10 Gift label 11 Tarnish 12 “Firework” singer Katy 13 Tree toppler 14 Governor’s fiscal concern 15 “Tristram Shandy” author Laurence 16 Complained childishly 17 Actor Will of “30 Rock” 18 — Rico 24 Amo, amas, — 29 Distress call 31 Strip down 32 Island group near Fiji 33 Summer shirt

34 Tiny toddler 35 Indian royal 36 Big burden 37 Breath freshener 39 Treble — 42 “Take — from me” 44 On the train, e.g.

45 Illusion on a hot road 47 Sandusky’s lake 48 Merges 49 Seep out 50 In good order 51 Move a bit 52 Capital of Norway 53 Sticky home?

56 Cuba — (rum cocktail) 59 Tennis champ Andre 60 Courteous act, to a Brit 62 — secret (didn’t blab) 64 Judge’s wear 65 “Pardon me” 66 Done the backstroke, e.g.

67 Prefix with 104-Down 69 House unit 70 Jordanian queen dowager 73 Major combat 76 Word before hall or crier 78 Jesuit college in Worcester

80 Part of NYSE 82 Attach with laces, say 83 Lost traction on the ice 84 Waste time 85 Bioelectric fishes 87 Tiara go-with 89 Five-armed echinoderms 90 Lots to leave autos in, to Brits 92 “Lowdown” singer Scaggs 94 World of Warcraft, e.g.

95 Nike rival 96 Grand home 97 Touched comfortingly 98 Jewel 99 Blabbed 100 Meat sticker 103 Boxing venue 104 Plastic for a waterbed 106 Suburb of Minneapolis 109 —’Pea 110 In time past 111 Makes moist 112 Word before while 115 “The Raven” poet 116 Inclined 117 Rustic denial

ANSWERS FOR LAST ISSUE’S PUZZLE: P 2

PUZZLES

29 Galahad’s title 30 Tina of pop 32 Mogadishu resident 33 “Rags to Riches” singer [Broadway] 35 Capital of Italy, in Italy 38 Golfers’ positions 40 Built on 41 Jungian inner self 43 Stallion, e.g.

44 Yellow shade 46 “Little Birds” actress [Canadian music] 49 Longtime member of the Four Tops [off-Broadway] 54 Fred dancing in films 55 Tile locale 57 Fly of Africa

+1 504-777-1773 michael@nolastyles.com

TIMING IS EVERYTHING.

Engel & Völkers New Orleans • +1 504-875-3555 722 Martin Behrman Avenue • Metairie, LA 70005 ©2020 Each brokerage independently owned and operated. Licensed in Louisiana

PREMIER CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1 Classic Pabst beer brand 7 Place for hay or a choir 11 Facial mask offerers 15 Barter 19 Retort to “Am so!”

20 “La Traviata” solo, say 21 Many a smartphone message 22 By way of, for short 23 He played V in “V f or Vendetta” [sci-fi writing] 25 Domain 26 German “a” 27 The, in Tours 28 Tarnish

27 G A M B I T > B E S T O F N E WO R L E A N S . C O M > J U N E 2 - 8 > 2 0 2 0

HISTORICAL 7TH WARD

Lot 193: After Renzo Colombo (1856-1885), "Napoleon I," polychromed spelter bust, after the 1885 original, H.- 20 in., W.- 14 in., D.-10 1/2 in.

Est. $1,000-$2,000

Lot 224: French Provincial Carved Walnut Louis XV Style Double Door Armoire, early 19th c., H.- 90 in., W.- 60 in., D.- 26 in.

Est. $600-$1,200

Lot 101: One Hundred Seventeen Piece Assembled Set of Fiddle Thread Pattern Sterling, together with six coin silver dinner forks by Gale and Hayden, c. 1845, New York or Charleston, (117 Pcs.) Sterling Wt.- 106.55 Troy Oz., Coin Wt.- 15.15 Troy Oz., Total Silver Wt.- 121.70 Troy Oz. Est. $1,500-$2,500

IMPORTANT SUMMER ESTATES AUCTION Saturday, June 13th at 10:00 A.M. Lots 1-450 Sunday, June 14th at 10:00 A.M. Lots 451-704 Full color catalog available at:

www.crescentcityauctiongallery.com Lot 262: Platinum Engagement Ring, with a 3.83 ct. emerald cut diamond, flanked by two tapered diamond baguettes, Color- I, Clarity- VS-1, with a GIA report, size- 5 1/4.

Est. $25,000-$35,000

WATCH AND BID LIVE ONLINE Lot 147: Alfred Frank De Prades (c. 1820-1890, English), "Contempt for the Post Boy," 1851, oil on canvas, H.-15 1/2 in., W.- 21 1/2 in.

Est. $1,200-$1,800

Lot 211: Rafaello Bussoni (1900-1962, American), "Classical River Landscape," 19th c., oil on canvas, signed lower right, H.- 29 1/2 in., W.- 39 1/2 in.

Est. $600-$1,200

Lot 192: French Gilt Bronze Napoleon on Horseback Figural Mantel Clock, 19th c., by Vincenti & Cie., H.- 19 in., W.- 12 1/4 in., D.- 4 in.

Est. $600-$900

FROM THE COMFORT OF YOUR HOME!

Lot 142: Jean Lefort (1948-, French), "Gathering of Women on the Beach," 20th c., oil on board, signed lower right, H.- 11 in., W.- 15 in.

Est. $700-$900 Lot 243: Italian Inlaid Walnut Ormolu Mounted Empire Style Sideboard, 20th c., by Rho Mobili D'Epoca, H.- 39 3/4 in., W.- 96 in., D.- 22 3/4 in.

Est. $800-$1,200

Lot 148: Henry Schouten (Jos Klaus, 1857-1927, Dutch), "Still Life of Flowers in a Pale Blue Vase," c. 1900, oil on canvas, H.- 15 in., W.- 10 3/4 in.

Est. $600-$800

Lot 246: French Empire Style Carved Mahogany Seven Piece Parlor Suite, c.

1840, consisting of a settee, a pair of fauteuils and four side chairs, SetteeH.- 37 1/2 in., W.- 59 in., D.- 24 in.

Est. $1,000-$2,000

Lot 217: Theodule Augustin Ribot (1823-1891, French), "Harlequin in a Landscape, Holding a Bunch of Flowers", 19th c., oil on canvas, H.- 17 1/2 in., W.- 14 in.

Est. $3,500-$5,000

Estate Jewelry Includes Platinum and Gold.

Lot 275: Clementine Hunter (18861988, Louisiana), "Wash Day," c. 1966, oil on board, signed right center, H.- 17 1/8 in., W.- 23 in.

Est. $3,500-$5,500

Lot 551: Unusual Continental Oval Beveled Glass and Terracotta Top Dining Table, 20th c., H.- 28 in., W.- 82 1/2 in., D.- 49 1/2 in.

Est. $1,000-$2,000

Crescent City Auction Gallery, LLC

Lot 219: Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumin (1841-1927, French), "Coastal Landscape," early 20th c., oil on canvas, H.- 15 in., W.- 22 7/8 in.

Est. $20,000-$25,000

Lot 181: Arnex Reuge Pocket Watch with Music and Automaton, 20th c., in working condition, H.- 3 in., W.- 2 1/4 in., D.- 3/4 in.

Est. $800-$1,200

1330 St.Charles Ave, New Orleans, La 70130 504-529-5057 • fax 504-529-6057 info@crescentcityauctiongallery.com 25% Buyers Premium For a complete catalog, visit our website at: www.crescentcityauctiongallery.com LA Auc Lic AB-411, 1354, 1529

Lot 226: French Provincial Carved Oak Louis XVI Style Double Door Armoire, early 19th c., H.- 94 in., W.- 76 in., D.- 30 in.

Est. $600-$1,200 Lot 594: French Provincial Louis XIV Style Carved Walnut Sideboard, 18th c., H.- 41 1/2 in., W.- 63 1/2 in., D.- 26 1/2 in.

Est. $800-$1,200

Lot 143: Niek van der Plas (1954- , Dutch), "A Day at the Beach," 20th c., oil on panel, H.- 9 1/4 in., W.- 11 1/4 in.

Est. $1,000-$2,000

Lot 137: Thomas H. Willis (18501925, English), "Ship's Diorama of the Robin Hood," 19th c., H.- 19 1/2 in., W.- 33 1/2 in.

Est. $1,000-$1,500 Lot 168: French Macassar and Satinwood Dining Table, 20th c., H.- 29 1/8 in., W.- 144 in., D.- 60 in. and Lot 169: Matching Sideboard, 20th c., H.- 36 3/8 in., W.- 108 1/4 in., D.- 24 in.

Est. $700-$1,200 each