“Residency Week 5 – Lundi Gras King and Queen”
I learned this year that Lundi Gras (the Monday before Mardi Gras) brunch at Commander’s Palace restaurant is a big deal with the New Orleans locals. Anne was able to get us all a reservation and strongly encouraged us to dress up in fun Mardi Gras outfits. She lent Campbell and Molly some fun duds:
Denny and Anne were also very sparkly – Anne with her band hat and tasseled boots:
And then D with her complete flapper girl outfit:
The food at Commanders is always excellent, with great service and good fun all around. I met my work friend, Fred, who recently retired. His family all had matching crazy suits:
A small band toured the restaurant taking requests. I asked them to play “What a Wonderful World” – and the trumpet player had a great deep, raspy voice:
Here we all are in our corner table after a lovely meal:
And then….as we were about to leave, the lady in charge of the room asked us to wait a minute because she had something for us. Oh boy, what she had was not anything that I expected. She quietened the room and then announced that she had chosen Diana and me as Lundi Gras brunch King and Queen. We were awarded decorated spatulas and then paraded around the restaurant behind the band waving them to all the diners. Who knew that was a thing? Apparently the locals did because Debra asked Diana the next day if they had crowned the King and Queen. Diana had a good story to reply with.
What to do after all that excitement? How about….another parade? Yes – this was going to be the last one for us. Orpheus was quite different with the floats beautifully decorated and lit up – a real feast for the eyes. I always enjoy checking out the bands warming up in the park on the corner – and St Augustine’s is one of the best in the city:
Here are some pictures from the parade watching:
Yes – even the penguins made it out for this parade.
I had been told that Mardi Gras day begins very early, and there was a rumour that Mardi Gras Indians and bands would be gathering at Tipitinas shortly after 6am. Vince and I made our way there to check it out. Galactic was just finishing their overnight show when we arrived. It was funny to watch the concert goers emerge into the daylight. The Professor Longhair statue at the entrance was all beaded up:
Kenny and Kara joined us and we waited for a long time – but no Indians or bands. Calling it a bust, we went back to the condo to get ready for our bike ride down to the French Quarter and the Marigny to checkout all the crazy outfits.
The group assembled and then we were on our bikes and off.
After a couple of stops we arrived in the Quarter and stopped to admire all the outfits.
We ultimately arrived at Anna’s in the Marigny and Diana and Debra enjoyed some champagne together.
That was maybe the most fun day of people watching that I’ve ever had. We were exhausted after the day, but the kids headed off on the bikes to meet up with the rest of the krewe at The Kingpin. Oh to be in your twenties.
Debra manages Jacques-Imo’s restaurant (first meal Diana and I had together in New Orleans was there) and had secured reservations for us on Wednesday night – a last meal for Campbell and Molly. Denny, Anne and Jack joined us for an excellent meal. Debra had arranged a lovely bottle of French champagne for Diana, and loaded the table up with complementary appetizers. She is so sweet and kind. This place was quite the opposite of Commander’s Palace – very casual and loud. The southern food was amazing and the portions so generous that we were eating left overs for two days. Molly was talking about her fried chicken on the flight home.
Honey was happy to have her parents back home on Thursday, and quickly destroyed her treat from the parades. How could you be angry with that face?
Campbell texted me, “We had so much fun and will have stories forever.” Mission accomplished!
We walked over to the Columns Hotel for drinks and snacks on Friday afternoon. New ownership has really upped the cocktail and food game there. It was a beautiful day and we really enjoyed passing an hour or two on the porch.
We passed this nicely decorated house on our walk down Marengo to The Columns.
Saturday started with a pleasant run in Audubon Park and a trip to Octavia Books where D stocked up on reading material for her sun-bathing sessions on the back terrace.
In the evening, we picked up Denny and Anne and drove to Faubourg Brewing in East New Orleans. It used to be called Dixie Brewing, but has changed like so many other businesses as the Dixie statues and monuments have been removed. Sun Pie and Gal Holiday were both performing outside on the expansive lawn. Gal sat down at the table with us and rapidly consumed a bunch of crawfish before her set – she had some great peeling and eating skills.
There were several games available on the lawn and I was very impressed that Denny was able to outplay the Connect 4 champion McD. You could tell he was really concentrating.
We enjoyed some chargrilled oysters and boudin egg-rolls and called it a reasonably early night.
Sunday’s run was in the Riverside part of Audubon – an experiment that we won’t likely repeat – the pavement is just too rough and unpredictable for a leisurely run.
In the afternoon we attended another porch concert. This was hosted by one of Anne’s tennis ladies who was celebrating her birthday. These started as a way for musicians to make money during early COVID and I hope they continue. Just a great way to pass a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon.
The band was The Walrus and they played all Beatles music – and played it very well. A nice selection from all the albums.
There was an interesting moment when one of the guitar players amplifier broke down. No worries – the man of the house quickly nipped inside and emerged with a replacement. “The beauty of playing at a musician’s house”, said the singer. I did chuckle at the guys in their “Laissez Boy” recliners, fresh from the parades.
Kenny and Kara joined us for pizza at Theo’s. It was nice to sit outside, enjoy the yummy pizza and tell stories.
I finally finished “The Great Wide Open” by Douglas Kennedy. Almost 600 pages long and pretty dense, but a really good read.
Here’s the summary from Amazon:
“Alice Burns – a young book editor – is deep into a manuscript about the morass of family life. The observations within resonate, perhaps, because she has just watched her own family implode.
As she reads she wonders: When did the sadness start? And could it be that unhappiness is a choice?
Thus begins a great American epic which follows Alice as she navigates high school, first love and sexism at an elite college, a spell in 1970s Ireland, and a tragedy that sends her stateside as the US embraces a cowboy actor named Reagan.
But it is also the tale of her endlessly complex parents and brothers – how their destinies are written by the lies they tell themselves and others.”
The book started out very well but veered into a bit of unbelievable territory in the middle sections. There’s only so much that can realistically happen to one family, and I felt that Kennedy was trying to cram in too many historical references and events. That being said, I still recommend this read if you have the patience for such a long book.
This Tom Petty song was in my head each time I picked up my book:
Here’s one from the late keyboard player, Chuck Leavell that I’ve had on pretty heavy rotation this week:
Stay safe and be kind to everyone!
Oysters were in heavy demand on Tuesday, and so we went down to Royal Oyster House in the French Quarter. Everyone got their fill of oysters – mine chargrilled, and then we rambled around the Quarter for the afternoon. I love this picture of Diana dancing to the gentleman on the balcony who was playing music, miming the lyrics and blowing bubbles.
I had made an appointment for a haircut and beard trim at the Barber shop down the street for Thursday lunchtime. This place was a hoot from start to finish. The constant banter between the two barbers, the glass of bourbon I was “forced” to consume, and the carnaptious dog asleep in the corner all made for quite a unique experience. McD was out for a walk and stuck her head in to check on me – she was quite entertained by the show.
We walked down to Baru tapas restaurant for Tuesday dinner. I had been there years ago on a boys’ trip and really enjoyed the food. I’m glad we went when we did as Baru has been closed for renovations for the last few weeks. The food was as good as I remembered – arepas and croquettes – right up K alley.
We woke up to this view from our balcony on Thursday – how did that happen? It took several hours to clean up and Diana saw the policeman who had obviously just written an upset lady a ticket, pause and give her a big hug. Nice to see.
The parades started in earnest on Saturday, with Choctaw, Freret and Sparta all rolling down Napoleon – 2 blocks from the condo. The crew assembled and we had lunch at the local Cuban restaurant before getting in position for the parades. Denny and Alex picked up some Mardi Gras shirts next door – very bright and sparkly. Here’s some of the parade action:
Denny and Kenny invited me to join them at Martin’s Wine Cellar for Friday lunch. I walked over from the condo and enjoyed a yummy salad – as D says, “It’s good to mix in something green sometimes.” We passed some time listening to music on Kenny’s porch and then made our way back to the condo to welcome our guests. We dragged them down the street to Juan’s Flying Burrito and they really enjoyed the hearty Mexican food and margaritas after the long drive. Some pool across the street at St. Joe’s Pub and it was time for bed.
We ordered takeout from Saj, the Mediterranean restaurant downstairs. While not at the superb level of Shaya, this is a very good option. After dinner, we made the short drive to Dos Jefes cigar bar to listen to the excellent John Fohl play guitar. He’s been playing here every Monday night for over 20 years, and was a member of the Dr. John band at their most popular. I really enjoyed the show and Dos Jefes is a great, low hassle location.
Thursday was a heavy work day, with a break for a late lunch at Shaya, the amazing James Beard winning Israeli restaurant across the street. The octopus hummus was ridiculously good – turns out they cook it sous vide for 5 hours to make it so tender. We also split a lamb burger that was fantastic. The brick oven bread is also amazing – fresh, light and so tasty.
Denny and I collected the girls at Pascal’s and drove to Snug Harbor jazz club for a show by Sansone, Krown, and Fohl. This is a venue like the Kessler – small cocktail tables and a “listening room” experience. I had been looking to see where we could see Joe Krown, my favourite New Orleans piano wizard, and noticed that he was out of town for the majority of our residency. So we needed to jump on this show to see him. I talked about John Fohl earlier – and was able to tell him how much we had enjoyed his Dos Jefes show on Monday night. These three together in such a wonderfully sounding room were excellent from start to finish. Just an excellent show and experience. They recorded an album around 20 years ago that still sounds great and I’ll include that in the music section below.
Saturday was spent exploring the Magazine St neighborhood – we walked a couple of miles in each direction from the condo, checking out stores and restaurants along the way – so many great places.
I really enjoyed exploring Octavia Books – a very well curated local bookstore – something that really doesn’t exist in many places.
After a few hours of exploration, we feel really pleased with the location we chose for the residency condo. And happy that we got some good walking done.
nerdy topics – a lot of Star Wars and the like. Kara was walking in the Wonder Woman group. The parade was a couple of hours late in starting, we believe because the lead off float couldn’t make the turn on the new route (changed at the last minute because of lack of police manpower.) We used the time to enjoy delicious empanadas and pupusas at R bar (one of Denny’s favourites.) The parade was very entertaining when it did start – and a good taster for all those to come over the next few weeks. Here are some of the sights (Kenny was a red shirt – responsible for keeping the crowds back so that the groups can walk past):
We split up the drive to New Orleans with a stop in Shreveport on Friday night. We didn’t have very high expectations, but were delighted to find the Fat Calf brasserie. What a wonderful meal – one that I would drive the 3 hours from Dallas to repeat – just amazing. We selected four appetizers for our meal – all were excellent. Moules frites, escargots, a duck and foie gras parfait, and quail with dirty rice. I don’t know which was my favourite, all so well done and delicious. We’re already plotting a visit on our return drive.
Our appetites were suitably worked up now for brunch at Atchafalaya – one of the more popular weekend brunch restaurants. I absolutely loved my duck confit hash. The blackberries and mangos listed on the menu made me a bit nervous, but they complemented the duck very well. Diana loved her Bayou Benedict.
This is embarrassing. I read 50 pages of William Kent Kreuger’s “Ordinary Grace” before convincing myself that I must have read it before. It didn’t seem overly familiar but there were occasional passages that sounded just like something I’d heard before. I finally did a search of the blog and found that I read it back in 2018. Silly K!
Monday was Martin Luther King Day. Here’s an essay he wrote in 1964, after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, for the Berlin Jazz Festival. What wonderful writing, capturing the role music has played in social change in a compact essay:
Tuesday breakfast was at Cafe Saul – a great spot that I found on my last visit. It’s so nice to be able to get a perfect macchiato with no fuss.
Will supervised the loading of Finn’s car on to a transporter that should deliver it here on Tuesday. Will has put a lot of time and money into getting the car absolutely perfect for Finn to enjoy. I only have a limited number of days to wake up at 4:30am to deliver Finn to work, and I know the retiree is quite happy about that.
“The Blue Hour” by Douglas Kennedy was my companion on the trip this week. What a well written and constructed book. I was hooked on the first page and wasn’t disappointed after that. Page one:
I thoroughly enjoyed reading “This Tender Land” by William Kent Krueger this week. The story reminds me a lot of my recent read, “The Lincoln Highway” by Amor Towles. Here are some of the quotes that led me to read this book – particularly the “Where the Crawdads Sing” reference:
We enjoyed a lovely retirement dinner at C.T. Provisions on Friday, with Brent as our waiter. Finn and Alicia were able to join us. The food, company, and service were all excellent. Diana toasted her retirement with an Old Cuban (first experienced at the Moonshiner speakeasy in Paris.) C.T.’s was very busy, and Finn got a kick out of watching Brent buzzing around. Here’s D reading Finn’s retirement card, I think she liked his message about “sip and dip” and “fun in the sun”:
I thoroughly enjoyed “South and West: A Notebook” by Joan Didion this week. After her passing a couple of weeks ago, this was the only one of her books available at the library, and fortuitously, one of the few that I haven’t read at least once. She is one of those authors whose books you have to read a few times to really fully appreciate.
Earlier in the day, Diana participated in a virtual Secret Santa with Alicia and John and Joey’s families. Bonna was D’s Santa and she put together a lovely champagne themed basket. Diana was really delighted with the detail and with everything in the basket, and she had the perfect hoodie to complement it.
We flew to New Orleans on Friday morning for the fourth annual celebration of Jack and Mason’s birthday on January 2nd. We spent the afternoon enjoying the new Ogan patio, and exchanged some gifts. Anne loved her “champagne clutch” and Diana her tennis skirt (in preparation for taking up tennis during our NOLA residency.)
Costera was an excellent choice for dinner (thanks Denny) with multiple courses of Spanish tapas. The menu was fixed and included a plethora of delicious courses – beef shank Bombas, scallops, and an amazing seafood paella were the standouts. We were joined at dinner by the Kirshes, Krieks, and Eisles – what a fun group.
There was a bit of a wild party in progress when we returned to Webster street after dinner (and a few minutes after midnight.) Things quietened down quickly and we were able to get a decent sleep. Apparently a good enough sleep for McD to pop right up on New Year’s Day and head out for a run in Audubon park with Laura and Kara. She particularly enjoyed the band playing at the park entrance. Great job of starting out on the right foot Diana!
Merry Lee, Jeff, Donna, and Steve (our friends from California) were able to secure an invite to oyster fest. Merry Lee and Jeff have a condo in New Orleans now. They seemed to enjoy meeting everyone and sampling the various types of oysters.
“Bombshell” is part of the series featuring ex-CIA agent and Hollywood producer, Terry Fay, and is co-written with Parnell Hall. This is certainly easy reading, with each chapter 3 or 4 pages long. You can tell that Woods has a formula that he deploys to crank out these books. I don’t have any quotes as the writing is quite basic and used to drive the action forward, rather than set the scene or develop the characters. I’m not sure I would select another Woods book, except maybe for some mindless poolside or beach reading.