New Orleans Stuff: December 2007 Archives
single-layer doberge from Zuppardo's
happy new year, everyone!
On the sixth day of Christmas, we stopped at
K&B's, for a
Six Pack o' Dixie.
FRIED onion rings.
beFOUR you drive me nuts.
three french breads
Tujague's recipe
for the crawfish they caught in Arabi.
Katz & Besthoff Drug Stores were local new Orleans chain that expanded into Southeast Louisiana, up to Baton Rouge, and over into Mississippi and Alabama before being bought out by RiteAid in the 1990s. At its peak, K&B had over 160 stores, but they hit one of those points where they had to either go national or get pulled into someone who already was national, and New Orleans lost one of its local traditions.
K&B was in every neighborhood in town. When I was at UNO, I worked at the MB in Clearview mall and often ate dinner at the K&B soda fountain there, the last one to close in town. Remember the McKenzie's sign from Frenchmen and Foy? That photo was shot in the parking lot of a K&B (well, it's a RiteAid now, but you get the idea). This K&B was at the corner of N. Broad and Esplanade Avenue, just a short ride on the Broad bus from the A&G cafeteria at Broad and Canal.
And Dixie! The Dixie Brewing Company, located on Tulane Avenue, was the last of the local breweries. Dixie made a crisp, American-style lager, that was on tap at most bars in the city. Some considered it low-rent when compared to a national brew like Bud or Miller. My dad was a big Dixie drinker, and someone gave him a neat Dixie-logo thermal mug. I used to bring that mug to parties when I was in college. Several of my fraternity brothers would get annoyed with me for using the Dixie mug. They were worried that people would think the keg was Dixie rather than Bud, implying that we were low-rent in some way. :-)
On the fifth day of Christmas, we stopped at
A&G, for
FRIED onion rings.
beFOUR you drive me nuts.
three french breads
Tujague's recipe
for the crawfish they caught in Arabi.
Ah, A&G, what an institution! There was one at both Lakeside and Clearview malls, over on the West Bank Expressway near Barataria Blvd., one out at Gentilly Woods, and the one in this photo, at Canal and N. Broad. If you remember others, let me know. A&G was a classic cafeteria. The food was OK, nothing to write home about.
I don't ever remember getting onion rings at A&G, though. When I think of onion rings, Liuzza's and Mandina's come to mind. And Popeye's, of course.
On the fourth day, I said OK, let's get a Christmas tree...
beFOUR you drive me nuts.
three french breads
Tujague's recipe
for the crawfish they caught in Arabi.
WWL-TV, Channel 4 on broadcast, Channel 3 on the local cable (Cox), isn't the oldest TV station in town; that distinction goes to WDSU-TV, but WWL was the station that "discovered" Benny Grunch. Back when Benny first did the "12 Yats" song, Channel 4 did a video of Benny and the Bunch, and several times the "fourth day" came by, you'd see shots of the WWL logo.
This particular version comes from the 1950s. WWL was owned by Loyola University at the time. Kind of an interesting notion, a part of the Catholic church owning the local CBS affiliate (assuming you consider the Society of Jesus part of the Catholic Church, of course--that's a debatable issue in New Orleans). While the other stations in town had signature programming and such, WWL was Da News. We're talking Walter Cronkite here. I grew up on Da News--my parents didn't want to watch Huntly and Brinkley, even though I always wanted to see the "editorial cartoon" by John Churchill Chase on WDSU (Channel 6).
Cable has changed the way we watch the news in so many ways, but WWL-TV keeps up. They re-broadcast Da News on Cox Channel 15, repeating whatever the latest newscast was, then going live when the next one comes on, so you can always keep up with local news.
The Jesuits sold WWL to an employee-owned corporation in the 1980s, which in turn sold it to Belo, the current owners.
On da third day of Christmas, we stopped at
McKenzie's, for
three french breads
Tujague's recipe
for the crawfish they caught in Arabi.
McKenzie's (prounounced MUH-ken-zees) Pastry Shoppes was a New Orleans institution for several generations. People used to say they were going to "McKenzie's Bakery," but the stores themselves weren't bakeries. They were retail storefronts, literally "pastry shoppes." The main bakery was down on Desire Street. All the goodies were baked down there, then trucked to the 30+ retail stores throughout the metro area. To this day, you'll have people tell you that they miss McKenzie's donuts or turtles, or petit fours, or blackout cake, or...well, you get the idea. Even my 19-year old misses their chocolate whip-top pie.
The McKenzie's chain closed in 2001. This is, to my knowledge, the only McKenzie's sign left (If you know of another, please let me know). "Chicken in a Box" was a feature of the McKenzies on the corner of Frenchmen and Foy in Gentilly:
The entrance for the pastry shoppe was right on the corner, or you could go around to the side entrance and get fried chicken. After the storm, someone took over the entire location and it's now a take-out chicken-and-sandwiches place.
There was only one "Chicken in a Box." There was one other variation on the typical McKenzie's store, the "McKenzie's Ice Cream Parlor, on Harrison Avenue in Lakeview. That also closed years ago. The location, a bay in a strip mall, was slated to become a Tastee Donuts prior to the storm, but it never materialized.
Tujague's recipe
for the crawfish they caught in Arabi.
Tujague's (pronounced locally, "TOO-jaks") is one of the city's oldest restaurants, opened in 1856. It's funky little place with great food. You don't need a reservation, so it's a great place for a spur-of-the-moment dinner in the Quarter. Tujague's is moderately priced (meaning it's not as expensive as, say, Galatoire's), but it's not a bargain place, either. The most popular menu choice is the daily Table d'Hote menu, which is a fixed-price dinner including an appetizer, soup du jour, boiled beef brisket as a transition to the entree, the entree (usually a choice of 3 or 4), coffee and dessert.
The restaurant has three main areas. When you enter the door on the corner, you walk into the bar. There's a huge mirror that was imported from Europe in the 1850s that is a single 10'+ piece of glass, remarkably expensive for the time. As you wak to the back of the bar, you come to a hallway where the matire d's station is located. You'll be seated either around the corner to the right in the front dining room (which is the second door, to the background of the photo, or the back dining room, further into the building. The atmosphere is very laid-back, but still that all-business attitude of an old-school Creole restaurant. It's all about putting a good meal in front of the diner.
The photo of the restaurant was shot in January of 2006, just after Tujague's re-opened. That's why the big banner on the second floor. New Orleans' restaurants have been in the lead of the city's recovery. Restaurants employ a wide range of folks, from management to dishwashers. The post-storm period has been problematic for restaurants, however, since gutting houses and hanging drywall pays a lot better than washing dishes. Given how many people have been displaced by the storm, skilled cooks and chefs are also in demand. These increased labor costs have seriously cut into the profit margins of restaurants, as there's only so much of the cost increases that can be passed on to diners.
Business owners in the restaurant/tourism/hospitality industries know all too well the importance of making sure affordable housing stays a high priority for the city leaders as we continue to rebuild.
On the first day of Christmas, my maw-maw gave to me:
a crawfish they caught in Arabi.
The Arabi photo is an Alexander Allison photo of homes along River Road in that neighborhood from the 1920s. Arabi is the first neighborhood you come to as you drive through the Ninth Ward of New Orleans and reach the parish line between Orleans and St. Bernard. In the storm, Arabi got 6' of water and up, catching the water from both the Industrial Canal breach and the storm surge from the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. To add insult to injury, the neighborhood was flooded a second time durng Rita.
And if you don't get what I'm up to here, see www.benygrunch.com.
Happy Boxing Day, everyone...and go Gunners (Arsenal-Portsmouth later today)
"Mr. Bingle" was created in 1947 by Mr. Emile Alline. Alline was an employee of Maison Blanche department stores at the time. There was a trend post WWII for department stores to create fictional Christmas characters that would be their own brand, not just the ubiquitous Santa Claus. After seeing this at Marshall Field's in Chicago, Alline came home and created a chubby little snowman with holly wings and an ice cream cone hat. He christened the little guy "Mr. Bingle," for "MB" as the store was known around town.
Mr. Bingle was a fixture of Maison Blanche until the chain was acquired by Dillard's in the 1990s. Dillard's kept Mr. Bingle even after the MB stores were long gone. In the 1950s and 1960s, Mr. Bingle dolls were the feature of the Christmastime window displays at the chain's main store on Canal Street, between Dauphine and Burgundy Streets. He was also featured in "Santa's Village" upstairs in the toy department.
In the 1980s, MB commissioned a huge Mr. Bingle that they put up on the front of the Canal Street store. After Dillard's bought the chain, they closed the Canal Street location, and Mr. Bingle was moved to the side of their store in Lakeside Mall in Metairie. (The MB building is now the Ritz Carlton Hotel). Mr. Bingle on the side of a suburban department store just didn't work, so the big Bingle went into storage. Dillard's then gave the big figure to the Friends of City Park, who now display him as part of the park's annual "Celebration in the Oaks" light display each holiday season.
TRIVIA (answer in comments if you know): In addition to the main store on Canal Street, Maison Blanche operated a "Budget Store" right behind the main building, on Iberville and Dauphine Streets. Why was this store very important at Christmastime? (NO peeking at others' answers if you're going to take a shot at it... :-))
I hope everyone had a good Solstice and you're having a Blessed Yule season. To everyone celebrating Christmas, best of luck with your last-minute shopping tomorrow. To my Catlick friends, my best wishes that you stay awake at Midnight Mass tomorrow night. :-)
1. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
If you want to embrace your inner Yat, Ignatius is the character who will help you on your way. Toole's novel is New Orleans from the 1960s, before cable TV homonegized live.
2. Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow by Dedra Johnson
The time frame jumps to the 70s in Dedra's first novel. Sandrine is a light-skinned black girl growing up in New Orleans. This book should be on Oprah. No kidding.
3. Gumbo Ya-Ya by Lyle Saxon
This is a great anthology of Louisiana folk tales. Great way to get a feel for the stories we all grew up with down here.
4. New Orleans Stories edited by John Miller
A great anthology with stories from Whitman, Faulkner, Rice, Capote, Percy, Williams, Hurston, and an introduction by Andrei Codrescu.
5. Sunset Limited by James Lee Burke
All of Burke's "Dave Robicheaux" novels rate being here. This one is just representative of them all
6. Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice.
This is a must-read in terms of New Orleans fiction. Whether you continue from there with the rest of Rice's vampire novels is up to you.
7. The Witching Hour, and Lasher by Anne Rice
Rice's "other" New Orleans series, the Mayfair Witches. The Witching Hour is set in the Garden District, and Lasher continues where TWH leaves off. There's one chapter in Lasher where Rice describes one of the family matriarchs, who is in her 70s, walking from her house at St. Charles Ave. and Amelia St., down St. Charles to the other Mayfair house on First Street. It's one of the most vivid descriptions of uptown New Orleans in print. Even you don't like the story, go check Lasher out at the library and read this scene.
8. The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice
Rice's take on the gens de couleur libres in antebellum New Orleans.
9. The Voodoo Queen by Robert Tallant
A well-written (albeit very romanticized) version of the life of "voodoo queen" Marie Laveau.
10. Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite (amazon link because Powells doesn't have a cover photo)
Serial killers, cannibalism, and other horror fun, set in Da Quarters. Neat stuff!
11. Liquor: A Novel by Poppy Z Brite
A neat tale set in a New Orleans restaurant. A lot of docbrite's fans slammed Liquor when it came out, but I enjoyed it.
12. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
If you haven't already had to read it for a class, this is a great story of a woman's struggle with marriage in the 1800s.
13. New Orleans Sketches by William Faulkner, edited by Carvel Collins
A collection of short prose by Faulkner, originally published in Da Paper in 1925.14. Cane River and Red River by Lalita Tademy
Strictly speaking, these aren't New Orleans stories, but Cane River in particular ties directly to the city, since any tale of a plantation upstate (Natchitoches, LA, is on the Cane River) ties back to the city. Red River continues the story post-Civil War, in Colfax, LA. Great reads about African Americans in Louisiana in the 1800s.
OK, I know I'm forgetting more than I'm remembering here, so I'll stop at this point and let y'all add more in comments.
UPDATES:15. Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
16. The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
17. Lives of the Saints by Nancy Lemann
and some suggestions from the LiveJournal neworleans community:
18. Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje (about Buddy Bolden and E. J. Bellocq
19. The Axeman's Jazz: A Skip Langdon Novel by Julie Smith. Smith has a number of mysteries with her Skip Langdon character.
20. Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps. This is the book that the Travolta film, "Love Song for Bobby Long" was based on.
21. Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn. More Louisiana than New Orleans, but it captures antebellum Louisiana nicely.
also these suggestions:
Anything by Patty Friedmann, but particularly Eleanor Rushing, Side Effects, and A Little Bit Ruined (her post-K novel).
Anything by Sheila Bosworth, but particularly Almost Innocent.
Anything by Christine Wiltz.
For mystery fans: J.M. Redmann's Micky Knight series.
A while back, someone (apologies that I can't remember who, but feel free to remind me) suggested that I do a list of New Orleans-related books. I liked the idea, so here we go:
New Orleans Basics (non-fiction)
1. Frenchman, Desire, Good Children, and Other Streets of New Orleans by John Churchill Chase
Buy. This. Book. First.
There's no better introduction to the history of New Orleans than Chase's classic. John Chase was the editorial cartoonist for the Times Picayune, the States Item before that, and the Item before that. He also plied his trade on WDSU-TV for years as well. Additionally, he was extremely knowledgable about the city and wrote a number of books and essays. Had I taught Louisiana History rather than American History, I would have assigned this book as the first thing the students would read.
2. Lonely Planet - New Orleans
I don't own this one personally, but the LP guides for Singapore, Tokyo, London, and Amsterdam got me around those cities, so I'm sure the one for New Orleans would help a non-New Orleanian as much.
3. The Joy of Y'at Catholicism by Earl Higgins
How locals see the Catholic Church. This book is a fantastic overview of how New Orleanians think.
4. Mardi Gras New Orleans by Henri Schindler
Mr. Schindler is a float designer and Carnival historian. He's done the floats for several of the "old line" krewes for years, and is a treasure trove of Carnival and New Orleans knowledge.
5. 1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina by Chris Rose
This is the only book about the storm I've listed, because too much of a bad thing is too much of a bad thing. Rose captures the feel of the entire surreal experience.
6. Huey Long by T. Harry Williams
Dr. Williams was the consummate expert on Governor Huey Pierce Long. To understand New Orleans' relationship with the rest of the state, you have to understand Huey Long.
7. Managing Ignatius: The Lunacy of Lucky Dogs and Life in New Orleans by Jerry Strahan
This is the real-life "Confederacy of Dunces," the stories of the Lucky Dog hot dog vendors of the Quarter. One of the best tales of what life in the Quarter is all about.
8. New Orleans - a Pictorial History by Leonard V. Huber
Mr. Huber's book is a great overview of the city's history post-Civil War.9. New Orleans Architecture Volume VI: Faubourg Treme and the Bayou Road : North Rampart Street to North Broad Street Canal Street to St. Benard Avenue (New Orleans Architecture)
and
10. New Orleans Architecture Volume III: The Cemeteries
The two best of a multi-volume series. Treme is a fascinating neighborhood to study, and the cemeteries have distinct architectural styles all their own.
11. The Streetcars of New Orleans by Louis C. Hennick and Harper Charton
A comprehensive history of street railways in New Orleans from their inception in the 1830s to 1965.
12. Who's Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make a Roux? by Marcelle Bienvenu
The only cookbook on this list, because it's where you should start. The three questions that make up the title are the questions that a mother of a young man would ask his girlfriend when he brought her home. This cookbook covers all the basics of New Orleans cooking.
now three "Images of America" books:13. New Orleans: The Canal Streetcar Line by Edward J. Branley
Did you really think I wouldn't pimp my own book? :-) Our streetcars and the main street of the city, Canal Street, are inseparable, and here are photos to show that synergy.
14. New Orleans Cemeteries by Eric J. Brock
Probably the easiest cemetery overview out there, at least until I sit down and write a better one.
15. Lake Pontchartrain by Catherine Campanella
The lakefront is an integral part of life in the city, and these photos really bring it to life.
This list is just my two cents. Feel free to chime in with your favorites that I didn't list. There are a lot of books on New Orleans, and I'm very picky about stuff I read about my home town. I'm always looking for another good one, unless it's about the storm, then I'll pass, thanks. :-)
I'll do fiction on Thursday or Friday, so let's keep comments limited to non-fiction today, por favor.
UPDATE I16. New Orleans: The Making of an Urban Landscape by Peirce Lewis.
Great work on historical geography. I can't believe I forgot this, it's on my shelf, assigned by Prof. Logsdon at UNO all those years ago.
Earl Higgins' The Joy of Y'at Catholicism is a fantastic look at New Orleans through the eyes of the dominant religion of the city. Earl is a 1955 graduate of Jesuit High School who remembers the 7-cent streetcar fare and "riding the belt," so he's OK in my book.
Sandrine's Letter to Tomorrow is the first (of hopefully many) novels by Dedra Johnson:
That's LisaPal on the phone, pimping Dedra's book. Thanks to Lisa, I don't think the bookstore has all that many copies of the novel left.
Thanks to Paul for inviting us!
The fire station at Elysian Fields Avenue and Pelopidas Streets in Gentilly. As you can see from the sign in the photo, this station was a WPA construction project built during the Great Depression. NOFD gave the building back to the city in the early 1980s, and it was converted into a storage facility for the New Orleans Recreation Department. It was being used by NORD until the Federal Flood. This is how it looks today:
This part of Gentilly was once a vibrant commercial district, with Zuppardo's Economical Supermarket on the corner of Elysian Fields and Gentilly, gas stations, fast food places, a K&B Drugstore, strip malls up a block on Gentilly Road, and McKenzie's "Chicken-in-a-Box." Behind the fire station are a number of small office buildings, housing doctors, dentists, the Amalgamated Transit Union, and several other small businesses. Farley's Florist was one block down on Mandeville.
Post-storm, the supermarket is now an empty lot, torn down because flood damage. The McDonald's is now a Chinese buffet (arguably an improvement), but at least Chicken-in-a-Box is back. Down the street, Dillard University still struggles for survival after being heavily damaged by the Federal Flood.
Gentilly is a mess, and it's very slow in returning. The Baptist church Elysian Fields by I-610 has been rebuilt, and Brother Martin High School repaired their damage and re-opened in January of 2006. Residences are extremely slow returning, however. Drive down St. Anthony Blvd. from Gentilly to Robert E. Lee, and you see way too many FEMA trailers. The site of those white disasters is a mixed blessing. Their numbers indicate that the property owners are trying to come back. That there are so many of them two years later means there are way too many obstacles in their way.
DailyKos diarist mlharges has written some very compelling diaries on Gentilly, particularly this one on Jean Gordon Elementary just yesterday. He returned to the school where his girlfriend worked pre-storm and documented its current state and that of the neighborhood. While his counts on houses in the neighborhood behind the school (which was on Robert E. Lee and the London Avenue Canal) aren't scientific, they jive with my observations around Elysian Fields, as well as further down Paris Avenue, in my wife's old neighborhood by Cabrini church. His observations:
Walking up and down the block, I counted twenty different properties in that street. Before the storm each property had a slab on grade home of approximately 1800 square feet. Today the count is as follows: two homes repaired and occupied, a third repaired and for sale or for rent (which ever happens first) and a fourth being repaired and raised. Six empty lots where homes once stood. Two of the remaining ten homes have piles of debris where the owners have cleared out flood damaged belongings but have done nothing else. The remaining homes are untouched.
20% of those houses have been repaired. 30% have been razed, with no likelihood of new ones being built on those slabs.
Two of Gentilly's Catholic church parishes are still closed, St. Raphael on Elysian Fields and St. Frances Xavier Cabrini on Paris Avenue. The entire property around Cabrini was leased to Holy Cross School this year. They've torn down the church and are moving forward to build a new school on the site, moving out of their historic Ninth Ward home. On the positive side, St. James Major parish, on Gentilly Blvd., just off of Franklin Avenue, fared much better, to the point where their school building now is able to house St. Mary's Academy, an all-black girl's high school whose New Orleans East campus was badly damaged.
Fridays are now going to be "Gentilly Fridays," because there needs to be an increased level of awareness of the plight of this neighborhood. It's impossible to say that one neighborhood or one aspect of the city's problems are more important than others at this stage--that's like saying that one Gold Star Mother's suffering is more than another's. What Gentilly is lacking is publicity. Residents of public housing have Bill Quigley and his staff, along with scores of activists and protesters. Da Nint' has Brad Pitt, Harry Connick, Jr., other celebrities, and many folks in the local music community. Gentilly has nothing more than a lot of middle-class families who are wrestling with re-building, dealing with insurance companies and Road Home, all while trying to earn a living.
Without neighborhoods like Gentilly, the city's tax base goes down the tubes. With no property and sales taxes coming in from blue-collar and professional families, the services needed to allow the working poor their "right of return" will never get put back into place. The people rebuilding in Pontchartrain Park, or over on Cameron Blvd., or off St. Bernard Ave. need help, prayers, and support. They need political representation at City Hall, in Baton Rouge, and in Washington that will give them the opportunity to return to a productive and happy life in the city they love.
(Editor's Note: I'm re-posting this post directly to make sure it stays current)
I've noticed that people come to YatPundit occasionally because they Google the term "Hubig's Pies." When I originally wrote the subtitle of the blog as "Politics, Funky Music, and Hubig's Pies," I pretty much assumed that everyone knew what a Hubig's Pie was, or wouldn't really care.
Hubig's Pies are a fried turnover, originally created in Dallas by Simon Hubig. Hubig was a German immigrant who set up his first bakery in Dallas. When he saw the popularity of his hand-held fried pies, Hubig expanded operations into Houston, New Orleans, Birmingham, even into Illinois and Georgia. Simon Hubig's dreams of going national were crushed in the stock market crash of 1929. Hubig was forced to sell his all of his bakeries and warehouses except for the one in New Orleans. Hubig also had to take on a partner, which is how the Bowman family came to be the current owners of the bakery.
Hubig's makes three main items: hand-held fried pies, individual deep-dish pies, and nine-inch "family pies."
This is the classic fried Hubig's pie. It's cut from the same half-moon die they've used on Dauphine street for over 80 years. The pies are fried, smothered in sugar icing, packaged, and sent to over 3500 retail outlets in southern Louisiana. They come in a number of flavors, including apple, lemon, peach, pineapple, chocolate, cherry, coconut, blueberry, banana, blackberry and sweet potato.
In addition to the fried pies, Hubig's sells individual deep-dish baked pies. While not as popular (and only marginally healthier) than the fried pies, the deep-dish pies nonetheless have a strong following.
Mr. Hubig didn't start out thinking he would be the king of hand-held fried pies in the south. His original plan was to sell regular-sized "family" pies. The Dauphine St. factory still makes nine-inch pies in a number of flavors. These are served as dessert in a number of New Orleans restaurants, and are sold at many local groceries, as well as local Wal-Mart stores.
