NOLA Flora & Fauna 026 - The Elusive Uptown Cypress

Please click on the images for larger, more-detailed versions.As I took this picture, I said to my wife, "Huh. You never actually see Cypress trees in the city. You only see them in the parks and swamps."


A day later I noticed that THERE ARE TEN OF THEM DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE!

I'm pretty sure these don't have the cypress knees, as they are not close enough to water.

NOLA Art & Whimsy 015 - Meditation Walk

Please click on the image for a larger, more-detailed version.Audubon park is a public park that spans the land from Tulane / Loyola Universities to the Mississippi River. It has been the site of a World's Fair, the Cotton Centennial and served as a staging area for soldiers a few times. The area riverside of Magazine is now the Audubon Zoo.

The majority Audubon's acreage lakeside of Magazine St. and Riverside of St. Charles Ave. is unfortunately a golf course. Around the golf course is a 1.7 mile jogging / biking path. A sliver of peripheral land is open for public use. You see here a gateway to the "meditation walk". This is the former entrance to the Heymann Memorial Conservatory which stood since Cotton Exposition in 1884 and was demolished by the Audubon Nature Institute in 2001.

Now I don't know about you, but to me, "meditation" means quiet, contemplative thought as well as relaxation and peace. I'm never as anxious, flinching and tense in my life as I am walking around a golf course. I ain't meditating on crap. I'm making sure I don't get beaned with a golf ball. Maybe if you get hit in the right spot it'll open a chakra or something. All you can do is hope for the best.

NOLA Architecture 026 - Rue De La Course

Please click on the images for larger, more-detailed versions.This building once housed one of the best coffee houses in the city, Rue de la Course. I spent lots and lots of time here. It's on Magazine between 8th and 9th Street. The story that was told to me is that the owners of this building either would not renew the lease to Rue de la Course or made rent prohibitively expensive, forcing them out. Then the building's owner leased it to a friend who put in another coffee shop. Rue de la Course is was a beautiful, beautiful space. The new shop (as you see in the next two pics) was the tackiest, most visually offensive food/beverage business in the city. I never went inside the place once this opened. They always had huge, ugly, plastic banners and signs hanging outside, just puking all over this lovely building.

The good news is: Rue's owners, Debra Dunn and Jerry Roppolo purchased a space directly across the street. Retail rent on Magazine street went from 12-$16 / sq. ft. from 1997 to 2005. After Katrina, it jumped to $21. So they are hopefully in a much better position now that they own. And it looks like they thrive to this day.

The better news is: the new coffeehouse that went into the building above failed pretty quickly. This building (with massive square footage that can get premium rates) has been empty for many months if not a year. And I'm glad for it.

disgusting:

This one was taken through a window, so there is a reflection in which you can see the new Rue de la Course. See if you can make out the coffee bean sticker on the back wall:

Though I'm not afraid to play tourist and take loads and loads of pictures of the city (and did the same when I lived there), I don't think I'll ever have the cajones to take pictures inside of a place while people are eating or shopping. So I had to steal pictures from the interweb-thingy to show you what a typical Rue De La Course looks like. Only one of the pictures below is from the Magazine St. Location, but they all look this good.

Rue de la Course Magazine street.
This chalk board and tin work were replaced by yellow walls (more like egg-bread colored) and the coffee bean sticker mural.

Rue De La Course on S. Carrollton was a bank (then a Kinko's).
And now it's breath-taking.

Rue De La Course on S. Carrollton

Rue De La Course on S. Carrollton

View Larger Map
View Larger Map

NOLA Flora & Fauna 025 - Ant

Please click on the images for larger, more-detailed versions.

This is an ant that was spied walking across some moss at Oak Alley. There is nothing terribly remarkable about this image or animal. I just want to say I'm terribly impressed with the "macro lens" feature on my crappy $100 camera. I've owned this camera since last summer and never bothered to use this setting because I remember how "digital zoom" looks.

NOLA Food & Bevvies 003 - La Madeleine

601 S Carrollton Avenue New Orleans LA, 70118
http://www.lamadeleine.com
Dress: casual

Yeah, it's a chain. I don't care.
Yeah, it has plastic cafeteria trays. I don't care.
The unisex bathroom is scary and has two mirrors that meet in a corner so you can see yourself throwing a whiz from 8 angles at once (GOD, I hate that!). I don't care.

This is one of my favorite places in the city. Almost across the street from Cooter Brown's, La Madeleine looks like a rustic French country home. There is a pastry case as you first walk in. You can go in and order pastries to go as you would in a bakery or doughnut shop. Or you may proceed along the "tray rail" to get very unique and tasty breakfast foods for cheap (they have a full menu, I don't know why I only go there for breakfast). They have little quiches and potato gallettes on a warming cooktop to throw onto your tray. Or granola & yogurt (served in a wine glass) or Strawberries with a brandy sauce (served in a wine glass). You can also order a full breakfast (bacon & eggs, etc.) and sit outside. You can hang out with a laptop like a coffee house, if you like. There is a self-serve island in the dining area with free coffee refills, endless bread & butter, and water (served in a wine glass- it never loses its novelty!). Down South we serve coffee cream warm. They just keep a thermal pump carafe at the coffee station.These pictures are humorous to me because I used to back my ancient, decrepit Mercedes 300D (for Diesel) into this parking spot, belching alternately black or white (or two-toned black & white) exhaust onto the patrons. Then I'd go in and get a quiche.

I've got a pretty good chuckle going on right now.

It's pretty close to the street car line.

This is the patio rebuilt after Katrina. We miss the little planter whose greenery hosted little green anoles we could watch as we ate breakfast on Sunday mornings. But all in all, it's a better dining area.

View Larger Map

NOLA 2005 Tri-State Shutter Swap 012 - Little Reminders

Please click on the image for a larger, more-detailed version

By Spring of 2006, much of uptown had been cleaned up pretty well. The bigger emergencies had been tended to first. Eventually there was time to get to the minor casualties and things that were not posing immediate threat of additional harm. This tree is just a little guy who didn't make it. I'm not sure if it was salinity or pollutants or what- but not only submerged trees and shrubs died.

NOLA Food & Bevvies 002 - Cooter Brown's

509 S. Carrollton Ave. New Orleans, LA
http://www.cooterbrowns.com
Dress: casual to slovenly

Right where the St. Charles Street Car turns from St. Charles to S. Carrolton, Cooter Brown's is one of those places that stock 4000 beers (bottle & tap) and serves great greasy bar food. The best feature is the oyster shucker at the end of the bar. Oyster shuckers are damn-near celebrities in New Orleans. They usually have a minor performance schtick (for instance, a unique way to call out when an order is completed) and they have their own tip jars that are often better-stuffed than the bartender's. The inside decor of CB's is your standard pool-table, neon sign, sports television thing. The picnic tables outside are painted in LSU colors and sit unshaded in the sun. What you do is, you get a big, plastic cafeteria-style tray piled with freshly shucked oysters and a fancy bottle of beer (like Orval, or Whitstable Oyster Stout) and make a sloppy afternoon of it. At least until the sun gets high.

There is always art in New Orleans restaurants. CB's has caricature statues (bas reliefs?) of celebrities holding beer made by artist Scott Conary. It also has a bathroom that opens to the dining room with very little cover. If someone else comes in, you can stand at the urinal and look out at the people in the dining room (and they, you). Modesty is not a virtue in New Orleans.




View Larger Map

NOLA Flora & Fauna 024 - Washington Oaks

Please click on the images for larger, more-detailed versions.

Live Oak post 4682.

There are many oak-lined streets in New Orleans. The river side of Washington makes an especially fantastic canopy. The "opening" you see at the focal point where the tree lines end is basically the river (or at least the port on the river). You can't actually see or get to the river in all of uptown (save ferry crossings) because it is blocked by port warehouses and trains.

NOLA Food & Bevvies 001 - Brennan's

417 Royal Street, French Quarter
http://www.brennansneworleans.com
Dress: Dinner Jacket & Tie

Who woulda thunk that in good old French / Spanish NOLA, the mightiest restaurant (dominating for decades) family would be Irish? The Brennan family and this restaurant and this building have very rich histories that I will let you read about on the website, or you can WIKI it. They are the Royal Family of NOLA. And I like them a lot. I've liked all of my interactions with Ti Martin and Dickie Brennan.

Note: "Old" Brennan's Restaurant has three owners (I think all are Brennans) and is not affiliated with the other "Brennan's Restaurants" like Bacco, Commanders Palace and Palace Cafe, which, I believe are all associated or incorporated together, between other various Brennan's family members. I heard there was a "schism" in the family at one point. But I have no details.

OK, I told you all that to tell you this:
In 1997, my wife, Janine and I thought we were "restaurant people", which just wasn't possible in Cleveland at that time. When we went down to look for our first apartment there, we went to Brennan's which is just what you do your first trip to New Orleans. We were clearly intimidated and out of our element. Janine had never encountered a restroom attendant (of course without singles for a tip). I likely hadn't either.

I don't really remember exactly how he did it or what he said, but our waiter read us, disarmed us and and made us relax and enjoy the meal. He was a real professional. We just remember the deflation and ease into having fun. He gave us tips for finding an apartment and was down-to-earth and conversational, while providing no-frills, no BS world-class table side service. Pop culture has perpetuated an incorrect perception of fine-dining wait staff. You'd believe they hold inexperienced diners in such total contempt, they spit on the floor in disgust when they leave your table and go back into the kitchen. When you're a 20-year-old kid, you'd believe it.

We are so grateful for that experience, which gave us the confidence to walk into the next fine-dining joint without being cowed. We could now return to Cleveland as sophisticated diners and look down our noses at the people who go to Red Lobster (Heh!).

Brennan's has (or had) a very intimidating 35,000-bottle wine cellar in old slave quarters in the courtyard. The wine list has over 50 pages. Incidentally, they lost the whole thing after Katrina and the insurance company sold it at auction.

NOLA Architecture 025 - Loyola Broadway

Please click on the images for larger, more-detailed versions.Formerly St. Mary’s Dominican College, these buildings are now part of the Broadway Campus of Loyola University of New Orleans. This campus is at the intersection of Broadway (hence the name) and St. Charles Ave. The main campus is more or less across the street. Together they constitute the largest Jesuit College South of St. Louis. The Jesuits are credited with being some of New Orlean's earliest settlers and the introduction of sugar cane to the area. Having so much of this luxury item, New Orleans is the birthplace of many sweetened cocktails.

Also, they have this creepy Druidic alter-lookin' thing under which I believe they sacrifice virgins at midnight under full moons. (As if there are virgins in New Orleans).

NOLA Burial & Necropolis 008 - Bread Oven

Please click on the image for a larger, more-detailed version.

Hey, when I die, will you do me a favor and bury me in a bread oven?
Then bury my dog beneath me.

KTHNXBAI