New Orleans Magazine | Dining, Entertainment, Homes, Lifestyle and all things NOLA (2024)

Writer Jason Berry: pursued by music

I have written this column across a decade now, and it perdures as a rewarding if slightly schizophrenic experience. The larger measure of my toil divides between focus on Louisiana music and folk culture, which I adore, and a national story, investigating sexual conflicts in the Catholic priesthood. In recent months I have been on a lecture tour for a book called Vows of Silence.
The music follows me like a shadow in the afternoon sun. The music restores my faith in the human experiment.
In Boston, on a snow-blanketed St. Patrick’s Day, I sat in a hotel lounge, stabbing a cell phone in a miasma of self-promotion, when the sound system abruptly dispensed the rolling warmth of Johnny Adams: “I’m gonna love you … like nobody loves you, come rain or come shine.” As if by karma, the lusty vocals of that buried bluesman, a k a the “tan canary,” all but snuggled into the empty seat next to me. The devils of publicity, that raw cold outside – and all of a sudden here was Johnny, at one with the flame of that fireplace, a spirit at 4 p.m., warming a cold foreign place.
Jump cut: I am standing at the newsstand of the Philadelphia train station on a Saturday, torn between Rolling Stone and The Atlantic. A hip dude with pants half down his butt materializes next to me, holding a ghetto-blaster out of which surges lines from the Meters’ last album and Cyril Neville singing: “Be my lady, be my lady … drive me crazy.”
I look at this guy, about 20 years old, and say, “How’d you get hip to the Meters?”
“My old lady said they were phat!” he declaims. “And she’s right, Jack. They are seriously phat!”
I bought Rolling Stone with Ben Affleck on the cover, Jack.
Thirty-six hours later I am at a book signing in Borders in Norwalk, Conn. The crowd has dispersed. I, a guilty standup reader of hardbacks I won’t buy, gravitate toward the music section and witness this:
Six-foot, 5-inch guy in a lumberjack jacket, hovering over the clerk: “She was singing about cooking a pot of beans. I heard it on Bourbon Street. She was singing it live, in person. I was there myself. I heard it. I saw her.”
The clerk, poised at a computer screen: “Name of artist?”
“Some white chick. Name? How many red bean songs are there?”
Like a teacher’s pet, I said: “You must mean Marcia Ball.”
The big guy looks down at me. “She had long legs and she played keyboard. You tellin’ me her name is Marcia Ball?”
“That’s right. And I’m telling you the song is ‘Red Beans,’ ” I asserted. “The CD is called Blue House.”
“It’s on Rounder,” says the clerk. “Actually we have it.”
Marcia, you owe me one.
Ten days later, 11 in the morning at Houston Hobby Airport, ordering a plate of barbecued brisket, I hear the rocking lyrics of Ernie K-Doe: “There’s a certain girl I’ve been after a long-long time … ”
A white woman, 50-something, wearing – I swear to God – a blue bonnet, is listening to the song on a handheld cassette player while her husband, who couldn’t be younger than 70, is digging through an enormous tote bag filled with magazines and CDs. She is tapping her foot impatiently. The guy is looking for something. What? Out in the afterlife, K-Doe is chortling.
On a jukebox in the Minneapolis airport I heard the smoky rasp of Dr. John singing “City Lights” from the album of the same name, and at a hotel in Denver, I heard a sound system featuring Danny Barker warbling on Wynton Marsalis’ CD Majesty of the Blues. Danny in the vicinity of Mile High Stadium seemed cosmically appropriate.
At just about every turn these spirits living and deceased were there to shadow me in the nervous peregrinations every author dreads, going out there on the meat parade to promote, never knowing who will show up at the bookstores or lecture halls.
Louis Prima and Keely Smith showed up, singing “Black Magic” at the restaurant where I had lunch in Dallas. Louis Armstrong’s voice filled the lounge with “What A Wonderful World” as I waited, exhausted, to check into a hotel in New York. Thirty-six hours later, in LaGuardia Airport, after taking off my shoes and belt and stuffing the cell phone and everything else on the conveyor belt to prove I wasn’t a terrorist, I began restoring footwear to the sounds of Fats Domino, coming out of a system on the other side of Starbucks: “I’m walkin’, yes indeed I’m walkin’, till you come back to me.” Antoine, I believe you.

The Art of Doing Nothing

In the Caribbean
There’s a wooden chair at the Frangipani Hotel in Bequia where there’s a lot of nothing to do. It is situated directly under a coconut tree whose palm fronds rattle like shaka-shakas in the trade winds.
The chair is positioned so your back is to the Frangipani’s open-air bar, where a blender roars like a power tool. At the tip of your toes is Admiralty Bay, the prettiest harbor in the southern Caribbean. Across the bay is a mountainous landscape, into which the village of Hamilton is folded. Scars of brown zigzag the mountain: well-worn walking paths. At night, porch lights twinkle. Between the chair and Hamilton, dozens of yachts bob in the bay.
If you’ve been to Bequia – either by flying to the Grenadine island on a twin-engine plane from Barbados or by ferry from the mainland of St. Vincent, you’ll know exactly which chair I’m talking about. It’s the one that is hardly ever empty, the one near the cannon, a relic from the days of the English.
On Thursday nights, in particular, the chair is prime real estate. That’s when yachties sail from other Grenadine islands and as far away as St. Lucia to hear steel drums peal into the tropical night and to eat breadfruit salad, spiny lobster and coconut pie.
If this Caribbean community wanted to raise money for social services, they could probably sell tickets to sit in this chair on Thursdays.
It is the chair where I learned the art of doing nothing, a skill I started practicing from this spot back in 1991. I can tell you from experience of the challenges you will face.
First, a fair amount of pedestrian traffic walks the seaside footpath, of which this chair has a front-row seat, so to speak. The well-worn path begins near Mrs. Taylor’s restaurant, the Porthole, in Port Elizabeth, and winds along the sea (passing the chair) a half mile or so, seemingly ending in front of the now-defunct Plantation House Hotel. Really, the path turns to dirt and continues sharply uphill and then quad-buildingly downhill, dead-ending on the powdery sands of Princess Margaret beach.
If you’ve been in Bequia longer than four hours, chances are you’ll see someone you know on the footpath. That’ll lead to a conversation and impromptu plans. Rather than practicing mindfulness, you’ll find yourself catching a dollar bus to the South Side, where “the greatest whalerman who ever lived” lived, when he lived. He died in 2000. On this side of Bequia, which faces the island of Mustique, fishermen hand-saw small wooden boats near shore, and Friendship Bay Hotel has swings in place of bar stools. This is just one example of how a day when you planned on doing nothing gets filled with something.
Second distraction. Within shouting distance of the chair is a jetty where Bequia’s water-taxi drivers tie up, their VHF radios abuzz. For $10 EC (or $3), you can board African Pride, Black Run or interestingly, Phat Shag. In five minutes, you’ll be at Lower Bay, where there’s a beach, music, sometimes bonfires, but always food and drink. Da Reef offers thirst quenchers such as Hairoun beer and Caribbean dishes such as tuna and chicken salad sandwiches. That may not sound local, but tuna salad made from fresh tuna on home-baked bread is a different sandwich entirely.
The third distraction is the island clock, a k a the ferry whistle. At 7:30 a.m., the throaty deep-sea-style horn will blow through Admiralty Bay, signifying its departure for the mainland. This may remind you, briefly, of St. Vincent and its natural resources: La Soufriere, Owia Salt Ponds, Trinity Falls and Wallilabou Bay (where “Pirates of the Caribbean” was filmed). The horn will blow at several intervals during the day – at 9:30, 1, 2, 4:30 and 5; you can set your watch by it – reminding you that perhaps you should sightsee. And, just before noon twice a week, the mailboat will sound off, sailing south to Canouan, Mayreau and Union Island. Unlike rugged and lush St. Vincent, with its black-sand beaches and jungle, the southern Grenadines are laid-back and blue. You may be tempted to do what others come to the Caribbean to do: snorkel at Horseshoe Reef in the Tobago Cays; or island-hop, bargaining for fresh fish, lobster and jewelry from boat vendors.
Take it from me, the tree frogs may chirp, the palm fronds may rustle, a plane may rumble overhead, but as my meditation instructor in Grenada once said, “Put it all in the background … Nature tightly guards the secret of quiet, but you have to find quiet in order to find the answers.” I’d say the chair in Bequia is a good start.

Pistol Pete and Friends

Chef’s Choice: Our Annual Best in Dining

When your name is “New Orleans,” albeit the city or the magazine, dining is going to be a major topic. We take seriously our annual challenge of trying to determine the best of the local dining scene. As always, the emphasis is on the new, but we have also looked at others who have made their mark.
Here are some questions and answers about the selection process.
How were the selections made?
Beginning with the advice of our food editor, Lorin Gaudin, we surveyed select local professional food writers, those who know best. The final decision, made by the editorial staff of New Orleans Magazine, was based on their recommendations.
What is the “Honor Roll” category?
Because the focus of the Best Chef, Best New Chef and Best New Restaurant categories are in the context of the past year, we also want to acknowledge restaurants and people who have been a vital part of the restaurant scene through the years.
What if we have our own suggestions?
Please send us a letter to the editor and tell us about it.
CHEF of the YEAR: Tenney Flynn
Possessing a quiet intensity, Chef of the Year Tenney Flynn is simply “fin-tastick.” Tall and lanky, Flynn has hands that are mostly scar- and burn-free, nails neatly trimmed and clean. They are the hands of an artist – the essence of a chef. He speaks wistfully of his youth in Georgia – time spent in Southern kitchens run by cooks who worked without recipes and operated their kitchens with a dynamic that he has never forgotten and never will. While that Southern-cooking tradition didn’t translate well during his training at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., Flynn added new skills to his repertoire and became an organization freak. Conceding he is a “nuts and bolts” cook at heart, he says, “I’m no innovator with a notebook at my bedside for jotting notes in the middle of the night.”
Several big-time restaurant stints later, including work as culinary operations manager of Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Flynn co-conceived the idea for the two restaurants he co-owns, GW Fins and Zydecue. Both places tackle Louisiana’s greatest culinary traditions – seafood and smoked meats. It’s a daunting challenge.
As a chef, Flynn is head-down, hands-on in his restaurant kitchens, moving swiftly, missing no details and expecting near perfection from his staff. Chef is tough on all accounts, but that is his recipe for success, although success has been hard won.
Three and a half years ago, Flynn and his business partner, Gary Wollerman, embarked on their plan to fill a niche they saw in the New Orleans dining market – the absence of a restaurant that was fish-centric. The concept, called GW Fins, was slated to be a surefire winner that would garner immediate local and national recognition and big cash flow, right? Not exactly: Some diners hated the name or were confused by it or didn’t readily embrace the place.
As for national recognition, there was a nibble here and there, but mostly GW Fins swam quietly, if not stealthily. That is until recently, when diners went mad for seafood and beef went in for some anger-management. Only then did diners finally notice GW Fins. The menu has never had stuffed flounder or trout amandine; instead it includes dishes such as horseradish-crusted drum, Louisiana stone crab claws and deep-fried lobster tails. Flynn’s meticulous selection of crustaceans and fins from the Gulf of Mexico was joined by seafaring beauties from other waters, prepared in bold, new ways. Amazingly, this self-proclaimed non-innovator was hedging on dishes such as Chilean sea bass in a Thai broth; New Bedford sea scallops with mushroom risotto; and cashew and peppercorn-crusted swordfish with mashed potatoes and veal jus. Would it be catchy enough for locals and national food writers to get hooked?
Slowly, the answer became an emphatic “yes!” and now local devotees make weekly pilgrimages to Iberville Street for fixes of fish prepared Flynn’s way. For his part, Flynn has learned menu flexibility, having added chicken, pork and beef dishes for non-seafood lovers. All this fine fishy business and seafood knowledge resulted in weekly TV cooking segments on WDSU-TV/Ch. 6’s fishing show “The Big Fish,” and there have been national nods from Esquire, The New York Times, Travel and Leisure, and Southern Living. These days it is not unusual to see a room full of locals, tourists and food media circling Fins’ swanky dining room and bar, admiring the vast menu, the latest fresh catches and the encyclopedic wine list.
And as if Flynn isn’t busy enough, he added restaurant turf with Zydecue – a barbecue joint in the spirit of the Louisiana smoked-meat tradition. Open next door to GW Fins for about 10 months, it too is enjoying success, especially for the locally popular “rib night.”
Flynn has dived head first into two deeply ingrained Louisiana food traditions – seafood and smoked meats – successfully challenging the standard for those foods and then changing the way we eat them. In doing that, he has made a major contribution to the dining scene while securing a measure of notice for his kitchen skills and the restaurants. He is a master of his craft, and he has netted the toughest crowd, New Orleans diners. He got us hook, line and sinker. –Lorin Gaudin
BEST NEW CHEF: Bob Iacovone
You can look at a menu and take it for what it is: food choices. Or you can read it as a reflection of personality, a document that can uncover a thing or two about the chef behind it. Take Restaurant Cuvée’s menu. When you know executive chef Bob Iacovone, each item makes perfect biographical sense.
The classical French techniques of beurre blanc, confit and vinaigrettes, for example, are evidence of Iacovone’s training at the Culinary Institute of America. After graduating in 1991, Iacovone went back home to South Florida. He worked at the PGA National Resort & Spa but then grew restless. So he hopped on his motorcycle, riding from Florida to New York and then through the heartland to California. The four-month, soul-searching plan had two purposes. First, Iacovone wanted to taste America’s food, and this culinary exploration of the United States appears on Restaurant Cuvée’s menu in the form of Kurobuta pork, Snake River’s Kobe flatiron steak and Hudson Valley foie gras.
Second, and this brings us to the Creole and regional influences on the menu – the remoulade, cayenne butter and Steen’s cane syrup-cured duck – “I was trying to find a niche, a place to call home,” he says. When Iacovone took that trip, he bypassed New Orleans, even though it was a city he wanted to see. Then, a twist of fate. Iacovone remembered what his former Culinary Institute of America roommate, Bingo Starr, said when they parted ways: “If ever in New Orleans … ” So Iacovone flew to New Orleans and looked up Starr.
New Orleans struck a chord in ambiance and in flavors. In 1995, Iacovone moved here, working under Jeff Tunks at the Windsor Court Hotel’s Grill Room. He also worked with Scott Boswell, now owner of Stella! in New Orleans, for two summers in New York and in Montana.
During this period, Iacovone took two unconventional journeys (hence, you’ll sometimes see the unconventional on a Cuvée plate, such as foie gras crème brûlée). First, he went to Europe. Although he went to England and Italy (try chef’s homemade Boursin-chicken ravioli), he also strayed off the beaten path by heading into cities like Budapest, Prague and Istanbul, where he crossed the Europe-Asia bridge.
In his career, he crossed that bridge, too, straying from classical French to Indian cuisine. He worked under Anjay Keswani, who now owns Nirvana. Iacovone was fascinated with the culture, the flavors and the methods of Indian cooking; through this training, he says, he learned new ways of preparing sauces and soups.
Then, in one of life’s circular moments, Iacovone again shared space with Starr. Starr, executive chef of the newly opened Restaurant Cuvée, hired Iacovone as sous-chef in 2000. When Starr left in 2003, Iacovone took the helm.
Iacovone describes his style as “based on classical French but with contemporary, Creole influences,” but there is something else, a certain rush and daringness of textures and flavors that defy a category. That also is part of Iacovone’s biography and personality. A former acrophobe, Iacovone decided to skydive, tandem the first time down, because “there’s no turning back,” he says.
Iacovone’s first time cooking “on the line” at age 15 was, in a sense, tandem, too. He was thrown on unexpectedly during a rush. After his adrenaline waned, he realized there was no turning back: He called his mother that night and said, “I know what I want to do with the rest of my life.”
And he’s done it, taking creative control of Restaurant Cuvée’s kitchen, being invited to cook at the James Beard House last summer, and now being recognized as one of the best. –Christine Richard
BEST NEW RESTAURANT: Ralph’s on the Park
Avid diners eagerly anticipated the opening of a new restaurant partnership between Ralph Brennan and chef Gerard Maras two years before they (or Brennan or Maras) knew where the restaurant would be or what it would be called.
With good reason. The last time Ralph Brennan and Gerard Maras were together, they created the golden age of Mr. B’s. On his own, Maras opened Gerard’s Downtown and inspired raves. After that closed (logistical problems), Brennan asked Maras to come into his three-restaurant operation until they could figure out what to do next.
What came up was a surprise. Brennan bought the Tavern on the Park – a restaurant with a staccato history going back to the 1860s and a broadside view of City Park. It looked perfect. In 2002, they started working on the place. The more work they did, though, the more work they found to be done. Termites. Water damage. Demolition went on and on.
Meanwhile, chef Gerard’s fans fanned. And another solid guy joined the effort. Richard Shakespeare, who worked in the dining rooms and wine cellar at Commander’s Palace for 25 years, signed on as general manager of the new place. And everybody beat their brains out trying to think of a name.
In late 2003 “Ralph’s on the Park” (is that the best they could come up with?) opened quietly. For a few days. as soon as the word was out, the patient enthusiasts jammed in, testing not just the food but the structural integrity of the balconies that wrap around the second floor (and forcing some reinforcement).
Maras picked up where he’d left off. His menu is strongly inspired by classical French cooking but not so much that one recognizes anything as a standard. The flavors are also informed by local products.
But the chef’s claim to fame is his knowledge of local farms. Maras was a pioneer 20 years ago in encouraging farmers to plant more tasty vegetables and to harvest them for flavor rather than for shelf life. The excellent edibles we find now in our markets are to some extent the result of Gerard’s efforts. He uses them widely at Ralph’s, where soups, salads and side dishes are a cut or two above the local norm.
Maras’ style is understated. Reading the menu will likely not raise your pulse. The excellence of the food is subtle; get ready for seasoning levels well below what we’re accustomed to. Instead, tune in to the natural flavors.
Best meal: Start with the boudin noir, a not-so-Cajun blood sausage. Then the soup of the day, whatever it is. Follow that with the seared scallops with lentils and jasmine rice. And whatever tart they’re baking for dessert. Also good: the salmon poached in olive oil, the duck bigarade, and the peppered filet with a port and raisin demiglace.
A big-time innovation here is the full vegetarian menu, the first locally. You don’t even have to ask for it – it comes with the regular menu and has about a dozen choices.
By the way, the building came out great. Although the interior is completely new, it looks as if it could have been there for 140 years. And that mural in the back depicts a true historical scenario that you should ask about. –Tom Fitzmorris
BEST SPECIALTY CUISINE: Pho Tau Bay
Pho, the soup staple of Vietnamese cuisine, seems simple – a broth-based soup with meats, noodles, vegetables and herbs. In truth, it is anything but simple; pho is a labor of love, complex, layered, textural – just like the family that brought pho to the culinary forefront in New Orleans.
Before the fall of Saigon, the original Pho Tau Bay was considered the “McDonald’s of Vietnam.” There were 13 Pho Tau Bay restaurants, 10 owned by the family patriarch who started it all, Y Van Vu, and three owned and operated by 19-year-old Thu, one of Vu’s daughters. The idea for these restaurants goes even further back to the time of the French occupation and the tradition of soup carts that lined the streets. Long story short, Vu secured the name Pho Tau Bay (which roughly means “soup express”) from a man who once owned several carts. The Vus’ restaurant empire was going strong until political upheaval forced the family to escape and leave the restaurants behind. Twenty-two family members boarded a plane and came to the United States, sponsored by American GI Karl Takacs, who was once stationed in Vietnam right next to the Vus and who had fallen for one of the Vu daughters, Tuyet. The family landed in New York and then ended up in Mississippi, where they farmed soybeans, worked as security guards, or, in Thu’s case, worked at a 7-11. “The Powerhouse,” as Thu’s family calls her, bought gold bars with every paycheck and stashed them away, waiting for the day when the restaurant empire could be rebuilt. One day, Thu and her husband, Chau, heard there was a growing Asian community in Louisiana and moved the family to New Orleans’ West Bank. In 1981, inside a rickety building on stilts, the first Pho Tau Bay operated at the Algiers Flea Market. A short time later, a former bar space on the West Bank Expressway became available, and the first Pho Tau Bay restaurant formally opened in 1982.
Today there are four successful restaurants around the metro area. “The Powerhouse” still mostly runs the show; the recipes are hers or her parents’, and they are not written down. Everyone in the family works six or seven days a week; even a cousin visiting from Paris threw on an apron and waited tables. Eighty-year-old Grandfather Vu still makes his famous yogurt under cover of night when no one can “steal” his recipe. Speaking of recipes, don’t even ask – not for Grandmother Vu’s honey-mustard sauce or Thu’s delectable mayonnaise – it’s not going to happen. “If we give out the recipes, then why would anyone come here to eat. They would just make it at home!” says Thu.
Thu and Chau’s children, Vy, Ninh, Alys, Bernard and Khoa, who own and run the Metairie and Carrollton locations, had to memorize every recipe, and even Ninh, who cooks at the Metairie Pho Tau Bay, will catch something new each time he watches Thu make a dish. On the West Bank, Karl and Tuyet’s children, Carolyn and Karl Jr., have also been involved in the family business and may soon add to the restaurant empire. Running the restaurants is hard work, but the kids love the business, love their family, and are just as passionate as the generations before them and just as successful.
Like that seemingly simple bowl of pho that started it all, there is even more to this fabulous family. You can feel it in the warmth they exude and taste it in the food they lovingly make. –Lorin Gaudin
HONOR ROLL: JoAnn Clevenger
JoAnn Clevenger, the owner of the Upperline restaurant, is one of very few New Orleans restaurateurs whose autobiography would make fascinating reading.
Starting with her historic fight to allow flower carts in the French Quarter in the 1960s, she has been part of more avant-garde projects than seems possible for one person. Blending a passion for the arts with a gift for being a host, she creates hot spots.
“The first one was the Abbey,” she says of the bar she opened on Decatur Street in the 1970s. “I thought of that as my salon. All my friends in the arts community came there to hang out. After I sold the Abbey, I missed the energy.”
So in 1983, she opened the Upperline with her son Jason as chef. He’d been at Cafe Sbisa, one of the first of a new kind of restaurant in New Orleans: the gourmet bistro. In the early 1980s, these were opening wholesale, particularly Uptown. And they were changing the dining-out landscape in a big way. “It was an exciting time to open a new restaurant,” Clevenger says.
Although the gourmet bistro is now the dominant form of white-tablecloth restaurant, only the Upperline, Clancy’s and Gautreau’s remain of the first crop of Uptown bistros. And the latter two have changed hands. The Upperline just kept on going, always staying fresh because of the fertility of Jo Ann Clevenger’s imagination.
Any theme that fascinated her became an event at the restaurant. Only the Upperline would have regular Jane Austen-theme dinners. Or a dinner of Thomas Jefferson’s recipes. Or the menu served in the movie “Babette’s Feast.”
Clevenger has had a gift for partnering with kindred spirits, most famously with the late chef Tom Cowman, a man whose artistry and literacy extended far beyond the kitchen. Cowman and Clevenger hatched one great idea after another – the annual summertime garlic menu and their widely copied shrimp remoulade with fried green tomatoes, to name two of the most popular.
The physical restaurant is one of Clevenger’s works-in-progress. A few years ago, she began filling its walls with folk and primitive art. She took a shine to the whimsical paintings of Martin Laborde, whose work covers the façade of the restaurant and the menu. It’s worth going to the place just to look at the art.
All of this coexists in Clevenger’s mind with the need to run a solid business. She is sometimes criticized for having a menu that has a few frankly touristy turns. “But we can’t count on the locals alone,” she says. As a result, the Upperline is one of the few bistros that’s widely recommended in national media. Many visitors take the long streetcar ride from the French Quarter to have dinner there.
The Upperline’s menu has been edging in a traditional turn in recent years. Chef Ken Smith comes from the same part of central Louisiana where Clevenger grew up. He cooks a mix of Creole and rural Southern dishes, but in a way urbane enough to appeal to a sophisticated palate. He’s only the fourth chef in The Upperline’s 21 years – a measure of the loyalty Clevenger inspires in her staff.
Perhaps most importantly, JoAnn Clevenger is at the front door of her restaurant when it’s open – always. But maybe she should take a few days off. She needs to write that autobiography. –Tom Fitzmorris

How to Settle on a Metal

Chronit Sunusitis

They told me to get out of New Orleans,” recalls Roger Ogden, reminiscing about some medical advice he received in Denver a few years ago.
His self-described “lifetime proclivity” of upper-respiratory-tract allergies lured him to the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, an internationally respected treatment and research institute dedicated exclusively to respiratory, immune, and allergic disorders.
Ogden has many titles: real estate developer, art collector, museum founder, member of the LSU board of supervisors, cattle farmer and lifelong allergy sufferer.
His allergy problems germinated during his Lafayette childhood, came into bud during Baton Rouge college days and have continually flowered while living in Uptown New Orleans.
“My first memories of a doctor were Lee J. Soniat in Lafayette. He was known as the ‘bull of the bayou’ – 6 feet, 6 inches and built like a linebacker, but with a most tender heart.
“As a child, I had all sorts of recurrent sore throats. Dr. Soniat painted my throat dozens and dozens of times. He used a long stick with a swab on the end. I don’t know what he dipped it in, but it worked every time.”
“Now every time I get congested, I seem to get an infection,” he adds, noting that his allergy problems intensified after he moved to New Orleans. He saw a variety of doctors in New Orleans for his recurrent allergies and respiratory infections, including internists, allergists and ENT specialists.
His New Orleans doctors helped with various potions of antihistamines, decongestants, nasal sprays and years of allergy shots, but Ogden is not one who likes temporary or partial solutions. He was unable to find any long-lasting solutions for his recurrent bouts of sore throats, nasal congestion and sinusitis.
Finally Ogden heard about the “National Jewish” in Denver and called to make an appointment. After a week of testing and special procedures costing about $5,000, he got the verdict: recurrent mold-driven allergies.
Skin testing showed only mold allergies, suggesting that his prior allergy shots had successfully desensitized him to many of his former allergy triggers, including cat hair. For a permanent solution, the lead doctor suggested that he move to a drier climate with fewer airborne allergens.
Sinusitis is a common malady that comes in all shades of acute, chronic, recurrent, infectious and allergic. Rarely are diagnoses, treatment and prevention clearcut. The anatomical relationships between rhinitis and sinusitis are usually blurred. The more correct term is rhinosinusitis, but by convention most doctors lump these together simply as sinusitis.
What are nasal sinuses, anyway, and what good are they? These eight air-filled spaces are paired behind the eyes, cheekbones and forehead. Properly functioning sinuses silently act as filters. They help warm, moisturize and purify inhaled air, and they insulate the front of the skull and decrease head weight just like Styrofoam packing.
Normal nasal passages are full of mostly friendly bacteria that enter through the nose, whereas sinuses should be sterile. Cells lining the sinuses secrete thin but sticky mucus, the body’s flypaper, to trap bacteria, dust and other pollutants.
Sinusitis refers to any process that interferes with normal mucus drainage, causing congestion and obstruction with varying degrees of infection and inflammation. It is a common cause of short-term disability and office visits to primary care physicians, allergists, otolaryngologists and other specialists.
Both acute and recurrent acute sinusitis heal without causing any permanent sinus damage. On the other hand, more troublesome chronic sinusitis symptoms can persist for months and is often associated with abnormal X-ray or CT findings.
Recurrent acute sinusitis and chronic sinusitis are often lifelong problems. The afflictions include frequent bouts of nasal congestion and postnasal drip escalating into hoarseness, sinus headaches, sore throats, fatigue, fever and general misery.
Decongestants administered in nasal spray form may be used for short-term treatment, although it is not clear if they add any significant benefits. In fact, they thicken secretions in the nasal passages and reduce the ability to clear bacteria.
Many people with recurrent sinusitis take antihistamines and decongestants daily. On a long-term basis, I suspect that these are more psychological crutches providing marginal if any long-term benefits.
“I told them there was no way I was leaving New Orleans. I asked for their next best option,” says Ogden, recalling how he was introduced to nasal washes.
The experts at National Jewish recommended that Ogden begin daily nasal irrigations with saline. Supposedly the saline rinse washes out excess mucus, pollutants, plant pollen, dust and mold allergens, and gently moisturizes the nasal passages.
His morning rituals now include mixing non-iodized salt in warm water. Using a baby blue ear syringe, Ogden pumps an ounce or so of the warm salt solution into each nasal passage four times. It is a messy five-minute operation, with the solution pouring out his nostrils and mouth, but it has tremendously reduced his allergy problems.
Another more gentle way to irrigate the nasal passages is gaining increased popularity. The SinuCleanse system (see box) uses a small plastic pot with a nozzle on it. SinuCleanse is sold locally at the larger Walgreens stores and is also available through the SinuCleanse Web site for $14.95.
The prescription: A daily nasal douche may make living with allergies easier, but it can take some time to adapt to this technique.

Batter Up

People to Watch

New Orleans is known for traditions, so it only seems fitting that the magazine that carries the city’s name must have traditions too. Our longest-lasting, tracing in various forms to the early ’80s, is People to Watch. Who are these folks? People to watch, as we see them, are either those who have not received much publicity but who will be doing something new and different within the next year, or those who might be well-known but whose career will be expanding. In making our selections, we first ran an announcement asking readers to make suggestions. We also queried people with expertise in various professional fields. The final selection was made by the editorial staff. Are we claiming that these are the definitive people to watch? There are thousands of people doing new and interesting things. This is just a sampling. But watch them closely. Big things may be happening. Who did we miss? Let us know. Send us a Letter to the Editor c/o New Orleans Magazine, 111 Veterans Blvd., Suite 1800, Metairie, LA 70005 or elaborde@mcmediallc.com. As always, letters are subject to editing for brevity and clarity.
Lucy Bustamante
Reporter/anchor, WWL-News Channel 4
Her native’s eye for the quirky New Orleans story gives WWL-TV reporter Lucy Bustamante a distinct edge over other young journalists who’ve relocated here to work in the city’s newsrooms.
“There’s a different sense of familiarity and access to knowledge when you report in the town you call your home,” says Bustamante, who graduated from Loyola in 2002 and worked briefly for a station in Mobile before moving home earlier this year.
The bilingual daughter of a Spanish mother and a Cuban father, Bustamante also points to her fluency in Spanish and knowledge of the city’s thriving Latino community as an asset in spotting untold local stories.
“Reaching out to people who normally might feel uncomfortable telling a story to a stranger allows me to tap into parts of the community that others might not be able to,” she says. “I have the advantage when I can understand and cover news in a growing population.”
Henry Aragon Musician
Henry Aragon’s dream is to assemble the nation’s first Hispanic chamber orchestra, the Orquesta de Camara Hispana de New Orleans (OCHNO), a New Orleans-based ensemble dedicated to Baroque compositions, jazz melodies and Latin American folk songs from his native Honduras.
The viola-playing Aragon has already put together a local string quartet composed of Latino musicians, the first step in recruiting what he hopes will be a 15-member orchestra.
“An Hispanic chamber orchestra will bring pride to the Latin American community in New Orleans,” says Aragon, who studies music at LSU after having received the Kenneth Klaus Viola Scholarship last year.
Aragon, who has lived off and on in New Orleans for about a year, began playing viola as a high school student in Honduras, and has performed with renowned musicians, including Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma and Ray Charles.
Mike Neu Head coach, New Orleans VooDoo
In his inaugural season as head coach of the New Orleans VooDoo, Mike Neu led his team to an impressive 11-5 season, winning the Arena Football League’s Southern Region title and driving scores of sports fans to the New Orleans Arena to see a new brand of fast-paced, in-your-face football.
To top the season, the 31-year-old Neu in June was named the AFL Coach of the Year, selected by fellow coaches, fans via online voting, members of the Arena Football League Writers Association and AFL players.
The former Ball State quarterback and former coach of the AFL Carolina Cobras says the coming VooDoo season, which begins in February, will be even more exciting for football fans than the first season.
“I plan to take our team even further,” says Neu, who assisted the Saints special teams coaching staff during the team’s preseason training camp. “We’re going to improve on our record, advance further into the playoffs and hopefully win an arena bowl championship this year.”
Dr. Alex Johnson, Chancellor, Delgado Community College
Since arriving in New Orleans last February, Dr. Alex Johnson has embraced one of the city’s cardinal truths: Success in this town is built on relationships.
To that end, Johnson has spent much of his first seven months as chancellor of Delgado Community College creating new and bolstering existing partnerships between the school and community groups, government agencies and local businesses.
“Partnering with business and industry helps us to identify the region’s workforce needs and the available people for those jobs, provide the training, and then help fill open and new positions with qualified, skilled workers,” says Johnson.
Johnson says he plans to expand these relationships “to enhance the skills of our students so they are well-prepared and productive citizens,” whether they are entering the workforce or going on to four-year universities.
A native New Yorker with a Ph.D. in education, Johnson came to New Orleans via Cleveland, where he was president of Metropolitan Campus of Cuyahoga Community College.
Rev. Kevin Wildes, President, Loyola University
He’s just settling into the university and the city, but incoming Loyola President Rev. Kevin Wildes is already considering how he’ll communicate the university’s evolving mission and vision to both returning and new students.
“This is a very strong institution that wants to be even stronger,” says Wildes, an expert in medical ethics who has taught at Loyola College in Maryland, University of Houston and Georgetown University Medical Center. “I plan to bring a renewed sense of energy and hope.”
Wildes will continue his involvement with bioethics, as both a speaker and a writer, and is currently at work on a related book and several articles. He also plans to perform service for local health care organizations, something he has done in other cities.
“My goal is to develop the kind of leadership that will help the university achieve its vision,” says Wildes, who will live in an on-campus residence hall. “I’m very excited about the future.”
Mat Wolf, Chef, Gautreau’s
Named this year as one of America’s best new chefs by Food and Wine magazine, Seattle-born Mat Wolf was lauded by the national publication as an energetic and enthusiastic chef who “finds fresh potential in New Orleans food traditions.”
For Gautreau’s regulars, praise for the bespectacled Wolf comes as no surprise: The contemporary bistro is consistently rated among the best in New Orleans, and Wolf’s approach to Creole cuisine is widely regarded as one of the city’s most innovative.
Wolf’s résumé includes a turn at Seattle’s top-rated Flying Fish restaurant, where he cooked before moving to New Orleans to work alongside the late Jamie Shannon at Commander’s Palace.
His success as a culinary genius does have its drawbacks, however. “My mom refuses to cook for me,” says Wolf, who regularly conducts cooking demos at the Crescent City Farmers Market. “She just doesn’t realize how much I love her carrot stew.”
Earl Turner, Entertainer, Harrah’s New Orleans
He comes to New Orleans following a successful multiyear run in Las Vegas, where he was named the city’s best male vocal performer. But new Harrah’s headliner Earl Turner says he’s ready for the transition to the South.
“I hope to bring recognition to both the show and to Harrah’s as an entertainment entity as wonderful as the city of New Orleans itself,” says Turner, who performs in the casino’s recently opened, 500-seat Earl Turner Theater.
Turner’s show includes a wide-ranging mix of classic Motown and country, rock ‘n’ roll, and rhythm-and-blues, and is backed up by an eight-piece band that the singer put together himself.
Turner’s band includes four local musicians whom the entertainer says will “show some of the great musical talent” the city has to offer.
Maura Donahue, Vice-chairman, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
This year continues to be the year of the woman in Louisiana, with the recent selection of Maura Donahue as the vice-chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the first woman and the first Louisianian to hold that position.
Donahue, who is the president of the Mandeville-based construction company DonahueFavret Contractors Inc., is also a board member of Greater New Orleans Inc., which replaced the New Orleans local chamber of commerce last year.
As vice-chairman of the U.S. Chamber, Donahue will automatically assume the organization’s leadership position as chairman next year, which strategically positions her to attract new business opportunities to the state. She has been a member of the organization since 1998.
The U.S. Chamber is the world’s largest nonprofit business federation and represents 3 million business nationwide, nearly 3,000 state and local chambers, and more than 800 business associations.
Bob Noonan, News director, WGNO-TV/Channel 26
He was hired in March to improve the news product, pick up morale and increase the ratings at WGNO-TV. By the end of his first ratings period in May, news director Bob Noonan (whose previous employment was in the newsroom at WVUE-tv/Channel 8) was satisfied that he had accomplished all three.
In the highly competitive world of local broadcast news, two of Noonan’s evening newscasts had jumped a full percentage point among key demographics – a spike in ratings that many news directors can only dream about.
“My team showed it can win,” says the Peabody-award-winning Noonan, a former filmmaker who spent much of his news career in smaller markets throughout Mississippi. “This is a really big deal.”
Noonan says the secret to his station’s success is an experienced news team with what he describes as “a special love for New Orleans.” But don’t count out Noonan’s own competitive spirit.
“My goal is to win every story, every newscast, every day,” says Noonan. “I oversee a special staff, and we have a team that is hungry to win.”
Meg Lousteau , Executive director, Louisiana Landmarks Society
“It’s easy to take preservation for granted in a city like New Orleans,” says Meg Lousteau, appointed in January as the first executive director of the nonprofit Louisiana Landmarks Society, a preservation advocacy organization.
“We have so many old buildings and fascinating neighborhoods that sometimes the loss of a seemingly plain house or the insertion of an out-of-scale building doesn’t register as a threat.”
But for Lousteau, value is not only in the individual buildings themselves; rather, it’s in the tout ensemble, what the Mobile-born, architect-by-training calls the “urban fabric of our built environment.”
First on her list of goals is to alter the public perception of the concept of preservation, teaching the community the value of preserving historic sites, neighborhoods and landmarks.
“It’s often said that the trinity of our city is food, music and architecture,” says Lousteau. “But while you can whip up a gumbo in Topeka and hear a brass band in Los Angeles, you cannot export or re-create the buildings and neighborhoods of New Orleans.”
Capt. Mark Blace, Commander of U.S. Coast Guard Group, New Orleans
For Capt. Mark Blace, the newly appointed commander of the U.S. Coast Guard Group, New Orleans, the biggest challenge this year will be to balance ongoing homeland security needs with the commercial and recreational needs of the local marine community.
“The goal is to protect the port and waterways from new and emerging threats while providing the expected high level of services to mariners and boaters,” says Blace, a native Texan and Coast Guard Academy graduate who has served on NATO and UN missions throughout Europe.
Blace’s New Orleans command spans 16 sub-units throughout the Louisiana and Mississippi gulf coasts and connected wetlands, bayous and tributaries, including the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to the gulf.
And though he considers the region one of the largest, busiest and most complex coastal and port areas in the United States, he’s not having any trouble settling into his new job.
“I feel right at home,” Blace says. “This city has great people, a great attitude and great food.”
Charles Megnin, Owner, The Darkroom
New Orleans is a city filled with striking and unusual images, and Charles Megnin hopes his new venture, The Darkroom, will serve as a catalyst for would-be photographers to get out and shoot all the visuals the city has to offer.
The multifunctional Lower Garden District space serves as one part fine photo gallery, one part high-end photo lab, and one part public darkroom and workspace, where photographers can print their own artwork in traditional black-and-white or digital formats.
“Part of our mission for this year is to enhance public awareness of fine photography,” says the Paris-born Megnin. “We plan to develop a community outreach program to teach black-and-white printing to teenagers, an art form that young people find empowering.”
The workspace concept is still catching on, says Megnin. In fact, a number of passers-by have already misread the “public darkroom” signs out front – asking if they could use the public bathrooms.
Mittie Kelleher Doyle, M.D., Assistant professor of clinical medicine, Tulane University Health Sciences Center
As New Orleans grows as a Southern hub for groundbreaking medical research, Dr. Mittie Kelleher Doyle is emerging as one of the city’s leading experts in rheumatology, specializing in arthritis and other autoimmune diseases that affect mostly women.
The 39-year-old researcher and lecturer this year will open an on-campus clinic dedicated to the care and research of patients with scleroderma, a potentially life-threatening disease that affects multiple organs in the body and causes them to shut down.
Doyle is also directing an ongoing epidemiological study of a potential scleroderma cluster in Morgan City and recently received the center’s first research award at the university’s Women’s Health Research Marathon Day.
A New Orleans native, Doyle left the city when she was 17 to attend Princeton University, then Yale Medical School, and returned in 1999 so her children could be closer to her family.
“I was born at Baptist Hospital during Hurricane Hilda,” she says. “And I only narrowly escaped being named Hilda.”
Dale Atkins, Clerk of Civil District Court
She took a lead role in the election last fall of Gov. Kathleen Blanco and co-chaired Blanco’s transition team following her historic election as the state’s first female governor.
Since then, Civil District Court Clerk Dale Atkins has emerged as the local elected official closest to the governor, and political observers are anticipating her next move – perhaps a judgeship or New Orleans mayoral bid in early 2006.
Whatever she decides, it’s clear that the 46-year-old Atkins is a political powerhouse, poised to make a difference locally and nationally. She traveled in July to Boston as one of Louisiana’s delegates at the Democratic National Convention, then continued on to swing states where she registered women to vote.
“You will see that not only will we play a crucial role [in the upcoming presidential election], but we will register voters, we will mobilize them,” Atkins told the local media before leaving for Boston. “And we will get them to the polls on Nov. 2.”
Rio Hackford, Owner, One Eyed Jacks
The bad news is, over the past year, two well-loved clubs in New Orleans closed their doors: El Matador and Shim Sham Club. The good news is owner Rio Hackford closed El Matador, bought the Shim Sham location and opened his newest endeavor, One Eyed Jacks.
Now Hackford, a Los Angeles native, is able to bring in bigger bands and has the space for a larger crowd of local hipsters and the occasional clued-in tourist. “I still wanted to have some kind of music venue in town, and I still wanted somewhere to go in the Quarter since a lot of places have closed,” he says.
Hackford’s father, movie producer Taylor Hackford, likely introduced his son to the entertainment world. Not only is Rio a club owner, but he is also an actor and director. He played “Skully” in the movie “Swingers” and recently directed a music video for Supagroup.
Jessie Terrebonne, Anais Patterson, Suzanne McKamey and Julia Lashae, Yale University Cabaret Conference attendees
Summer school can be a good thing, especially for four New Orleans-area performers who in early August attended the prestigious Yale University Cabaret Conference in New Haven, Conn.
The four women – Jessie Terrebonne, Anais Patterson, Suzanne McKamey and Julia Lashae – were selected among scores of performers who auditioned in a handful of cities across the country to participate in the nine-day program, which focuses on the art of cabaret performance technique.
The women say the conference enhanced their cabaret techniques by focusing on vocal selections and vocal training, and included image consultations, panel discussions and one-on-one sessions with cabaret performers.
The conference culminated with a student performance, says Terrebonne, a cast member at Le Chat Noir’s long-running “The Black and White Blues.”
“I plan to take the performance skills I’ve learned here in New Orleans and combine them with the new ideas and techniques I learned at the conference,” she says.
Scott Hutcheson, Chief operating officer, Arts Council of New Orleans
When Louisiana ArtWorks opens at the end of September on the edge of the Warehouse Arts District, the 93,000-square-foot visual arts complex will be a first-of-its-kind arts colony and cultural destination, bridging the gap between the artist’s creative process and the public’s viewing experience.
“This is a place where people can see where creativity and inspiration truly come from,” says Scott Hutcheson, the chief operating officer of the Arts Council of New Orleans, which directed the funding, design and construction of the $26 million project.
Hutcheson says the complex was designed with both the artist and the observer in mind, with 19 individual working studios and four open shops outfitted with equipment for blacksmiths, ceramicists, glass blowers and sculptors – perfect for viewing.
“No other city celebrates life as we do in New Orleans,” says Hutcheson. “And no other destination brings to life the creative experience like this one will.”
Imagination Movers, Children’s performers
Some might consider them a New Orleans version of the hugely successful Australian children’s entertainment group, The Wiggles. But the members of Imagination Movers – Rich Collins, Scott Durbin, Dave Poche and Smitty Smith – say they are more a combination of Mr. Rogers and The Beastie Boys.
Either way, the local music group has become a national phenomenon, exporting their brand of entertainment to kids and their parents with hugely popular CDs and videos that can keep youngsters watching for hours.
The group’s Good Ideas recording was selected as best recording of the year in 2003 by the Children’s Music Web, and their single “I Want My Mommy” was at the top of the charts for seven weeks earlier this year.
Since playing their first live show in early 2003 at Mardi Gras World, the Imagination Movers have played to sellout crowds of enthusiastic kids throughout the South, including a recent packed house at UNO, where they released their latest CD, Calling All Movers.
Jachin Merrill, WDSU-TV/Channel 6 producer, 10 p.m. news
He’s been working in broadcasting since he was 12 years old, when the brass at a tiny radio station in his western Oklahoma hometown of Weatherford allowed Jachin Merrill to read parts of the news during the station’s live daily broadcasts.
Since then, the 24-year-old Merrill has covered some of the biggest stories of the past decade, including the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City and the subsequent execution of convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh.
But nothing could have prepared Merrill for the first night he dined in the French Quarter with his future boss and WDSU colleagues two years ago, when he spied a man sans clothing on a balcony across the street – and nearly choked on his soup.
The reaction of his dining companions to the unexpected sight? “Welcome to New Orleans!” From then on, says Merrill, “I knew this was the place I needed to be.”
Jon Sherman, Owner, Flavor Paper
Walls have taken on a life of their own – first with textured, brightly colored paints and now with home décor’s latest trend: custom-designed, hand-screened wallpapers such as those created in Jon Sherman’s Flavor Paper studio in the Bywater.
The lifestyle sections of both Newsweek and The New York Times have even taken notice of Sherman’s one-of-a-kind, ’70s-inspired psychedelic creations, which won this year’s best of show award at New York’s International Contemporary Furniture Fair.
Sherman’s Flavor Paper is actually the second incarnation of the original wallpaper business, which he and a group of local designers purchased last year from an Oregon man who was closing down shop.
“I rescued it from certain demise,” says Sherman, who moved every piece of the company’s heavy equipment across the country to set up shop in New Orleans.
Since then, Sherman has installed some of what he calls the world’s “funkiest hand silk-screened wallpaper” into homes across the country, including the New Orleans Creole cottage belonging to Lenny Kravitz.
Mimi Strawn, News director, WVUE-TV/Fox 8
Mimi Strawn says her goal at Fox 8 news is to bring viewers “good storytelling in a fair and compelling way.”
Appointed the station’s news director in June, Strawn had returned to New Orleans from Dallas three months earlier to take the assistant news director position.
Within weeks of her arrival in the city, Strawn’s boss announced he was taking a news position on the West Coast – and Strawn was bumped to the top job.
“I hope to bring leadership, good decision making and lead by example,” says Strawn, who graduated from Ursuline Academy and LSU before launching her broadcast journalism career at an NBC affiliate in Tulsa, Okla. “This job gives me the opportunity to lead some of the best journalists in New Orleans.”
Don Marshall, Executive director, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation
With an extensive arts administration career that has included New Orleans theater, visual arts, film and video, Don Marshall this year reached what many consider the pinnacle of the city’s cultural scene: executive director of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation.
A lifelong resident of New Orleans, UNO graduate and one-time director of the university’s arts-administration graduate program, Marshall has been a fixture in the local arts scene for several years, dating back to the mid-80s when he was executive director of Le Petit Theater.
“I plan to bring new creative ideas and energy to one of the greatest music festivals in the world,” says Marshall, who was appointed in June following a five-month search that amassed more than 100 applicants.
Marshall says he looks forward to working with what he calls a “dynamic board of directors” to promote the music and culture of the city and state.
Mike Giorlando, Athletic director/men’s basketball coach, Loyola University
For collegiate basketball coach Mike Giorlando, there’s never been a better year than 2004 to take the reins at Loyola University, where he will assume a dual role as athletic director and men’s basketball coach.
This year, for the first time in nearly 35 years, the university will offer athletic scholarships to six basketball players – three men and three women, helping to build both the program’s talent and wins this season.
The new athletic scholarships, says Giorlando, mean he can “continue to recruit and attract outstanding student athletes to Loyola,” one of his biggest priorities for the coming school year.
Giorlando, 45, spent 15 years as a basketball coach, in Division 1 collegiate level for LSU and UNO and at the high school level at various schools throughout the region. Before that, the Jesuit High School graduate was a practicing general dentist who was on staff for several years at the LSU School of Dentistry.
Matt Touchard, President/creative director, Zermatt Design
“Great design is all about communicating with unique, entertaining, relevant and, oftentimes, simple ideas,” says award-winning artist Matt Touchard, the self-described “visualizer, brand-builder, image-maker and designer” behind Luling-based Zermatt Design.
His work for such clients as Pat Benatar, Cirque du Soleil, EMI Records, V3 Salons and Scandinavia International Interiors has earned Touchard several design and video awards, including last year’s New Orleans Advertising Federation’s Gold Addy for best local TV campaign of the year and a 2004 TELLY for film and video.
Awards are nice, but the Louisiana-born Touchard sets his sights higher for the coming year: “I want to bring hysteria to the marketplace for those products that have yet to develop a soul,” using engaging creative design, visceral ideas and creative writing, he says.
“I create hallmarks for entities that have no identity, build brands that have little or no foundation and launch new ideas that the world is ready for,” he says.
Jane Scott Hodges, Founder-owner-designer, Leontine Linens Ltd.
Her gorgeous, custom-designed Leontine Linens have been featured in national publications such as House Beautiful, InStyle and Martha Stewart Living – monogrammed masterpieces made from fine fabrics.
But couture-conscious linen lovers in search of Jane Scott Hodges’ luxurious line of sheets and towels could find them only in her Uptown showroom or online via her company’s Web site.
That all changed in April, when Hodges’ plush Turkish cotton towels and handcrafted, 460-count sheets were unveiled at one of New York’s premier shopping Meccas – Bergdorf Goodman’s seventh floor – the only bed and towel brand carried by the upscale retailer.
“One of our goals for this year was to reach more customers directly,” says Hodges, a Philadelphia native and 1991 graduate of Newcomb College.
Hodges believes the ability of the customer to touch and feel her linens is essential, and something she just can’t offer through the computer. “We sell a tactile product that really requires a personal experience to sell.”
Mark C. Drennen , President and CEO, Greater New Orleans Inc.
As Gov. Mike Foster’s commissioner of administration, Mark C. Drennen was lauded in 2002 by the National Governors Association for helping Louisiana become one of the country’s “best-managed state governments.”
As recently appointed president and CEO of Greater New Orleans Inc., Drennen hopes to lend his considerable management skills to helping create as many as 30,000 new jobs in the organization’s 10-parish region over the next five years.
“I do everything from meeting with business leaders to explaining issues to elected officials,” says Drennen, who’s lived in New Orleans just since early this year after spending 30 years in other Louisiana cities. “I’ll also be doing a lot of public speaking.”
Drennen says he’ll focus on key industries to generate new jobs, including finance and health care, and plans to explore call center outreach and support.
Dominic Massa, News producer, WWL-TV/Channel 4
His day job is producing the 6 p.m. news at WWL-TV, but, in addition to news, 27-year-old New Orleans native Dominic Massa’s passions include creating hourlong cultural documentaries and other nostalgic programming for local public television, such as last summer’s “New Orleans TV: The Golden Age,” produced for WYES.
Massa, the current president of the New Orleans Press Club, is currently at work on his latest documentary surveying New Orleans TV history, this one chronicling classic TV commercials produced in the city and due out next summer.
“I have a great interest in local broadcast history,” says Massa. “These projects are ideal.”
As much as he loves the documentary work, Massa says his work at WWL is also “a dream come true,” since he grew up watching the station as a child. “I would write fan letters to the on-air personalities asking for autographs – and now we are all co-workers!”
Laurie Toups, Executive director, French Quarter Festivals Inc.
Driving local traffic to the French Quarter can be challenging, but three events produced by the non-profit French Quarter Festivals Inc. have natives flocking to the Vieux Carré at critical times of the year.
The music-inspired French Quarter Fest in the spring, Satchmo SummerFest in the heat of summer and Christmas New Orleans Style in winter showcase the city’s culture and heritage, says Laurie Toups, the organization’s new executive director.
“These events contribute to the well-being of the community and instill increased pride in the people of New Orleans,” says Toups, who grew up in New Orleans, moved away after high school then returned in 1995.
Toups says she plans to bring a fresh set of eyes to the three events, infusing her own brand of enthusiasm and passion into the overall product.
“I hope to continue the tradition of creating events that create a positive experience for the festival-goer,” she says. And judging by the burgeoning crowd at this year’s French Quarter Fest, she’s on her way.

Amazing Graces

An American Writer in the Cotswolds

“Stay on the road. Keep clear of the moors. Beware the moon.” A nonsensical bit of wisdom from “An American Werewolf in London.” Nevertheless, when wandering the desolate British countryside at dusk solo, one can’t help but think of it. One doesn’t worry about typical American criminals like purse snatchers and kidnappers. In Britain, on a chilly June evening, one worries about being “turned.” As least I do as I stray off the main road, feet crunching in the grass, to head toward the castle, passing the 12th-century St. Mary’s Church and its headstones. Blackbirds caw into the darkening day. As I cross through the iron gates and head into the moors, I’m particularly thankful that the moon hasn’t yet risen.
Not to worry, though, I’m no longer alone. A human version of the white rabbit dashes by – a man in white tux and tails. He flies by, glancing at his watch, and disappears into the medieval doorway of Thornbury Castle, a massive 16th-century stone fortress that doubles as a luxury inn.
We’ll meet again later, though. He’s the one who will climb the spiral stone stairs to the tower, where my bedchamber is located, balancing a platter of Scottish and English cheeses and smoked-chicken finger sandwiches. He’ll set the tray in front of a Henry VIII-size fireplace while I glance out the gothic-shaped windows at the Beatrix Potter countryside. The wind will rustle my hair as I stare at the vineyard below, and at the castle’s Tudor garden, with sculpted hedges and meditation benches.
It’s a shame that Thornbury’s first owner, the third Duke of Buckingham, didn’t enjoy this view for long. The year was 1521 when charges of treason were brought against him, and his punishment was severe: Edward Stafford was beheaded. All this intrigue is just a two-hour train ride from London’s Paddington Station or 90 minutes north of Heathrow.
Thornbury is a hamlet on the edge of a fairytale region known as the Cotswolds, a collection of picturesque villages that gained their wealth from the wool trade during the medieval ages. Today, visitors come to the region to experience quintessential England: narrow streets, ancient churches, lovely gardens, honey-colored limestone houses and old pubs (The Royalist pub in the town of Stow-on-the-Wold dates to 947). Towns have fabled names such as The Slaughters, Bibury and Painswick. Shakespeare’s Stratford-on-Avon is close by.
The scenic way to explore the Cotswolds is either by cycling country roads, by walking on the more than 3,000 miles of footpaths or by horseback. But by the looks of the congestion on the main streets of towns such as Broadway, Moreton-in-Marsh and Chipping Camden, as a practical matter, people seem to be using cars. I’m guilty, too. It’s hard to get from village to village quickly without one.
My first stop is Painswick, a sloping town of crooked, narrow streets. St. Mary’s church, built in 1378, is the centerpiece of the town and renowned for its 99 clipped yew trees. The most action in Painswick is seen at night à la Watership Down, when rabbits and badgers shred gardens to bits. Or so I overhear. I stop for lunch at Painswick Hotel, a former rectory built in 1790, then drive to the Painswick Rococo Gardens, the sole complete survivor from the brief 18th-century period of English Rococo design.
After, I tour Chipping Camden, where “The Libertine” has just wrapped filming. The Cotswold House Hotel is where the cast stayed, and there’s no doubt why. The 1930s yellow-limestone hotel is tastefully decorated and run by a friendly Ian Taylor and his wife, Christa. Its lobby staircase is an architectural gem, and suites have a plasma-screen TV near the bathtub. While in Chipping Camden, dessert aficionados may want to visit Three Ways House, home of the famous pudding club. Meetings are held twice a month; you don’t have to be a member, however, to taste syrup sponge, jam roly poly and sticky toffee pudding. But make reservations.
My day ends at the circa-1545 Manor House Hotel in Moreton-in-Marsh, a thriving market town. It has pubs, restaurants, a great cheese shop and Country Lanes, a cycle outfitter. I’m not a bicyclist, but I have a romantic notion of seeing the Cotswolds on two wheels: a bicycle with a basket, passing rolling English countryside, stopping for lunch at a creaky pub like the Slaughtered Lamb.
The next day, while I am walking to Country Lanes, I rethink the “rolling” part of the countryside. I’m from the swamp – won’t hills be a problem? Luckily, Country Lanes has specific routes for beginners. Ian – is everyone here named Ian? – who e-mailed a week in advance to ask my height, has arranged a proper bike (no basket) for me. He hands me a route map with step-by-step directions.
That’s how I find myself once again solo in the English countryside. I cycle over bridges, under tree canopies, and past centuries-old villages and farmhouses. Flowers bloom. Bugs fly into my nose and mouth. I pass two other Americans, also Country Lanes clients, who yell at me, “It’s much easier coming back.” I cross another bridge, splash my tires in a stream and realize I’ve wandered off the main road. I’m lost. I scan the moors for werewolves. (Evidence I found my way back is this article.) Country Lanes also offers B&B bicycle tours. Now, that’s romantic.
Other Cotswolds dalliances: shopping farmers markets, staying overnight on a farm, sampling famed Cotswold cheeses and traveling a designated “Romantic Road” by car. You can also walk it. Remember, though, to “stay on the road. Keep clear of the moors. Beware the moon.”
Know of a great destination? Contact me at crichard@mcmediallc.com.

Beatles in Flight