Desautel's vs. Desautel's on the Avenue

By Lolis Eric Elie

Desautel's and Desautel's on the Avenue are very different restaurants.

As Janette Desautel (Kim Dickens) would be quick to tell you, both feature seasonal, local ingredients, the buzz words of contemporary fine dining restaurants. But, as befitting its location on St. Charles Avenue, the fanciest street in New Orleans, Desautel's on the Avenue is more polished and more formal than its predecessor. Both might serve rentier de cochon, the Cajun pork backbone stew, but it's unlikely that Janette's first restaurant would have served it tableside by waiters using the two-spoon method as she does on the Avenue. (Incidentally, that's a dish our writer, Anthony Bourdain discovered filming in Louisiana for his show, 'No Reservations'. You might even see a couple of familiar faces from the 'Treme' family in that episode.)

The Asian influence is obvious on the new menu. If you'd spent the better part of a year cooking at the church of David Chang, your cooking would develop an Asian accent too. A lot of the recipes from both these menus will appear in the forthcoming 'Treme Cookbook: Stories and Recipes from the Heart of New Orleans.'

Here are Janette's two menus, so you can keep up with what everyone is eating.

                                               DESAUTEL'S                                                                     DESAUTEL'S ON THE AVENUE

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The Origins of Galatoire's Mardi Gras Auction

By Lolis Eric Elie

By the time Toni Bernette (Melissa Leo) arrived at Galatoire's in last night's episode, the auction had long ended and the pre-Mardi Gras Friday lunch tables had been won or lost. Judge John A. Gatling (or more likely a campaign contributor) had bought the rights to their table at auction and at said table, the drinks were flowing freely. While our scene focused on the fun being had by the party of Judge Gatling (Tim Reid), there's a back story that contains its own excitement: For more than a century Galatoire's has been the Friday destination for New Orleans ladies and gentlemen who lunch. But since the restaurant has only so many seats in its downstairs dining room, a new New Orleans tradition has evolved to allocate the tables.

Personally, I avoid Galatoire’s on pre-holiday Fridays. It's insane enough on a regular Friday without adding Christmas cheer and Carnival abandon to the well-liquored mix. Lacking an intimate familiarity with this tradition, I sat down with Melvin Rodrigue, the restaurant's chief executive officer to get the 411. 

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Interview with Squandered Heritage's Karen Gadbois

By Lolis Eric Elie

What to make of Karen Gadbois, a cancer survivor art dealer who found something suspicious in the high number of demolitions performed in the wake of the levee failures? Gadbois followed that thread until it became clear that the demolitions were just one aspect of the shady dealings of the administration of Mayor C. Ray Nagin in the years immediately following Hurricane Katrina. With an investigative reporter's instincts and tenacity, Karen helped unravel the scandal at the New Orleans Affordable Homeownership agency. Moreover, she helped uncover many other inappropriate and illegal actions of the Nagin administration. Using Karen's work as the starting point for his own, television news reporter Lee Zurik won a Peabody Award for his investigation of NOAH.

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