Month: February 2015

Favorite lunch anywhere? Commander’s.  And although Friday lunch at Galatoire’s is a thing (although not such a thing that I have my own waiter, or hire a line sitter), I’d still rather drive into the Garden District where I have a reservation and can look forward to, among other things, $.25 martinis.  Once, I told our server that Av and I can always be counted on to spend a whopping $1.50 in alcohol at lunch (they have a three martini/person limit, and I’m good with that), which made us all laugh.  It’s all fabulous.

We are big fans of chef Tom Robey there especially (and he used to be at Veranda in B’ham) and think so much of Tory McPhail, who is a James Beard winner too.  We always make friends with people at tables closeby and just have a good time in general.

Some days we are among the first to be seated so we can have a leisurely lunch and pick the boys up with plenty of time to spare, without having to stress about traffic.  The dining rooms fill up quickly, but this is what it looks like beforehand:

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The menu is always changing, but these are the dishes we enjoyed on this visit:

The amuse, such a terrific surprise always from the kitchen:

turtle soup:

bisque:

Shrimp and grits:

another surprise from the kitchen:

blueberry shortcake:

Creole cream cheese cheesecake:

Amazing, amazing, amazing.

The best treat in visiting the Old Ursuline Convent Museum was entering Saint Mary’s Catholic Church there, built in 1845.  Just beautiful:

Saint Lucy! I’m Jewish and can’t readily identify too many of the Saints, but Saint Lucy I will never forget, as this was one of the favorite items at the St. Joseph’s Day altar at St. Cletus in Gretna (loooove visiting St. Joseph Day altars!!):

another name for a tzedakah box:

So taken with the ceiling treatment:

Looking straight up:

Imagine yourself a bride in New Orleans, a Catholic bride, and you have unto you a world of the most gorgeous places on earth to get married.  While at the Old Ursuline Convent Museum this summer, there was a bride touring with her entourage during my visit, which was no surprise.  The gardens are amazing, the entire place fairly dripping with historic detail and meaning.  While I enjoyed the building/museum and the garden, what was particularly breathtaking was the church there, Saint Mary’s.  I’ll post that tomorrow.  Today, the Old Ursuline Convent:

It’s the oldest building in the Mississippi Valley, with brick-between-post construction (done by French Colonial engineers — completed in 1752-53) covered with plaster.

If you’re looking for elaborate museum displays, the Convent is a bit light in that regard.  If you’re more interested in the overall historical importance and in particular have a penchant for architecture, get thee to a…well, you know.  Here.

The National Parks Service’s Statement of Significance from 1960 states:
This is the finest surviving example of French colonial public architecture in the country. Louis XV in style, formal and symmetrical, with restrained ornament. It was constructed between 1748 and 1752 for nuns whose mission was to nurse the poor and teach young girls.

Tomorrow, images of Saint Mary’s Catholic Church, which adjoins the Convent.

Some old general stores we’ve visited were just made to look like an old general store, some are the real article (click images for more details).  Just a few of my favorites…

The L-rd Provides Shinbone Valley General Store, Shinbone AL

Turner General Store, rural Etowah County AL (Crudup, AL area?)

Simmons-Wright Company General Store, Kewanee MS

Inside:

Burnt Corn General Store, Burnt Corn AL

Inside the Burnt Corn Store (it’s now closed):

R.E. Ringer General Merchandise, S of Carrollton GA

Hagood General Store, near Masseyline AL

Paul C. Marsh General Store, Locust Fork AL

J.F. Suttle Company, Suttle AL:

The inside of the Whale Store in Alligator, MS from several years ago:

The store Walker Evans made famous — the Sprott Store in Sprott AL:

I did this comparison of a pic of the Sprott Store we took earlier and with Walker Evans’ image:

And one of my favorites, the Smut Eye Store in Smuteye AL:

…with this great ‘Get Dillinger! $15000 Reward’ door:

It’s been almost 10 years since we last visited the 1895 Causeyville General Store in Mississippi, not too far from Meridian.  And that means that our boys have never been.  There aren’t too many ‘real’ general stores still open, so we were hoping they would really enjoy it — and they did. This is the front from our visit in 2005:

Not much has changed since.  The store is on the National Register.

Inside:

Yes, yes, yes to the image of FDR over the door:

Oh! And on this visit, we got to meet a Great Dane:

Who thought Shugie was positively delicious!