Twenty-plus years of documenting the South's vernacular art, visionary environments and traditions….plus modern art exhibits, Faulkner and Eudora, and This Week's Various. Welcome.
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Laurel has been putting up nice murals around downtown — but what the town has most been in the news for lately (well, in the art world, it’s likely first considered as being the home of Mark Landis and what he’s been up to) is that it is the setting for the new HGTV show Home Town (which was *wonderful*!). If you saw the pilot back in January, it did get picked up by the network for a season, and I understand they are filming now.
Last week, I had the honor of going to Montgomery to meet Lt Gov Kay Ivey and watch the special joint session she called for Hilik Bar (Deputy Speaker of the Knesset) to speak.
I was just tagging along, really. Av knew everyone and was doing his thing, and I was thinking ohmygosh this is so exciting because I’ve never seen government do its thing in person beyond that one time I was a juror for a case set around a car wreck that happened at a blistering 3MPH, and the other time I was a bit-player in a case between the company I worked for and another in Flowery Branch, Georgia.Â
There’s a crazy story about that case in Georgia. The company I worked for was owned by a corp in Canada. One of the lawyers, sent down from D.C., for the company I worked for noticed that I had a Louis Vuitton bag and requested that I not wear it up to the stand because they didn’t want the jurors to think that our corporate was big-city, as the lawyers for the other company were local, had nice thick accents, and wore seersucker suits. They actually said that. Seriously. Weak. Weak. Weak. I did giggle to myself, though, when I got on the stand and saw that the other lawyers did have great accents and did indeed, as forecasted, wear beautiful seersucker suits, just as my own husband does. How simple the company lawyers sent down were for thinking that the jurors would be swayed in some small way by a LV of all things.
Sigh. Oh, deep, deep, heavy sigh.
I felt a little out-of-place on this trip to Montgomery because I’m not political and don’t have that kind of interest really…but I made fast friends with someone new to me — a lobbyist from Mobile who spends much of her year in Washington. She had lots of interesting stories and was filling me in on what was going on. This was all second nature to her and I was just enthralled with seeing it all in action and hearing stories of other things going on in both cities.
Here in her office, Lt Gov Kay Ivey was presented with a specially crafted wooden box. My friend Sulynn who directs Black Belt Treasures in Camden was so happy when I sent her a pic of the print Ms Ivey has hanging in her office.
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We then went to the special viewing area, the balcony, of the House to watch the speech
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Later on we had a nice little lunch at the Capital Club downtown, where we took this pic. Also at our table was one of the state supreme court justices, and he was interesting too. I loved his sweet wife!
This is Hilik Bar, the Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, with me:
Here, the view of downtown from our dining room on the 21st floor of the RSA Tower (if you know, or are a member of ClubCorp, the Capital Club is one of its properties. We’ve been members of its Summit Club in Birmingham). It was such a pretty day and a thrill to get to see everything in action.
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For all the government classes I had in high school and college, I admit it’s Schoolhouse Rock that’s probably retained the most effortlessly:
Lunch at Root in New Orleans – yesssss.
The little jar with the knife in it is has the truffle-scented duck liver parfait. Smooth, creamy, dark and luscious. Can’t go here without ordering it. Truth is, I could have two of these little jars for an entree and be perfectly happy. Av gets his own charcuterie — he likes a ballotine, always the juniper cured duck prosciutto, duck rillettes — the selections change so there’s always something new to try. And they make the most beautiful platters, with the tube of mustard, the relishes, the pickled and compressed fruits and vegetables
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Av had the sweet tea country fried wings with smoked onion buttermilk dressing, and miso buttermilk biscuits with sweet potato sorghum butter. This was fabulous but the great thing about Root is that the next time you come, something else will have taken its place on the menu and you’ll be just as happy
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I had the foie gras ‘living terrarium’ — foie gras dippin’ dots, granola, buttermilk fluid gel, terragon sabayon, smoked blueberry consumme
The idea is that — after getting over how beautiful this thing is to begin with — mix it all together so that all the flavors marry. It goes from gorgeous to a weird pink mess pretty quickly after stirring, but oooooh so interesting and just plainly delicious.
Root is always so smart and clever. We’ve been meaning to go to its sister restaurant, Root Squared where you just put yourselves in their hands with the — I think it’s a 16-course prix fixe menu. And now chef Phillip Lopez is opening ‘Part and Parcel’ in the Paramount building, which is where Willa Jean is also. It’s going to have 40 seats with the intent of doing a lot of carry out, and will have a market aspect that the chef described as ‘a grungier, more rock-and-roll Dean and Deluca.’ I’ve asked the T-P’s Todd Price about it, and it hasn’t yet opened although the original date was months ago.
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This is Toups’ Meatery — Isaac Toups was on the last season of Top Chef and voted fan favorite. We were crushed when he didn’t make it to the finals (also: Wesley True was born in Mobile, graduated from Ole Miss, and after running a couple of restaurants back home, he is working now in Atlanta at gorgeous The Optimist).
Here, the front side room at Toups’
This is the ‘meatery board’ which has a little of everything.
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In the back, the chicken liver mousse:
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This was all really good, really interesting, well-made, including the boudin balls below (though #1 still Best Stop in Scott), but as far as charcuterie, advantage goes to Root.
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I knew that Toups’ doberge is from Debbie Does Doberge, so we shared this slice, and *yum*
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The new Bakery Bar on Annunciation from Debbie Does Doberge has just opened. A bit more about it here in the Advocate.
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The Next Web just did a story about Windowsill Pies in New Orleans (only available now at Whole Foods and some other groceries) who won the local JL’s Women’s Entrepreneurship Fellowship and will be looking to open their own retail space soon.
We spent a week at the InterContinental Hotel in New Orleans — even though it was in the CBD, the boys really liked it, and it wasn’t too far to walk everywhere.
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Our balcony looked out on these office buildings (the IC is actually in an office building) and its sculpture garden
The boys went out each morning and made their own podcast from the balcony.
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I didn’t notice until now, but the Intercontinental has an iPad app cookbook from IC chefs around the world, and another for children called Planet Trekkers.
The last time we were in Centreville, Alabama, I noticed that an antique shop — Windows to the Past — had gone in to the old building. Yesssss:
The theater was built around 1920, has a brick and stucco exterior, and was renovated after a fire in 1940.
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On Hwy 11 in Woodstock, Alabama, very close to I-20 and 30 minutes from Tuscaloosa
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