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We’ve been to New Orleans two of the last three or four weekends — both galas, one of them for a board I’m on, celebrating their 125th year in the city. The first of the two weekends, we stayed at NOPSI for the first time

Shug and I actually took the train because he had come in from a school trip, and I was thinking it would be better/different than just driving in, and we enjoyed it (though next time I’ll be better about packing snacks)

There were a few delays but it was fine — and if we didn’t have a ride or Uber, there were taxis waiting in a queue to take people wherever. On the way, we saw some fun things, like the white cliffs of Epes (think: white cliffs of Dover geologic phenomena), and this huge mass of water lilies.

The boys and I walked and walked and walked the Quarter; we saw the scaffolding at St Louis Cathedral and the sky was too pretty to not act like a tourist and take the usual pics

I made a reservation for the three of us to eat at Donald Link’s new Chemin a la Mer on the fifth floor at the Four Seasons, which is still really new. Alon Shaya’s Miss River is downstairs, off the lobby. Speaking of the lobby, there’s the gorgeous Chandelier Bar:

Loved this areca palm and the air plants around the base

Also, I saw this work by Dawn DeDeaux on the way to the elevators. Her Space Between Worlds exhibit at NOMA was beyonnddddd and definitely my favorite last year.

The entrance to the spa on the fifth floor:

Here, Chemin. The tables at the windows are all only for parties of two, so we sat closer to the middle of the restaurant, but it was still beautiful (and honestly, if you’ve stayed at even the Hilton Riverside or the Westin, this is not a more incredible view to get excited about, so don’t feel left out if you’re in a bigger party).

We started with the baked feta which needed a couple more pieces of bread, but was really, really good and everyone wanted more.

Shugie got the hamburger which he — and I know this sounds odd — described as “really wet” and it slid all over the bun even with out mayonnaise, and was just super messy. This is a fork and knife hamburger, even if you’re a teenager.

Shugie enjoyed his pan-roasted Ora king salmon with beluga lentils, and I have to say, I’m not even a lentils fan and they were delicious.

I had the duck confit with white bean pistou and while the duck was terrific, the beans were just as good, which goes to attest how much skill went into them

Then a couple of weeks later, we were back for the NCJW 125th anniversary gala at the Higgins, which was lots and lots of fun. I’m on their board (thanks to Zoom, meetings are easy) and this was a great way to see some people I’ve only ever met on-screen.

Mile End Deli Nashville, from a 2018 visit

Time to think about what to serve during Passover again. Lots of times I get really great inspiration from restaurants — I started at Mile End Deli, which I learned to love first in Nashville, then Birmingham which had the best everrrr cheesecake (though the restaurant is back to just NY now). At their Passover menu, I’m thinking maybe I’ll make cumin roasted cauliflower…maybe the zaatar chicken…or maybe just both on a sheet pan with zaatar all over, like this?

Nashville location

The best cauliflower of my life was in New Orleans, when Alon Shaya still owned Shaya on Magazine (in a very HBO Treme move, Alon doesn’t own his namesake, and he now has Saba, down the street). This is the curried fried cauliflower hummus at Shaya in 2015:

BTW, I still have the Shaya Passover menu from last year:

wood-fired matzo
charred mini Perseo radicchio, pomegranate seeds, grapefruit, date molasses
shaved horseradish, smoked beets, taggiasca olives, pickled shallots
yemenite stuffed egg, schmaltz, gribenes, chives
apple, walnuts, fig, verjus
fingerling potato, cane vinegar, sea salt
lamb chop, fenugreek “aioli”
~
braised short rib, fava beans, charred chilis, soft herbs
~
flourless chocolate tort, barberries, almonds

At Saba, everything is great but, ack, I think about their gorgeous warm chocolate babka with the hazelnut ice cream all the time!

The Saba Passover menu for this year is:

Matzo with Sea Salt, Red and White Horseradish with Allspice and Laurel, Yemenite Curried Egg Salad with Toasted Sunflower Seeds, Parsley and Quinoa Tabbouleh, Sephardic Style Charoset, Matzo Ball Soup with Duck, Celery and Dill, Slow Cooked Brisket with Heirloom Carrots and Rosemary, Saffron Jasmine Rice, and Flourless Almond Cake, Meringue and Cardamom Syrup

Ooooh a dark matzah ball soup with duck like listed above might be great for a change.

Kenny & Ziggy’s, 2019 visit

Kenny & Ziggy’s in Houston just moved a short distance from their previous location, so we’ll get to go there this summer. Their Passover menu for this year is huge, and they’re doing Goldbelly too. The recipe for Ziggy’s charoset is here.

This year I’m helping make Passover desserts for one of our synagogues — I’m bringing Passover cake bites. So crazy easy and everyone loves.

Other faves:

Broccoli Kugel

Standing Rib Roast

Macaron

Charoset bar (have people make their own)

Fried green tomatoes (using the Jeff Nathan panko, and because the green tomatoes are terrific already)

Union Square Cafe Matzah Meal Polenta

Coffee Granita

If you have some faves, send them over! We’re doing both nights at my home so would love the extra inspiration. xoxo!

Florala Pharmacy
Drugs, Guns, and Gifts
Florala AL, 2018.

from a 2018 visit

Later this spring, Nashville’s 70+ year old Ernest Tubb Record Shops will close. Just a couple of years ago, the owner of Robert’s bought it and said:

“The city is going through a lot of changes, and someone has got to hold the torch for old-school Nashville,” says Jones. “Robert’s is the undisputed home for traditional country music. Having been on the side of traditional country music, which made Music City, it just makes sense to continue that tradition by my buying the Earnest Tubb Record Shop business and building.

“My purpose is to protect, promote and preserve this great history,” he continues. “So this just made sense that Robert’s and Ernest Tubb be strong, be one and be family to perpetuate the tradition. Ernest Tubb Record Shops will be here for another 52 years, if it’s up to me.”

At Terzo Piano Gallery in DC, Andrew Christenberry: To the Inquisitive is on exhibit through April 10. And if you’re thinking Andrew, as in William Christenberry’s son, yes.

The gallery has this interview:

…and Mark Jenkins at the Washington Post wrote about it late last week, including mention that:

The younger Christenberry makes mostly wooden sculptures that sometimes resemble his father’s work, and in a few cases refer directly to it

and that his “Landscape for WAC Jr features a model of the Sprott Church, an image of which his father made internationally famous

This sculpture, a tornado table, is cast bronze. It can be viewed below in Andrew’s current exhibit, and was also on exhibit at the Mobile Museum of Art in 2017 in their Christenberry: In Alabama exhibit, and I took this pic there:

 

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A post shared by Terzo Piano (@terzopianodc)

In 2006, I took a pic of the Sprott Store, and made this comparison with Walker Evans’ 1936 image, and how I found the building, on the right, in ’06.

From Laura Roulet’s essay at the gallery site:
Building for WAC Jr. and Landscape for WAC Jr. replicate miniature variations of the Sprott Church, first photographed by Walker Evans for his classic WPA-era collaboration with writer James Agee: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. In style and direction, Evans had personally encouraged Bill Christenberry to take the Alabama countryside and culture as his lifelong subject. Floating on a mirrored, wax-dripped surface, or over red dirt, the church appears to hover in time. The black encaustic covering both simple forms, alludes to his father’s surface treatments and Jasper Johns’ use of this tactile, matte material.

(easy to view those and other pieces at the price list)

Warning
Bees
Cemetery, Pontotoc MS, 2009.